IBM 00D5317 1TB SATA Nearline HDD: Specs and Server Compatibility
A drive arrives, the capacity is right, the interface is right, and it will not seat in the bay. This happens to IBM System x owners more than any other platform, and the reason is almost always the tray.
The IBM 00D5317 is a 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200RPM 3.5-inch nearline drive supplied in a simple-swap tray. That last detail is the one that decides whether it fits your server, and it is not interchangeable with hot-swap.
Simple-swap and hot-swap are not the same thing
IBM shipped System x servers with two different drive carrier types, and the distinction is mechanical as well as electrical.
Hot-swap trays connect through a backplane. The drive can be pulled and replaced while the server is running, because the backplane handles power sequencing and the controller expects drives to appear and disappear. These trays have a lever mechanism and a latch.
Simple-swap trays connect directly rather than through a hot-swap backplane. The drive is still removable without tools, but the server must be powered down first. The tray is a simpler bracket without the lever assembly.
A simple-swap drive will not seat in a hot-swap bay and vice versa. Ordering by capacity and interface alone, without checking which bay type your chassis has, is the single most common mistake on this platform.
The quickest check: look at the front of the server. Hot-swap bays have a lever or handle on each carrier; simple-swap bays do not.
00D5317 specifications
| Part Number | 00D5317 |
| Manufacturer | IBM |
| Capacity | 1TB |
| Interface | SATA 6Gb/s |
| Rotational Speed | 7200 RPM |
| Form Factor | 3.5 inch LFF |
| Carrier Type | Simple-Swap |
| Drive Class | Nearline |
| Condition | Refurbished, function-tested |
| Warranty | 30-day TechSellerUSA warranty |
Nearline: what this drive is designed to do
Nearline sits between enterprise performance drives and desktop drives, and the classification tells you the workload it expects.
At 7200 RPM this drive is slower to seek than a 10K or 15K enterprise drive, and that is deliberate. What it offers instead is capacity per pound and a workload rating built for 24/7 operation - far above what a desktop drive tolerates, and considerably cheaper per terabyte than performance drives.
That makes it correct for backup targets, archive volumes, file shares, surveillance recording, log storage and secondary tiers. It is the wrong drive for a database, a virtualisation datastore or anything where transaction latency is the constraint - those need 10K or 15K SAS, and putting nearline drives under a busy VM host produces exactly the sluggishness people then blame on the server.
The other characteristic worth knowing is that nearline drives are built for sequential rather than random access. Sequential reads and writes are where they perform close to their rating; heavy random I/O is where the RPM difference becomes obvious.
SKU: 00D5317 | Refurbished & function-tested | 30-day warranty
View Details & Request a Quote →Why IBM part numbers matter more than the drive inside
Underneath the IBM label, this is a standard 3.5-inch SATA mechanism from one of the major manufacturers. So why not fit a generic drive?
Two reasons. The tray, already covered - a bare drive has nowhere to mount. And firmware. IBM ships drives with its own firmware revision, and ServeRAID controllers check for it. A mechanically identical drive with vendor firmware may be reported as unsupported, flagged in the management interface, or refused during an array rebuild - which is precisely the moment you need it to work.
For a lab or a non-critical file server, a generic drive with a scavenged tray will often work. For anything in production with an array behind it, ordering by IBM part number removes an entire category of risk for a small price difference.
Sourcing spares for System x
IBM sold its x86 server business to Lenovo, which split the support path and left a large installed base of System x servers running with no straightforward parts channel.
Those servers are still perfectly capable for file serving, backup and secondary workloads, and refurbished drives are usually the only realistic way to keep them populated. Holding one spare of each drive type used in the chassis is standard practice, because a failed drive in a degraded array is a race against the second failure.
If your fleet has moved on to ThinkSystem, our Lenovo drive range covers the later equivalents. The full IBM hard drive range and our complete enterprise hard drives catalogue are both online.
Ordering
We supply the 00D5317 refurbished and function-tested with a 30-day warranty, single spares or volume. If you are unsure whether your chassis takes simple-swap or hot-swap carriers, send us the server machine type and model and we will confirm before you order.
Common questions
What is the difference between simple-swap and hot-swap?
Hot-swap trays connect through a backplane and allow the drive to be replaced while the server runs; they have a lever mechanism on the carrier. Simple-swap trays connect directly and require the server to be powered down first. The two are not interchangeable - a simple-swap drive will not seat in a hot-swap bay.
How do I tell which carrier type my server uses?
Look at the front of the chassis. Hot-swap bays have a lever or handle on each drive carrier; simple-swap bays do not. If you are still unsure, the server machine type and model will confirm it.
Can I use a generic SATA drive instead?
A bare drive has nowhere to mount without the tray, and IBM ServeRAID controllers check drive firmware - a mechanically identical drive may be flagged as unsupported or refused during an array rebuild. For production systems with an array behind them, order by IBM part number.
Is a 7200 RPM nearline drive fast enough for my server?
For backup targets, archives, file shares, surveillance and log storage, yes - and it costs far less per terabyte than performance drives. For databases or virtualisation datastores where transaction latency matters, use 10K or 15K SAS instead.
Should I keep a spare drive on the shelf?
For any array in production, yes. A failed drive in a degraded array is a race against the second failure, and IBM System x parts no longer have a straightforward supply channel since the Lenovo transition.
Send us your server machine type and model and we will confirm carrier compatibility before quoting.
