IBM Simple-Swap 300 GB

Advantages: Interchangeable processors
Disadvantages: Its a desktop

...The IBM PC 300GL was origionaly made for the business sector. The higher spec machine similar to the 300GL was the 300PL which some had AGP graphics and LAN comunications support. This was the lower spec of the two machines but still there wasn't alot of difference. If you wanted to have better graphics or LAN support you could fit a PCI graphics card or an extra LAN card. Many motherboards of this spec had at least 4 PCI slots and for this machine that was enough. Some machines were fitted with Celeron 233-333 processors and others were fitted with Pentium 2's or 3's. The higher Pentium 3 machines were the better becuase of the extra 256 or 512 L2 cache which made processing quicker. My origional machine had a Celeron 333 with 64mb ram fitted. The machine i then upgraded to a Pentium 3 which had 512 L2 cache and 384mb... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great value for money
Disadvantages: Only ATA100

...IBM/Hitachi are very well known for their quality hard drives, well at least up until their 120GXP range which had abnormally high returns rates within a few short months of purchase but thankfully the problems they had with the 120GXP have been ironed out in their 180GXP range. I have had my 120Gb 180GXP for around 5 months now and the only problem I have had with it was last week when it suffered a bad sector that prevented me from booting but was sorted out no problems using Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test utility. I have my hard drive split into 3x40Gb partitions (which I soon regretted due to the amount of data I have). With quick access rates it proves a great drive, especially with its 8Mb of cache and is also fairly quiet which is what most people need these days with them being left running for longer periods of time... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat 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... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful