Maxtor Plus 9 or Western Digital Special Ed?

[Mamapajama]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to buy a new hard drive - my choice is between Maxtor's Diamondmax plus 9 80gb ata133 and Western Digital's Special Edition ata 100 8mb 80gb drives.. couple of quick questions first:

- how does ata 100 compare to ata133? I tried to look for reviews from reliable sites but to no avail..
- between these two drives, which is the faster for general purposes as well as applications like Premiere?

I read some of the reviews for hard drives by Anand, and I've gotten some views on the two drives, but I'd like some more feedback from users as well as others who are knowledgeable about these two drives.. Thanks all!

 

[Lonyo]

ATA 133 is no faster than ATA 100. Most HDD's get about 60MB/s max (less than ATA 66), so the extra 33MB/s offered by ATA-133 is never used, so will not give any performance increase.

I have the WD and it's not really loud, and it's not a bad performer either, not had any experience with Maxtor drives, got 2 WD's on my machine.

 

[RichieZ]

I'd say Maxtor Plus 9, I used to have a WD 100GB 8MB version and while it is fast after a while the bears start to wear down and it starts to whine. I think the maxtor uses fluid bearings so it should be much quiter. I switched to a 120GB Barricuda V and it is noticebly slower but its so silent I can't even tell its on.

 

[NesuD]

Originally posted by: RichieZ
I'd say Maxtor Plus 9, I used to have a WD 100GB 8MB version and while it is fast after a while the bears start to wear down and it starts to whine. I think the maxtor uses fluid bearings so it should be much quiter. I switched to a 120GB Barricuda V and it is noticebly slower but its so silent I can't even tell its on.

the Maxtor +9 can be just as silent as the seagate if you set it to operate that way with maxtors acoustic management utility AMSET.

 

[Mamapajama]

Thanks guys..

How about this.. I know that starting today, there are some great deals on Maxtor 80gb HD's ... I think the price differential may be anywhere between 10-20$ with MIRs and such.. in my experience, I've gotten basically what I've paid for.. so I guess I'm afraid that the fact that so many Maxtor drives are selling for cheaper recently is due to some poorer performance thing compared to WD.. (or maybe newer drives are coming into the market). Is the WD worth the extra 10-20$? Or go with the maxtors? (another incentive for going for the WD may be that I can't stand MIR)

 

[oldfart]

Anand's review puts the WD on top over the Maxtor in performance.

 

[Insidious]

I purchased two WD800JB drives from Newegg last week. They have left me without complaint. I do notice some difference in speed (benchie)
My systems are noisy enough with other stuff that I can't address the volume of these drives (I can't hear them above the cooling fans I have).

I don't have experience with other drives so again, I don't know if this is helping you.

Just a post letting you know the WDs are working well here.

-Sid

Speaking on benchies, SiSoft Sandra 2002 seems very inconsistant from one test to another when analyzing my drives.... is this characteristic of this benchie, or am I seeing something ferked up on my systems?

 

[RichieZ]

Originally posted by: NesuD

Originally posted by: RichieZ
I'd say Maxtor Plus 9, I used to have a WD 100GB 8MB version and while it is fast after a while the bears start to wear down and it starts to whine. I think the maxtor uses fluid bearings so it should be much quiter. I switched to a 120GB Barricuda V and it is noticebly slower but its so silent I can't even tell its on.

the Maxtor +9 can be just as silent as the seagate if you set it to operate that way with maxtors acoustic management utility AMSET.

From what I have read this is true for when the disc is idle, but when seeking the Plus 9 is still louder than the Barricudas

 

[Challenger]

Originally posted by: RichieZ

Originally posted by: NesuD

Originally posted by: RichieZ
I'd say Maxtor Plus 9, I used to have a WD 100GB 8MB version and while it is fast after a while the bears start to wear down and it starts to whine. I think the maxtor uses fluid bearings so it should be much quiter. I switched to a 120GB Barricuda V and it is noticebly slower but its so silent I can't even tell its on.

the Maxtor +9 can be just as silent as the seagate if you set it to operate that way with maxtors acoustic management utility AMSET.

From what I have read this is true for when the disc is idle, but when seeking the Plus 9 is still louder than the Barricudas

I don't know what people think is noisy but my two Maxtors are practically silent.I nave also worked on enough WD equipped machines to be of the opinion that they are just as quiet.The only real thing to take into consideration on which one I buy at this point is price

 

[Brian48]

I agree. The newer Maxtors are excellent. I have both the 80gb WD WD800JB 8mb cache and the 80gb Maxtor 6Y080P0 8mb cache. Not only is the Maxtor slightly more quiet, it's much also much faster (at least in my Sisoft and HDTach benchmarks anyway). My 2mb 60mb Maxtor vs my 2mb WD also yields similiar results.

 

[snidy1]

I've never had a Western digital go bad on me. I've never had a Maxter that lasted more than a year.

 

[Pariah]

Get whichever one is cheaper. It really doesn't make much of difference either way.

Originally posted by: RichieZ

Originally posted by: NesuD

Originally posted by: RichieZ
I'd say Maxtor Plus 9, I used to have a WD 100GB 8MB version and while it is fast after a while the bears start to wear down and it starts to whine. I think the maxtor uses fluid bearings so it should be much quiter. I switched to a 120GB Barricuda V and it is noticebly slower but its so silent I can't even tell its on.

the Maxtor +9 can be just as silent as the seagate if you set it to operate that way with maxtors acoustic management utility AMSET.

From what I have read this is true for when the disc is idle, but when seeking the Plus 9 is still louder than the Barricudas

Acoustic Management only muffles seeks, it has no affect on idle noise. There is no way to make a disk spin quieter unless you slow down the rotational speed which software utilities don't do.

 

[Degenerate]

how reliable are the maxtor drives?
i am considering getting a new hdd and it comes down to this...
the WD is slightly cheaper by a few dollars but has 1yr warranty vs 3yr
how reliable are maxtor?? ive heard these clicking problems with WD..

i am leaning towards maxtor due to its quietness.. can anyone actaully say its quieter in all respects?

thanks

 

[bgeh]

i'd get the WD 80GB SE
just bought one 2 weeks ago and it's running smooth.....

 

[Degenerate]

what about noise level?

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Degenerate
what about noise level?

i replaced a d740x with an 80JB and its really no louder... of course i've got a 33dB CPU fan

 

[bgeh]

it's quite quiet
but spin-up is a little audible

 

[SithSolo1]

I've had duel Maxtors running 24x7x340 for the past 3 years. So far so good, but I can't say the same for XP since it took a dive off the deep end this morning BEFORE I saved my paper. :|

 

[Ardan]

I would say either one is okay but the Maxtor is what I'd go with. Storagereview.com is a site you should look at to see what they say (if anyone has posted the link in here, sorry I didn't read all of the other replies) first, though. I once heard the Maxtor had some funky firmware, but I doubt the credibility of that. I have 3 Maxtor drives (1 in use)...they have stood against daily abuse for years and years and they run fine...you won't have a problem with the DM+9. The most current one I have is a 30.7Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus (ATA66) and it is quick, but my new 80Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 is much faster than it (i'm not talking about benchmarks only...i'm talking EVERYTHING).

The 7200.7 is one I would recommend to people...if you can find their 8meg cache version, then thats most likely even better. I have an 80Gig WD SE Hard Drive in another PC and it is VERY nice and the noise isn't much (only when seeking I think) but my 7200.7 is loading applications and Windows XP faster than it is. It loads XP Pro in 4 seconds, while the other one loads in 6 seconds or so (not much of a difference)...and it loads most games faster like Battlefield 1942 and Splinter Cell. There may be other factors, but the last time I did it was right after some routine rugged defrags and I know there are other factors perhaps. Needless to say, at $105 (OEM from TechDepot.com) you can't go wrong with that. I'd say to get the DM+9 for the speed and fluid bearings.

Edit: The 30Gb Maxtor I have is very quiet, makes barely any noise at all so i'm sure the latest maxtors are the same.

 

[Markfw]

I have both a new seagate and the new new Maxtor (in fact 2 new Maxtor). The Maxtor is almost as quiet as the Seagate, but much faster. I have about 10 Maxtor drives, and the only one I have had fail was a 230 MEG 10 year old drive. Go for the Maxtor, Frys has them for $99 with a $30 rebate for $69 total !!!! (or did last weekend)

 

[WebDude]

I have both the WD (80gig) and Maxtor (120gig) models with the 8meg cache. The WD scores higher in Sandra, confirming the results they got over at Storage Review. But I can't say in the real world I notice any difference. And they are both very quiet drives for me. I would say go with whichever is easier, or cheaper, to come by, unless warranties are a concern. Maxtor's latest production only has a 1 year. The WD special ed.'s have a 3 year.