DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB (EIDE, UDMA/133, 7200 RPM)

Manufacturer: Maxtor
Model: 6Y160P0
Interface: IDE (Ultra ATA/133)
Access Time: 9
Rotational Speed: 7200
Form Factor Width: 3.5 in
: Number of User Reviews: 19

Reviewed by: AlexanderAkulick from AL on Sep 12, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 3 Days

Strengths: 160Gb. of storage, 8Mb. buffer chip, quiet for a perfomance rated drive, 133 ATA/DMA, 7200RPM, reliable with a service rating life in excess of 5 years, low price per gigabyte.

Weaknesses: Haven't been able to find any.

Summary: (Edited September 13th by AlexanderAkulick) Think this drive will be slow for its size? Think again. Due to this drives 8Mb. buffer, which really shines on these larger drives, the drive runs as fast as any smaller drive. The size and speed of this drive makes it excellent for storage or even partitioned for an OS and multiple drives or multiple OS drive platforms. I partitioned mine in under 3 minutes using my Windows XP disks repair console to create two equal partitions, from boot-up to creation. It took another 24 minutes to also do a comprehensive format of the new C: drive and a quick format of the D: drive was almost instantaneous. The Windows XP Professional install then took 25 minutes - start to finish. All of this was done with my drive running at only 100DMA (33% slower than it is capable of). This was because the motherboard only had support for 100DMA.

Performance drives as they are known - when they have 8Mb. buffers are usually a little noisy but can be quietened by using Maxtors software, available at their website for this. This drive was so quiet in my already quiet Sonata case it was barely noticeable at the factory high speed setting setting, so I didn't bother to change it as it does slow the read write speeds if made quieter.

The low prices on these drives make them very attractive now. I have been using Maxtor 80Gb. drives for years, but twice the storage with no loss in speed for less money than two separate drives cannot be beat. I picked mine up from WWW.ZipZoomFly for $0.57 per gigabyte (just over $90 shipping included).

If your 'puter runs slow - below 133 or 100 Ultra ATA/DMA pick up a 133 Promise PCI card for an available PCI slot. The first thing you will notice after the install is very much shortened defragmentation times while doing maintenance. You will also have multiple new drive connections available, freeing the old ones on the motherboard for maybe that new DVD writer you may be wanting. Regardless, get one of these drives - you won't be sorry.

Reviewed by: medwick from NJ on Jan 27, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 6 Months

Strengths: 8MB Buffer, Good Size/Price Ratio, Quiet

Weaknesses: None

Summary: This is my second Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB drive (bought the first one last summer). The drive is quiet and fast for basic home uses. I bought a third one today. Great for extra storage and backing things up.

Reviewed by: minkid817 from CA on Dec 4, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 1 Months

Strengths: Great hard drive, very fast, all you need for an average user. Quiet while working.

Weaknesses: None.

Summary: Get this hard drive if you just need extra space. Usually they sell for very low affordable prices. It comes with nice setup installation CD's which makes it very user friendly.

Reviewed by: mcmygraine on May 30, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 3 Days

Strengths: QUITE, RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE

Weaknesses: NONE AS OF YET

Summary: (Edited August 04th by mcmygraine) I'VE ONLY HAD THIS HARD DRIVE FOR A SHORT NUMBER OF DAYS BUT I CAN TRULY SAY THAT IT IS A VERY QUITE DRIVE AND FOR THE PRICE ($108.00 W/ FREE TWO DAY SHIPPING!) IT WAS A BARGAIN. I HAD MAXTOR DRIVES IN THE PAST AND THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN RELIABLE TO ME. A GOOD HARD DRIVE FOR THE SMALL BUDGET CONSUMER..

Reviewed by: smilesnhugs14 from CA on Dec 13, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 1 Months

Strengths: Fast quiet drive. Very reliable. Comes with a retail starter kit which allows the user to setup the drive very fast and easy.

Weaknesses: None.

Summary: I use this drive as my main boot up drive. Very cheap, low prices everywhere. I love the space. It's just enough for me to store my pictures that I take with my digital camera and the music I listen to. 8MB cache is great.

Reviewed by: chiguetico from NY on Jun 12, 2004
Rating:

Experience:

Strengths: solid fast and quiet

Weaknesses: none

Summary: they said the drive was noisy, but you don't hear it at all. Very high quality drive that I reccommend without hesitation, price is ok would buy more again so far so good

Reviewed by: CraZyKiNgSfAn on Jun 3, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 1 Days

Strengths: its very fast, i reached blazing speeds on it.... 14,000 KB/s transfer rate :)

Weaknesses: it makes this noise when u turn it on and off but thats ok i still like it :)

Summary: i would recommend this product to anyone who wants a good drive. it is quiet as they said when it is on. i barely knew it was on. it has an 8 mb buffer and its hard to get a good deal on an 8 mb hdd and this was one of the best deals ive seen.

Reviewed by: siung from NY on Feb 18, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 3 Days

Strengths: very fast. No compatibility problem with my HPT (RAID) Controller.

Weaknesses: The software MaxBlast doesn't work on my Win XP Pro desktop. I use Windows' built-in program to format the drive.

Summary: I bought from CompUSA for US$80 after rebate. So only .5 dollar per GB. What a good bargain! I always like Maxtor and Western Digital hard drive. I do not prefer IBM/Hitachi.

Reviewed by: evette45 from NY on Aug 16, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 30 Days

Strengths: solid performing hard drive, VERY VERY QUIET, does not get hot like my western digital

Weaknesses: pricey for the amount of storage, software provided not as good as WD.

Summary: Not the least exspensive 160gb drive out there, but then again you often get what you pay for. This drive is a solid performer, does not get hot and is one of if not the quitest drives I have ever used.

Reviewed by: jeff777 from CA on Jul 22, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 4 Days

Strengths: Quiet, 8MB cache, 7200RPM, works as specified, good documentation.

Weaknesses: Comes with 1 yr warranty. I did not see an option to upgrade warranty to 3 years (as Western Digital does).

Summary: So far it has performed as specified. I didn't notice much noise. I hope it will last me a long time. I partitioned the drive into 2 80GB drives and didn't have any problems installing. I got a pretty good deal for $100.

Reviewed by: go9maboy from CA on Dec 8, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 1 Months

Strengths: Huge storage capacity. very fast access.

Weaknesses: As someone already mentioned, it does not come with any instruction. you can go to "maxtor.com" but still it is very inconvenient for someone who just building his/her first computer.

Summary: I was using WD 130G HDD for one yr and I had two major problem. One was it's noise. The noise were very serious I had to return the HDD and get new one. Another is it come with extra ATA device which suppose to speed up the HDD access but it required extra time to boot up the computer. But maxtor had none of above and still run as fast as WD.

Extra 30G was always beneficial to me. and it will be to you also.

believe me it is great bargain for 160G without any problems.

Reviewed by: gator_33 from CA on Jun 2, 2004
Rating:

Experience:

Strengths: This drive is very fast and silent. Inexpensive. The SATA interface is a pleasure. Maxtor website has downloadable drivers, utilities and docs, which is nice if you buy OEM.

Weaknesses: None. Best drive I've ever owned.

Summary: Used this drive two months ago when building my new system based on an Intel P875PBZ motherboard and Pentium IV 3.E GHz Prescott chip.

Some people have mentioned that it was difficult to install WinXP on a SATA drive, but everything worked out flawlessly for me. I suppose it may depend on the particular motherboard and it¡¯s BIOS. Installation procedure for me was no different that a regular ATA drive with Intel¡¯s P875PBZ board and latest BIOS update. Installed the board, peripherals and drive (no jumpers to worry about and a nice thin SATA cable instead of those clumsy ATA ribbon cables). Powered up the system. Upgraded the motherboard BIOS. Booted up on WinXP CD, formatted the disk using XP¡¯s setup and installed XP. And all was well.

Can¡¯t say enough about this drive. I think this drive¡¯s performance is superb. It is fast and extremely quiet. I have a quiet system with silent fans, case, etc and I still can¡¯t hear the drive.

Reviewed by: longuyen02188 from MA on Oct 5, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 4 Days

Strengths: Fast and Quiet

Weaknesses: nothing so far

Summary: I have mentioned that it was a little confusing to setup jumper as aditional storage (Slave HD), because I just received HD without other stuffs or instruction. You can go to "Maxtor.com" web site and look for jumper setting before change boot sequence in BIOS for rebooting system.

Reviewed by: ajeng from CA on Jun 4, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 3 Days

Strengths: Quiet and speedy.

Weaknesses: None.

Summary: My previous experience with Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB (Part# 6Y160L0) is not positive. The drive died after one year. I bought this one for replacement (8mb cache vs. 2mb) and hope this will last longer (3 years).

Reviewed by: dnagy03 from OH on Nov 6, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 7 Days

Strengths: Simple installation, Fast, Runs cool

Weaknesses: A little loud

Summary: I've always been a WD person myself, but I found that my motherboard has compatibility issues with WD drives. So I chose this drive to use in my system. I had 0 trouble installing this drive, the jumper settings were pretty simple to understand, more than I can say for some of the hardware I've encountered in the past. Once I got the drive in, it formatted just fine and didn't show any bad sectors. I have used the drive for a storage drive for media files and I install all of my games to it. I will say, I can move large files (2GB) to and from this drive very quickly. I currently have the drive set up with an 80mm intake fan blowing over it and another hard drive. As far as I can tell, the drive feels pretty comfortable temperature wise when I touch it, cooler than the other drive which is only a 40GB. My only gripe, is sometimes I can faintly hear the hard drive working. From where I sit, it is about 2 feet from my ear to the drive, and this is noise over just my computer fans and an otherwards dead silent room. Overall, I am pretty happy and hope things continue to go well with this drive.

Reviewed by: mlkelly from CA on May 9, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 30 Days

Strengths: 8Mb cache, Fast, Quiet, Great cost per Gigabyte.

Weaknesses: None that I've found!

Summary: This is a high quality performance hard drive that is Quiet, Fast and not overly Hot (temperture wise).

I have several of these drives and use them with firewire 800, SATA and EIDE connections and they perform great. Sure you can get Bigger, Faster (marginally) and more cache (16Mb) but not at this price point ( I paid less then $.50 / gigabyte).

Reviewed by: liuspring on May 3, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 4 Months

Strengths: very fast, quiet, reliable product

Weaknesses: none so far

Summary: According to my four-month experience with this drive in my computer, i can say this is truely an excellent product.After an easy installation, i had this drive well performed in my computer. Very fast, no noise at all and excellent storage, i cannot say more about its relatively high price.

Reviewed by: diljs from MO on Mar 30, 2005
Rating:

Experience:

Strengths: Decent drive

Weaknesses: Warranty is short

Summary: Maxtor drives are okay, nothing special but they do what they need to.

The thing I don't like is the 1 year warranty. This is something Seagate has tried to change by setting all its warranties to 5 years. I recommend buying a seagate instead if it's close in price.

Reviewed by: mrzero009 from VA on Mar 7, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 10 Days

Strengths: Reliable performance. Robustness. Low price. UATA 133 interface.

Weaknesses: Perceptible operational noise.

Summary: I have two. One has been installed 2 years ago. There has been no problem so far. The price dropped to the half. These things make me get one more. Maxtor HDD is not best. But, in my case, any brand cannot beat Maxtor regarding price, performance, and reliability.