Hard drive manufacturer Maxtor Corp. has two new additions to its DiamondMax family of 5400 RPM hard drives.
The DiamondMax D540X is a 40GB per platter drive and the DiamondMax D536X is the highest capacity ATA drive on the market at 100GB, according to the company. All DiamondMax family members feature the Ultra ATA/100 interface, a 2MB buffer, and a data and shock protection system.
The DiamondMax D540 X is a multi-head, multi-platter ATA drive with 40GB per platter and comes in 20, 40, 60 and 80GB capacities. Due in mid-July, prices should be US$79.95 for the 20GB model, $99.95 for the 40GB drive, and $229.95 for the 80GB version (the 60 GB configuration isn’t being offered in the retail channel).
The DiamondMax 536DX purportedly offers a 50 percent increase in real density over the Maxtor DiamondMax 80 (a 20GB per platter, 4 platter drive). It boasts transfer speeds up to 100MB per second. The 536DX has three platters and six heads. It’s ideal for multimedia, video, and Internet applications, according to Mike Cordano, executive vice president of worldwide marketing and sales at Maxtor. Both it and the D540X boast 5400 RPMs. The DiamondMax 536DX is due early next month for approximately $299.95.
So what can you do with 100GB? According to Maxtor, you can store 100 hours of compressed digital video. Or store 25,000 four-minute MP3 songs. Or store entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica — with 90 GB to spare.
Earlier this month Maxtor also announced the Fireball 541DX drive, another member of the DiamondMax family, though it’s a single-head device that’s optimized for one-head performance.