Thinking about getting the Western Digital with 8mb cache?

[techs]

I currently use an ibm 60 gb 7200 ata 100 drive. My mobo doesn't support ata133. Is the Western Digital a better performer? I have not seen any reviews comparing it to other drives, only stand alone reviews which treat it as a special case.

[Radical Dreamer]

Everyone that I have heard from say that they are great, some even say that htey perform like a 10,000RPM drive

[geoscomp]

If i was buying a new drive, that's the one I would get..after Oct, it will be one of the only drives left with a three year warranty..everything else seems to be changing to one year

[GokuSS2]

Maxtor MaxLine Plus II adds a third platter to the firm’s 7200 RPM design to reach capacities up to 250 GB. The Plus also incorporates an 8-meg cache. Both will be available in ATA-133 or Serial ATA interfaces and will feature optional FDB motors and will retain a 3 year warranty.

w00t! for Maxtor. Quantum internals baby

[joelen]

I bought a 60 GB WD that was labeled as a 2MB cache, and when i opened the box, there was a red slip telling me that i was 'selected' to receive an upgrade to the special edition with 8MB chache. the drive screams!

As for the warranty thing--- if i am not mistaken this 1 yr warranty that most drive comanpanies are going to only applies to OEM drives, not the drives sold in retail packaging.

[RejectionMan]

I haveone and it totaly rocks! the drive spins up at boot, then dose nothing till the system gets to login (like it loads the entire boot sector in to the cach at boot)

i also know a guy that has 2 of these striped together, windows is up in less than 30 sec.!

[GokuSS2]

I have windows up and running in 16 seconds.

Took A LOT of tweaks.

[GokuSS2]

You want pure speed check this out.


Performance Leadership in Desktop Hard Drives is Child's Play For IBM
"Tag 'n seek" Technology Revs Up Hard Drive for High-performance Desktop Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 2002-- IBM today introduced the world's fastest desktop hard disk drive with IBM-exclusive technology called "tag 'n seek" for its childlike simplicity.

Known technically as tagged command queuing, "tag 'n seek" technology enables the new IBM Deskstar 180GXP to perform nearly 25 percent faster than its predecessor and widen the Deskstar performance gap over competitors by up to 20 percent. IBM begins shipping the Deskstar 180GXP in volume today.

The new 180GXP is a 7200 RPM drive and features a fourfold increase in cache size -- up to 8 MB -- for increased data throughput and user productivity. It has a maximum capacity of 180 GB and offers customers a broad range of options at 30, 40, 60, 80, 120 and 180 GB.

IBM's performance-enhancing technology -- "tag 'n seek" -- is a method of controlling commands sent from the host processor to the hard drive, enabling faster application activities for the end user. "Tag 'n seek" tags each command that arrives at the drive's buffer with an identifier, then reorders and processes the commands in the most efficient manner. This enables commands to be more quickly processed, minimizing seek time and freeing the host processor to handle other critical activities.

Avid Technology, the global industry standard for digital media post-production and distribution, uses the 120 GB Deskstar hard drive within its Avid Unity(TM) LANshare EX shared-storage solution. This is a cost-effective and high-performance media network that offers configuration flexibility, massive capacity and data protection designed for the unique demands of digital editing.

"Digital video editors require tremendous storage capacity and high throughput in order to reliably access their media on-demand," said Lesley Gloriso, product marketing manager, Avid Technology. "Our experience with IBM's 120 GB Deskstar hard drives is strong evidence that this new technology will continue to deliver the high capacity, industry-leading performance and reliability post-production professionals expect from their digital media solutions."

IBM's focus in advancing performance is based on the belief that speed is becoming the key metric for technology leadership in desktop hard drives. While areal density advancements have enabled hard drive capacities to increase 100 percent each year, performance improvements have lagged at just 10 percent a year. IBM's "tag 'n seek" technology is a key performance-enhancing technology that will help close the technology gap between capacity and performance.

"The performance of the new Deskstar 180GXP gives our customers a strong foundation for differentiating their products from competitors," said Robert Holleran, business line executive for Deskstar products, IBM Storage Technology Division. "Customers can rely on the 180GXP's focus on top performance to help manage the emergence of storage-intensive digital applications that also have demanding workloads."

In addition to industry-leading performance and data throughput, the Deskstar 180GXP features the lowest power consumption and heat emission of any high-performance desktop drive to date. The Deskstar 180GXP also implements spindle motors with fluid dynamic bearing across the entire family, significantly reducing acoustic noise.

The new-generation Deskstar is positioned to excel in emerging desktop applications, such as gaming and nonlinear digital and audio/video recording and editing. The drives also provide a cost-effective alternative to tape for data backup, enabling high-performance disk-to-disk backup and recovery.

The Deskstar 180GXP's high capacity and performance offerings are backed by IBM's renowned Systems Integration Test (SIT) Labs and worldwide distribution support.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
Deskstar 180GXP
180/120/80/60/40/30 GB (GB = 1 billion bytes, accessible capacity
may be less)
25.4 mm in height
7,200 RPM
45.5 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density
3/2/1 aluminum platter(s)
6/4/2 GMR recording heads
350 G (2ms) non-operating shock (2/1 platter)
4.17 ms average latency
7/5.9/5 watt idle power (3/2/1/ disk)
8.5 ms (3/2-disks), 8.8 ms average seek time (1-Disk)
ATA 6 interface
3.0/2.3/2.6 Bels typical idle acoustics (3/2/1 disk)
Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) motor

(Note: Product information provided is for information purposes only. Please see point of purchase for warranty information.)
About IBM

IBM develops and manufactures the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. IBM Storage Technology Division offers customers worldwide the most comprehensive range of industry-leading storage products available today. These storage solutions are offered through IBM as well as a large network of IBM Business Partners and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

[joelen]

Too bad IBM sold their hard drive business to Hitachi.....

[GokuSS2]

Originally posted by joelen
Too bad IBM sold their hard drive business to Hitachi.....

True but look at the date of the press release. IBM does not make them but this was the last inovation. Hitachi is going to produce this.