hard drive history

IBM Deskstar 14GXP

Seagate was the first to introduce a 7200 RPM IDE drive, the Medalist Pro 7200, but only just. The Deskstar 14GXPs were second only to the the big Seagates for speed, with the 5400 RPM Deskstar 16XPs and Quantum Fireball EX family next. (The Fireball EX had a higher data rate than the 14GXP but don't underestimate the importance of latency — see the drive ratings page for details.) Like the Deskstar 16XP (above), the 14GXP used Giant Magneto-Resistive heads — a technology only IBM had for quite some time.

In many ways the 14GXP was more of a technology demonstrator than a serious mass-market product, and it sold in small numbers only. It was faster than the best 5400 RPM drives but not by as big a margin as you'd expect, and Seagate 7200 was comfortably faster and significatly cheaper. The only real reason to select the 14GXP is that it was quieter and cooler than the Medalist Pro. In addition, there was no version in the most popular size range: a 6.4 or 7.6GB GXP would have sold much more readily.

We eventually sold a handful of the 10.1GB 14GXPs as a next-best substitutre when the Medalist 7200 became unavailable but when the second-generation 7200 RPM IDE drives arrived from Western Digital, Quantum and IBM itself, the 14GXP dissappeared off the market.