Vampyromaniac

I'm considering buying a new hard drive.
Lots of OEM/whitebox/bare drives out there for less money.

What do you guys think of these: bargain or risky business?
Anyone buy one and have a particlarly remark-able experience?
Should the brand name carry any weight on such a decision?

As of now I'm quite tempted to buy a certain IBM 80GB for <$100, but I just get a funny feeling when I think of my naked drive arriving in only a static bag . . . .

thanks for any input

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Zardon

well alot of people wouldnt buy IBM due to the amount of bad press they have been getting lately with faults. but I can say that ive always bought IBM and have yet to have a problem. buying a drive online need not be risky, as long as you use a well known company for the purchase and are sure of the guarantee that they are supplying with the drive.

JavaFox

I agree with Zardon -- buying online is great if you're buying from the right people. Check out ResellerRatings to read up on a company's rep.

As far as brand, Maxtor has never done me wrong (WD and IBM have, plenty of times). In fact, I've only SEEN one dead Maxtor, ever. Seagate's recent drives are very excellent, as well.

Zardon

yeah ive a maxtor 40 gig drive, really quiet, reliable as well. ive also 2 western digitals in raid mode on my KR7A board, they also perform well. but I have to say the IBM 60 gig drive I have is the best performer of the lot. a little louder though than the others, which hardly matters, as my rig sounds like a friggin boeing anyway

Mr V

Yeh, it does feel a bit weird, thinking that youve spent all that money and you get no fancy box or razmattaz, but it goes straight into the case anyway so it dont really matter that much.

It still feels as good to me when I put a new drive in and see how much new Material (he,he!) I can fit on it; especially considering now im gonna be doing some capturing from video so I`ll need a new 60/80/100 Gig meself soon.

Im with Zardon on the IBM, got a 40 Gig runs great. IBM are getting a lot of bad press from people on the `net generally thou, so it may be still worth keeping an open mind and looking at the others.

Good Luck!

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Vampyromaniac

Cool, thanks for all the replies, and the ResellerRatings site....

LOL, I knew someone would bring up the IBM reliability story...
Well, I'm either gonna get the OEM 80GB IBM 120GXPfrom z-buy.com, or else there's a Western Digital on sale for $100 at the local Circuit City, the WD800BB (2MB cache) That one's retail, of course, but I think the IBM performs better.

Well, if anyone HAS bought an OEM drive online, please let me know if your experience was particularly good or bad, and I guess I'll have to make up my mind.

Thanks

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Crash Override

depending on where you are id say your best bet would be this HD

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...ry=1304&DEPA=1

scroll down until you see this

MAXTOR Quiet Drive 80GB 7200RPM Model # 6L080L4 -D740X OEM , DRIVE ONLY

choppy9er

I have bought a Maxtor 60 gig,two Ibm 75 GXP 46.1gig and just purchased a 120 GXP 41.1 gig that I love,it is so quiet and really fast.I like IBM the best ,have never had any trouble.Its just how the seller packages the drives when they send them.All I bought online.Choppy

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