IBM Deskstar 75GXP
Maxtor Diamond Max

                                                            By: GTX_SlotCar

    I recently had the opportunity to test the much heralded IBM Deskstar 75GXP.  Rather than just telling you some raw figures, I thought it would be nice to compare it with another, slightly older but very popular drive. If you're going to make  price comparisons, I should tell you that I tested the 46GB IBM, but they do have an identical model in the 30GB range for less money and I expect the speeds to be identical (or certainly very close). 

    The Maxtor Diamond Max is a 27 GB, 9ms, 5400 rpm drive capable of up to ATA 66 and was listed for as little as $114 online. The IBM Deskstar 75GXP 30GB, 8.5ms, 7200 rpm drive is capable of ATA 100 and is listed for about $120 online. The model I test was the 46GB and it sells for about $150. This test isn't meant to compare these two drives, but to compare the difference in their specs. Maxtor makes some fine 7200 rpm drives, but that's not the point. The purpose of this test is to let you know the performance differences in real world applications if you're considering buying a new drive. I should also note, however, that the IBM is considered to be one of the faster drives in this category.

    Since my Abit BE6 II motherboard only supports up to ATA 66, this is how the tests  were done. I don't really think there's much performance difference between ATA 66 and 100, but if you're motherboard is capable of ATA 100 you should consider a hard drive that will take advantage of it anyway. The table below shows the load times of different applications. The first is the load time for Windows 98. There are 2 scores here. The first was done with Windows controlling the Virtual Memory, and the second was done with a minimum and maximum setting of 128 MBs. The test computer is a Celeron 633 overclocked to 1088 Mhz, 256MB CAS2 memory and a Voodoo 5 5500 video card.

    The cached speed  for the drives was quite similar, with the IBM averaging 164 MB/s and the Maxtor averaging 161 MB/s. This is because cached performance is almost entirely cpu dependant.  The only reason I can figure for the difference in frame rates is that during the benchmark, the hard drive is accessed to use virtual memory. Toward the end of the run, I can see the LED flicker. The game was set to run at 1280 x 1024 with all graphics options maximized. Although Win98 is supposed to be optimized for 128MB of memory, I noticed that when I first tried 192MB, I got an extra fps and more consistent  performance with Nascar Heat. I'm now using 256MB and the graphics are very smooth. Could it be that 384MB would be even better considering that the hard disk wouldn't have to be accessed as often? I was told by MGI that the guys who wrote Nascar Heat all had at least 384MB. I'm also aware that people who work with large graphic files say the more memory you have, the faster the work is. Maybe we should put the new generation of games in this category, too.

    It seems to me that the small difference in cost between a 9ms, 5400 rpm drive and an 8.5ms, 7200 rpm drive, makes the IBM Deskstar 75GXP a very good deal. For $150, the 46GB version is well  worth the investment. With the IBM disk manager tool available on their web site, installation was a breeze. The tool does the fdisk and format in about 10 seconds and also includes a disk clone utility for duplicating your old drive. I tested available disk space and performance using the disk manager and then doing things the old fashioned way. The results were equal.

March 4, 2001

Gary DeRoy