How2Day: IBM R40 Compatible Drives

The IBM R40 Laptop uses a 2.5-inch laptop drive. hard disk drive image by MAXFX from Fotolia.com
The IBM (now Lenovo) Thinkpad R40 computer is a laptop, and as such makes use of laptop-sized hard drives, which are 2.5 inches wide (as opposed to ordinary hard drives, which are 3.5 inches wide). In addition to width requirements, laptop hard drives also have height requirements; in the case of the R40, the height requirement is 9.5 millimeters (mm). Finally, a hard drive for the Thinkpad R40 must also comply with the PATA standard, as this is the standard used by the computer.

Measuring the required 9.5mm high, the Western Digital Scorpio Blue comes with 320 gigabytes (GB) of space for storage. It offers an average latency of 5.5 milliseconds (ms) and works with the standard PATA 100 interface, which is featured on the R40 computer. The hard drive's noise level is 22 decibels (dBA) in idle mode and 25 dBA when it is use. (For comparison, a "whisper-quiet library" is 30 dBA.) The hard drive is capable of operating at altitudes from -1,000 feet up to 10,000 feet and works under 8 percent to 95 percent humidity for operation. The drive spins at 5,400 rpm and offers an 8 megabyte (MB) built-in cache. It also comes in 80, 120, 160 and 250 GB configurations.

Offered only in a 20 GB configuration, this hard drive from Seagate features a 2 MB cache and spins at 5,400 rpm. It measures 9.5mm high, so it will fit the R40 computer. The latency on this drive is 5.6 ms and its random read seek and random write seek times are both 16 ms. The drive has an annual failure rate of 1.0 percent, meaning that in any given year, there is a 1/100 chance of failure of the drive.

Offered in both 80 GB and 160 GB configurations, this hard drive features an 8 MB cache and spins at 5,400 rpm. Like the other drives featured in this list, it is 9.5mm high. The average latency on this drive is 5.6 ms and the average seek time is 12 ms. The drive can operate between 5 and 55 degrees Celsius (when not operating, it can withstand temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees Celsius), and its noise level ranges from 22 dBA to 24 dBA.

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