Conclusion

Noise and operating temperatures remain unchanged between old and new versions of both drives. In other words, both are a bit noisier and louder than today's cool, whisper-quiet ATA drives. As is always the case with 10k drives, care should be taken to preserve a well-ventilated, cool case environment.

Overall, what we've witnessed here are small changes between firmware revisions of two drives that add up when they're compared against each other. Though the Atlas 10k II improves upon its already phenomenal Business Disk WinMark score, its regression in IOMeter combined with the improvements delivered by the Cheetah (not to mention the current price gap... hopefully the Atlas will come down) drive us to give the nod to the 36LP. Seagate's latest would thus garner our Leaderboard spot if it weren't for their own Cheetah X15 drive . All is not over yet, however. Fujitsu's impressively-spec'ed MAJ3182LP waits in the wings. Though we've been disappointed in the past with Fujitsu drives not living up to the performance that specs hint at, we nonetheless have high hopes for the MAJ. Expect a review within a week!