Quantum FireBall Plus LM Ultra ATA/66 10.2GB Review

Let’s cut the crap and get right to those synthetic benchmarks that
everyone loves so much.  Below is the test machine setup:

To run the tests, we used WinBench99, which is widely available on the
internet.  It is also a widely used for Hard Drive testing because it
simulates a multitude of different applications, and gives the results in a real
world bandwidth, instead of silly little proprietary unites of measure.

Analysis and Conclusion
The Fireball LM Plus is an ATA/66 drive.  To most people, that means
they they will ALWAYS get 66MB/second.  In truth, that is very, very
wrong.  that 66MB/second, as Quantum puts it…"Buffer-to-Host"
speed.  That means that data from the onboard memory on the hard drive
transfers at 66MB/s to the rest of the system.  To explain this in more
detail, I must first explain how data comes from the magnetic disks inside the
drive, to your screen.

First, the hard drive gets the request for data, let’s say, you’re opening a
document in Word called document.doc.  The Hard Drive then find the file,
and starts reading it off of the magnetic disks, which spin at 7200RPM for this
drive, and transfers that data to that onboard memory, called the Buffer, or
sometimes the "Hard Drive Cache."  The Cache will then send it
right down the line, down the IDE cable, to the controller card, and to whatever
part of the system needs it next.  While the Buffer can send that data out
at 66MB/s, in the case of ATA/66, it doesn’t receive the data fast enough to
send it back out.  It might only get the data at 30MB/s if it’s
lucky.  That transfer rate does have it’s advantages.  Say
document.doc is less than 2MB, which is the size of the buffer on this
drive.  If you close the file, and before doing anything, request the file
again from the hard drive, it will still be in the buffer.  This means the
hard drive won’t need to go to it’s magnetic disks, and can send document.doc
directly down the IDE cable at 66MB/s.

So, in applications that need a lot of random data, the Disk-to-Buffer speed
of the hard drive will be more important that the Buffer-to-Host speed. 
The Fireball LM Plus offers the best of both worlds.  It offers the faster
Disk-to-Buffer rate with the 7200RPM speed, and offers the fast ATA/66
interface.  Quantum has recently helped standardize the ATA/100
protocol.  It’s the same as ATA/66, in that it uses the same 80 pin
conductor cable.  It just moves the data along faster.  I’m willing to
be my life that the ATA/100 protocol won’t be a cost effective to use until
Disk-to-Buffer speeds are yet again increased.  About the only way to do
that, is to increase the spindle speed.  To increase spindle speed, you’ll
need to have a higher powered electrical motor spinning the disks the data is
stored on.  This means more noise, and more heat.  Although I must say
that the drive we tested was very quiet, thanks to Quantums efforts to reduce
noise.  After testing boot time and other heavy testing, the drive was also
very cool compared to some 5400RPM Maxtor drives in my system.  I’d believe
that Quantum has a leg up on all the other manufacturers in Hard Drives, and
their market share of 24% shows that.  If you’re looking for a fast drive
for around $100, the 10.2GB Quantum Fireball LM Plus.  It’s six feet above
the rest.

Pros

• Data is secure via DPS and SPS
• Quiet
• Cool Running
• Cheap
• Fast!

Cons

• I don’t own a pair

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