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Author Topic: HD recommendation?  (Read 1797 times)

Offline beacher

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HD recommendation?
« on: February 03, 2008, 02:07:30 PM »
Hey guys, back in August, I bought a 400 gig SATA hard drive from Western Digital, that it took me about a week to figure out (with some research @ WD, well hidden, I might add) was NOT compatible with Macs, for some reason.  Had no problem returning it to Newegg, but it made me gun shy as far as ordering something else. I'm ready to try it again, but figured that I'd ask you guys for a recommendation. I need an internal, and it's for the Quad 2.5 Mac.  Thanks in advance!
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Offline RNKIII

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HD recommendation?
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2008, 02:16:47 PM »
Try OWC.  They have a great site, with a lot of help to determine what is right for your computer.  I've bought a lot of items from them and NEVER had a problem.  

NEWEGG is also a good place to look.

Good luck and let us know what/where you decide.

HTH,

Bob K.   rnkiii
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Offline Paddy

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HD recommendation?
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2008, 02:39:35 PM »
I have about 4 Seagates - some SATA, some not. No issues with any of 'em and you've got to like the 5 year warranties - which Hitachi now also offers on some of their drives.

I also have a WD SATA (250GB) which is the primary drive in the G5 right now. And several in laptops. However, that said - a friend of mine bought one of those monster 1TB Western Digital drives from Costco and after much fiddling, he could NOT get it to work with his PC. He's one of the most tech-savvy people I know (former director of hardware engineering at ATI) - he tried everything. Finally, after extended discussions with WD's telephone support, someone admitted that they'd been having some real problems with the 1TB drives and he advised Rob NOT to buy one!! So, something funny may be going on at WD...

Generally the reviews at NewEgg are a good indication of any issues with Macs, providing you pick a drive with lots of reviews.

And it seems no matter what drive you pick, SOMEONE will have had issues - DOA/dead after some period of use etc. There are clearly no flawless drives out there!!
« Last Edit: February 03, 2008, 02:40:28 PM by Paddy »
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Offline Mayo

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HD recommendation?
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2008, 02:06:38 PM »
Another vote for OWC. I have also purchased bare drives from Circuit City at bargain prices and installed them in external enclosures.

A friend recently purchased a two-drive RAID enclosure from OWC and it arrived with a problem... either the power supply is bad or something is wrong with the enclosure. I appreciate the fact that I can call a Real Human Being at OWC...

In the past I have compared drive/enclosure combos prices at OWC with bare drives and enclosures elsewhere and the OWC were competitive with no assembly required, so it is worth checking-out OWC before buying a separate drive and enclosure.
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Offline Paddy

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HD recommendation?
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2008, 04:37:28 PM »
Warranties can be a factor though - generally OWC's warranties on external drives are just 2 years, whereas buying the drive separately can get you a 5 year warranty on the drive. And let's face it - it's generally NOT the enclosure that goes toes up!

Also, Beacher didn't specify that he was looking for an external drive - since he was looking for SATA, I pretty much figured that he was looking for an internal. Not that you can't get enclosures that take SATA drives now (I have one) - and they're pretty much the way to go, as PATA/IDE/ATA drives are quite often MORE expensive than the SATA drives now.

OWC is a great company to deal with - don't get me wrong. On some things, their prices are very competitive, and their service is always topnotch. But I can say the same about NewEgg, and their prices are often hard to beat elsewhere. smile.gif
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"If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into committees. That'll do them in." ~Author unknown •iMac 5K, 27" 3.6Ghz i9 (2019) • 16" M1 MBP(2021) • 9.7" iPad Pro • iPhone 13

Offline Mayo

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HD recommendation?
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2008, 05:19:11 PM »
Paddy, I think that we covered the warranty issue in an earlier thread, but heck if I can locate it... Anyhoo, if I remember correctly I contacted OWC regarding warranty coverage.  Their enclosures are generally covered by a two-year warranty, while the drives installed in the enclosures are covered by the full manufacturer warranty.
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