There is no percentage in buying a drive smaller than 40GB these days, as they are within about $20 of the price of the 20GB drives (and have twice as much space). Generally, you want a drive that is ATA/100 compliant or higher (ATA133 is good too). I say that all you really need is ATA100 because current drive speeds don't even use the speed that it affords, and ATA133 is more for marketing purposes than anything else. WD OEM drives generally have a 3-year warranty, like new ones. There is no reason to pay for a box. If it breaks in the warranty period, western digital will still give you a new one. You want a 7200RPM drive. They are much faster than comparable 5400RPM drives, and do not cost significantly more money. If you want ot buy from a reputable dealer with good prices, go to
www.newegg.com, and do a search for "western digital" (no, I don't work for them, I just buy a lot of stuff there and they have treated me right). You will find that they sell a Western Digital 40GB OEM 7200RPM drive for $87 plus $7 shipping. The 20GB version costs $69+shipping, so as you can see, there is really no reason to get one of those. If you want a larger drive, they have the 60GB version for $117. Western Digital makes nice drives. Of course, so does Maxtor (I would have said and so does IBM before the 75GXP fiasco, but I will take a "wait and see" approach before buying any more IBM drives). Quantum now = Maxtor, as Maxtor bought them, but if you can find a quantum drive cheap, maxtor is honoring the warranties, and they made good drives too. Just a matter of personal choice. I went with a Western Digital for my last drive, but that is mostly because I got a very fast 100GB drive at Sam's Club for $119 when they were running a special (no, that deal is no longer available).
🙂
Good luck finding your drive.
Nack
