Thu, 6 Jan 2005 23:17:54 -0700
So it's time to order some more drives and I like to know where the best price point is, so I graph things. I have been pleased with Maxtor in the past and a brief search confirmed that their prices are in line with everyone else. Using froogle/pricewatch/etc I know that newegg has competitive prices. They have been super awesome every time I've dealt with them, and they carry all the current Maxtor drives, so I used their prices. Another benefit is that they offer volume discounts on both the drive and shipping. So in the table below I have entries for per unit and also at their discount for 10+ drives.
Requirements
- Ultra 133 ATA
- 7200RPM or better
- 8mb buffer or better
We'd also like low power/heat drives if possible, but that data is not available for all drives and we are assuming that they any difference in power will be negligible compared to the amount they consume (and compared to the rest of the system and the sizing of the system power supply/cooling).
| family | model | size | RPM | buffer | Bus | Warrantee | unit price | +ship | $/GB | 10 price | +ship | $/GB |
| DiamondMax Plus | 6L040L2 | 40 | 7200 | 2mb | 133 | 1 year | $55.00 | $58.19 | $1.45 | $55.00 | $58.19 | $1.45 |
| DiamondMax Plus 8 | 6E030L0 | 30 | 7200 | 2mb | 133 | 1 year | $48.00 | $51.19 | $1.71 | $48.00 | $51.19 | $1.71 |
| 6E040L0 | 40 | 7200 | 2mb | 133 | 1 year | $47.56 | $50.75 | $1.27 | $43.30 | $44.29 | $1.11 | |
| DiamondMax Plus 9 | 6Y060L0 | 60 | 7200 | 2mb | 133 | 1 year | $59.00 | $62.19 | $1.04 | $50.00 | $50.99 | $0.85 |
| 6Y080L0 | 80 | 7200 | 2mb | 133 | 1 year | $60.29 | $63.48 | $0.79 | $53.86 | $54.85 | $0.69 | |
| 6Y120L0 | 120 | 7200 | 2mb | 133 | 1year | $75.00 | $78.19 | $0.65 | $75.00 | $75.99 | $0.63 | |
| 6Y120P0 | 120 | 7200 | 8mb | 133 | 1 year | $84.35 | $87.54 | $0.73 | $75.58 | $76.57 | $0.64 | |
| 6Y160P0 | 160 | 7200 | 8mb | 133 | 1 year | $90.89 | $94.08 | $0.59 | $82.79 | $83.78 | $0.52 | |
| 6Y200P0 | 200 | 7200 | 8mb | 133 | 3 years | $111.86 | $115.05 | $0.58 | $103.76 | $104.75 | $0.52 | |
| DiamondMax 10 | 6B200P0 | 200 | 7200 | 8mb | 133 | 3 years | $105.49 | $108.68 | $0.54 | $105.49 | $108.68 | $0.54 |
| 6B250R0 | 250 | 7200 | 16mb | 133 | 3 years | $155.45 | $158.64 | $0.63 | $151.78 | $152.77 | $0.61 | |
| 6B300R0 | 300 | 7200 | 16mb | 133 | 3 years | $194.93 | $198.12 | $0.66 | $186.81 | $187.80 | $0.63 | |
| MaXLine Plus II | 7Y250P0 | 250 | 7200 | 8mb | 133 | 3 years | $152.28 | $155.47 | $0.62 | $144.05 | $145.04 | $0.58 |
| MaXLine II | 5A300J0 | 300 | 5400 | 2mb | 133 | 3 years | $199.00 | $202.19 | $0.67 | $193.28 | $194.27 | $0.65 |
Conclusion
The DiamondMax 9 160gb and 200gb drives are tied for the lowest price per gb. Since 160gb is way more than enough for the need, that's probably what I'll order. The larger DiamondMax 10 drives with 16mb of buffer and only a slightly higher price/GB are tempting, but at 82% of the price additional cost not that tempting.