Cheapest source for 500GB drives

[Ext User(Trevor Wilson)]

I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the best
source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be persuaded to
switch brands, if necessary.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Ext User(lynx)]

Trevor Wilson wrote:

> I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the best
> source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be persuaded to
> switch brands, if necessary.
>
>
>

Don't buy Seagates, they're as noisy as hell. Do you want to buy online?
I wouldn't. Poor packing and rough handling during shipping could be a
problem. Best just to check prices, and then buy locally. At least then
if you have a problem it's not such a hassle.

--

rgds,

Pete
=====
http://pw352.blogspot.com/
'My wife got a mudpack. She looked great for two days, but then the mud fell off'

[Ext User(Groucho)]

"lynx" <none@nothere.com> wrote in message
news:mmn_g.50717$rP1.21954@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> Trevor Wilson wrote:
>
>> I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the
>> best source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be
>> persuaded to switch brands, if necessary.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Do you want to buy online? I wouldn't. Poor packing and rough handling
> during shipping could be a problem. Best just to check prices, and then
> buy locally. At least then if you have a problem it's not such a hassle.
>
> --

Do you really believe that?
You do realise that a lot of the shipping methods and companies used between
distributor and online business and business to consumer are exactly the
same. Unless the business is huge they're likely buying in small quantities
as needed with same liklihood of damaged parcel in transit from couriers
etc. Some online stores may even be local to distributor and pickup
themselves eliminating at least one trip in the freight system that a
distant local store might endure. ie.. There is no golden rule that dictates
that stock held at a local store is going to go through any less trips in
the freight system or be handled any better than buying from online.

The only wild card is that there are some online businesses that pack items
poorly, but it's not universally true of all. If you get such a badly
packaged parcel from an online store you complain and don't deal with them
again, simple. Doesn't take long or much effort to find ones with good reps.
Buying locally isn't always a consideration either. Whether a local store
has stock or totally outrageous prices often dictates the necessity to shop
online. Find a good online store and there's little "hassle" and often
considerable savings even when shipping costs are considered.

[Ext User(Groucho)]

"Trevor Wilson" <trevor@SPAMBLOCKrageaudio.com.au> wrote in message
news:4539d116$0$19655$88260bb3@free.teranews.com.. .
>I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the best
>source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be persuaded to
>switch brands, if necessary.
>

If you want lowest prices and a bricks and mortar store then MSY in various
locations are worth consideration, but the service and often long queues
really suck!.

If you're prepared to shop online, then the price search engines such as
http://www.ozpriceguide.com/ and http://www.staticice.com.au/index.html can
be useful for finding best prices and then check back before purchase for
peoples user experiences with chosen store.

Personally, I often use Umart in QLD or Secretnet in NSW or sometimes
Scorptec in Vic, and had no dramas.

If your requirements can be lowered to 2 x 400GB drives then the Samsungs
are an excellent and very well priced drive. Every other 400GB and 500GB
drive is a huge jump in price over them. That extra 100GB comes at quite a
cost.

[Ext User(lynx)]

Groucho wrote:

> "lynx" <none@nothere.com> wrote in message
> news:mmn_g.50717$rP1.21954@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>
>> Trevor Wilson wrote:
>>
>>> I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the
>>> best source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be
>>> persuaded to switch brands, if necessary.
>>>
>> Do you want to buy online? I wouldn't. Poor packing and rough handling
>> during shipping could be a problem. Best just to check prices, and then
>> buy locally. At least then if you have a problem it's not such a hassle.
>>
>
> Do you really believe that?
> You do realise that a lot of the shipping methods and companies used between
> distributor and online business and business to consumer are exactly the
> same. Unless the business is huge they're likely buying in small quantities
> as needed with same liklihood of damaged parcel in transit from couriers
> etc. Some online stores may even be local to distributor and pickup
> themselves eliminating at least one trip in the freight system that a
> distant local store might endure. ie.. There is no golden rule that dictates
> that stock held at a local store is going to go through any less trips in
> the freight system or be handled any better than buying from online.
>

No, there's no 'golden rule', but stores are most likely not buying one
item at at time, and will either receive the goods bulk packed by the
manufacturer, or else a box of several items of different kinds in the
same delivery- i.e. a large box containing many items, minimising the
risk of damage to individual items- as opposed to the consumer receiving
one item individually packed, maybe poorly, and having a much greater
chance of it having been 'thrown around' during transit. I ordered a
power supply from EYO a couple of years ago. It was very poorly packed,
and one corner was damaged, obviously from having been dropped onto a
hard surface, most likely concrete. I then had to return it for
replacement, and I complained about the packing. The replacement,
although undamaged, was equally poorly packed. I have never ordered
anything from them again.

>
> The only wild card is that there are some online businesses that pack items
> poorly, but it's not universally true of all. If you get such a badly
> packaged parcel from an online store you complain and don't deal with them
> again, simple.

And that risk, and the hassle, can be avoided by buying from a store
where you could examine and possibly test the item.

> Doesn't take long or much effort to find ones with good reps.
> Buying locally isn't always a consideration either. Whether a local store
> has stock or totally outrageous prices often dictates the necessity to shop
> online.

Our local computer shop has better than online prices in most cases, and
often even better than Swapmeet prices. They are always busy! If the
item that you want is not available, they can usually get it within a
few days.

> Find a good online store and there's little "hassle" and often
> considerable savings even when shipping costs are considered.
>

Shipping costs will, in most cases, cause the cost of the item to be
comparable to buying from a store having good prices, thus negating any
advantage from buying online. There are some items I would never buy
online. Hard Drives would be one.


--

rgds,

Pete
=====
http://pw352.blogspot.com/
'Wine improves with age. The older I get, the more I like it'

[Ext User(Rod Speed)]

Trevor Wilson <trevor@SPAMBLOCKrageaudio.com.au> wrote:

> I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the best source for such items?

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=500gb

> I prefer Western Digital,

I dont, I dont like their crazy jumpering scheme.

> but I can be persuaded to switch brands, if necessary.

I prefer Samsungs myself, but they dont currently have a 500GB drive.

[Ext User(Dac)]

$299 - $345 at about a billion stones on www.staticice.com.au

I think you will find everyone has had at least 1 bad experience with a hard
drive an strongly perfers another brand which they had and worked for years.

Personally I have had maxtor seagate and WD drives fail. I think WD are the
best because they seem to be the quietest and coolest.

"Trevor Wilson" <trevor@SPAMBLOCKrageaudio.com.au> wrote in message
news:4539d116$0$19655$88260bb3@free.teranews.com.. .
>I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the best
>source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be persuaded to
>switch brands, if necessary.
>
>
> --
> Trevor Wilson
> www.rageaudio.com.au
>
>
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
>

[Ext User(Rod Speed)]

Dac <void@main.com> wrote

> $299 - $345 at about a billion stones on www.staticice.com.au

> I think you will find everyone has had at least 1 bad experience with
> a hard drive an strongly perfers another brand which they had and
> worked for years.

> Personally I have had maxtor seagate and WD drives fail.

> I think WD are the best because they seem to be the quietest and coolest.

Storagereview doesnt agree on either of those.


> "Trevor Wilson" <trevor@SPAMBLOCKrageaudio.com.au> wrote in message
> news:4539d116$0$19655$88260bb3@free.teranews.com.. .
>> I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for
>> the best source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can
>> be persuaded to switch brands, if necessary.

[Ext User(bruce tyler)]

"lynx" <none@nothere.com> wrote in message
news:mmn_g.50717$rP1.21954@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> Trevor Wilson wrote:
>
>> I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the
>> best source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be
>> persuaded to switch brands, if necessary.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Don't buy Seagates, they're as noisy as hell.

Current model western digital's are normally noisier.

> Do you want to buy online? I wouldn't. Poor packing and rough handling
> during shipping could be a problem.

Huh?
I fail to see how buying direct from a local outlet after the drive has
already completed 2-3 stages of shipping would go any way at all towards
ensuring the drive is treated carefully.

> Best just to check prices, and then buy locally. At least then if you have
> a problem it's not such a hassle.

Indeed an advantage not to have to pay to ship the drive back if you need to
exchange it under warranty.

[Ext User(lynx)]

bruce tyler wrote:

> "lynx" <none@nothere.com> wrote in message
> news:mmn_g.50717$rP1.21954@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>
>> Trevor Wilson wrote:
>>
>>> I need a couple of 500GB drives. SATA and ATA. Any suggestions for the
>>> best source for such items? I prefer Western Digital, but I can be
>>> persuaded to switch brands, if necessary.
>>>
>>>
>> Don't buy Seagates, they're as noisy as hell.
>>
>
> Current model western digital's are normally noisier.
>

I bought both recently. The Seagate is way noisier. So much so, that I'm
even thinking of ditching it.

>> Do you want to buy online? I wouldn't. Poor packing and rough handling
>> during shipping could be a problem.
>>
>
> Huh?
> I fail to see how buying direct from a local outlet after the drive has
> already completed 2-3 stages of shipping would go any way at all towards
> ensuring the drive is treated carefully.
>

I addressed this in another post in this thread.

>> Best just to check prices, and then buy locally. At least then if you have
>> a problem it's not such a hassle.
>>
>
> Indeed an advantage not to have to pay to ship the drive back if you need to
> exchange it under warranty.
>


--

rgds,

Pete
=====
http://pw352.blogspot.com/
'General Brain Failure! (A)bort, (R)etry, (I)gnore, (O)h'

[Ext User(bruce tyler)]

"lynx" <none@nothere.com> wrote in message
news:Ft3%g.51776$rP1.19017@news-server.bigpond.net.au...

>>> Do you want to buy online? I wouldn't. Poor packing and rough handling
>>> during shipping could be a problem.
>>>
>>
>> Huh?
>> I fail to see how buying direct from a local outlet after the drive has
>> already completed 2-3 stages of shipping would go any way at all towards
>> ensuring the drive is treated carefully.
>>
>
> I addressed this in another post in this thread.

Ahh you make a fair point as well.

[Ext User(Emjaye)]

Dac said....

> Personally I have had maxtor seagate and WD drives fail. I think WD are
> the best because they seem to be the quietest and coolest.

I haven't had one hard drive failure ever. The closest would've been a
faulty controller card that came with the first HDD I ever owned, a 20
megabyte Tandon drive that I installed into my first PC, an 8 mhz XT
compatible.

I'm currently running a mixture of Seagates and WD drives. I can't tell
if there is any performance difference between the two brands, nor
whether one's quieter or whether one runs cooler than the other. They
all seem to be much of a muchness. All are SATA/SATA-2 drives.

[Ext User(Terryc)]

Emjaye wrote:
> Dac said....
>
>
>>Personally I have had maxtor seagate and WD drives fail. I think WD are
>>the best because they seem to be the quietest and coolest.
>
>
> I haven't had one hard drive failure ever.

Are they all still running?

>which reminds me that since I've null culled my 8" 10mb and 12x600Mb
5" and 10-<100mb 3.5",, it is time to start culling my 100-512mb 3.5">

[Ext User(Emjaye)]

Terryc said....

> Emjaye wrote:

>> I haven't had one hard drive failure ever.
>
> Are they all still running?

Not at the moment. Those of which I still own are sitting in boxes out
in the shed.

Point is, during the time that they were in "active service" they never
failed on me. I never had one that, in the classic sense, crashed on me.

[Ext User(Clockmeister)]

"Emjaye" <emjaye_t@yarwho.com.au> wrote in message
news:4541ad4d.00000007.bm002@yarwho.com.au...
> Terryc said....
>
>> Emjaye wrote:
>
>>> I haven't had one hard drive failure ever.
>>
>> Are they all still running?
>
> Not at the moment. Those of which I still own are sitting in boxes out
> in the shed.
>
> Point is, during the time that they were in "active service" they never
> failed on me. I never had one that, in the classic sense, crashed on me.
>

Same here, none have died in active service. Then again I don't shift my
computers around very much and don't smoke, perhaps that helps.