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Does newegg still suck?

D

DatHak512

Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2004
Messages
743
Last i heard, their HDD shipping methods were horrible. I'm looking to get 7 ST3300831AS 300GB HDDs for a RAID 5 array that i'm building. Should i go with the egg, or with someone else?
Thanks: sorry for the lameo question.
 
Last I knew personally, they were still doing the un-recommended bubble wrap + peanuts thing, but that's several years ago now. I've heard reports since that if you order several drives at once instead of just one, you get them in the correct foam packaging. I'd tend to stick with ZZF, though, despite the weekend sale at NE. But be sure to let us know either way you decide how it works out. And pics are always welcome ;)

Notice that the 22AS is cheaper than the 31AS, despite the fact that it's a newer drive. So that's what I linked. I'd tend to buy the newer version for expansion purposes; I'm stuck with the (more expensive) 7L300S0s instead of the (newer, faster, cheaper) 7V300F0s. That's what I get for trying for expandability :rolleyes: Buying seven disks (presumably you're gonna max at 8) makes the eventual price hit (after they come out with sata 3 disks :p) minimal.

 
Hey, thanks for the reply. I actually made a last-minute decision to go with WD's 320GB HDD instead, buying from ZZF. The price difference isn't too much greater, and the space will come in handy. I've been a WD guy for all my life, owning maybe 15 or 20 of their drives total, and only ever having one 13GB drive die on me. I know Seagate is good, but i think these look like a pretty sweet buy. Also, i'm considering buying only 4 or so and then buying the other three at the start of the school year when the prices will have come down. Also it will save me room when i have to bring the guts of this new beast from South Carolina where i'm home for the summer to Iowa where i go to school!

(I only plan on having seven RAID 5 drives total, as i've got room for nine in my case, but will have a software RAID 1 of 2 WD 80GB IDE HDDs for my OS. So that just leaves me with room for seven disks for my RAID 5. I can have one partition of that be XFS and the other NTFS, on that RAID 1, right? :D)
 
I just ordered two Seagate 300GB drives from them. They came in small plastic carriers, wrapped in bubble-wrap, stuck in a box of peanuts. They were very secure and in the dead center of the box.
 
Newegg ships right i use them and zipzoomfly exclusively. I just bought two sets of memory and they came bubble wrapped like hell and peanuts all around. Excellent packagaing. I also bought harddrives and optic drives and all came securely packaged,

LIke i said both companies are excellent and the best etailers in the industry.
 
On those WD's you just bought...those weren't the RAID edition of those drives. They lack Time-limited error recovery (TLER)

Some of the WD drives drop out of connection with the RAID card and can cause data corruption. So WD started their RAID EDITION drives "which improves compatibility with RAID adapters, and prevents drive fallout caused by the extended hard drive error-recovery processes common to desktop hard drives."

Just don't want you to loose your info because the hard drives crap out on you
 
hardwarephreak said:
Some of the WD drives drop out of connection with the RAID card and can cause data corruption.
Click to expand...
To be a little more precise, the problem is that when the drive goes to recover from an error (this is fairly common) it stops responding to the controller. After a few seconds, the controller assumes the drive has disappeared, and the array goes into degraded mode. When the disk finishes its recovery and comes back, the controller notices it and rebuilds the whole array. This is quite a time-consuming process, and it can cause other drives to do an error recovery (since they're being used so much during it) and then the whole array is toast.

These would be a better pick.

 
:eek:. That'll teach me for not doing my homework. I saw the REs before, but just assumed that they were much more expensive, etc, etc. Okay. let's see if i can cancel this order :rolleyes:.

Thanks for letting me know!

edit: :D crisis averted.
 
I found the solution to the TLER problem is to have my raid controller poll the SMART status on the 320GB SE's every minute. I assume they respond to the SMART query because I have not had a drive drop since I set the poll. Before the poll I had two drops in 36 hours.
 
I dunno at the office I work at they still send stuff in the foam peanuts and you gotta think these ppl must be high theres a nize sized box in it was just 4 copies of win xp pro and 6 ram sticks in a good sized box. :confused:
 
I just ordered another HDD from Newegg last week. OEM, came in antistatic bag, wrapped in bubblewrap, and put in antistatic peanuts.

Great packaging I would say and much better than many other places.
 
unhappy_mage said:
To be a little more precise, the problem is that when the drive goes to recover from an error (this is fairly common) it stops responding to the controller.
Click to expand...
What is the cause of these errors? Is it just that the head doesn't get a full or proper read of the bit that it's over?
 
DatHak512 said:
What is the cause of these errors? Is it just that the head doesn't get a full or proper read of the bit that it's over?
Click to expand...
More or less. There's ECC on hard drives; when you write a byte to disk, more than 8 bits actually end up on the disk. The extra bits are used to make sure that the data you write is the data you get back. This type of encoding is used on CDs and DVDs as well; Kprobe2 will tell you how well your burner is writing the ECC, among other things.

In any case, error recovery happens when a bit can't be retrieved, or when an inconsistent set of ECC data is retrieved and the disk has to decide what to tell the controller. If Dark Ember should happen to stop by, he could tell you more about this, I'm sure. But that's my understanding.

 
I suppose it's a little O-T, but when i get around to it, i *might* upload photos of the packaging that my HDDs from ZipzoomFly came in.
...Maybe. ;)
 
just bought re2's from the egg, excellent packaging. bag, box, nuts, box....
 
i think i've ordered 5 drives from newegg. all are oem's, wrapped in 4 ft of bubble wrap and lots of peanuts. all the drives i've ordered over the years are still in good working order
 
In the almost $20k worth of stuff i've ever ordered from newegg I've never had a problem with the way they package their products

Come to think of it, rarely, if at all, have I ever seen ZZF's prices cheaper for anything I have ever ordered.
Sometimes they are the same and i'll get ZZF because of faster shipping.

I've never had a problem with them either
 
The problem with the bubble wrap/packing peanuts thing is that, last time I checked, NewEgg doesn't use the antistatic peanuts. (Pink peanuts are the antistatic ones)The regular packing peanuts carry a static charge and can kill your electronics. In addition, peanuts don't protect well in the event of something puncturing your box.

I recently ordered 9 drives from ZZF, and they shipped in a huge foam box surrounded by the largest anti-static bag I've ever seen (Which I wish I would have kept). IMHO, it's the way things should be done. Here's a pic of the foam box, currently housing two drives not in use (An 80GB IDE and a 160GB SATA) -

drives0tg.png
 
so what your saying is the static charged peanuts will send a static charge through the anti-static bag that the hard drive is in thats supposed to prevent static charges from affecting the hardware?
 
Every drive I've bought has been in a SEALED anti static bag. Shouldn't matter too much if the peanuts are static causing.
 
AMD T-type said:
so what your saying is the static charged peanuts will send a static charge through the anti-static bag that the hard drive is in thats supposed to prevent static charges from affecting the hardware?
Click to expand...
No, simply that it is one of the excuses people use to say "NewEgg sucks!" :D Personally, I prefer the foam box technique used by ZZF. It just makes me feel like I got my money's worth out of it. Newegg ships things like someone from eBay would, and that makes me sad. Even if it is an adequate shipping method. It's all placebo for me.
 
If you do order from Newegg just make sure to pick FedEx. The UPS packages I've recieved have looked like the UPS warehouse guys used it for a pickup game of football.
 
I've always ordered drives from newegg (some outpost.com), and almost all of them have been in great packaging. Usually the bubble wrap does a good enough job, but sometimes there is an exposed area of the wrapped hard drive. I have gotten a drive that was not covered at all at one end. Drive was fine though, since the peanuts helped protect it too.
I have also heard people getting a drive that has an exposed side edge. Like the corner edge of the side.

I have never ordered a drive from ZZF but apparently they package them better than newegg. Newegg is good and usually is fine, but there are potential problems with bubble wrap.

and the peanuts are great. Better than those air bags IMO. By the way, the peanuts won't damage your hardware unless you take it out of the anti-static bag and drop it into the box :)
 
My drives from the Egg (OEM) are fine, I think. My Raptor is giving me problems, running a CHKDSK as we speak but I bet it's WinBlows, not the Raptor....
 
Ordered 2 benq lightscribe dvd-writers and when i opened the box, saw that they were double stacked in 1 plastic bag surrounded by peanuts. One drive DoA and had to get RMA when 2nd lasted 3days. Last time i buy dvd drives from NE.
 
troisanh said:
Ordered 2 benq lightscribe dvd-writers and when i opened the box, saw that they were double stacked in 1 plastic bag surrounded by peanuts. One drive DoA and had to get RMA when 2nd lasted 3days. Last time i buy dvd drives from NE.
Click to expand...

i've never had them send 2 drives together like that. my system i just built (about 2-3 months ago), i bought an oem 15-gb raptor and lite-on lightscribe oem, both wrapped seperately. wonder why newegg did that to u? i wish retail stuff was more available and close to the same price as the oems. :(
 
Last I checked even IBM was shipping their hard drives in bubble wrap. This was about 10 disks being installed into an AS400.
 
bought 3 and 1 drive from newegg for my raid build, sent in peanuts, in a static bag, with the foam packing thing for the three drive order, dont remember on the single. All 4 are living happily in my box.
 
[I only read the original question, sorry if I duplicate info]

Newegg still does the bubblewrap thing with no protection against moving to the package walls. Which basically dooms your harddrive to an early death.

I ordered all my recent harddrive from zipzoomfly and they always came in proper frames that prevent contant of the drive's edges with the box.

Very clear whom to buy from here.

Interestingly enough Newegg is often doing better packaging than Zip for other items.
 
I have two drives in my system right now (both from newegg). One is about three years old, the other about one. Never had any problems. \impending doom? :eek:
 
teclado said:
I have two drives in my system right now (both from newegg). One is about three years old, the other about one. Never had any problems. \impending doom? :eek:
Click to expand...
I have four drives in my computer right now, all of them from newegg. They're doing fine, but that doesn't mean newegg packages them well enough. They don't, because I have seen poorly packaged drives from newegg. Most of the time they will do a great job with the bubble wrap, but there is still a chance that the bubble wrap doesn't cover one end, or doesn't cover a side. That could be very bad if the box gets tossed around much...

I'd say about 90-95% of the drives I've ordered from newegg were packaged very well. The other 5-10% had exposed edges/sides, but luckily I have never gotten a DOA drive from them.
 
newegg is the most reliable online vendor I've EVER purchased from.

If something costs a few dollars more at the egg I'll go there. If it's 15 or higher I'll go elsewhere, but less than 10 - the egg is trust worthy and I'll purchase from them with full confidence anytime.
 
Archaea said:
newegg is the most reliable online vendor I've EVER purchased from.
Click to expand...
yes they are, but their hard drive packaging methods could be better. There have been many complaints about the way they just wrap drives in bubble wrap. Most of the time it does a great job, but there is a chance that it will not completely protect the drive.
 
i shop at newegg, chiefvalue (neweggs sister site) and zipzoomfly for all my computer parts. i have had good luck with nearly everything. i prefer neweggs same day shipping for most rush orders (nearly everything is same day there) but dont like the fact that they ship 3 differnt boxes from 3 locations and they do not all come the same day. i get everything but what i really need, that comes 2 days later as it was shipped from nj (and its the closest to me).

zipzoomfly is 2nd day standard so the shipping is fast but they always take 24/48 hours to process and ship an item. it works out to be the same time as neweggs rush.

now as far as harddrives are concerned packing peanuts are NOT an acceptable way to ship them in. i have rma'd to maxtor, western digital, seagate, and hitachi and all 4 state that the harddrive must be ridigidally supported by either styrofoam formed around the drive or in the origional plastic clamshell. all 4 are very specific on the peanut issue and say "do not use packing peanuts" as they allow the drive to shift and do not support the drive firmly enough.

dont get me wrong ive never had a drive go bad in shipping when shipped in peanuts, and as a matter of fact i just recieved a western digital wd200bb today that came in peanuts and it works just fine. draw your own conclusions as to what you want to use.
 
mrbigshot said:
i get everything but what i really need, that comes 2 days later as it was shipped from nj (and its the closest to me).
Click to expand...
hate that.. once it took 2 days to get the package from the NJ warehouse, and I live maybe an hour away from it.


now as far as harddrives are concerned packing peanuts are NOT an acceptable way to ship them in. i have rma'd to maxtor, western digital, seagate, and hitachi and all 4 state that the harddrive must be ridigidally supported by either styrofoam formed around the drive or in the origional plastic clamshell. all 4 are very specific on the peanut issue and say "do not use packing peanuts" as they allow the drive to shift and do not support the drive firmly enough.
Click to expand...
Packing peanuts are good. Even if the drive is at the bottom of the box with no packing peanuts under it, I would be surprised if it was damaged during shipment. The bubble wrap absorbs a lot of force (especially the way newegg packs it.. several layers), and the packing peanuts are just extra to keep it from bumping around in the box. The only thing is, newegg sometimes leaves exposed areas of the drive, exposed through the bubble wrap. Other than that, the way they pack the drives is good.

I think the drive manufacturers just don't want a bare drive (in anti-static bag) just floating around in a box of peanuts. That would increase the chances of it shifting around and getting damaged.
Same thing as if you sent them a drive in that plastic/foam enclosure, in a box of peanuts. I'm sure they wouldn't care about the packing peanuts if the drive was also enclosed in the foam/plastic thing.

But with newegg's bubble wrap, there is always a layer of protection (usually), plus whatever peanuts are around it.
 
my last drive was completely bubble wrapped put into a box and that box was in another box with peanuts. overkill maybe but im not complaining
 
I think they have their shipping backwards or something, I just bought Windows XP CD and it came in its CD sleeve, in a Padded Envelope, wrapped around with bubble wrap, then thrown into a box (as big as a shoebox mind you) full of packing peanuts.

I want that kind of overkill on my hard disks, not a single CD! :rolleyes:
 
Archaea said:
newegg is the most reliable online vendor I've EVER purchased from.

If something costs a few dollars more at the egg I'll go there. If it's 15 or higher I'll go elsewhere, but less than 10 - the egg is trust worthy and I'll purchase from them with full confidence anytime.
Click to expand...

You didn't get our point.

For whatever reasons newegg seems to ship everything else just fine except harddrives.

This includes chiefvalue, BTW (same shop). They sent me a notebook harddrive in a form that wasn't much better than just putting a stamp on it and dropping it into the mailbox.
 
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