Drive fails, RMA drive fails, what now?

[Bateluer]

Back in April, one of my Seagate drives failed. Confirmed with SeaTools, filed for a warranty replacement. Finally got the replacement on Monday, I ran full tests on it with SeaTools, installed Win7, Steam, and began redownloading my games.

Fast forward to Wednesday, where I'm reinstalling SC2. And getting errors downloading the data to the drive. Windows then popped up and told me it had detected a drive failure. I powered down to boot into SeaTools to a full test again, and the BIOS POST stops and says the drive had a SMART flag tripped. SeaTools confirmed it, noting some 50+ errors during the diagnostic tests. Which it failed to repair.

My important data is stored on other drives, so I'm in no danger of losing critical data. For the past month, I've been using my backup tower. Its X2-4000 is considerably slower than the C2D E8500 in the main tower.

So, I seem to have a few options.

1)RMA the drive a second time, wait the 3 weeks for it to arrive and cross my fingers that the second drive lasts longer.

2)Purchase a new drive, from another manufacturer. I have two WD Caviar Black drives in that tower now and those have served very well, would likely pick up a 500GB Caviar Black. ~60 dollars at Newegg right now. RMA the Seagate, use it for something else or resell.

3)Say screw it, and rebuild into a Sandy Bridge. I spec'd out most of it a few weeks back, Core i7 2600, 4GB DDR3, ASRock model motherboard. I'd have to add a hard drive to the build, but not a big deal. I'd also added in a cheap case and power supply, so I can rebuild the old C2D E8500, its Asus motherboard, and its 8GB of DDR2 RAM, into my new back up machine. All this can be done for about a grand from Newegg. Parts below. The Rosewill case and power supply would be used for my back up machine.

Rosewill R218-P-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SAPPHIRE 100311SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

SAPPHIRE 100311SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Rosewill RV2-500 500 W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH

ASRock Z68 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600

Note1) My current machine resides in a Dell Inspiron 531 chassis, which cannot hold the full ATX s775 motherboard, hence the new case/PSU for it.

Note2) I already have OS licenses for both towers, thats not an issue.

Note3) Biggest caveat, Option 3 requires me to almost completely finance the build with my Newegg Preferred Account. It does qualify for promotional financing though, no interest for 12 months. And I have little doubt that I would have no problems paying it off before that period. While I do have some debt right now, none of it is overbearing and all should be paid off within 8 months.

Feedback?

 

[muskie32]

If you are happy with your current rig, just buy a new drive (WD, Samsung). But if you have the upgrade bug, go with #3

 

[mnewsham]

I would go with option 3 BUT a limited version of it. I would get the i7-2500(k?) and save the 100 or so bucks. Unless you can really justify the 2600. I would also back down to the 6950 instead of the 6970. and if you are going to be playing games at 1920x1080/1200 or less then get the 1GB model instead of the 2GB one.

 

[Bateluer]

I would go with option 3 BUT a limited version of it. I would get the i7-2500(k?) and save the 100 or so bucks. Unless you can really justify the 2600. I would also back down to the 6950 instead of the 6970. and if you are going to be playing games at 1920x1080/1200 or less then get the 1GB model instead of the 2GB one.

The K series basically allows overclocking, right? I have little interest in OCing these days. My E8500 runs are much higher clocks than its stock 3.16Ghz, but I never ran it for more than a day or so. Enough to run some benchmarks.

Yes, I would be gaming at 1920x1200. I was eyeing the 2600 because it supports hyperthreading? I spec'd out the below, again, with a cheap case/PSU to rebuild the secondary box. 755 with shipping. Little cheaper. Hmm, tempting.

APEX PC-389-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SAPPHIRE 100312-1GSR Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Rosewill RV2-500 500 W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT

ASRock Z68 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500

 

[mnewsham]

Make sure you have a decent PSU and that looks fine, the 2600 adds hyperthreading but you will be hard pressed to find an application that would utilize the HT.

 

[mfenn]

The K series basically allows overclocking, right? I have little interest in OCing these days. My E8500 runs are much higher clocks than its stock 3.16Ghz, but I never ran it for more than a day or so. Enough to run some benchmarks.

Yes, I would be gaming at 1920x1200. I was eyeing the 2600 because it supports hyperthreading? I spec'd out the below, again, with a cheap case/PSU to rebuild the secondary box. 755 with shipping. Little cheaper. Hmm, tempting.

APEX PC-389-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SAPPHIRE 100312-1GSR Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Rosewill RV2-500 500 W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT

ASRock Z68 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500

This looks fine except for the PSU. It'd spend a little more and get the higher-quality Antec Neo Eco 520C.

 

[Bateluer]

Make sure you have a decent PSU and that looks fine, the 2600 adds hyperthreading but you will be hard pressed to find an application that would utilize the HT.

This looks fine except for the PSU. It'd spend a little more and get the higher-quality Antec Neo Eco 520C.

The PSU would be for the secondary machine. The Sandy Bridge chip would become my primary, and C2D would be demoted to secondary. The Rosewill PSU should be fine, since its only going to be supporting the C2D, a single hard drive, a 5670 or 4870 card, and two chassis fans. It has two 20A 12V rails. May not be the top tier PSU, but it should be fine for the secondary.

The current main machine has a 650W Seasonic, and I think the power draw on it will actually go down moving from the 4870 to a 6950.

 

[mnewsham]

The PSU would be for the secondary machine. The Sandy Bridge chip would become my primary, and C2D would be demoted to secondary. The Rosewill PSU should be fine, since its only going to be supporting the C2D, a single hard drive, a 5670 or 4870 card, and two chassis fans. It has two 20A 12V rails. May not be the top tier PSU, but it should be fine for the secondary.

The current main machine has a 650W Seasonic, and I think the power draw on it will actually go down moving from the 4870 to a 6950.

That should be fine

 

[Bateluer]

That should be fine

I probably shouldn't have copied the cheap case and PSU into the list at all. My bad. Still need to mull it over for a few days though.

 

[KGB]

Have you tried a known-good HD cable? Maybe you have a wonky cable.

 

[corkyg]

Two successive failures also suggests a hardware problem in the host machine - wonky cable, or wonky power supply.

 

[mfenn]

The PSU would be for the secondary machine. The Sandy Bridge chip would become my primary, and C2D would be demoted to secondary. The Rosewill PSU should be fine, since its only going to be supporting the C2D, a single hard drive, a 5670 or 4870 card, and two chassis fans. It has two 20A 12V rails. May not be the top tier PSU, but it should be fine for the secondary.

The current main machine has a 650W Seasonic, and I think the power draw on it will actually go down moving from the 4870 to a 6950.

In that case (no pun intended!), you should be good to go.

 

[0roo0roo]

Two successive failures also suggests a hardware problem in the host machine - wonky cable, or wonky power supply.

or seagate taking a chance on refurbs that are sent back and resending back to others. i've had seagate rma send me drives that fail seatools, it is so annoying..one time, twice in a row.

 

[Bateluer]

Two successive failures also suggests a hardware problem in the host machine - wonky cable, or wonky power supply.

or seagate taking a chance on refurbs that are sent back and resending back to others. i've had seagate rma send me drives that fail seatools, it is so annoying..one time, twice in a row.

I have no reason to really suspect the cable, but I'll swap it out this weekend, see if it makes any difference. I can honestly say, I've never had a HDD cable just fail that didn't have visible physical damage. Since the replacement drive is 'Certified Repaired' by Seagate, I'm guessing that its actually just a faulty drive.

I've filed an RMA again, which they approved. But I have to wait until next week, payday, before I make a final decision on the route I'll take. Just picking up the Caviar Black would be the cheapest route, but I think my machine's spec's have fallen off the bottom of most benchmark charts these days. I'm just reluctant to take on another source of debt, even though it wouldn't really hurt me in the long term. Promotional financing and all that.