14 Aug, 2009, quixadhal wrote in the 1st comment:
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So, I've been quietly putting together a new computer, with my severely limited budget, over the past month. I finally ordered the motherboard/cpu/ram today, so I should be able to test the video card and everything before the standard return period is up. :)

But, the last thing on my list is a few hard drives. I usually order computer bits from newegg.com, as they have excellent service, good prices, and usually have what I need. However, many folks have said they're a bit skimpy on their packing materials, especially when it comes to OEM hard drives. We all know how much pleasure UPS takes in drop-kicking packages into the trucks.

I may be overly paranoid, but while I'm willing to let the brown monkeys deliver my retail-packaged solid-state devices, I'm less thrilled with delicate things that rely on extremely tight tolerances to ensure the drive heads float slightly above the thin metal platters, and don't slam into them.

So, my question for you guys is… where do you shop for drives? And, what kind of luck have you had?
14 Aug, 2009, Banner wrote in the 2nd comment:
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I buy everything from Newegg, including the parts for three rigs, and have for the last four years or so. I've yet to ever receive anything defective.
14 Aug, 2009, Guest wrote in the 3rd comment:
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I get my drives from mwave.com, prices roughly similar to newegg.com. Can't actually say how well they ship though since mwave.com allows walk-in pickups and I live ~20 miles from the facility. So I never let them ship drives to me.

Not knowing where you're at, best I could suggest is if you have a Fry's in your area, try them?
14 Aug, 2009, quixadhal wrote in the 4th comment:
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Unfortunately, I live in the mid-west. We grow corn, cherries, maple syrup, and cars that nobody wants. No Fry's anywhere nearby. In fact, nothing much better than Best Buy. :sad:
14 Aug, 2009, Davion wrote in the 5th comment:
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If you're worried about shipment damage, just go to bestbuy! Just looked on line, you can get up to 2tb HDD :). Price doesn't look much more than the other guys.
14 Aug, 2009, quixadhal wrote in the 6th comment:
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Heh, I actually want smaller drives. :)

Instead of one monster drive that will fail and make me get my shotgun, I plan on getting either 3 smaller drives and putting them in a RAID 5 array, or 2 drives in a RAID 1 array. However, I'm on a tight budget and retail stores don't like to carry anything but the new stuff (better margin). I did wander down there the other day, and you're right… the 1.5TB drives are just slightly more than mail-order.. but the 500G/640G ones are quite a bit higher, and forget about anything smaller.

I'm leaning towards RAID 5, simply because the OS buffers writes pretty well these days, and you get a bit more storage space that way.
14 Aug, 2009, tphegley wrote in the 7th comment:
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Doesn't NewEgg have a return policy about DOA products? Or would you know the HD had a problem right off the bat?
14 Aug, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 8th comment:
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You could probably run some kind of diagnostics on the drive, but some problems might not manifest themselves until later. That said, I have received very many hard drives from NewEgg and have yet to have a problem. I didn't get the impression that they were skimpy on packing materials. I was however very irritated that they insist on having a signature for delivery, and wouldn't let me waive it by talking to them, and wouldn't let me ask them to deliver somewhere else (my office) – since UPS only delivers during the week, I would have had to stay home all day to receive the packages. I ended up having to pick it up at their facility in the city. Oh well.
14 Aug, 2009, quixadhal wrote in the 9th comment:
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Interesting. I was complaining about the fact that our UPS guy left it there without a signature. I don't live in a horrible neighborhood, but I also don't like to tempt fate (either the neighborhood kids OR having it get soaked by rain). I thought it used to be that they were supposed to have a signature for anything over $100.
14 Aug, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 10th comment:
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It probably depends on the UPS people and whether or not they follow policy. I've seen some who are supposed to require signatures just leave it at the door. In my case, it was a DVD drive and a hard drive, and I don't think the total was above $100. I suspect that it has more to do with NewEgg protecting themselves than protecting the customer, because this way they can more easily verify that you actually received the package and aren't asking for a refund for a product that "never arrived".
14 Aug, 2009, Ssolvarain wrote in the 11th comment:
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Skimpy on packing materials?

They surround all my stuff with packing peanuts, regardless of the size of the box within the box.

I ordered a CPU fan and a 120mm fan awhile back, and I got a box that was about 1.5^2'. Overkill with packing materials has been my experience with Newegg.

Though, when I root around through all the peanuts, I feel a bit disappointed when I don't find more boxes :thinking:
14 Aug, 2009, aidil wrote in the 12th comment:
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quixadhal said:
Heh, I actually want smaller drives. :)

Instead of one monster drive that will fail and make me get my shotgun, I plan on getting either 3 smaller drives and putting them in a RAID 5 array, or 2 drives in a RAID 1 array.


I've learned the hard way that that is a rather good idea :sad:

quixadhal said:
I'm leaning towards RAID 5, simply because the OS buffers writes pretty well these days, and you get a bit more storage space that way.


RAID 5 gives you more space, but provides less protection.

Both RAID 1 and RAID 5 will in theory survive a single drive failure, but RAID 1 deals a lot better with the combination of unclean shutdown and drive failure.

This is because even with an unclean shutdown, a single side of a mirror set is always in sync with itself, while in case of RAID 5, you always have to consider 2 disks, which could well be out of sync, and will be considered 'dirty' or 'unclean'. Resyncing a RAID 5 requires all disks to be present.

One issue here is that while typical sata controllers tend to survive a disk failure electrically, quite a few will still crash or hang in such a case and require a powercycle to come back to life. Using AHCI mode and a decent controller can help prevent this issue.

you could use 2 larger disks and a smaller disk, to create a raid 1 for the os and some more important stuff, and use the remainder of the large disks and the smaller disk for a raid 5 containing somewhat lesser important stuff.

Putting your OS on a raid1 instead of raid5 means your machine has a much better chance of booting after a combined disk failure + unclean shutdown.
14 Aug, 2009, Hades_Kane wrote in the 13th comment:
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I've built my computer off of newegg pretty much, and have never had a problem from anything I've gotten there.

I've also gotten hard-drives from Best Buy without much of a problem.
14 Aug, 2009, Lyanic wrote in the 14th comment:
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If you're still not sold on newegg.com, you could try buy.com (if you haven't checked already). They tend to carry a wide range of new and old stuff at reasonable prices - especially if you catch one of their sales. I've never had any problems with their shipping (though, I haven't had any problems with shipments from newegg.com either).

Edit: tigerdirect.com, as well
14 Aug, 2009, Davion wrote in the 15th comment:
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I personally buy all my monitors from places like bestbuy and futureshop. The replacement plans are so worth it :D. All my hardware comes from ncix.com. Always have sales on something and everything I've ever ordered has arrived safe and sound.
14 Aug, 2009, Guest wrote in the 16th comment:
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Ssolvarain said:
Skimpy on packing materials?

They surround all my stuff with packing peanuts, regardless of the size of the box within the box.

I ordered a CPU fan and a 120mm fan awhile back, and I got a box that was about 1.5^2'. Overkill with packing materials has been my experience with Newegg.

Though, when I root around through all the peanuts, I feel a bit disappointed when I don't find more boxes :thinking:


Semi-related funny thing about that. Newegg apparently sees nothing wrong with shipping drives sitting in a sea of packing peanuts in a box that's big enough to hold 10 drives. But the Hitachi warranty RMA center specifically forbids using peanuts in a box of any size as it allows the drive to "move around" in the box. They're quite insistent on me sending back a physically blown drive in a box that would make most live ones jealous. And nobody sells or provides the materials these guys seem to want. At least not that I've been able to find so far.

A CPU I bought from Newegg recently also came in a box big enough to hold a few dozen CPUs and enough peanuts to choke an elephant. I too was hoping to find some hidden surprises in my box but it was not to be :cry:
14 Aug, 2009, Davion wrote in the 17th comment:
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Quote
A CPU I bought from Newegg recently also came in a box big enough to hold a few dozen CPUs and enough peanuts to choke an elephant. I too was hoping to find some hidden surprises in my box but it was not to be


lol! Funny story! I found a green dart in an RMA from EVGA. I use it to pin back my curtains now :).
14 Aug, 2009, Kline wrote in the 18th comment:
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I strictly buy from mwave.com, and they've successfully shipped things to APO (Japan), and all over the US as I've traveled with zero DOA/damaged goods. The icing was when they accepted a video card (died during shipping my PC via USPS to myself) RMA that had expired past their return policy, and the manufacturer's policy, and sent me back an upgraded model ($500 value). Can't beat that.
15 Aug, 2009, Guest wrote in the 19th comment:
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You were lucky Kline, their return policy when you're there in person is extremely strict and they make you jump through a ton of hoops to even exchange something for the same item. Even when it's within the 7 day return window.
15 Aug, 2009, Kline wrote in the 20th comment:
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7 days is only CPU/memory I believe; the rest is 30.
0.0/30