WinBench 99 places the Cheetah 36ES'
access time at 8.6 milliseconds. Subtracting 3 ms to account for the average
rotational latency of a 10,000 RPM drive yields a measured
seek time of 5.6 ms... almost half a millisecond above specs. This places the 36ES square among the other members of its extended family and a bit behind offerings from Futjisu and Maxtor.
It's the drive's transfer rates, though, that stand out. While the outer-zone rate of 54.6 MB/sec places the 36ES within a tightly grouped cluster of today's 10k RPM disks, Seagate's latest manages to maintain this top transfer rate over half the drive's capacity. Further, the decay that does inevitably set in remains considerably less than other drives. As a result, minimum (inner-zone) rates clock in at 43 MB/sec... rivaling those of Seagate's own X15-36LP. Though they both sport the same 18 GB/disk, evidence suggests that the Cheetah 73LP and 36ES use different platters.
WinMarks...
