[mythtv-users] OEM vs. Retail Drives - Was: Dell dual-quad...

[Rod Smith]

On Thursday 25 October 2007 16:32:46 Yan Seiner wrote:
> David Brodbeck wrote:
> > On Oct 25, 2007, at 1:20 PM, Josh White wrote:
> >> I guess I've been luck on the "OEM" stuff I bought that came in a
> >> box in the past.  Thanks for the info.
> >
> > I remember OEM hard disks used to be referred to as "white box
> > drives" because of the plain, unadorned packaging.
>
> But the box cost $0.12, so now it comes in a plastic bag that only costs
> $0.07.  Next week they'll start slapping mailing labels on the drives
> themselves....

I've had wildly different experiences depending on the vendor. To date, NewEgg 
has never shipped me anything with what I consider inadequate padding. I did 
once buy a drive from another vendor (I've forgotten who), and they just 
dropped the bare drive (possibly in an anti-static bag, although I'm not even 
positive of that) in a FedEx box with *NO* padding whatsoever. The drive 
could bounce around inside the box, and no doubt it did. It worked OK when I 
first got it, so I (unwisely) kept it. It failed about six months later.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com