Another WD hard drive option at Sam's

[Squat]

I know we already have a thread about the $99 WD 20 gig drive, but just wanted to let you know about another option.

My local Sam's didn't have the 20 gig in stock. But they did have a WD 30.7 gig drive (it's an ATA66, 5400 drive, sorry I don't have the model number or SKU, I'll check on those at home). It was normally $139 but it was ringing up for $119. Plus it has the $40 rebate from Sam's! So for $79 I got a 30.7 gig drive.

I know it's only a 5400 drive, which may make a difference to some folks, so I'm not sure if this qualifies as a true "hot deal" but just wanted to let others know in case they're interested! It was a great deal for me.

 

[cressida]

*sigh* Bought a WD 30.7 gig 5400 on pricewatch like two months ago for 130





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"don't hold onto the pain.. just let go"

 

[dmbsuperfan]

is there a tremendous difference between a 7200 and 5400 HD?? Also, is 7200 the fastest you can get? thanks

 

[BANDITAENMASQUERADA]

you guys should really read the other threads on how to get the best deal. Some have gotten this hard drive for less than 50 bucks AND a 30 dollar rebate...but some are only getting it PM with Sam's at the sale price and using a 25 coupon and and 30 rebate and a few extras thrown in like free paper and/or a free camera..you may or may not be successful but you should give it a try if you like to save money..better deal than buying it at Sam's

But you have to do a cost verus benefit analysis..sometimes it
is just better to pay a higher price and not risk grey hairs..that isn't my philosophy though..if I can get a better deal somewhere I will give it a whirl.

 

[phlashphire]

is there a tremendous difference between a 7200 and 5400 HD?? Also, is 7200 the fastest you can get? thanks

There's about ~25% speed increase w/ 7200.
Not really *that* noticeable if you ask me... but if ya want the good stuff, 7200 are the way to go.

 

[Techwhore]

the differences are noticeable, but it helps if you buy a quality 7200 rpm drive too, for instance the ibm 75gxp's. That outperforms every 7200 drive and you will definitely see big differences between that and let's say a maxtor or wd 5400, not that those drives are bad. It's all in what you need. If speed is a concern, go for scsi! 10,000 rpm drives and i think the 15,000 rpm's are out, not sure though.

 

[TheManiacal1]

yes virginia, there IS a difference...

there is a definite noticable difference when you're doing massive file xfers (a few hudred megs - a couple of gigs). if you're just going to use it to play solitaire and surf the web, stick w/ 5400 for the $$$issue. as techwhore said, there's a definite difference between lower quality and higher quality drives. my previous IBM drives outperformed my MAXTOR drives hands down. of course, UDMA controllers are important too. i have a Highpoint 370 (UDMA/100) on my mobo and from my experience, Highpoint IS SUCK! stick w/ Promise. 10k rpm drives are SCSI only as far as i'm aware of. if you're looking for fast IDE, try considering UDMA/100 as opposed to UDMA/66 or UDMA/33.

 

[Hork]

Would this work as a good second drive for the 14-hour TiVo?

I'm looking for an inexpensive drive to add more recording time.

Hork

 

[Atomics]

For those wondering about the technical merits, speed in most definitely NOT the most important factor. There are several factors that add together to make the total drive performance. In this case, the 20.5 is NOT the best performer:
High End Disk Winmark 99

WD 20.5 7200rpm - 11333
WD 30.7 5400rpm - 11833
WD 45.0 5400rpm - 16067 (this result was using a different testbed though)

Because the larger disks have a MUCH higher density, the head will read more information going over the same distance than the smaller drive. The higher speed on the 20.5GB lets it move over a greater distance/time, but there is less data on that space.

What I would like to know is Sam's SKU for the 45.0 GB. There are stores around with the 20 and 30, but without the SKU, they are reluctant to look for the 45GB. If anyone can post it, I would appreciate it! Thanks!

 

[vacancy]

Just bought the WD 45-er today. SKU = 660032.

 

[Azul]

Yeah, Id have to suggest going with a 36 gig Scsi Cheetah.. 10,000 RPMs.. You will notice a difference then! Muhahaha

 

[Atomics]

Vacancy- you are DA mahn! Thx

 

[dirtrat]

Atomics, throwing out the results of one benchmark hardly proves the 5400 RPM drives are faster than the expert drive. For most people the 5400 RPM drives will work fine but I'm also sure the expert drive will beat it on MANY OTHER benchmarks.

 

[vacancy]

Yeah - Check the storagereview.com with the WD20/7200 vs. WD45/5400
and third parties of your choice. The WD45 is bringing up the rear.

OTOH, 45G of storage for $110 after MIR was too much to resist. <g>

 

[Xmenxmen]

You can say that again. I went to trying to grab myself a 20G and end up bring up a 45G. So for about 161.61 after tax and before rebate, that's not too bad. Especially that I will selling my 20G away for about the same.

They got to make these kind of deal illegal, cause it's killing me.

 

[jhassi]

don't listen to those people claiming 7200 is that much faster than 5400

the difference between 7200 and 5400 is NOT noticeable

how do i know?? Because I had a 6.4 gig 7200 rpm drive (seagate medalist pro ST36530A) and a 6.4gig 5400 seagate and their was no *noticeable* difference between the two.

Of course the benchmarks tell a different story, they said the 7200 kicked a$$ compared to the 5400, but you open a file or copy files and you're like, ok, where's this &quot;big&quot; difference??

Then i bought a 20.4 gig 5400 and i was like whoa! that's much faster!

I'll never buy another 7200 drive unless the price difference between it and the 5400 is less than 5%, otherwise it's really not worth it unless you do *a lot* of editing of large files, like 50+ meg wav or movie files, which more people might be doing if they get ME since it includes a video editor for free.

I heard the same thing you guys are now, &quot;oh 7200 is great, it's so fast! get a 7200!&quot; and ended up spending 75% more for the 7200 when I bought it two years ago. It was also rated as one of the top drives @ storagereview.com at that time, so I thought, oh this is a sure thing, this drive will be so fast! I get it and i'm like ok this is great! I bought a second drive 5400 6.4gig seagate a few months later at a bargain and then i realized i was deceived!!

I guess everyone has to learn for themselves though, i just learned the hard way

 

[ResearchEverything]

I don't consider this argument really on topic, but want to add my tech advice.
The 7200 is better but only if it has a 2MB buffer or better. I would rather have a 5400rpm drive with a 512k buffer than a 7200rpm drive with a 256k buffer. You will see the buffer really makes the difference. I have the Maxtor 30GB 7200rpm drive with a 2MB buffer and have never had a buffer under run burning cd's even while doing things with my system. The ATA66 or 100 is a rip off. The only speed increase is the speed of the buffer. The ATA66 isn't the speed of the drive but how fast it can read from it's buffer. It is a hard idea to believe or accept but true. I want to get a Sam's membershipt to pick up one of those cheap <$100 drives for the storage. Good luck folks.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Dont think anyone cares, but if you have a Discover card, in the past 2-3 billings it has included a $10 or $20 off coupon (forgot which) at Sams, therefore lowering the price a lil bit more

 

[Hork]

Picked up one of the WD 30 GB drives the other day in Sam's in North Richland Hills, TX... there were only two more 30 GB drives left at that time, and a bunch of the 20 GB drives. Today when I went, both drive sizes were all gone.

As of 15 minutes ago, the drive has been blessed and is sitting in my Tivo giving me 52 hours or recording time. :-D

Since I got the 14 hr TiVo from Amazon for around $85 (during the $99 sale they had one day, plus I used a gift certificate) and I'll be getting the $100 rebate from TiVo, and since the drive is $80 after rebate, it's like I got a 52 hour TiVo for $65!

I love the TiVo by the way! It's been great being able to watch the Olypmics this way! Did you see that US Women's Water Polo player get kicked in the face by her opponent? I did! I watched it several times! I love the rewind on the TiVo!

Hork

 

[gr8snakee]

Went to sams today. Seems as if they discontinued the 45gb wd 5400 drive. Need to find this hard drive for my dishplayer unit. Circuit City has it, but my sams is out of stock. I was hoping to buy this drive from buy.com and they discontinued it too. it was on back order forever. Obvious reasons for wanting the retail box are pricematching and rebate. Almost got this drive for 120. if anyone knows where they can still get the retail 45gb from western digital please let me know .

 

[Nightwatch]

Sam's Club part number is 427106. Is it an OEM version at Staples that I pricematched to. No rebate but 81.49 for a 30 gig is great.

 

[deemo]

Actually the 45 GB 5400 RPM drive is within 5% of most the specs of the 20.5 GB 7200 RPM drive. All being equal, a 7200 RPM drive is 15-20% faster but these are not equal drives. Disk density is a big factor on some factors of disk speed (Transfer rate primarily) and the 45 GB has a much higher density that makes these drives about equivalent for a lot of measures and you will not notice any of these differences in actual use.

From storagereview.com:
Business WinMark 99 - 45 GB 6703, 20.5 GB 7037.
High-End WinMark 99 - 45 GB 16067, 20.5 GB 16800.
Disk Transfer Rate Beg - 45 GB 25600, 20.5 GB 25067
Disk Transfer Rate End - 45 GB 16900, 20.5 GB 16800
Disk Access Time - 45 GB 15.4, 20.5 GB 13.8

 

[deemo]

For further info, the speed gain due to density from the 45 GB do not apply to the 30.7 GB drive since it has the same platter density as the 20.5 GB drive but is a 5400 rpm drive.

Also the Sams club in Kenner, La as of yesterday had a number of 20.5 GB and the one in New Orleans East had several 45 GB and 30.7 GB drives.

 

[fxsts]

Guys,

I see this spindle speed discussion comes up every once in a while. Then, there is always someone w/o much knowledge start saying, &quot;5,400rpm sucks&quot; or &quot;Don't get it because it's 5400rpm drive&quot;. The reality is that 7,200rpm drives are not always faster than 5,400rpm drives. So please stop giving other people wrong information.

There are no one factor which makes a hard drive faster than others.

- Spindle speed
- Access time
- Areal density
- Buffer size
- and others

They all play important roles.

Don't laugh at 5,400rpm drives with 10 or 15GB platters. They are way faster than the old 7,200 rpm drives like Medalist Pro. If you pick a drive just because it's 7,200rpm or 10,000rpm, you can end up with a pretty slow drive. Storagereview.com is a good site where you can lean more about hard drives.

 

[directcom]

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