What is a technical review without a set of specifications, eh? Below are a set of brief specifications for both the Quantum Fireball Plus LM and IBM Deskstar 34GXP line of hard drives. This is mainly to illustrate the difference between the newer Fireball LM and the older IBM 34GXP:

	IBM Deskstar 34GXP	Quantum Fireball Plus LM
Available Capacities (GB)	13.6 / 20.5 / 27.3 / 34.2	10.2 / 15.0 / 20.5 / 30.0
Rotations per Minute (RPM)	7200	7200
Average Seek Time (ms)	9.0	8.5
Density (GB/platter)	6.8	10
Interface	UDMA-66 (ATA-66)	UDMA-66 (ATA-66)

As you can see, the Fireball LM is clearly a generation ahead of IBM's Deskstar 34GXP. With it's faster average seek time and higher density in terms of GB per platter, we should expect the Fireball LM to lead the 34GXP in all areas. The top capacity of the Fireball LM, 30 GB, was actually smaller than the older Deskstar's top capacity of 34.2 GB. This is because Quantum decided to use only 3 platters in their top capacity drive while IBM used 5 platters to achieve the 34.2 GB capacity; however, the fact that the Quantum has 10 GB per platter means the data is more tightly packed and therefore, should yield better results in terms of performance. Also, the smaller number of platters which are in the Fireball LM should theoretically reduce both heat and noise.

On to: Test Configuration