Jeff Lee van GamePC heeft een review geplaatst van de Quantum Fireball Plus LM 7200rpm harddisk. In feite is dit model hetzelfde als de Fireball KX, alleen profiteert de LM van een 10ns 2MB cache. De IBM Deskstar schijf blijft vanwege een tragere cache van 50ns qua performance duidelijk achter:
Coming down to the line, Quantum seems to have finally taken the lead over IBM. Under a FAT32 file system, the LM drive dusts the GXP drive. Quantum can thank their choice of going with a faster RAM to be used as the buffer (10ns compared to IBM using 50ns). Though a little on the strange side, the LM trailed the GXP when it came to a NTFS file system. You would think having the fast results in a FAT32 file system would show up the same somewhere when using a NTFS file system, but it didn’t giving a file thought of sporadic performance. IBM however posted decent numbers in both FAT32 and NTFS, which were more consistent to each other. So in a nut shell, Quantum proves once again that they are still at work in trying to be the best and their LM drive shows just that. So until bigger and faster drives from both companies to keep flowing into the market, the LM drives are a good choice in terms of home desktops and workstations needing fast performance. [break]Nu we het toch over Quantum hebben, check Hot Hardware voor een reviewtje van de Quantum Atlas V, een 18GB Ultra160 SCSI drive met een gemiddelde seek time van slechts 6.3ms:[/break]We are going to bring this look at the new Atlas V Ultra160 SCSI drive, to a close by posing a question. Is this new technology worth its higher price tag? This 18Gig Drive goes for about $450 retail and the Adaptec 29160 SCSI card retails for right around $200. So as you can see we are in a new ballpark here with respect to cost. On the other hand, if you need the bandwidth for things like Multi-Media and Video Creation, 3D Animation, Intranet Servers, etc..., you just can't beat the performance and low CPU overhead of Ultra160 SCSI. For those who need to "have it all", this is your kind of upgrade.