Silent Store

According to Maxtor, their Silent Store technology gives PC manufacturers the option of selecting whether to run the hard disks at maximum performance or with the lowest noise level possible. This provides them with maximum flexibility when building their systems because there will be times when they need a drive that's suitable for noise-sensitive environments.

Currently, only the following Maxtor DiamondMax drive families are supported :-

• Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 UDMA/100
• Maxtor DiamondMax 60 UDMA/100
• Maxtor DiamondMax VL 30 UDMA/100
• Maxtor DiamondMax D540X
• Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X

Maxtor's AMSET utility allows you to set any of the following acoustic management levels :-

• Quiet - seeks are slowed down so that seek acoustics are brought to within 1 dBA of idle acoustics. This AM level allows Maxtor drives that support this Silent Store technology to accommodate noise-sensitive storage environments.
• Fast - seeks are slightly slowed down in order to reduce the seek acoustics but with the least amount of impact on drive performance.
• Off - acoustic management is turned off for normal acoustic and performance levels.

Please note that while Maxtor quote specifications with Silent Store disabled, your hard disk will ship with Silent Store set to Quiet. Your DiamondMax hard disk may have an average seek time of less than 9 ms but that's only on paper. In truth, because the acoustic management level is set to Quiet by default, your DiamondMax drive will actually be running with a much longer seek time!