Hard Drive Upgrade Concerns

MrJak

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I'm looking into getting a 2tb+ upgrade over my two non-raid 500GB HDDs.
I was originally looking at the WD20EARX and its close relative, the WD20EZRX, both being refurbished and $85. I decided on the EZRX, but it's no longer available.

Then I looked into some others, starting with the TOSHIBA PH3200U-1I72 for $85, but I'm not entirely sure how reliable Toshiba Hard drives would be, since I haven't heard much about them and really only have experience with Seagate and Western Digital.

I then saw twoSeagate Barracudas, at a slightly higher price, and they are almost identical, STBD2000101, and ST2000DM001, both for $99. One is retail, which isn't very important, but it is a single dollar cheaper, though I checked and there's at least one place that will claim it has a 32mb cache and SATA2.

Then I checked BestBuy, where I found two Western Digitals, both caviar greens: 2TB for $85 and 3TB for $120.

I'd prefer to keep the price per terabyte at around $40, but I'll take whatever the best option is, but I don't have much of a budget to work with here -- Around $128 ^^;

Anywho, thanks in advance. :)
 
Solution
Well, the last external drive I ripped into was a Seagate 4 TB, and it ended up being the exact same part number as the OEM bare drive they were selling for $30 more. It's really up to the manufacturer what they choose to put in an external enclosure, but you can still find 3 TB units in the $120 range, if that's needed for your budget. My experience with external drives failing or being slow is based on the enclosure, more than the drive itself, but I'm sure your mileage will vary.

Depending on your long term goals, it might be just as practical to put the upgrade off for a month or two, and end up with the higher capacity, or at least, not stress your funds so much. Good luck! :)
Not sure why you would be wanting to purchase a refurbished hard drive, when new ones are not significantly more expensive. Is your data worth less than a few dollars to you?

I would not limit your search to OEM or strictly internal drives, but expand to external drives as well. Often times you can get a better cost / TB ratio on an external drive, at which point, all you have to do is remove the drive from the external enclosure and use it as if it was a bare drive. You get an external enclosure with it, if you don't destroy it in the removal process, which might be a bonus. Perhaps drop one of your 500's into it and use it for backups or travel. :)

Perhaps a bit more than you were wishing to spend, but as an example, here's a 4 TB external that meets your $40 / TB preference:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178354
 

MrJak

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Well, from what I know, refurbished products are just as good as new, and saving every penny counts when I don't have a job. Which leads me to my point of my tiny budget, because that is all of my money at the moment, and if I ant to spend more, then I have to wait up to a month or longer. Also, I'm concerned about the quality and speed of external drives, since one of my drives was ripped out of an old NAS drive, and it was at least a bit slower than my other HDD. I've also heard that external drives are more likely to fail than internal ones, but I'm not sure if I should really believe that -- though I guess I could look into hem. Also, my main drives are SSDs and these will be used to hold games and recordings.

Also, I'd like to be able to afford some decent thermal paste in the near future, so the extra money would help.
 
Well, the last external drive I ripped into was a Seagate 4 TB, and it ended up being the exact same part number as the OEM bare drive they were selling for $30 more. It's really up to the manufacturer what they choose to put in an external enclosure, but you can still find 3 TB units in the $120 range, if that's needed for your budget. My experience with external drives failing or being slow is based on the enclosure, more than the drive itself, but I'm sure your mileage will vary.

Depending on your long term goals, it might be just as practical to put the upgrade off for a month or two, and end up with the higher capacity, or at least, not stress your funds so much. Good luck! :)
 
Solution

MrJak

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Jun 2, 2013
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True enough, I guess I could just delete a few games that I don't play often to free up some space on one of my HDDs, since I do still have around 300GBs free on the other.

Alright, so I guess I'll look into this more when I have some extra funds, and put my money elsewhere.