IBM Simple-Swap 250 GB

Advantages: speed, size, weight, features & support
Disadvantages: cost

...with the display, a 14.1” TFT active matrix screen. Its crisp, sharp and an excellent size so no external monitor is required unless working with large programmes such as CAD / Solid Works when the bigger the Screen the better. The T20 come with inter changeable Floppy and DVD drives, Add the quality of the screen and a DVD movie its perfect, The ultrabay which controls the floppy/DVD exchange is all controlled by the laptop and is a "hot swap" facility so no rebooting to change storage method.... The Hard Drive IBM have supplied is a 12.1 Gb Drive which is ample for the home user, Office users might need to upgrade to 20+ but again this is very easily done. Also in the back of the T20 it has integrated Modem (Fax / Modem 3com 56K) & Network Card (3Com 10/100 Ethernet Adapter) which saves a lot of hassle with installing modems/network cards... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Quite a fast drive.
Disadvantages: One of the "Deathstar" drives.

...Whether you are thinking of buying this drive (2nd hand, most likely as it's a couple of years old) or own one of IBM's 60GXP, 75GXP or 120GXP models, read on for important information about issues with these drives and fixing them. ** THE DRIVE ** Capacity: 40 GB (38.3 GB as reported in windows) Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM Interface: ATA-100 Average seek time: 8.5 ms It's a fast enough drive. It seems to perform quite a bit better than the 5400 rpm 45 GB Western Digital drive I had, it's quite a bit quieter and this one's not dead ... yet. ** BORROWING NAMES FROM STAR WARS ** The main reason I thought I'd write a review on this drive, is to hopefully help a few others who have this or one of the other 60GXP, 75GXP or 120GXP models (as I've read these are equally affected). It didn't take long for a lot of people to start... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Perfect
Disadvantages: None

...Excellent Hard Drive. I used to have a Maxtor 40Gb hard drive and after getting broadband I realised I needed much more capacity. I decided to go for an Hitachi/IBM Drive because I work in IT industry and I am particularly involved in mainframes and I am aware that Hitachi are extremely rigorous when it comes to releasing new drives, for a new type of drive to be released by Hitachi it has to survive in a mainframe environment. Hitachi has an extremely good reliability rate at mainframe level. Hitachi have used the latest technology to ensure that their drives maintain good reliability like a Head Load/Unload system which means that the drive will not wear itself out when not in operation. In comparison to other 7200rpm drives the Deskstar come out on top in terms of its seek time, which allows faster access to data. It also... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful