Re: model 270

<snip>
OK, not fair.  How about a similarly sized Maxtor 18GB Ultra-320 SCSI 15K
for $75, or $4.16/GB.  New.
</snip>

Unfortunately your comparison is apple/oranges.  If you compare drives 
from those same manufacturers that are rated for the same MTBF and service 
type, you may have an argument, however the drives you site are not 
manufactured  with the same tolerances.  We have had this discussion 
before. The drives you site in the comparisons are not equivalent drives 
from those manufacturers to the ones IBM uses in its enterprise class 
servers (z, p, & i) .  Even Hitachi who manufactures a very high 
percentage of the drives for IBM has two models in the 17 gig variety. One 
for real server usage (i, p, & z) , and the other for the consumer market 
and folks that do the very comparison that you just did. 

Sorry if I just won't bite on that argument.

Jim