We compared the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 and Maxtor DiamondMax 10 to a couple earlier models -- likely candidates for replacement, perhaps. An early two-platter version of the Western Digital WD800JB represents the performance-mainstream segment of four years ago, while its WD400EB presents a more average part from the same period. Finally, the previously mentioned Samsung drive, model HD160JJ, is used for comparing Ultra-ATA to Serial ATA performance.

Performance testing includes SiSoftware's Sandra File System, c'T magazine's H2benchw 3.6, and Simpli Software's HD Tach RW version 3.0.1.0. Three passes per benchmark per drive insured the most accurate benchmark results.

Proving the 40-pin Parallel ATA interface still has legs, Sandra tests show the new Ultra-ATA drives beating even the SATA reference drive in most tests.

Seagate give Maxtor a pounding in the Buffered Read test, but Maxtor shows Seagate the ATA133 advantage in Buffered Writes. Having said that, the majority of older systems will revert the ATA133 drive to ATA100 mode. The one place SATA shows any advantage over ATA is in buffered reads. Western Digital's older performance-mainstream part is completely outmatched, and its low-budget part flattened.

H2benchw shows Seagate again walking over the competition while crushing older technology, at least in transfers from the disk platters. Adding cache to the equation allows Maxtor to shine, but again this appears to be the ATA133 advantage, where older systems will revert the drive to ATA100 mode. For the second time, SATA fails to outshine Ultra-ATA, winning only the buffered read test.

Formerly a performance drive, we find the elderly WD800JB again taking the crown in read access times, even beating the SATA drive. Maxtor retains its write performance lead, but what happened to the Barracuda 7200.9? We think "QuietStep", Seagate's acoustic management technology, may have caused the write access stumble.

Compiled HD Tach graph. Click to view specific results.

We compiled several HD Tach graphs to allow five drives to be compared simultaneously, proving the extent of Ultra-ATA advancements. Seagate's ATA100 7200.9 quite obviously is not limited by the old interface technology here, but Maxtor's ATA133 DiamondMax 10 catches up at the end. Both exceed the transfer rate of the "faster" Serial ATA drive. The old drives simply look pathetic, even the high-performance version is irrelevant.

Read rates taken from the original charts again show the 7200.9's superior transfers from the platter, but Maxtor provides the faster cache access. While the SATA reference drive has even faster cache and slower transfers from media, all three modern drives show gains against their older counterparts.

HD Tach again shows the elderly WD800JB providing the best read access time, and the SATA drive with marginal improvement over the modern Ultra-ATA versions.