Once again the drive manufacturers have me scratching my head.
My business can sell a new Seagate 5TB USB3.0 external hard drive (5400rpm) for $159! 5TB!! What's baffling is that the cheapest 4TB (not even 5TB!) bare drive is $200! How does one explain the extra $41? Dunno... In fact, it's even crazier because by *not* paying the extra $41 you are given the bonus of a usb3-to-sata adapter and a power supply! Scratching your head? So am I.
Just so everyone knows, you can buy this unit, pull the plastic shell apart and take out the normal, everyday 3.5" SATA drive inside and put it directly in your computer!! (This will void all warranties!)
I should note, though, that this is almost certainly one of Seagate's infamous "not supposed to be on 24/7" garbage drives, like all of their low-end drives. But, still, 5TB for $159 is awful compelling. In fact, just for sheer size and backup possibilities, I'm going to grab one for an extra, more frequent, onsite backup system.
The cheapest 5TB "real" drive you can actually use for something other than occasional use is the WD Red for $270, nearly double the price! The duopoly hard drive manufacturers are "pulling an Intel" now and differentiating by offering 4-6 different drives in each size, causing SKU explosion. And the price difference between the cheapo ones and the (supposed) enterprise-grade can be 300% (and we're not even talking SCSI/SAS here)! It used to be they all just made 1 drive of each size that was good enough for all things (and almost always 7200rpm). Also, note how the price of a quality 7200rpm 2TB drive has not dropped from where it was over 2 years ago! I know, I just checked. Gotta love a duopoly.
P.S. If you want one, let me know! But, sorry, I don't price compete on the low-end so if it's cheaper at <insert etailer here> you can get it there. :-) (Prices subject to change. Tax not included, blah blah blah.)
Wasn't this one of the reasons Backblaze got so famous, for doing exactly that? Or was that just an availability issue at the time? -Adam
On 2015-03-13 Adam Thompson wrote:
Wasn't this one of the reasons Backblaze got so famous, for doing exactly that? Or was that just an availability issue at the time? -Adam
Ya, I was going to dig up that link and add it in but I forgot... I think you originally posted that. Rang my bell too.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze_drive_farming/
It's a funny story. Probably the same thing is happening here but with regards to the 20%+ decrease in the CA$? Well, that and hard drive mfr insanity (or it goes to show the gougation (to coin a term) going on when it comes to desktop hard drives)!
Oh ya! I forgot to say, that $159 drive I mentioned is USB3 *ONLY*, as in won't work on a USB2 port. Not sure why not, but there you go. So add in a PCIe to USB3 card for $25 :-) if your system is too old (>2 years-ish).
I have some of these 5TB drives coming in stock, including one for myself this week, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Looking at reviews, I spotted something interesting/sad/funny:
=============== Other Thoughts: Because of the terrible overall performance and consistency of data transfers in the external enclosure, I decided to pull the drive out and use it internally.
Obviously, as others have stated, that does not work. This drive has a crippled CC41 firmware that has an APM value of 64 (250 or higher is ideal for performance) causing constant head parking and spindown, both wearing out the drive. Since it has a 1 year warranty, I think this, in addition to the non-existent cooling of the enclosure, is obviously intentional on Seagate's part.
The firmware is also apparently crippled to not run AHCI in an again obvious attempt to prevent people from getting the "cheaper" external USB drives that carry a weak warranty, in order to push them toward more expensive internal retail drives. ===============
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=34052.0
If that's true, then there goes backblaze's idea out the window. The sad part is (if it's true), I'm not at all surprised Seagate would "cripple" an external drive. Thankfully I plan to use it pretty much as intended, as an external backup, but it's aggravating to see that should the external case die I can't just yank it and put it in another (say, Vantec) case or internally and keep using it.
I guess there had to be a "catch" to get 5TB for under $175.
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Adam Thompson -
Trevor Cordes