"..The release of the DiamondMax Plus 5120, however, finally gives us a chance to test the effect of buffer size in a controlled environment. Though the original OEM model was to feature 512k, retail-boxed models feature 1024k. Why? Maxtor itself has been quite subtle in pointing out the distinction between the two units. A likely hypothesis would be the retail boxes of the WD Expert that would be sitting next to those red DiamondMax Plus packages, trumpeting a massive 2 meg buffer. Marketing-wise, perhaps the 5120 does much better in sales with the narrowed gap in buffer size.." NULL