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Date |
: Aug 31st, 2001 |
| Category |
: Storage |
| Manufacturer |
: IBM |
| Author |
: Jin-Wei Tioh |
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The IBM Deskstar 40GV is Big Blue's latest low-cost, entry-level 5400 RPM IDE hard disk solution. It packs 20GB/platter to achieve a 2-platter flagship capacity of 40GB. This move by IBM is rather odd, as they usually utilize a 1" low-profile, 5-platter design. Had this design been utilized, the 40GV would have had a flagship capacity of 100GB! (achieving a world's first in the process). The drive packaging is your standard issues ESD bag, offering little protection against external shocks. Specified seek times are a conservative 9.5ms, and the buffer size is a tad underwhelming 512KB (versus the Seagate U5's 1MB). Additionally, the 40GV ships exclusively with the ATA-100 interface, though older it will generally work just as well on older interfaces (ATA-66 and ATA-33). In spite of it's value-class status, an unusual full 3-year warranty backs the unit.
Previously, we have grilled the Seagate U5, U10 and Quantum lct20 on our storage testbed. Let's take a look at how the 40GV stacks up.
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