rowan - definitely. All I used to spec was IBM drives, or seagate in some cases.
I have an old IBM SCSI drive (10,000RPM, one of the quick ones that contended w/ the cheetahs back in the day) that has been in constant use since 1996. The thing runs so hot it hurts to touch it, and makes a REALLY bad whineing sound (has for over 2 years now!). However, still going strong. I am afraid to power it off though.
-Phil