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November 3, 2006
Maxtor Ships the Maxline III 320GB
A Review of the Maxtor Maxline III Model 7V320F0 SATA II 3.5" Hard Drive
By Arthur Whalem
Maxtor is now selling a new Maxline III 320GB model 7V320F0. I found it listed at Newegg.com for $99.99. As the Maxtor Maxline III 7V300F0 is a great performing hard drive, I thought the new 7V320F0 was worth investigating.
Since Maxtor did not have a 320GB model before merging with Seagate, I hoped the new 7V320F0 was not simply a rebranded 7200.10. Once I started testing it in an Apple Mac Pro it was clear that this was still a Maxtor developed hard drive.
Features
The Maxtor Maxline III model 7V320F0 SATA II 3.5" hard drive comes with a five year warranty. It has a SATA 3.0Gb/s interface with a jumper that can reduce the speed to 1.5Gb/s if needed. It is a 320GB hard drive that formats to 297.69GB in an Apple Mac Pro. A 16MB cache is provided just like the 7V300F0. It is reported to have an average seek time of 9ms and an average latency of 4.17ms. Native command queuing is supported and it is RoHS compliant.
Most of these features are identical to the Maxline III 300GB 7V300F0. The real question is how does it perform in an Apple Mac Pro?
Performance
In this test, an Apple Mac Pro 2.66GHz running Mac OS X 10.4.8 was used with the Maxline III model 7V320F0. The hard drive was mounted internally in the Mac Pro. DiskTester 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test. DiskTester measures the combined performance of the hard drive and the Mac OS X operating system. It is a Terminal application which requires using a command line executable. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester 2.0 to work testing how the hard drive will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. This same test was also run with a Maxline III model 7V300F0 and a Seagate 320GB 7200.10 for comparison.Apple Mac Pro Internal SATA Hard Drive Test
| Single Maxline |
320GB 7V320F0 |
Single Maxline |
300GB 7V300F0 |
Single Seagate |
320GB ST3320620AS |
|
| Area Full | write | read | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 65.3 | 67.2 | 66.5 | 69.6 | 46 | 75.2 |
| 10% | 63.7 | 65.5 | 65.7 | 67.8 | 45.7 | 73.9 |
| 20% | 62.6 | 64.2 | 64.3 | 66.3 | 45.3 | 73 |
| 30% | 59.9 | 60.7 | 62.5 | 64.2 | 44.3 | 70.4 |
| 40% | 58.1 | 59.3 | 60.1 | 61.4 | 43.4 | 68.1 |
| 50% | 55.7 | 56.5 | 57.7 | 58.9 | 41.9 | 64.6 |
| 60% | 52.4 | 52.5 | 55.6 | 56.2 | 40.3 | 60.8 |
| 70% | 49.1 | 49 | 51.8 | 52 | 38.5 | 56.9 |
| 80% | 45.7 | 45.2 | 48.9 | 48.4 | 36 | 51.5 |
| 90% | 40.5 | 40.2 | 45.1 | 44.9 | 33.1 | 45.8 |
| Average | 55.3 | 56.03 | 57.82 | 58.97 | 41.45 | 64.02 |
| Size | 297.69GB | 279.16GB | 297.69GB |
As you can see in the test data above, the 7V320F0 is a little slower than the 7V300F0. While the Seagate 320GB 7200.10 hard drive has great read speed, the write speed is limited to 46MB/sec when used as an individual internal Mac Pro hard drive with firmware 3.AAE or below. Seagate is working on a fix for this, but I have not been able to test a 7200.10 that did
not have this issue. Based on the results above, the Maxline III 7V300F0 looks like the fastest over all hard drive of the three tested, when used as an individual hard drive mounted inside an Apple Mac Pro.In the next table, each hard drive was mounted on a Sonnet Tempo E4P and the exact same DiskTester performance test was run again. The same Mac Pro 2.66 GHz computer with 3GB of memory was used. The E4P was using firmware 2.04b9. The Seagate 320GB performs very well on a PCIe SATA host adapter. The 46MB/sec write speed limitation disappears when the 7200.10 Seagate hard drive is not used on the Apple Mac Pro internal SATA bus.
Mac Pro External Tempo E4P SATA Hard Drive Test
| Single Maxline |
320GB 7V320F0 |
Single Maxline |
300GB 7V300F0 |
Single Seagate |
320GB ST3320620AS |
|
| Area Full | write | read | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 67.9 | 68 | 69.9 | 70.3 | 74.6 | 75.1 |
| 10% | 66.6 | 66.5 | 68.9 | 69 | 73.8 | 74 |
| 20% | 65 | 64.8 | 66.9 | 66.9 | 72.7 | 73 |
| 30% | 61.7 | 61.6 | 64.9 | 64.9 | 70.1 | 70.4 |
| 40% | 60.1 | 60 | 62.1 | 62 | 67.8 | 68 |
| 50% | 57.1 | 57 | 59.6 | 59.6 | 64.4 | 64.5 |
| 60% | 53.1 | 53.1 | 57.2 | 57.1 | 60.6 | 60.8 |
| 70% | 49.5 | 49.5 | 52.6 | 52.7 | 56.7 | 56.8 |
| 80% | 45.8 | 45.9 | 49.3 | 49.4 | 51.3 | 51.5 |
| 90% | 40.6 | 40.7 | 45.3 | 45.5 | 45.6 | 45.7 |
| Average | 56.74 | 56.71 | 59.67 | 59.74 | 63.76 | 63.98 |
| Size | 297.69GB | 279.16GB | 297.69GB |
With further testing, it was found that using a single 7V320F0 with three 7V300F0 hard drives in a four drive direct connect stripped RAID set dropped the performance of the RAID by 6MB to 8MB per second. If you already own Maxline III 7V300F0 hard drives that are being utilized in a direct connect striped RAID set configuration, I would stay with the 7V300F0 to maintain the highest level of performance. However, when the Maxline III 7V320F0 is paired with four Maxline III 7V300F0 hard drives in a SATA PM enclosure the striped RAID set performance is identical to having five Maxline III 7V300F0 hard drives installed in the SATA PM enclosure.
The bottom line is that when combining Maxline III 7V300F0 and 7V320F0 hard drives in a SATA PM striped RAID set they work great. Combining them with a direct connect striped RAID set results in slightly slower performance.
Copy/Duplicate TestsIn this test, the 7V320F0, 7V300F0 and the Seagate 320GB 7200.10 hard drives each contain the same 8 GB of data on them and they were each mounted as boot drives inside a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz with 3GB of memory running Mac OS X 10.4.8. A 4.25GB folder (containing two video files) was copied to and from a Maxtor 1.09TB four drive striped RAID set. The copy time was recorded along with the time to repair permissions and duplicate the 4.25GB folder on each drive. Xbench and DiskTester readings of the hard drive performance and the overall computer performance were also recorded.
| Mac Pro 2.66 GHz | 7V320F0 | 7V300F0 | Seagate 320GB |
| Copy 4.25GB to RAID | 1:05 minutes | 1:02 minutes | 1:02 minutes |
| Copy 4.25GB from RAID | 1:04 minutes | 1:02 minutes | 1:38 minutes |
| Repair Permissions | 8 seconds | 7 seconds | 8 seconds |
| Duplicate 4.25GB | 2:25 minutes | 2:16 minutes | 2:37 minutes |
| Xbench 1.1.3 Disk/Overall | 115/189 | 118/191 | 55/151 |
| DiskTester 10GB Read/Write | 67.1/64.9 | 69.5/66.4 | 72.2/45.6 |
As you can see above, the Maxline III 7V300F0 was able to beat the Maxline III 7V320F0 in each test. The Seagate 320GB ST3320620AS model 7200.10 was at a disadvantage because of the Seagate 7200.10 write speed limitation that occurs when using the internal Apple Mac Pro SATA bus.
Size, Power & Weight
On a Macintosh the Maxline III 7V320F0 and the Seagate 320GB 7200.10 models both format to 297.69 GB. The Maxtor 300GB Maxline III 7V300F0 formats to 279.16 GB. According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the Seagate 320GB 7200.10 SATA hard drive is the most energy efficient of the three units when copying data. However, it draws a little more power during the initial short startup phase. The Seagate 320GB is also a little lighter. The Maxtor Maxline III 7V320F0 weighs more and uses a little more power than the other two hard drives in this comparison. You can see more details in the table below
| Power Usage in Watts | 7V320F0 | 7V300F0 | ST3320620AS |
| Startup | 28 | 26 | 30 watts |
| Idle | 10 | 8 | 8 watts |
| Copying | 13 | 12 | 11 watts |
| - | |||
| Weight in ounces | 22 | 21.8 | 20.8 ounces |
| Format Size in GB | 297.69 | 279.16 | 297.69 GB |
This article was designed to find out if the Maxtor Maxline III 320GB model 7V320F0 hard drive provided enhanced or similar performance compared to the Maxline III 300GB model 7V300F0. The 7V300F0 is a favorite for many Apple Mac Pro users as it is inexpensive and provides great performance when mounted on the internal Apple Mac Pro SATA bus.Unfortunately, what I found was that the Maxline III 320GB model 7V320F0 hard drive is a little slower than the original 7V300F0. While the 7V320F0 will provide 20GB of additional hard drive space and may even be $15 less expensive than the 7V300F0, it is also measurably slower. Performance minded users will probably want to stay with the 7V300F0 model. Don't get me wrong, the 7V320F0 is not a slow hard drive. I just prefer to use the faster hard drive when given the choice. I had hoped that the 7V320F0
would provide the same performance as the 7V300F0 but that was not my experience.If the Seagate 320GB ST3320620AS model 7200.10 had a firmware update that fixed the write speed bug when used on the internal Apple Mac Pro SATA bus and improved the random read and write speeds so that Xbench could allow it to score closer to the Maxline III 7V300F0, it might be a new contender for internal use in an Apple Mac Pro. The Seagate 7200.10 is a hair taller than the Maxtor hard drives which may make it a bit of a snug fit in some external SATA enclosures. When used with a SATA host adapter the performance of the Seagate 320GB ST3320620AS model 7200.10 is the highest of any of these three units. In addition, the 46MB/sec write speed limitation disappears when the 7200.10 is used in a striped RAID set inside an Apple Mac Pro. This makes it a good choice for high speed Mac Pro striped RAID sets.
Pros
Provides 20GB more hard drive space than Maxline III 7V300F0.
Performs great with Maxline III 7V300F0 drives in a SATA PM enclosure.
Good Performance.
Has a five year warranty.
Quiet, low heat.
Cons
Not quite as fast as the Maxline III 7V300F0.
Uses a little more power than the Maxline III 7V300F0.
Maxline III 7V320F0 gets 3.5 AMUGs out of 5!
These tests convinced me that the Maxtor Maxline III 7V300F0 300GB SATA hard drive is a better performer for the Apple Mac Pro than the Maxline III 7V320F0. I had hoped that the 7V320F0 would provide 
the same performance as the older 7V300F0. I have several Maxline III 7V300F0 hard drives that are used in a direct connect striped RAID set. Substituting one of the 7V300F0 hard drives in the striped RAID set with the 7V320F0 slows down the performance.
However, the Maxline III 7V300F0 and the 7V320F0 perform great together in a SATA PM striped RAID set. If you are looking for a good internal boot drive for a PowerMac G5 or an Apple Mac Pro, the Maxline III 7V320F0 is not a bad choice. However, the Maxline III 7V300F0 will provide a little faster performance.
Contact Information:
Maxtor Corporation
500 McCarthy Boulevard
Milpitas, CA 95035 USA
Phone: 408-894-5000
http://www.maxtor.com/
Copyright 2006
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG)
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