Maxtor DiamondMax 22 (1TB) review

This is Maxtor's sole disk in this Labs, but we're not convinced that this Seagate-owned brand is worth consideration.

Average read and write times of 88.6MB/sec and 80.6MB/sec respectively leave the DiamondMax sitting half-way up our results table, and access times of 13ms and 5ms aren't much cop.

Other test results hint at the same unpredictability that plagued the 750GB Seagate Barracuda: a burst speed of 127MB/sec is barely above half of what we've seen from most other drives, and a 13ms random access time and 93.1MB/sec average sequential read speed are mediocre.

One area where the DiamondMax excels is value: at 7.2p/GB, it's the cheapest 1TB drive on test. However, when the unpredictable performance is factored in, this seems like a false economy. The Barracuda 7200.11 1TB disk may cost £8 more, but it's quicker and has a better range of features.

Author: Mike Jennings