The DiamondMax 60 sets new heights for
sequential transfer rates achieved by a 5400rpm drive. The 60's impressive
areal density allows for a blistering 28 MB/sec STR in the drive's outermost
zone (about the first 8 gigs of the drive). As measurements move towards the inner zones, STR steadily decays, bottoming about at about 17 MB/sec.
Access time weighs in at 14.4 milliseconds. Factoring out the 5.56ms rotational latency associated with all 5400rpm drives, this yields (ignoring other overheads) a seek time of about 8.8 milliseconds... just as Maxtor advertises (< 9.0ms). We're left to wonder, however, how much swifter the seek time would be if the drives weren't in "Quiet Mode." Nevertheless, such low-level figures aren't bad at all for a 5400rpm unit.
WinMarks...
