The first news is a small disappointment, as we could only gather three new drives right now. The latest model from Western Digital features 30 GB per platter, but being a 5,400 rpm drive it would not have been a proper candidate for this high-performance review. Seagate's Barracuda ATA III seems to be quite a nice performer; unfortunately we did not get one in time. I am not quite sure what's the problem with IBM, as particularly the European hard drive division seems to be too disorganized to send out samples. Obviously they prefer to take some rest on their laurels right now. Anyway I do not want to waste your time with such things although some of you might be interested in that.

The cooperation with Fujitsu is working very well. Only some days after our inquiry we received their MPG3204AH-E, the latest high-performance IDE model. This one is available in sizes of 20, 30 and 40 GB. Maxtor is participating in a Tom's Hardware review for the second time. Some moths ago they sent us their 80 GB DiamondMax drive, which is still the largest IDE hard drive available. Quantum is taking part in our reviews as well. We received the Fireball Plus AS at a capacity of 60 GB. There are also several smaller drives available also.

All three drives work at 7,200 rpm, all come with 2 MB buffer memory, and all of them are storing 20 GB per platter, allowing the manufacturer to produce various derivates at different capacities.