Well after many weeks of testing I’ve found that the performance of AAM sucks ass when the machine is heavily loaded doing a lot of stuff, especially when burning CDs and DVDs. I was especially disappointed to find that burns would fail, even with BURNProof on.
I plan to get a 2-platter Seagate 7200.8 250GB drive to replace the 3-platter 200GB Maxtor drive I have currently. It’ll run cooler and quieter. The new Seagates don’t have AAM due to a patent dispute, but that doesn’t matter as I now have a NoVibesIII drive cage. The Maxtor without AAM doesn’t make much noise in the NoVibesIII, and the Seagate should be even better. My main concern with the NoVibesIII is that my Maxtor runs at a whopping 48 degrees. I’m hoping the Seagate will run under 40 degrees.