HDDs so expensive ... should I buy an external and rip it open for a new build?

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IcarusSC

Gawd
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Basically what the title says. I need to build for a friend this month. I'm keeping my eye out for deals, but everything's through the roof. Would I be better off getting an external and pulling out the drive to slap in my friend's new machine? How feasible is that?
 
Where do you find externals significantly cheaper than internals?
 
I bought an HP 1TB external drive for $94 at Microcenter two weeks ago. Check out Staples, Office Max. I saw a 2TB one for $115.
 
Newegg, for starters. You can get a 2TB external for the same price as a 1TB internal. The cheapest -- the cheapest! -- internal on Newegg today that's 1T is $140.
 
Those external drives may be slower, likely 5400 rpm, less buffer, sata 1, or maybe even IDE etc. Could still be worth it though.
 
Check out staples, I believe they have a 1.5tb external for under $70.00.
 
I'm pulling 3TB Seagate GoFlex ones from the US posted to me on Australia for an average of $200.
I've bought 14 and will get 6 more.
 
Elf_Boy said:
Those external drives may be slower, likely 5400 rpm, less buffer, sata 1, or maybe even IDE etc. Could still be worth it though.
Click to expand...

They will not be IDE drives if they are 2TB. They will not be SATA1 drives either. Only thing you need to watch for is ones that don't have a SATA port on them, as many are coming with the USB bridge integrated into the PCB.

And yes, they will likely be slower drives of the "Green" variety, most externals are as they are cooler and use less power.
 
Unless you know exactly which drive is inside the case, I wouldn't do it.

Some of those "green drives" are pretty slow.
 
If you have a fast 1TB you don't need (thanks to an SSD) you could buy a 2TB external for yourself and give the 1TB in exchange, win win.
 
check the forums there are interal hdd's there. NEVER GET EXTERNALS. you want to carry around a brick?
 
I just bought 8 of the 4tb externals from Best Buy and ripped them open. Seagate 7200rpm 4tb drives inside!
 
Yep.

I got lucky before BF and snagged 4x Hitachi 3TB's (USB 2.0 enclosure) for $95 each (office max, in store...). You better believe I tested the hell outta those puppies for a week then ripped em apart.

EDIT: Ran this guy for a week straight on all 4 drives at the same time. http://www.nu2.nu/bst/
 
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Up until a week ago when they ran out, I was buying 3TB Western Digital Essential External drives for $99 at Costco.

I bought 4 of them to fill up a 4-bay QNAP NAS.

Best buy now has that external drive for $259, and if you rip it open, you'll find an internal SATA6 drive that newegg is now selling for $299.

Externals are relatively easy to open without breaking, thus saving you an external enclosure that you could reuse.

The only thing about external enclosures though, is that a lot of them come with 5400RPM drives, which aren't the best option for OS or boot disks, unless you don't care about speed, and only want it for a normal home computer, or basic media archiving.
 
don't externals typically come with a crappier warranty?
and that's assuming you're able to put it back together perfectly after voiding the warranty to begin with
 
Warranty isn't a major concern for me. My friend lives in China and will find it virtually impossible to RMA anything.
 
If warranty isn't a big concern, then there's zero reason to favor an internal drive over an external when considering consumer-level drives. they're all the same thing. The Hitachi's I have even show up with a warranty on the Hitachi site when I plug in the serial number pasted on the drive itself. Enterprise drives are another kettle of fish, but i'm pretty sure that's not what you're after.
 
The_Engineer said:
If warranty isn't a big concern, then there's zero reason to favor an internal drive over an external when considering consumer-level drives. they're all the same thing. The Hitachi's I have even show up with a warranty on the Hitachi site when I plug in the serial number pasted on the drive itself. Enterprise drives are another kettle of fish, but i'm pretty sure that's not what you're after.
Click to expand...

A couple of the Western Digital My Books that have died on me have the same serial number on the case and on the drive inside, so even though it is a blue,black, or green, you only get the 1 year warranty.
 
georgexi said:
don't externals typically come with a crappier warranty?
and that's assuming you're able to put it back together perfectly after voiding the warranty to begin with
Click to expand...
So, fwiw, I jumped on this bandwagon...
  • Snagged a 3TB Seagate GoFlex off Amazon's BF deals for $100
  • Took it down to the tool room, popped the enclosure (mostly snaps)
  • Got the drive out: Barracuda XT (ST33000651AS)... 7200 rpm, whew, nice!

  • Decided I'd check on the warranty...
    • Plug SN off the external enclosure into Seagate webpage: warrantied out to 2013
    • Plug SN off the internal drive into Seagate webpage...
      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Warranty Status

      Expiration 26-Oct-2016 In Warranty

      In Warranty
      This drive is covered by a Seagate warranty.
      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naturally, I haven't actually RMA'd the drive, but as near as I can tell Seagate (at least) doesn't care how you ended up with the drive. A drive's a drive's a drive, as far as their internal tracking system is concerned.

Which is pretty nice for the price. :D

PS: As others have mentioned... do decide if you need a 5900 or a 7200 rpm drive for your needs. Some vendors *cough*WD*cough* are pretty unscrupulous about shoving green drives in their "SATA 6GB/s!! Performance!!" external enclosures (admittedly, not that it makes much difference bus wise, but it still feels like bait-and-switch on performance characteristics).
 
The_Engineer said:
Yep.

I got lucky before BF and snagged 4x Hitachi 3TB's (USB 2.0 enclosure) for $95 each (office max, in store...). You better believe I tested the hell outta those puppies for a week then ripped em apart.

EDIT: Ran this guy for a week straight on all 4 drives at the same time. http://www.nu2.nu/bst/
Click to expand...

I think I have the same Hitachi 3TB drives as what you have from Office Max. Just curious, the test you mentioned running for a week, is it not making the drive hot? Those were 7200 rpm drive in enclosure that does not seems to ventilate well.
 
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