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

[Robert Johnston]

On 10/25/07, David Brodbeck <gull at gull.us> wrote:
> On Oct 25, 2007, at 2:03 PM, Rod Smith wrote:
> > 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.
>
> Hard disks are sturdier than we sometimes give them credit for,
> though.  Ever looked at the shock specs for hard disks?  They're
> surprisingly high.  One Seagate data sheet I have handy gives limits
> of 300 Gs non-operating and 63 Gs operating!  Of course, if it's
> inadequately packed it could still be crushed or the circuit board
> physically damaged.  I've gotten boxes from UPS that looked like
> accordions.
>
> TigerDirect has sent me drives in antistatic plastic shells,
> otherwise loose in boxes full of packing peanuts.  That's about the
> lowest level of packaging I've seen for a hard disk.  Retail drives
> these days usually just have a similar plastic shell inside a
> cardboard box -- the "three inches of foam" method of packing hard
> disks seems to be falling out of favor.

Having worked in retail, and ordered (and opened) a case of OEM HDD's
direct from manufacturer, I can tell you the packaging you're getting
is BETTER than they are packed in for shipment to warehouses.

We ordered a "crate" of HDDs as we were going to be building 2
complete racks, and we were building the machines ourselves from
scratch.

The HDDs came:
Wrapped in Anti-Static Bags
Surrounded by a "Lattice" of foam strips (2 strips per dimension)
between them (Around 1" thickness between units)
Stacked end up (SCA connectors upwards), in 2 rows of 16 disks, 2 layers high
In a single all-encompassing cardboard box.

So looking like an array of #s, in a box.

And the entire batch was faulty, as the manufacturer (Well, their
delivery company) dropped the box off a pallet during transit.
-- 
Robert "Anaerin" Johnston