Fujitsu MPG3409AT
The latest spear in Fujitsu's desktop drive family is called MPG3xxxAT and is available in capacities of 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 GB. In contrast to IBM and Maxtor, Fujitsu still does not ship any high capacity drive. Instead of that, Fujitsu is consistently focussing on the mainstream market. One interesting feature is their Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB), which will likely replace ball bearings, as it is a very effective way to reduce the drive noise. So far, FDB is not available on all MPG drives, so be sure to get the FDB version if you want to get the best. Unfortunately we did not get such a drive for testing this time.
As the MPG3409AT works at 5400 rpm, it is quieter than the WD400 at 7200 rpm. However it is surprising enough to see that drives of IBM's high end 7200 rpm DTLA family don't make any more noise than the Fujitsu 5400 rpm MPG family.
Fujitsu also offers a 7200-rpm-family which is called MPG3xxx-AH instead of -AT. Users with high performance expectations should take a look at those drives.
