IBM DESKSTAR 180GXP

Price: $786
Supplier: Harris Technology 1300 139 999
Link to: www.ht.com.au
Specifications: 180GB; 7,200rpm; 8MB buffer; 8.5ms average seek time; fluid dynamic bearing motor; Ultra ATA/100

While the storage community eagerly awaits Serial ATA disks (see page 39), the latest generations of Ultra ATA disks have emerged, boasting huge capacities and searing performance.

Enter Western Digital’s WD2000JB Special Edition and IBM’s Deskstar 180GXP. Although Western Digital’s naming strategy would have you believe that the WD2000JB comes from the same family as the other Special Edition disks, this drive uses a higher data density to cram all 200GB onto three platters. While the WD1800JB features 60GB per platter, the newcomer packs 66.7GB platters using a new surface formatting to gain the extra density. A claimed average seek time of 8.9ms is no improvement on previous disks, but the 8MB data buffer remains one of the largest around.

IBM has a new contender as well, ready to defend the Deskstar family’s place on the A-List. The 180GXP replaces the 120GXP and also packs 60GB onto each of its platters, for a maximum of 180GB. Seek time remains identical to the 120GXP at 8.5ms, but – unlike the Western Digital – there’s a wide range of capacities spanning 30 to 180GB.

Testing both disks shows that their sustained performance is almost identical. The Western Digital managed an incredible 44.1MB/s, while the IBM edged just ahead with 44.6MB/s. A look at both sustained transfer rate (STR) graphs showed that the IBM was averaging 56MB/s on its outer zones and dropping off to 27MB/s on the inner zones. The WD2000JB started off with an STR of 53MB/s, which then dropped to 30MB/s on the inner zones, which was slightly faster than the 180GXP.

Testing the IBM for average access times in Intel’s IPEAK suite returned 12.9ms, while the Western Digital was slower at 15.5ms. Subtracting the average latency of 4.2ms for each disk gives average seek times of 8.7ms and 11.3ms for the IBM and Western Digital respectively.

Ultimately, though, both disks are the fastest we’ve seen at PC Authority and are ideal for A/V input, gaming and any other disk-intensive application you want to run. The Deskstar, however, has the edge as it offers a wide range of capacities, but the Caviar just edges it out on price.