The MPE also has an impoved EMI shield which covers the full top surface of the drive, where the older version only shields the actual platters. I won't talk about what effects this imporvement may have, because I am not too familiar with EMI shielding issues. But for those who are thinking the stainless steel is doing the shielding that is not quite correct. Stainless steels are non-magnetic by nature, which would expain why the material can replace aluminum as the covering material, but also why a ferric metal plate is still used to shield the hard drive. Stainess steel is a also more resistant to deformation then aluminum - but I don't suggest anyone test that out with their drives;-)

Fujitsu has opted to protect the thin plastic conductor tape leading to the internal armature on its newest version with a small aluminum shield. A wise improvement considering I've seen at least one drive destroyed after having this thin conductor cable cracked by impact with a CD ROM's edge.

Is that a hard drive or a dying cat in there?

Well, the MPE is probably the quietest drive I have ever layed my hands on. During the benchmarking I could barely tell the drive was doing anything - and I had the cover off my case, and computer sitting next to me! The aluminum cover of the MPB certainly didn't do much to quiet the movements of that drive, but the new stainless steel case does it quite well. According to the specs Fujitsu lists, the new cover decreases sound by about 1 db, giving this drive a sound factor of about 3.4 bels on average. That is increadibly quiet. Even less then the sound of one hand claping....