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Message |
    
Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 137
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 12:14 am: | 
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CompUSA is having a "midnight madness" sale on Friday from 6 to midnight. You can see the flier on their website, but some might be interested in the 200GB Seagate harddrive for $30 AR. |
composerjohn
Citizen
Username: Composerjohn
Post Number: 763
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 7:39 am: |
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I can't find the info about the drive. Do you have a direct link? |
Case
Citizen
Username: Case
Post Number: 1292
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 8:59 am: |
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I can't find it either... its almost too good of a price, though.
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Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 1480
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 10:21 am: |
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I wouldn't use a Seagate drive if I got it for free. Losing data is much more expensive then saving a few bucks on a drive.
As I mentioned on other threads, I have seen so many Seagate drives go belly up in the last 2 years that they are completely off limits for me. |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2606
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 10:25 am: |
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Not too many other choices out there. Hitachi and WD. Maxtor just got gobbled up. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12988
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 11:12 am: |
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Earlster, what's your sample size (of good and bad drives)?
All manufacturers have various grades within the exact same model. The bottom of their barrel goes to the retail stores. The ones that come in computers are best. Some computer makers pay more for better ones. Some pay less and pass the savings on (or not). The trouble is, you can't find out which grade you are getting.
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composerjohn
Citizen
Username: Composerjohn
Post Number: 764
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 1:30 pm: |
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I use Glyph GT 050 hard drives. Although they are designed to be used for audio and video storage, anyone can use them. Every drive comes with an extensive 3 year warranty, including free overnight replacement (I think the whole time, or maybe just the first year). They are ultra quiet and always stay cool. I purchased a 120GB for about $189 and a 250GB for $250. |
Case
Citizen
Username: Case
Post Number: 1293
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 1:38 pm: |
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My current price is around $100 for 250GB - I like the Hitachi drives... quiet and cool.
Maxtors really throw a lot of heat, but I've only had one fail on me in the last 5 years.
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Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2607
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 1:56 pm: |
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Maxtor was recently bought by Seagate. |
Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 138
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 6:12 pm: |
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http://www.compusa.com/specials/mmadness31706/default.asp |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 1481
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 10:02 pm: |
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Tom,
my sample size is 4 bad drives, out of 5 drives. One of the drives was a retail drive (failed just after the warranty was up), one was in a Dell (two month old), one was in a HP box (just past warranty) and one in a business IBM/Lenovo (2 weeks old).
The one drive that hasn't failed so far is in my wives HP (3 years old by now).
So the sample size is small, however quite one sided. I have never had any other drive fail on me, and I have used plenty of WD, Hitachi and Maxtor drives. I also used some SCSI Seagate drives, they were very well made.
Maybe Seagate bought Maxtor, so they will finaly have a line of working drives to market.  |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 13007
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 10:31 pm: |
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These things fluctuate from year to year. Seagate started out being cheap in both senses of the word. Then in the 90's they had some fantastic years. The prices were good but the reliability was excellent. I have not been watching stuff so closely now. I have had the ability to observe with sample sizes in the hundreds or thousands at work. Last time I did that, Seagate was excellent. But as I said, stuff changes, so I'm not an expert any more.
And sorry, but a sample size of five is very small, as you said. I understand why YOU would stray away from one brand, but it's not much to give advice on.
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Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8904
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 1:04 pm: |
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http://www.daysofleisure.com/writing/the_myth_of_cheap_hardware.html |
Blew
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1342
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 4:41 pm: |
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After not mailing in over a hundred dollars worth of mail in rebates from Best Buy, I am VERY reluctant to buy in these sales.
Having said that I would like DVD burner for $50 or less and there are two internal ones at the sale. I wonder if they will work in my Mac? Hey Monster!?! Some help here. Anyone got a Mac Superdrive they are selling? |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2538
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 8:50 pm: |
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OWC has some starting at $60
Fry's Outpost.com has a Mad Dog 16x 8x Dual Layer DVD±r/±RW Drive for $47.99, $27.99 after rebate, don't forget shipping.
newegg has the NEC ND-3550A 16X 8X Dual Layer drive for $36.99,
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Blew
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1347
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 9:41 pm: |
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Yeah but are any of them good? Comparable to the Superdrive? |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2544
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, March 18, 2006 - 3:50 am: |
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the NEC is great,
What is a SuperDrive?
An Optical Drive that can Read and Write both DVD and CD Media with which you can record audio/video, backups and general data to a variety of disc media. In the case of Audio and Video, such discs can also be played back in standard DVD and/or CD Players as well other computer optical drives.
I believe the Apple Superdrives are still Pioneer drives, like the ones found here at OWC |
Blew
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1351
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 1:00 am: |
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OK, I think I am going to have pick up one of those NEC drives.
The Newegg site didn't say much about Mac support but this post.
Quote:pros: 1. Drive worked well, no coasters 2. Easy to install 3. Lightening fast
Cons: 1. When put into G5 and used to burn or read, computer would not shutdown. The computer would also freeze when using other applications that involved the optical drive (iMovie, iDVD). I had to put the original optical drive (sony) back in and put the NEC into an external FW 800 case.
Other Thoughts: All problems with the G5 computer went away when the NEC was replaced with the original optical drive. Now I have 2 optical drives working well!
at least lets me know it compatible with a mac but, it seems to have problems??? |
Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 141
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 7:17 pm: |
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http://xlr8yourmac.com/ is a great site for all sorts of upgrade options on a Mac. |
Blew
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1357
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 9:05 pm: |
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Eponymous, that site had GREAT info from users about apple support of devices. Thanks. The NEC seems to have 3 known issues. Problems waking from sleep (easily resolved by telling the compute to NOT ever put it to sleep). Problems burning slower/lower quality media (which is relatively normal and easily resolved by using more expensive/faster media). Not bootable from. This is more of an issue. I don't know how I feel about that.
The Mad Dog drive looks pretty promising, but only one person commented on it and it wasn't a very thorough description. But it's so cheap, I think it might be worth the gamble.
Once again thanks for the great site. |
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