X-bit labs

Real Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 HDD with 80GB Platters Reviewed!

[ 06/25/03 | by Sergey Romanov]

We finally managed to review the new model of Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 HDD with real 80GB platters and updated firmware version. This is an excellent solution, especially, when we tested it appropriately after discovering the issues in the benchmarks we and other reviewer have been using for a long time.

Sony MPD-AP20U: Portable CD-RW/DVD-ROM Drive with MP3 Inside!

[ 06/03/03 | by Andrey Kuznetcov]

External optical drives occupy a special place among the CD/DVD-ROM devices. We wondered if it were possible to design a really miniature external CD-RW drive, capable of working with the entire range of standard disks? Read about a truly mobile solution from Sony with the whole bunch of cool features, including MP3!

Western Digital WD2500JB HDD: More than Drivezilla?!

[ 05/23/03 | by Nikita Nikolaichev]

We are going to take a look at the world’s largest HDD from Western Digital: a 250GB WD2500JB featuring 83GB platters and 7,200rpm spindle rotation speed. Believe us, this model combining high storage capacity and high speed is really worth your attention.

SONY DRU-500A: Monstrous Combo-Drive

[ 05/21/03 | by Andrey Kuznetcov]

SONY developed a very interesting product supporting both competing writable and re-writable DVD standards. Highly functional, easy to install and to use, it can replace a CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD-ROM altogether. Learn more about this all-in-one combo from our detailed review!

Contemporary Flash-Drives: USB 1.1 vs. USB 2.0

[ 05/09/03 | by Michail Djagterev]

Quite recently we compared five flash drives with the USB 1.1 interface, but now there are already USB 2.0 flash drives in the market. Today we will compare the A-Data Speed Drive with USB 2.0 interface and Digitex PenDrive with USB 1.1 to figure out what advantages the new interface brought us.

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 HDD Family Review. Part I

[ 05/03/03 | by Nikita Nikolaichev]

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 was announced back in September 2002. A month later, it hit the stores and drew our attention. Yeah, it was the first hard disk drive with a 80GB platter, the first "thin" drive with 7,200rpm spindle rotation speed and so on. Read more about three models from this family, which we tested in our lab!

WD Raptor: First ATA Hard Disk Drive with 10,000rpm Speed

[ 04/29/03 | by Nikita Nikolaichev]

We reviewed the first SerialATA hard disk drive with 10,000rpm spindle rotation speed and 8MB cache-buffer. This is the so long awaited Raptor from Western Digital. Fast mechanics and remarkable lazy write algorithms made this drive even faster than some SCSI solutions. Learn more about this exciting product in our indepth review!

Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA V Hard Disk Drive Review

[ 04/08/03 | by Nikita Nikolaichev]

Today we are going to take a closer look at the first SerialATA hard disk drive, which has already started selling: this is Seagate Barracuda ATA V. Our goal will be to check how well the SerialATA interface works and to compare the performance of SATA and ATA hard disk drives.

Ultra320 SCSI Interface: Highs and Lows. Part II

[ 04/06/03 | by Nikita Nikolaichev]

Do wee need Ultra320 SCSI interface that much? In this article we investigated the performance of an Ultra320 SCSI HDD with Adaptec 39320D controller with different driver versions. We also dwell upon the bandwidth advantages of Ultra160 and Ultra320 Adaptec controller cards.