In a bid to provide the local desktop video, file server storage and photo retouching markets with tangible increases in application performance, local Apple Macintosh dealer, The Big Orchard (TBO Technologies), is fitting Seagate Cheetah drives in most of its high-end machines. Seagate`s Cheetah, which come in both 4.5GB and 9GB capacities with 18GB scheduled for release in April later in the year is already in its second generation production run, and is the world`s fastest drive. At 10 000 rpm the 18GB has a sub-6 msec seek time and will format data transfer rates as high as 18 MB/second. "Each Macintosh dominated market has its own requirements, but can all stand to benefit from high speed drives," says Julian Botha, Big Orchard director. "These figures make the Cheetah suitable for a variety of high performance applications," he said. "With photo retouching if you can double the speed of your hard drive then you double the scratch disk speed. This makes the retouching of files substantially faster. At 10 000 rpm there is no other drive that can touch it. "The same applies to the video editing arena," he says. "In the past users had to stripe drives to get a sustained data rate. Now a single Cheetah will suffice for a broadcast quality video." Another area that is starting to show promise is Apple`s file server market, one that Apple has long tried to secure a foothold. "Mac users are finally getting to grips with the benefits of high speed networks," says Botha. However, he adds that few Apple users notice how access speeds are somewhat limited by hard drive performance. "These networks offer a user a number of benefits particularly in the areas of file and data transfer, backup and retrieval, and Internet access. If your drive cannot match the speeds required to access this flow of information then you may as well not invest in a high speed network. With the kind of performance you get with the Cheetah this is less of a problem" These views are echoed by John Harris, marketing director at SCSI Technology, the local distributor of Seagate products, who says that the Cheetah is extremely popular in the Macintosh market for precisely these reasons. "The graphic, voice, and desktop video applications have typically demanded a lot from drives and that is why it is important to use technology that delivers speed capacity and reliability," he says. "The Cheetah has been specifically designed to meet these problems head on and deliver performance unrivaled by competitive products," he concluded.
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