From: curtjb@halcyon.com (Curt Brown)
Subject: Re: Quantum vs. Maxtor hard disks
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 08:06:19 GMT

In article <>, mchandy@miavx3.mid.muohio.edu () writes:
> In article <>, djp33563@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (David J. Pugliese) writes:
>>       I want to upgrade the 52meg Quantum to something larger.
>> The 240meg Quantum is out of my price range, so I was looking at
>> eithe the 170 meg ELS Quantum or the 213 meg Maxtor.  Their specs
>> are similar (aside from size) and prices comparable.  While the
>> extra 40+ meg would be nice, I've heard discussion around this group
>> that Maxtor drives are louder and mecanically inferior.  I really
>> can't hear the Quantum I have now, and I know someone with an older
>> Maxtor, and it's definitely noisy.
>>       I've also heard that the new Quantum ELS drives are "slower"
>> than the older LPS.  Is there any truth to this?
>>
>
> Well, since I have never had any experience with Maxtor, I can't
> answer as to which drive is superior.  I will say, though, that there
> are users on my BBS who have purchased Maxtor drives and have given
> very positive feedback on them. As for myself, I am the proud owner
> of a Quantum 85meg ELS drive, which I purchased to replace the 20-meg
> XT drive in my A590. All I can say is that it is very fast compared
> to the old XT drive, and much more quiet.
 
                          (* Stuff Deleted *)
 
 
The company I work at shipped many hundreds of the smaller Maxtor
drives in our products last year.  Most were IDE, and maybe fifty were
SCSI.  A few Quantum, Fujitsu, and Sleazegate drives were also shipped.
The following is MY OPINION ONLY:
 
The Maxtor LXTxxxSY series SCSI drives (LXT213SY, LXT340SY, 3.5" normal
height) are very nice... Fast, well-built, and reliable.
 
The Maxtor 7xxx series SCSI drives (7120, 7213, 3.5" x 1" high) "Suck
gerbils through conduit" (tm). The IDE versions of the same drives seem
to work well.
 
I get called by the production folks whenever there is a rash of SCSI
drive failures.  About 20% of the 7xxx series drives that _I've_ tested
have errors show up on them after 24-72 hours of fairly hard burn-in
(continuous random seeks, writes. and reads at an elevated ambient
temperature).  Some of the errors are repeatable (same block will show
an error a day later) and some are random.
 
Of all of the drives that I've played with over the last year or so, my
favorite is probably the Fujitsu 2263SA 660MB.  It's big, fast, rugged
as a tank (hell, it _looks_ like a tank) and needs plenty of cooling.
The price has dropped to well under $1500 (at least OEM) and it has a
7-year warranty.
 
Anyone else who has experience with quantities of Maxtor or other
brands of SCSI drives is encouraged to respond.  I'd particularly like
to hear aboutthe Maxtor "Magic" and other high-performance drives.
 
The testing conditions were a bit extreme and may not be indicative of
how the drives will perform in a more hospitable environment.  Your
mileage may vary.  Void where prohibited by law.  All models are 21
years of age. Using this product underwater may be hazardous to your
health.  Flames filtered through the NIL: device.
 
** "Suck gerbils through conduit" is a trademark of BLAZEMONGER, Inc. **

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware