quick question: IBM harddrives vs. Maxtor harddrives

[intomisery]

Hey all.. msging now from South Africa instead of my native Canada. Hello from SA!

Anyway, I have the option here of buying either an IBM 7200rpm HD or a Maxtor 7200rpm HD. WHich one is faster and best for NLE/marvel g400? I've heard debates about this one but what is the final outcome or opinion?
Also, which is the best make of whichever one is better?

thanks a bunch!
-Brett

[Dr Mordrid]

I've used both.

I'd have to say the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 ATA66's are the fastest and most reliable of the ATA33/66 drives I've used. I haven't replaced any DiamondMax's in the years I've been using them while 1 of my 3 IBM Deskstar's has been replaced in just the last few months due to a motor failure.

That said the IBM 75GXP ATA100's are the absolute fastest ATA drives, but then there aren't many other ATA100's on the market to measure them against so this may change. They do run like the proverbial bat-out-of-hell on my Fasttrak100. We're talking almost 70 megs/sec for a two drive array.

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 20 July 2000).]

[IM_Riktar]

One point of interest with Maxtor: They have one of the best "no quibble" warranty/support programs in the business. In my case I had my 13.0 gig 4320 Maxtor start acting up. One call (toll free) to tech support, 5 minutes of testing over the phone, and I had a replacement harddrive on its way to me! Total turnaround time was 3 days. The only "catch(s)" was that I had to give them my credit card # in case I didn't send back the defective one (within 30 days) and the replacement was a refurb instead of a new one. Neither of the above point was an issue to me since they never charged or for that matter run my card for a credit check, and the replacement still had the balance of the warranty. It still is working just fine.

I have never owned an IBM drive and to be fair they may have the same kind of arrangement. But Maxtor does in fact have this and they have nailed me down as a staunch customer until such time as they change their position on support.

And like the Doc said, they are quite fast. At least my 30 gig Maxtor 40's are. The "old" ones are still serving me well on my second machine.

[Pertti]

I have had both, and I prefer Maxtor as well.

The new DiamondMax Plus is even ATA100 (bought one last week).

I get the feeling that the IBM drives have been designed more for databases than NLE.

Pertti

forgot, before starting to benchmark the new Maxtor ones, start-up and power-down the system ten times (or download a utility from their site)

[This message has been edited by Pertti (edited 20 July 2000).]

[Walrus]

Well, I have to be odd-one out here. At least in my experience as a computer/network consultant, IBMs are the best for reliablity in SCSI or IDE setups period. I have never owned a Maxtor on my own, mainly because I have to deal with them too often in clients' systems. IBMs do fail... but it's VERY rare. My system entirely consists of IBM hds now. That said, as the testimonials here show, many people here have had very good experience with Maxtors. In fact, I will shortly temporarily install a Maxtor in my system. (borrowed hard drive I'm using to transfer 30 gigs of stuff to friends)
As for speed, the specs for IBM and Maxtor 7200 rpms are both VERY close, and frankly any model you pickup should have no problem at all handling ANYTHING the Marvel can throw at it. (well, at least as long as you capture uncompressed with HuffYUV instead of plain YUY2 or RGB) Except for the issue of stability, there isn't a wrong choice here. I cannot back up my impression of stability by anything more than anecdotal evidence, and based on how so many here swear by Maxtors, they are probably fine. If you're buying the hard drive from a place you know where you can return it easily if it dies, then you really can't go wrong.

[dchip]

I just bought a Maxtor 40GB 66 DiamondMax Plus. Haven't installed it yet. It is my first Maxtor. Always used Western Digital, but they just can't seem to get their price-capacity ratios near any of their competitors. It definately was time to look elsewhere and Maxtor seems like a great choice.