OCZ memory and Seagate production problems?

[Locut0s]

I work in a retail computer store here in Canada that specializes in computer parts and custom builds for our customers. Think of it as another version of Newegg.ca. Its NCIX for anyone who lived up here in Canada. Any rate I've been hearing as of late that OCZ has been having a lot of issues with their memory. I've been hearing of return rates as high as 30% or more on some of their SKUs? I've heard some similar things about batches of Seagate drives a while back. I think the Seagate issues are mainly with specific firmware revisions but I don't know off the top of my head which ones. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

[DrMrLordX]

7200.11 drives had a firmware issue. I believe that 7200.12 drives do not.

Can't comment on the OCZ memory issue really.

 

[tweakboy]

Guys Seagate is not the Seagate it used to be couple years back. Maxtor bought Seagate and the current Seagate drives use Maxtor tech from top to bottom.

Maxtor is one of the worst hard drives to get as it will die on you. Soo once Seagate joined Maxtor , you say adios to both, as its not the old skool Seagate like the one I have 80GB

Never buy Maxtor or Seagate drives.

Best mechanical drives are WDC I have mine about 100 hours away of reaching 40,000 hours of operation, going strong. Seagate is 36,000 hours going strong... 🙂

Thank you

 

[tweakboy]

OCZ is the same company it has always been. They are trust worthy and lifetime warranty. They are also cool looking kits. 🙂

 

[alaricljs]

Guys Seagate is not the Seagate it used to be couple years back. Maxtor bought Seagate and the current Seagate drives use Maxtor tech from top to bottom.

Wow dude you need to check this link: http://tinyurl.com/26zmgak

 

[bad_monkey]

Wow dude you need to check this link: http://tinyurl.com/26zmgak

Nice!

 

[harobikes333]

Maxtor is one of the worst hard drives to get as it will die on you. Soo once Seagate joined Maxtor , you say adios to both, as its not the old skool Seagate like the one I have 80GB

Never buy Maxtor or Seagate drives.

Best mechanical drives are WDC I have mine about 100 hours away of reaching 40,000 hours of operation, going strong. Seagate is 36,000 hours going strong... 🙂

Thank you

While your reply was somewhat informational... I can't help but comment that Seagate IMO is still a worthwhile company. Also, seeing as you apparently don't like Maxtor I feel you're pretty bias....

I've had a Maxtor and a Seagate. While I do prefer Seagate, I do believe there should be some consideration for the fact that Maxtor AND Seagate are combined.

It's quite like saying AMD and ATI are combined but if I hated ATI that now AMD is down the toilet [ Which is quite apparently not the case ]

Sorry for the bitter/retort of a reply but I just thought I'd throw it out there...

WD, Seagate, etc. Take your pick. I feel the best choice is an Educated choice... aka read up on the current drive available and then choose from those.

 

[RebateMonger]

My take:

As noted, Seagate purchased Maxtor. Maxtor has a long history of purchasing failing disk makers who'd acquired reputations for poor quality (Miniscribe, Quantum). It seemed to rub off on Maxtor. In the 2002-2005 time frame, Maxtor managed to put a lot of early-failure disks out there, including a large number on Dell PCs.

In late 2006, a Seagate technical representative told me that Seagate was dumping all of Maxtor's designs and had largely purchased Maxtor because it had high name recognition among consumers. The Maxtor name was to be used on the "value-line" of Seagate's disks.

Seagate appears to be having a harder time than other disk makers in adapting their designs and manufacturiing processes to the higher data densities required by 1-2 TB disks. On top of this, they had a major firmware problem with their 7200.11 disks.

OCZ appears not to actually make anything. They only report $2 million in property, plant, and equipment assets. They put their name on products made by others and advertise and sell them. If their suppliers fall down and OCZ doesn't discover it early enough, they are in trouble.

In 2009, OCZ initiated a major restructure of their operations, did significant inventory writedowns, and re-arranged their financing.

 

[Locut0s]

My take:

As noted, Seagate purchased Maxtor. Maxtor has a long history of purchasing failing disk makers who'd acquired reputations for poor quality (Miniscribe, Quantum). It seemed to rub off on Maxtor. In the 2002-2005 time frame, Maxtor managed to put a lot of early-failure disks out there, including a large number on Dell PCs.

In late 2006, a Seagate technical representative told me that Seagate was dumping all of Maxtor's designs and had largely purchased Maxtor because it had high name recognition among consumers. The Maxtor name was to be used on the "value-line" of Seagate's disks.

Seagate appears to be having a harder time than other disk makers in adapting their designs and manufacturiing processes to the higher data densities required by 1-2 TB disks. On top of this, they had a major firmware problem with their 7200.11 disks.

OCZ appears not to actually make anything. They only report $2 million in property, plant, and equipment assets. They put their name on products made by others and advertise and sell them. If their suppliers fall down and OCZ doesn't discover it early enough, they are in trouble.

In 2009, OCZ initiated a major restructure of their operations, did significant inventory writedowns, and re-arranged their financing.

Yeah it was the firmware problem I was mentioning specifically. I told customers to staya away from Seagate drives for a while but I think they are mostely over that issue now. As for OCZ maybe they purchased a bad batch of RAM from someone because like I was saying I'm hearing 30% returnn rates or more on many of their SKUs.

 

[FishAk]

"Seagate"... had largely purchased Maxtor because it had high name recognition among consumers.

I don't know what kind of physical assets they ended up with in the deal, but $1.9 Billion for name recognition of a failing product sounds like a very bad decision.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I don't know what kind of physical assets they ended up with in the deal, but $1.9 Billion for name recognition of a failing product sounds like a very bad decision.

Maxtor managed to get their drives into all kinds of oem systems before selling out to Seagate. One wonders if Seagate picked up a slew of contracts with oems when they acquired Maxtor.

 

[RebateMonger]

I don't know what kind of physical assets they ended up with in the deal, but $1.9 Billion for name recognition of a failing product sounds like a very bad decision.

I imagine they were able to use the production facilities, with design and process changes. The equipment to make disk drives is probably pretty similar at the various manufacturers.

I have an old friend who was a Vice President at Maxtor in the mid-2000s. I need to ask him what the deal was.