Test data for the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 and Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 compares Transfer Rates and Seek time, while published specifications are used for Noise and Warranty. A scale of 10 for each of these follows:

Since older systems use a 100MB/s interface, transfer rates from Sandra, H2benchw, and HD Tach are divided by 10 to put them on a scale of 10. The DiamondMax 10 managed to exceed 100MB/s a few times thanks to the drive's 133MB/s interface, but the average still falls well below 100. Adding the 12 transfer rates and dividing by 12 gives the DiamondMax 10 a combined average of 75.49MB/s, or 7.55 out of 10 points. The same method gives the 7200.9 a combined average of 71.63MB/s and 7.16 out of 10 points.

For seek times, we had to set a baseline for worst performance and compare both drives to it. Using 20ms as the baseline, we can average the read/write seek times from H2benchw and HD Tach, subtract them from 20, then divide by two to put 20ms on a scale of 10. This method provides the DiamondMax 10 a score of 3.53 out of 10 points, and the 7200.9 a meager 2.05 out of 10 points.

Averaging transfer and access points gives Maxtor a 5.54 combined performance rating, and Seagate a 4.61.

Noise was so great an issue during our test that we had to create a scale for it. We used a baseline of 20dB as "perfect 10" and 50dB as a worst-case scenario, subtracting 1 point for every three decibels each drive exceeded 20dB. Averaging Maxtor's idle and seek noise provides 31dB, offering the same courtesy to Seagate provides an average 26.5dB, for a noise score of Maxtor a 6.33, Seagate 7.83.

The best hard drive warranty available for Desktop drives belongs to Seagate, with five-year coverage being exemplary. Simply doubling that number gives this perfect warranty period a 10. Maxtor's more typical 3-year warranty gives them 6 out of 10 warranty points.