IBM Deskstar 120GXP 120GB DMA/ATA-100 EIDE (Ultra)

IBM's Deskstar 120GXP is currently one of the best choices for a hard-drive upgrade, offering excellent sustained throughput and a spacious, 120GB capacity. While the equally fast Western Digital WD1200JB is the slightly better drive for audio and video storage, the Deskstar 120GXP is just as good a choice for other computing uses. (Note: In spite of the product's name, there are different 120GXP models, which vary in capacity from 40GB to 120GB.)IBM's Deskstar 120GXP is currently one of the best choices for a hard-drive upgrade, offering excellent sustained throughput and a spacious, 120GB capacity. While the equally fast Western Digital WD1200JB is the slightly better drive for audio and video storage, the Deskstar 120GXP is just as good a choice for other computing uses. (Note: In spite of the product's name, there are different 120GXP models, which vary in capacity from 40GB to 120GB.)

Out of the box
The retail version of the $285 Deskstar 120GXP ships with everything you need for setup, including an 80-pin cable, mounting brackets and screws, instructions, and a user guide. Physical installation requires you to open your PC's case and fiddle with jumpers and cables, so get a friend to help if you're hesitant to work on your computer yourself. IBM's Disk Manager 2000 software lets you transfer your existing drive data to the 120GXP and includes drivers for older systems that don't support the IBM's capacity natively.

The Deskstar 120GXP garnered excellent results in CNET Labs' tests, beating the Maxtor D540X on most counts and tying overall with the Western Digital WD1200JB. The Deskstar 120GXP trailed the WD1200JB on disk transfer-rate tests, but it was slightly faster in both burst-transfer rate and maximum write speed. WinBench rated its seek time at 12.2ms, significantly faster than the WD1200JB's 13.4ms and the Maxtor D540X's 14.5ms. Lower seek times mean better performance when dealing with large groups of small files or concurrent playback of multiple audio and video files. While either the IBM or the Western Digital drives would give you great performance, the IBM has a slight edge in everyday computing tasks such as opening, reading, and closing small files.

No sweat
The Deskstar 120GXP kept its cool in informal testing. It was quiet, with very little seek chatter, and it was cool, slightly warm to the touch even after extensive use. Only the Maxtor drive ran cooler. The drive did produce a little more vibration than did the Maxtor D540X or the Western Digital WD1200JB, but the difference is insignificant for most applications. The IBM Deskstar 120GXP is shock-rated for 55G while platters are spinning and 400G when they aren't; you'd be hard-pressed to upset it, unless you were on Jupiter. Hide Review