Singapore Hardware Zone

IBM DeskStar 14GXP

IBM DeskStar 14GXP 14.4 GB 
Reviewed by Jackie Lee Choon Yau (09/08/98)

Disk Drive Specifications

Model Number

  • DTTA-3371440 E182115 HG

Capacity

  • 14.4 GB

Interface

  • ATA-4

Data Heads

  • 10

Disks

  • 5

Average seek read

  • 9.5 ms

Media Transfer Rate

  • 175.6Mbits / sec

Interface Transfer Rate (Maximum AT)

  • 16.6 MB / sec
  • PIO Mode-4, DMA Mode-2
  • 33.3 MB / sec Ultra DMA/33

Sustained Data Rate (Maximum)

  • 13.0 MB / sec

Data Buffer

  • 512.0 KB

Rotational Speed

  • 7200 RPM

Area Density

  • 2.440 Gbits/sq. in. (max.)
Track Density
  • 13700 TPI
Recording Density
  • 178.1 KBPI (max.)
Power Idle
  • 6.9 Watts

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Introduction

  IBM Disk Drives have a long established history of about 40 years. Till today, they have maintained a good name in providing good data storage reliability and fast performance with their disk drives.  IBM offers a wide array of high-end desktop, server and mobile drives to meet the needs of the worldwide market  IBM has invested heavily on their research to satisfy the increasing needs of the consumer market. For example, TravelStar, DeskStar and UltraStar. They have made several breakthroughs like the Magnetoresistive Extended (MRX) advanced head technology and Giant  Magnetoresitive (GMR) head technology.The IBM 14GXP is their newest product which is also rated as the "SCSI Killer".

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IBM DeskStar 14 GXP

The Good

   The IBM's DeskStar 14 GXP is latest model that make us of the GMR Head Technology. This technology is designed to enable MR Heads to be scaled to very small dimensions while achieving unprecedented areal densities approaching about 10 GB per square inch. In conventional MR sensors, a single film changes resistance in response to chnages in a magnetic field on the disk; GMR Technology achieves its superior areal density by performing this same function by employing two films, separated  by a very thin electrically conducting layer. Phew! That's GMR Technology!

  This drive works best with Home applications, Office applications, PC System Storage, Video Editing, Image storage, Database processing and Multimedia applications. Basically, this drive is an all-rounder.

  Another point worth a mention is that this drive is spinning at the Fastest IDE rotational speed of 7200RPM and best of all it is cool and not noisy consider spinning at such a high speed. In addition, this drive has a low 9.5 ms average seek read and all IBM DeskStar drives comes with a Three Year Warranty.

  Lastly, the IBM 14GXP 14.4 GB is currently the highest capacity IDE disk drive available in Sim Lim Square, Singapore. The selling price of this disk drive is at a low of S$ 798 (dated 05 September 1998) which means S$ 0.053 for 1 MB.

The Test

Test Configuration

Processor(s): Intel Pentium II 400 Mhz
RAM: 64 MB Hyundai PC100 SDRAM DIMMs
Hard Drive(s): Quantum SE 2.1 GB
Video Card(s): Matrox Millenium G200 (8MB SDRAM - AGP)
Bus Master Drivers: Windows 98 Bus Mastering Drivers
Video Drivers: Matrox Millenium G200 Drivers 4.10.01.4100
Operation System(s): Windows 98 (build 4.10.1998)

WinBench 98 Result for IBM DeskStar 14GXP 14.4 GB

Weighted Suite IBM DeskStar 14 GXP Unit
Business DiskWinMark 98 1840 123 Thousand Bytes/sec
High-End DiskWinMark 98 4900 123 Thousand Bytes/sec

Test

Disk PlayBack / Bus  
Overall 1840 Thousand Bytes/sec
Disk PlayBack / HE  
Overall 4900 Thousand Bytes/sec
Disk / Read Random Access 12.3 123 Milliseconds
Disk / Read Transfer Rate  
Beginning 13300 Thousand Bytes/sec
End 10600 Thousand Bytes/sec
Disk / CPU Utilization 5.36 12345 % Percent

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The Bad

  There are no major technical defects to this drives in general. But if you really have to be strict about it, one of the bad point I can think of is the fact that if you have just one 14.4 GB  harddisk rather than one 8.4 GB and one 6.4 Gb, this could render you very vulnerable to inconveninence due to the hard disk crashes if there should be any. Basically, the flexibility of the system is reduced. Other than that perhaps the one time payment of the S$ 798 could put you off and to go for 8.4 GB instead.

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Conclusion

   Ever since IBM invented the world first drives in 1956, they have been keeping up with the advancement of storage technology to cater for the ever demanding consumer needs and IBM DeskStar 14 GXP is another of its breakthrough. If you are not particular about the one time payment of S$ 798, then I would gladly recommend this fast monster sized "SCSI Killer" drive to you.


Disk Drive RATING

Overall Rating (Out of a maximum of 5 Star)

Installation ****
Performance *****
Price ***
Overclockability **
Material Quality *****
Stability *****
Overall Rating ****

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