Available: Now

As UDMA/66 controllers become more commonplace in today's computers, it is time to look at some of the biggest and fastest UDMA/66 products on the market. With the new Abit BE6 offering onboard UltraDMA 66 support, Intel's new i840 chipset just around the corner, and many companies offering PCI versions, everyone wants to know which drive to buy. Today we take two of the forerunners in the UDMA/66 bandwagon to face off their flagship UDMA/66 drives.

Both drives are equipped with nearly identical spec sheets, aside from the Quantum's superior access times, and both are available for about the same price. We'll jump them through all of the normal hoops and in the end, one drive will stand victorious - and the victor may surprise you.

TEST SYSTEM:
ABIT BE6 (Slot-1 - Intel 440BX with HighPoint UDMA/66 Controller)
Intel Pentium III 500
Enhanced Memory Systems 128MB PC-133 SDRAM
SoundBlaster Live! Full Version
Seagate 17GIG 5400RPM ST317242 HDD
Win98 OSR 1.0
Creative DXR2 CD/DVD Drive

Test Conditions and Specifications: All tests were run a total of five times with the results averaged to determine final score (the highest and lowest scores obtained were disqualified). CPU utilization was reported for all Winbench Disk scores. Numbers in parenthesis represent UDMA/33 operation mode scores.