80GB WD800JB or IBM 120gb 120gxp for $20 more?

[jkresh]

I am in the process of upgrading and looking at hard-drives, the two I am considering most are the western digital 80GB WD800JB, or for about $20 more the IBM 120gb 120gxp. I realize that their have been some issues with stability of the IBM but I have a 75gxp and have not had problems (has not been my primary drive for a while, but it still gets some use and is run 24/7) and the 40gigs for $20 is hard to pass up. I know the WD will be faster but not significantly, the question is, is it worth it to try an IBM drive? Thanks

 

[Booster]

I haven't heard or seen any problems with the 120GXP series. The remaining stock of them sells like hotcakes and the RMA rate is about 0. I like IBM drives, always have. I know now they sold their HD business to Hitachi. Looks like next time I'm getting a drive I'll be getting it from Hitachi b/c they use IBM technology.

 

[Demonicon]

Be warned if you do buy the IBM and it breaks, expect to get it replaced with the same junk over and over again. Till you get tired of RMA'ing. Don't take my word for it, do some searching.

 

[jkresh]

I have been searching and most of the complaints about the IBM I have seen have been saying don?t buy the 120gxp because the 75gxp had a lot of problems and the 60gxp had some, not about the 120 directly. Also does anyone know if the dell 120gxp is oem or retail, and what the difference in warranty would be if it was the oem drive? (Or none just no cables in which case I don?t care).

 

[GT1999]

Originally posted by: Demonicon
Be warned if you do buy the IBM and it breaks, expect to get it replaced with the same junk over and over again. Till you get tired of RMA'ing. Don't take my word for it, do some searching.

What he said. I've experienced it many.. many times over and over again and it's quite annoying. I've lost respect for IBM as company because of it, at least their storage division.

 

[jkresh]

Geekish Thoughts, which IBM drives had you had fail, was it the 120gxp or the 75gxp/60gxp. I know that their have been some reliability issues in the past, what I want to know is if their still are now, thanks. What I am thinking of doing is buying the IBM, setting it up in my current system and doing a lot of transfers for a few days, running 24/7 hard, hopefully if the drive is going to fail it will happen quickly so I can just send it back to dell and buy the WD, how long does it generally take the drives to fail?

 

[GT1999]

Originally posted by: jkresh
Geekish Thoughts, which IBM drives had you had fail, was it the 120gxp or the 75gxp/60gxp. I know that their have been some reliability issues in the past, what I want to know is if their still are now, thanks. What I am thinking of doing is buying the IBM, setting it up in my current system and doing a lot of transfers for a few days, running 24/7 hard, hopefully if the drive is going to fail it will happen quickly so I can just send it back to dell and buy the WD, how long does it generally take the drives to fail?

I'm sure the 120GXP is a great hard drive from what I've been reading, the 75 and 60GXPs were the real problematic drives. However, keep in mind what will happen when your 120GXP fails; if it does. IBM's RMA policy is basically a dead-drive exchange with other customers who had dead drives. It doesn't work very well to say the least.

 

[Booster]

Originally posted by: jkresh
Geekish Thoughts, which IBM drives had you had fail, was it the 120gxp or the 75gxp/60gxp. I know that their have been some reliability issues in the past, what I want to know is if their still are now, thanks. What I am thinking of doing is buying the IBM, setting it up in my current system and doing a lot of transfers for a few days, running 24/7 hard, hopefully if the drive is going to fail it will happen quickly so I can just send it back to dell and buy the WD, how long does it generally take the drives to fail?

Most problems with the 75GXPs used to start after about half the year of use. But I wouldn't worry if I were you. Modern hard drives are almost unbreakable. I never had a single drive fail on me, I had about 12 drives in home use, IIRC, of different brands, including IBM. If IBM makes you worry, just pick the WD or any other. They really are all the same in terms of speed and reliability.

 

[Maverick2002]

READ THIS

I just got my 30GXP RMAed. This time it was a scratched-up "user serviceable" used part. IBM can suck it.

 

[SteelCityFan]

The Dell one is probably OEM or even dell branded unless otherwise mentioned. If it is OEM, then more than likely, warrantee requests will be handled by Dell. You will need to find out the length of it. In some cases, I have heard of the Dell OEM purchases being covered by a 3 yr manufacture warrantee.

If the price difference is not that much, and dell is not offering a 3 yr warrantee, I would go with a OEM drive from newegg.com. They have 3 yr warrantee's from the drive manufacterer.

 

[jkresh]

The difference in price (newegg vs dell) is about $20, becasue of dells 15% off for the weekend, here is the link for the drive from dell 120gxp ,though it doesnt realy say anything