LAST MONTH, I took a look at the performance of 10K-RPM SCSI and Serial ATA drives from Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital. Overall, I was quite impressed with what higher spindle speeds had to offer over 7,200 RPM drives, but somehow I wasn't quite satisfied. As great as 10K-RPM drives are, they're not the fastest disks on the block. Being the testosterone-charged male that I am, I just had to check out something faster: 15K-RPM drives.

Boasting 50% higher spindle speeds than their 10K-RPM counterparts, 15K-RPM drives immediately set expectations high. Today, I'll be looking at Maxtor's Atlas 15K to see if it measures up. And just to keep things interesting, I'll be testing the drive against a stack of SCSI gear, Western Digital's 10K-RPM Raptor, and a feisty two-drive IDE RAID 0 array. It should be quite a catfight.

Is the Atlas 15K a SCSI enthusiast's dream? Does it deliver on the expectations its high spindle speeds create? Read on to find out.