Ordered 10 3.5" 500GB HDDs. They came packed in a small box, like books.

[dave_the_nerd]

I guess you haven't been reading the thread at all. These drives were for budget / donation builds.

A single _actually_brand_new_ 120GB SSD at $30-$40 is an all-around better idea than a $15 30GB SSD + $15 500GB HDD that are probably used/refurb'd from eBay. Even if it is a couple bucks extra.

64GB is too cramped for a general-use Windows install, while 120GB gives you enough room for your winSXS directory to balloon a bit, install a game or two, etc.

You can stream porn.

 

[cbn]

A single _actually_brand_new_ 120GB SSD at $30-$40 is an all-around better idea than a $15 30GB SSD + $15 500GB HDD that are probably used/refurb'd from eBay. Even if it is a couple bucks extra.

64GB is too cramped for a general-use Windows install, while 120GB gives you enough room for your winSXS directory to balloon a bit, install a game or two, etc.

You can stream porn.

Cheapest 120GB SSD on Newegg right now is the King Dian S200 (JMF608 dram-less controller and MLC NAND) for $38 shipped (from Asia).

Cheapest US source 120GB SSD on Newegg is Zotac T400 (Phison S11 with Toshiba 15nm TLC) for $41 shipped.

So much closer to $40 rather than $30.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Cheapest 120GB SSD on Newegg right now is the King Dian S200 (JMF608 dram-less controller and MLC NAND) for $38 shipped (from Asia).

Cheapest US source 120GB SSD on Newegg is Zotac T400 (Phison S11 with Toshiba 15nm TLC) for $41 shipped.

So much closer to $40 rather than $30.

pcpartpicker has 'em for $38. And I'm pretty sure VL has bragged about finding deals better than that. He's not the sort to buy something that isn't on sale.

 

[cbn]

Your estimate of $30 for the 120GB low end is something I would have guessed myself not too long ago, but NAND prices have been on the rise unfortunately.

In fact, I am shocked to see SSDs like the Team Group L7 EVO are now $46 shipped for 120GB on Newegg. Pretty amazing price increases in such a short time.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, SSD prices, even for a "lowly" 120GB, are massively on the rise. For a decent 120GB SSD, you're talking at least $45 now. They used to be around $33 just a few short months ago.

An interesting observation - although the production date on the label shows the same day for all of the drives, the last few I've tested, had different firmware. The first few had 1.01, and the last few had 19.19, but one had 17.17. (Ok, not exact firmware numbers.) One even showed up as a 7200RPM in CDI. Weird.

The ones that didn't have 1.01 firmware, when I start to format the volume in Disk Management, Explorer.exe pops up a dialog that D-colon isn't formatted, would you like to format it now?, and in Disk Management, there's two volumes on the top panel that show "RAW" and "Formatting". Only one of the formatting volumes shows progress though.

I recall someone on here saying that their drives showed up twice somehow, or had a secondary, "RAW" phantom volume. I didn't understand what they're talking about. But it seems that some of these drives have that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

seven out of ten drives made it (unknown how many of those are "walking wounded"). OK drives to throw into a donation rig, but I wouldn't use these for any of my for sale for actual money rigs.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

seven out of ten drives made it (unknown how many of those are "walking wounded"). OK drives to throw into a donation rig, but I wouldn't use these for any of my for sale for actual money rigs.

You should have left them in the wrapper and returned them immediately.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You should have left them in the wrapper and returned them immediately.

Yeah, probably, or just refused delivery, when the Fedex guy showed up with them, and I was thinking to myself, that's not an OEM HDD case (as I was expecting), that box is FAR too small to have ten HDDs in it, adequately-protected.

I halfway figured that, like China sellers before this one, they had screwed me, and only shipped me qty 1, when I had ordered multiples. (Happens a disturbing amount of time, on ebay.)

Oh well. I requested a refund from the seller, for three of the drives. If they do, I guess I'll call it even.

HDDs are such ancient tech anyways, LOL. Though, I still do buy bigger drives (though, NOT on ebay, unless it's from Newegg or BestBuy), for my NAS units and servers.

Reminds me of one time, I bought four WD Green 1TB EADS, I think drives, from Frys.com. They all came in one single thin bubble envelope. Banging against each other the whole drive from Cali. Amazingly,. three survived, and at least one of them is still rocking for a friend. The other two working ones, I don't know what ended up happening to them. I'm pretty-sure that the fact that they were "rampload" saved them, as the heads weren't bashing against the platters the whole time.

I don't know, I thought that these AV-GP were rampload too, but maybe not, or maybe they got bashed around more. At least the drives from Frys had some outer padding, with the bubble envelope. These were just in a cardboard box. Not even marked "fragile". Not that the marking would have mattered much, given the poor packing.

Assuming that I get a refund on the three dead ones, should I leave a Neutral or Positive review?

Edit: Newegg's got a deal on some 3TB Hitachi UltraStars, $59.99 REFURB.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ktopInternalHardDrives-_-1Z4-001J-00224-S1A9C

Cheaper than ebay by a few bucks, even.

 

[XavierMace]

So you bought bargain basement drives and expected them to be packed like full priced ones?

 

[VirtualLarry]

So you bought bargain basement drives and expected them to be packed like full priced ones?

Well, they were listed as new with a 3-year warranty, and I paid $50 for shipping. So yes, I expected that they would at least be packed reasonably, for HDDs.

Nearly every other ebay shipper over-packs their stuff.

 

[bigboxes]

Well, they were listed as new with a 3-year warranty, and I paid $50 for shipping. So yes, I expected that they would at least be packed reasonably, for HDDs.

Nearly every other ebay shipper over-packs their stuff.

Then give them a negative rating. Post the pics. Say it's unacceptable.

 

[corkyg]

Why do we keep beating a dead horse?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Why do we keep beating a dead horse?

Cuz it's fun.

Well, they were listed as new with a 3-year warranty

Check the warranty status. I bet all 10 are just like the one you posted, OEM with no warranty whatsoever.

 

[Rifter]

Why do we keep beating a dead horse?

Dead horses are much easier targets than live ones.

 

[Ranulf]

This has got to be a troll thread. Why do you insist on building computers for the third world?

No, this is a Larry thread. Don't like it, don't read lol.

 

[mikeymikec]

Why do we keep beating a dead horse?

I saw it move!

seven out of ten drives made it (unknown how many of those are "walking wounded"). OK drives to throw into a donation rig, but I wouldn't use these for any of my for sale for actual money rigs.

If we're using "donation" in the same way (ie. charity), I would treat such a rig as seriously as an "actual money rig", because the recipient is unlikely to be able to pay for repairing it if something as serious as the HDD going wrong. Also, there's a reasonable chance that the recipient actually needs the computer (as opposed to wanting something to play solitaire on), as well as being less likely to be able to afford a backup solution for the data. I suppose you could make up for the loss of reliability by doing the repair work for free, but it would probably end up being an increasing drain on your business.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If we're using "donation" in the same way (ie. charity), I would treat such a rig as seriously as an "actual money rig", because the recipient is unlikely to be able to pay for repairing it if something as serious as the HDD going wrong. Also, there's a reasonable chance that the recipient actually needs the computer (as opposed to wanting something to play solitaire on), as well as being less likely to be able to afford a backup solution for the data. I suppose you could make up for the loss of reliability by doing the repair work for free, but it would probably end up being an increasing drain on your business.

Good point. The thing is, other than running read / write tests, and checking SMART, there's no easy way to tell if a drive is, in fact, "walking wounded", or if it's really fine. It would only really come out as a lifespan variation, whether it lasts a year or two, or 3-5 years, or whatever. And I don't really want to run them for a year or two myself, just to find out.

I could offer a limited hardware warranty with the PCs too, I guess. Seems kind of extravagant for a free PC though.

I was seriously entertaining the option of just shipping the donation PCs with the 30GB (new) SSDs and Linux Mint 18, and leave them at that, and just save the 500GB HDDs, for whatever else I can think of to do with them.

Btw, the China-seller newyorker1999 on ebay, refunded me for the DOA drives.

 

[bigboxes]

No, this is a Larry thread. Don't like it, don't read lol.

Yeah, I've been around here for a long time. I know a Larry thread when I see one. Always trying to repurpose ten year-old hardware. LOL

 

[coercitiv]

Always trying to repurpose ten year-old hardware. LOL

Why donate 5-7 reliable PCs when you can make 10 unreliable ones?

 

[bigboxes]

Repurposing ten year-old hardware. It's what you do.

Geico should pay me. This could write itself.

 

[sdifox]

Leave the guy alone. He is donating machines, can any of you fault him for trying to stretch the money?

 

[VirtualLarry]

LOL. Yeah. I accept donations of 5820K CPUs and X99 mobos. For the greater good, of course.

(How are these desktop recipients ever going to join the PCMR, if all they have is a dual-core APU? They need a hex-core!)

 

[Charlie98]

I bought a new drive from Tiger Direct a few years ago and it was literally thrown in a box with a single sheet of bubble-wrap. I've always had decent luck with drives from Newegg, but anymore, I just go to MicroCenter and lay my hands on them. Of course, I'm not buying 10 at a time. I wouldn't buy any sort of HDD off eBay, particularly in bulk... it just screams OEM pull or refurb.

Glad to see you at least got a refund for the 3 dead drives, Larry.

 

[nerp]

For $50 shipping, you can get a new 1TB drive, a 2TB drive on sale. I'd be wary of these drives' reliability down the road. Used HDs are just one of those things I can never bring myself to doing -- like using someone else's toothbrush.

 

[bononos]

................

Edit: Final total, seven out of ten survived, three were DOA and were recognized by my USB dock with some crazy-huge drive size (probably drive ID with all FFs) Those also weren't recognized as a drive by CDI.

I think some of the drives with weird sizes/firmware/labels are frankenstein units cobbled together from failed drives. They were probably scavenged from electronic trash.