Earlier this year we bought four 1 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives for our new server for $211 each — a great price at the time.
How did we get this price? We bought OEM drives.
When companies like Dell buy hard drives, they buy them by the thousands. The drives don't come individually packaged as they do at your local superstore (just imagine the outcry from environmental activists if they did). Instead, they come in volume packaging.
Nowadays, anyone can buy OEM drives from online retailers. But few of us can buy enough of them to receive the original crate from the factory as Dell does. Instead, retailers uncrate these hard drives and resell them individually using their own packaging. The risk of physical damage significantly increases as a result.
We lucked out earlier this year. All the drives worked so this issue didn't even cross my mind.
When I recently bought a new home computer, I ordered three more of these OEM drives. The price had dropped to just $133 each.
This time I was not so lucky. None of the drives worked. One had obvious physical damage.
Instead of rolling the dice again, I visited J&R Computer World (a local electronics superstore). There, I bought three Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Black internal hard drives.
Unlike OEM drives, these drives were each boxed in protective retail packaging. At $190 each, they cost considerably more than the OEM version. But I considered the premium for the packaging an insurance policy. Sure enough, all three drives worked well.
If you need an internal hard drive, buy the retail version versus the OEM version unless you have more time than money. Incidentally, you can buy the retail version online — from companies that operate brick and mortar stores — such as Best Buy and J&R Computer World.
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