IBM branded vs. Hitachi same spec hard drives

[skript]

What is the difference between an IBM branded drive (one that would be listed on lenovo.com as an official replacement/upgrade unit), and a drive of exactly the same specs, but branded as Hitachi ? Let's take for example a 100gb 5400rpm ata-100 drive:

IBM's 'ThinkPad 100GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive' (40Y8716) costs $299
Hitachi's 'Travelstar 5K100 100GB 5400rpm' (13G1591) is around $160

(pricegrabber gives lowest prices for these as $281/$150 respectively)

Now, knowing that Hitachi actually makes the drives for IBM, what is up with this huge price difference ? Is it only paying for the IBM branding, or do these drives actually differ ?

[dr_st]

Now, knowing that Hitachi actually makes the drives for IBM, what is up with this huge price difference ? Is it only paying for the IBM branding, or do these drives actually differ ?

They don't differ. Manufacturers overcharge for standard components like hard disks and memory.

[Aroc]

You're paying for proprietary firmware. Where or not that firmware is "more" optomized or better tested with your hardware is up to debate, interpretation, or speculation. Although mechanically the drives should be the same. The IBM oem one though might have a few different features, like a programmable EEPROM (sp?) where the hitachi retail drive might not.

Saying the drives are identically isn't a 100% accurate statement. But it is 99.7% true.

Would I pay the difference? Probably not in nearly all cases.

[DIGITALgimpus]

Yup.

I don't even know if the firmware is really "different". I think it's just the serial number that the part number transmits to the computer upon request.

[skript]

What about the firmware on the Hitachi drives ? Is it possible to update the Hitachi firmware with the updates provided by IBM ? The text file provided on this hdd firmware update site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62282

states that among many of the drives supported by IBM, Hitachi drives are supported just as well:

Model Firmware
---------------- --------
[ IBM/Hitachi ]
DARA A55A
DJSA-210 ABBA
DJSA-220 AC6A
DJSA-232 AD2A
IC25N0xxATDA04 A76A
IC25T048ATDA05 A76A
IC25N0xxATCS04 A71A
IC25T060ATCS05 A71A
IC25N040ATCS05 A69A

[ Hitachi ]
DK23AA A0B9
DK23BA A0B6
DK23CA A0B5
DK23DA A0B6
DK23EA A0B6
DK23FB A0B1
IC25N0xxATMR04 ADEA
HTS5480xxM9AT00 A5HA
HTS726060M9AT00 A6GA
HTS4240xxM9AT00 A75A
HTS5410xxG9AT00 A60A
DK1xFA A0B7

sorry for this long quote, but I want to make absolutely sure that IBM makes the distinction between an 'IBM/Hitachi' and a pure 'Hitachi' for a reason... namely, that Hitachi drives bought either as OEM drives or at resellers other than IBM itself, are still *fully* supported by IBM ? Is my line of thinking correct ? Does 'Hitachi' above refer to Hitachi drives, or IBM branded Hitachi drives ?

I wouldn't be investingating this in such depth ( ) if it weren't for threads like these:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=16841 (check out the quoted email)
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=19477

where people seem to be having some problems with Hitachi drives not having the IBM firmware...

[brooklynboy]

IBM sold its hard-drive division to Hitachi at some point in time. The distinction you note may well be between IBM- and Hitachi-manufactured drives, both supplied by IBM.