Fujitsu's range of drives finds its way into many different computers, not just those of the company's other, PC manufacturing, division. The drive we looked at was the 20.4GB model, using a platter spin speed of 5,400rpm, which is the norm for this sector of the desktop drive market.

Fujitsu quotes individual average seek times for read and write, which give an approximate mean of 11ms for overall seek operations. Again, Fujitsu doesn't differ from the norm in the size of the data buffer fitted to the drive; it's 512KB, as is usually the case.

Somewhat unusually, though, this range of drives supports the Ultra ATA/100 EIDE interface standard, while being backward compatible with both the 33MB/sec and 66MB/sec variants. The acoustic noise generated by the drive in operation is around 33dB; more than some drives tested here, but still impressively quiet compared to some of the other components in the PC; namely the power supply and CPU cooling fans.

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Another unusual factor is the optional fitting of fluid dynamic bearings in place of conventional ball bearings. These help reduce operating noise considerably, as well as reducing wear and improving operating shock susceptibility.

The warranty-backed drives are claimed to have a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 500,000 power-on hours, and Fujitsu claims that the power requirements of the MPG3204AT are the lowest in its class.