Looking for a new hard drive...

so the prices only effect HDDs? What about SSDs? Is this one of those "perfect times to buy one" things?

MilesAhead said:

... Maybe if 90% of us stop buying any the price will be back near normal.

This is another factor in the equation. When the news came out about the flooding and such, many people went out and bought as many drives as they could before prices went up which worsened the situation.

strollin said:

MilesAhead said:

... Maybe if 90% of us stop buying any the price will be back near normal.

This is another factor in the equation. When the news came out about the flooding and such, many people went out and bought as many drives as they could before prices went up which worsened the situation.

Yet another reason not to panic buy. The old "classic coke hoarding syndrome." :)

MilesAhead said:

I recently got a WD Caviar Black 1TB 6Gbs that was DOA. RMA through WD and as they state they will replace with a new drive of same specs or better. They must of been out of 1TB as then send me a 2TB. I got mine from Newegg but I rather deal directly with WD for warranty

That's interesting. I was advised by a hardware aficionado on another board not to buy any HD shipped UPS ground. Supposedly it's subject to a six foot drop on their conveyor system. I think I bought one HD on Egg because the price break was so good I could absorb the additional cost of shipping FedEx.

The place where I was getting my WD showed the in stock count for the models I liked at about 20,000+ on hand. I figured I had all the time in the world to get more at good prices. Just shows ta' go ya' :)

WD shipped my replacement drive via UPS in the same identical box that Newegg used. It is just a small box and the drive is held in place with a thin formed plastic mount on each end. On previous shipments the drives from Newegg were just wrapped in bubble wrap and stuck in a box. I think WD informed their retailers on the proper box to use.

Jim

Yeah, I got those with the plastic form too. It may handle the impact better, but I still don't think it's a good idea to have a six foot drop on the conveyor. There's momentum that's just encouraging the disk heads to smack up against the platters. But I agree that bubble pack wrap was not helping.

carwiz said:

All my HDDs from Newegg came wrapped in plastic bubbles. Most were in a small white box but on one occasion, the drive was wrapped and placed with other items in a larger box. Never had a problem with the drives though.

I take it you're talking the free UPS ground shipping? Even the guys who claim you get dead drives from head slap from UPS don't claim a high percentage. Probably it's down around 10%. I would imagine the drive has to travel the distance free fall and land in a certain position, maybe pancake flat. If it hits on edge it's probably ok. It would have to land so that the heads smack into the platters.

Still a pita if you're one of the 10% who has to hassle with returning it though.

I got all my WD Caviar Blacks but one at EXCaliberPC. Even with the FedEx shipping the price was lower than Egg, except for that one deal I mentioned.

The other thing I liked about buying them there was they didn't try to panic you into a purchase. None of this "hurry while supplies last" crap. They had the number available in stock right on the item. Last time I bought one they had some ridiculous number in stock like 20,000. I knew I didn't have to impulse buy. :)

I'm just leery of the UPS bit with hard drives. They're not all DOA. I've seen customer posts on Egg about drives dying after a few months. Stuff like docking stations, PCI cards, stuff without sensitive moving parts, I don't mind getting from them.

Now I just have to sit back and wait for the price bubble to burst. :)