Need advice on choosing a Maxtor (not Samsung or Seagate)

[Lone Ranger]

I use only parallel IDE. For hard drives I use some Samsungs and also some Barracudas:

Samsung SP1604N (160 GB, 2MB)
Seagate ST3120023A (120GB Barracuda V, not 7200.7, 2MB)
Seagate ST360021A (60GB Barracuda IV, 2MB)

I can not easily get a decent price on the 160 GB Samsung with 8MB (SP1614N) and anyway with three drives I kind of have "enough" Samsungs, if you see what I mean.

I am tempted to try a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB (8MB and fluid bearings) model 6Y160P0. Do you know that model number? Here is their web page http://snipurl.com/9dxv

The specification are on the data sheet linked on that page or at http://snipurl.com/9dxw (PDF file - only 86KB).

From what I have heard this Maxtor sounds like a nice drive with good enough performance to perhaps replace my 60GB Barracuda IV which I am using as a system drive for XP.

The reason I am posting here is to ask you if this model is reasonably quiet and reasonably cool? Models seems to change so much that if I don't review the info for a particular model then I find I can not always *infer* what it will be like from other models in the manufacturer's range.

I think the Maxtor and is supposed to be commendably quiet but not wonderfully cool. Can anyone confirm this.

I have also heard that it came with 60GBx3 platters, 68GBx3 platters and 80GBx2 platters. How can I tell which is which?

Has the firmware changed significantly over the life of this drive enough to affect heat, noise or performance?