In the spring review on the situation on the IDE drive market I wrote
that we shouldn't expect any new solutions from IBM in the near future.
Formally I'm right - the drives with the altered index (AVVN instead of
AVVA) belong to the same 120GXP aka Vancouver line, but...
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IC35L120AVVA07-0
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IC35L040AVVN07-0
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As you can see, there are some differences in the appearance. And what
about the specs?
| Product name |
Deskstar 120GXP |
Deskstar 120GXP |
| Model names |
IC35L120AVVA07-0 IC35L080AVVA07-0 IC35L040AVVA07-0 |
IC35L040AVVN07-0 IC35L020AVVN07-0 |
| Configuration |
| Capacity (GB) |
120/80/40 |
40/20 |
| Data heads (physical) |
6/4/2 |
2/1 |
| Data disks |
3/2/1 |
1/1 |
| Max.areal density (Gbits/sq.inch) |
29.7 |
29.7 |
| Max.recording density (KBPI) |
524/547 |
524/547 |
| Track density (KTPI) |
56.7/54 |
56.7/54 |
| Performance |
| Data buffer |
2 MBytes |
2 MBytes |
| Rotational speed (rpm) |
7,200 |
7,200 |
| Latency average (ms) |
4.17 |
4.17 |
| Media transfer rate (max.Mbits/sec) |
592 |
592 |
| Sustained data rate (MB/sec) |
48 to 23 (Zones 0-30) |
47.5 to 22.9 (Zones 0-30) |
| Seek time (read, typical) |
| Average (ms) |
8.5 |
8.8 |
| Track to track (ms) |
1.1 |
1.1 |
| Full track (ms) |
15 |
16 |
| Acoustic |
| Idle (Bels) |
3.0 (1 disk)
3.0 (2 disks)
3.1 (3 disks) |
3.1 |
| Height (mm) |
25.4 |
25.4 |
| Width (mm) |
101.6 |
101.6 |
| Depth (mm) |
146 |
146 |
| Weight (max.g) |
640 |
640 |
Well, the new drives have a smaller Sustained Data Rate and a greater
seek time (both Average and Full Track). In the tests this will probably
result in an increased access time, reduced linear read speed and Ziff-Davis
WinMarks scores. Let's check it. It seems that the AVVN disc is a little
shorter, but the figures say the drives are equal. Probably, the upper
lid of the AVVN is more prominent.
Tests
Access time – 7200 rpm
(Ziff-Davis WinBench 99)
Well, the AVVA has scored 12.5 ms (the specified time is 4.17+8.5=12.67
ms), the AVVN has it 13.1 ms (4.17+8.8=12.97 ms). The former disc has a
little better results than the specified, the latter one has it worse.
Disk transfer rate – 7200 rpm (Ziff-Davis WinBench 99)
Nothing unexpected. Just a small deviation from the specifications.
Look at the diagrams.
IC35L120AVVA07-0
IC35L040AVVN07-0
As expected, we have all the same, only a bit lower :)
Now comes a standard suite of applications.
Well, there is nothing to be said...
Intel IOMeter – 7200 rpm
It's interesting that at the average load the AVVN disc is a little ahead.
But on the whole the results are almost equal. The complete results can
be found in the table.
And now the temperature mode. Contrary to my expectations the temperatures
of both drives measured with the DTemp utility after the Intel IOMeter
test turned out to be almost equal - 42 degrees C (the room temperature
was ~23 degrees C). Note that we compared the one-platter and three-platter
drives.
Conclusion
So, what do we have? The new incarnation of the IBM drives loses to the
senior solution in all aspects. I don't understand why the company released
such a model taking into account that it doesn't do much business on the
OEM market. And customers received a cheaper drive of a less size from
IBM.
