3TB 7200 - Seagate or Hitachi

[opentoe]

Prices are oddly spread pretty far from these companies, with the same size drive. Why? To be fair, I pulled prices from the same place Newegg. I'm in the market to buy about 4 3TB drives and those $199 Seagates are looking good. I just don't get why they are $199!!!?

 

Newegg Hitachi 3TB 7200 64GB cach - $329

 

Newegg Seagate Barracude XT 3TB 7200 64GB cache - $199 to $249

 

 

 

I don't get it?

 

 

[Johnm]

mostly because Hitachi (and western Digital) was hurt pretty bad by the flooding While Seagate  only suffered partial loss of production and was still making drives. because of that, Seagate has lower prices in the hard drive wars... for now.

 

If you're a gambling man, you could take a look at this. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=18902.msg169116#msg169116

I just broke down and ordered 2.

 

 

[opentoe]

I'm not a gambler with Newegg. Hard to return things there and if I broke the case trying to get the drive out, I would be stuck with it anyway. It is quite strange how Hitachi can sell an external USB kit with a 7200RPM 64GB cache drive for under $200 but for a regular desktop internal drive they want $249 or more. I guess warranty may come into place here also. This is why I originally buy Western Digital Black drives, just to get their 5 year warranty. For the last several years I've never had to just throw out a drive for going bad. I always had the option to get a warranty replacement.

 

If it was guaranteed that there was a 3TB 7200RPM 64GB cache drive in those externals for $159, I would buy a couple myself. It also has to have at least a 2 year warranty, since the drive will operate 24/7. I would think the USB device is only a 1 year warranty.

 

 

[prostuff1]

I grabbed a couple of Seagate GoFlex Desktop 3TB drives a while back.  I popped the case off of them and checked the serial on them via Seagates online tool and if I remember correctly there was a 3 year warranty on them.

[c3]

As said before, it is a supply issue. The bigger stack of drives has the lower price on it.

 

This is partly due to flood and partly due to people are willing to pay. People are still buying the Toshiba (previously known as Hitachi and IBM) at the higher price because some preceived value.

 

You are right to discuss warranty as it has dropped on most drives. The last batch I purchased had 5 years written on the box, while the manufacture website reported 3 years. I saved the boxes.

 

Should the external drives require warranty work, they might not be accepted without the case untampered. Sure the drive serial number reports a warranty date, but that is also the enclosure's serial number. I was not successful in RMAing a bare drive removed from an enclosure.

 

NewEgg might offer extended warranty, BestBuy does.

[spencers]

I grabbed a couple of Seagate GoFlex Desktop 3TB drives a while back.  I popped the case off of them and checked the serial on them via Seagates online tool and if I remember correctly there was a 3 year warranty on them.

Popped open the case of my new 3tb freeagent goflex last night. Inside is a 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001.

[opentoe]

I grabbed a couple of Seagate GoFlex Desktop 3TB drives a while back.  I popped the case off of them and checked the serial on them via Seagates online tool and if I remember correctly there was a 3 year warranty on them.

Popped open the case of my new 3tb freeagent goflex last night. Inside is a 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001.

 

I read someone had a 10 month warranty on that drive. I'm going to need more in a server. Any drive I ever had fail on me was usually 2-3 years into use.

 

[prostuff1]

I read someone had a 10 month warranty on that drive. I'm going to need more in a server. Any drive I ever had fail on me was usually 2-3 years into use.

That was with the Hitachi external, not the Seagate.

 

I popped open my 3TB goflex desktop and if I remember correctly the bare drive was listed as having a 2 or 3 year warranty.