Best place to buy Samsung HDDs

[mubs]

Le'Egg somes to mind immediately. But you folks used to complain in the past that Newegg didn't ship HDDs properly and the DOAs were quite a large number. Has this changed? Is is safe to buy HDDs from Newegg? I'm taking these out of the country and so longevity of the drives is more important than the best price. Any other vendor recommended?

Thanks.

 

[CougTek]

What is the price to beat and which capacity are you looking for?

 

[ddrueding]

Newegg doesn't ship drives in retail boxes. They ship them in anti-static bags tightly wrapped with an inch or more of bubble wrap in a larger box full of peanuts. I consider this satisfactory and have purchased hundreds of drives from them with only a few failures (that weren't WD) so far.

 

[CougTek]

Just seen that Newegg sells the 400GB model at 101.28$ shipped. That's cheap I suppose I could match, but I wouldn't do many pennies.

 

[e_dawg]

NCIX.com carries Samsung, although they are not in stock at the moment. I've never had any issues with their drives.

 

[sechs]

Newegg doesn't ship drives in retail boxes. They ship them in anti-static bags tightly wrapped with an inch or more of bubble wrap in a larger box full of peanuts. I consider this satisfactory and have purchased hundreds of drives from them with only a few failures (that weren't WD) so far.

First, unless there's been a sudden change, Samsung drives aren't sold at retail; only through channels.

Second, no matter how many successful shipments, that *is not* a satisfactory way to ship a drive. Considering how outfits like UPS treat boxes, I'm surprised that properly packed drives don't show up DOA more often.

Also keep in mind that Samsung's RMA route is back through the channel. If you have a problem, you have to get a replacement through the entity from which you purchased it.

 

[MaxBurn]

Also keep in mind that Samsung's RMA route is back through the channel. If you have a problem, you have to get a replacement through the entity from which you purchased it.

Is that only overseas? I have RMA'd a drive before directly no problem. Bought these through newegg too.

http://erms.samsungusa.com/customer...PG_ID=-1&AT_ID=12109&PROD_SUB_ID=0&PROD_ID=-1

Even a nice handy utility to tell you if you are under warranty.

 

[Fushigi]

Microcenter sells them. Their price isn't the greatest and I've no idea how they are packaged for shipping. For me they have a local store about a half mile from where I work.

Microcenter in general has been a decent place to buy from when their price is competitive.

 

[LiamC]

Tony of course

 

[sechs]

Is that only overseas? I have RMA'd a drive before directly no problem.

The last time that I asked Samsung, I was told that the drive needed to go back to the distributor, who would exchange for an RMA. In order for the drive to get to the distributor, I would have to return it to the retailer (Newegg, in that particular case), who would send it back to their distributor, and, supposedly, give me a replacement drive.

If it has changed, I'd be a little more likely to get a Samsung drive in the future.

 

[Mercutio]

Um... I just submitted four drives for RMA on Samsung's web site. They told me to ship them to:

SAMSUNG Receiving
25 E. Union Ave Unit 1
East Ruthrford, NJ 07073

 

[Bozo]

Um... I just submitted four drives for RMA on Samsung's web site. They told me to ship them to:

SAMSUNG Receiving
25 E. Union Ave Unit 1
East Ruthrford, NJ 07073

4! And these are more reliable than......WD?

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

4! And these are more reliable than......WD?

Bozo :joker:

I suspect it's a matter of volume. The method of failure also counts IMO. If the SMART error counts are high but you can get the data off, it's a much better failure then "smoke and awe". WD drives seem to specialize in the latter.

 

[Mercutio]

Four drives in the eight months since the last time I sent some drives back. One of them was dropped (my fault) and though it works, I don't trust it. Another was DOA (probably UPS's fault). Two others do in fact have SMART failures. One of those was two years and eight months old.

I buy a LOT of Samsung drives. This is my third batch of RMA'd drives. My first took two years to accumulate.

 

[Corvair]

First, unless there's been a sudden change, Samsung drives aren't sold at retail; only through channels...

CompUSA sells Samsung hard drives in full retail attire in their chains stores. The boxes are brown with the oval Samsung logo.

 

[mubs]

Thanks, Corvair; I saw an ad in a CompUSA flyer a couple of weeks back. The model they had wasn't listed on Sammy's web site and I didn't know if it was gray market stuff. If I buy a 320GB 16MB Sata II retail drive, I hope I'll end up with the HD321KJ. If so I don't mind paying a premium for them. I have never had a HDD fail on me, ever. Probably because except for the last two I bought OEM, the rest were all retail with their superb packaging.

 

[Stereodude]

CompUSA sells Samsung hard drives in full retail attire in their chains stores. The boxes are brown with the oval Samsung logo.

That of course assume you will have some CompUSA stores still in business where you live.

 

[mubs]

Newegg still hasn't learned to package HDDs.

I ordered two SATA Sammys, and they arrived in a large box that was warped. Filled with foam peanuts. Lots of it. Right at the bottom, with no peanuts between it and the bottom of the box, was a thing wrapped in bubble wrap. The wrap wasn't enough to go all around; one edge of the clamshell of the bottom HDD was making contact with the box.

Right now I only have access to laptops. Fortunately I had also purchased a USB/eSata enclosure (arrived in a different shipment). I tested each of the drives in this enclosure over a USB connection with Win XP Disk Management. First initialized the disks, then formatted (extended/logical partition), then using both check disk options: 1) Automatically fix file system errors 2) Scan for an attempt recovery of bad sectors. No problems reported.

With the first drive, I forgot to power the little fan in the enclosure, and the enclosure got very hot - hotter than any drive I have owned. I didn't notice this because I started the check disk and went off to do something else. I took the drive out of the enclosure as soon as I could, and the drive was also very hot (I could hold it for some time before it began to get uncomfy). I don't know if I shortened the drive's life because of this. With the second drive, I had the fan connected, and it stayed cool to the touch. Amazing how much difference such a small fan can make. i wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen for myself.

I downloaded Hutil203.exe from Samsung's website, but couldn't run it because it is a DOS based utility. It couldn't see the drive in the external USB enclosure.

Don't know if the drives are ok now but will develop problems later. Hope not.

If I had packed the drives, I would probably have used those air-filled plastic sacs to jam the contents in place. A heavy object can easily displace foam peanuts and work its way to the bottom.

Time will tell. If these fail, it will be my first hard drive failure ever.

 

[timwhit]

The Samsung drive I saw packed by Newegg earlier this week was wrapped in about 4" of bubble wrap all the way around the clamshell. This seemed like it was sufficient.

Didn't that Google study from a couple months ago say that heat wasn't a factor in hard disk reliability?

 

[Will Rickards]

It probably isn't exactly newegg which controls the quality of shipping but which warehouse is shipping it to you.

 

[timwhit]

I think Newegg has 3 warehouses, in CA, NJ, and TN. They are all owned by Newegg, so I would think that they would have very similar QA at each one.

Please correct me if I am wrong. I only order from them a couple times a year whereas people like DD and Merc order thousands of $ worth of stuff each month.

 

[Will Rickards]

I wouldn't bet on very similar. Heck even shift differences could cause quality differences in just one warehouse location.

 

[Stereodude]

The Samsung drive I saw packed by Newegg earlier this week was wrapped in about 4" of bubble wrap all the way around the clamshell. This seemed like it was sufficient.

The WD drive I bought about 2 weeks ago was the same way. It was encased in several inches of bubble wrap.

 

[Adcadet]

I got two Seagate drives shipped to me from Newegg this week. The box was filled with peanuts, and in approximately the center of the box were the two HDs, wrapped in bubble tape and with a single layer of bubble tape between the two drives. After hearing the sorries here I was a little afraid, but I was happily surprised by what I got. So far one of the drives works great, and I'll hook the other one up this weekend.

 

[ddrueding]

5 of the 6 Seagate 750GB drives I currently have came from Newegg, the 6th died in an aftermarket USB enclosure at Merc's and is now a refurbished drive from Seagate. Even the WD740s I have from Newegg are still running. When I order large amounts of drives from them, they come in whole cases, so I don't need to worry about them.

 

[Mercutio]

I see maybe two or four DOA drives from Newegg in a given year, which is probably 1% rate for dead drives. As a guess, I probably lose another 1% of the drives I order from some kind of RMA-able failure in a year, no matter how much I baby the drives and how little they're used.

In generaly, I order three Samsung drives for every Hitachi or Seagate I order, but I find the incidence of returns on Hitachi and Seagate drives to be higher than for Samsungs, which is why I still predominantly buy Samsung drives..

Generally, when I order less than six drives, each drive is wound up in two layers of bubble wrap, longways around the drive. The pieces of bubblewrap are longer than the drive, so those ends may or may not be taped shut as well. My overall impression is that this level of packaging is adequate to protect the drive.
If I order more than five drives in one shot, they almost always ship the drives in a Styrofoam shell which is very safe and very sturdy.

My drives spend considerably longer in shipment than ddrueding's, too.

Power Supplies and motherboards are far more likely to be DOA or damaged in shipment, in my experience.

Next week, if I remember, I'll post my totals for DOA parts from my kid classes. I ordered 101 complete sets of parts, so there's a very large and representative sample.

 

[timwhit]

Would it be possible for you to keep tabs on your systems and let us know what your failure rates are for other components over a longer time period?

I am most interested in power supplies, but DVD drives, hard drives, motherboards, etc would all be interesting to know about.

 

[Adcadet]

Sounds like some people are thinking about a more rational drive reliability survey.

 

[Fushigi]

That of course assume you will have some CompUSA stores still in business where you live.

And good luck with that.

 

[LunarMist]

Newegg uses illegal packaging, but sometimes the drives are OK. My Samsung F1 from them is working fine.

 

[blakerwry]

Every time I have received a drive from Newegg one edge of the HDD has all the bubble wrap popped. Since the drive is in a larger box filled with peanuts, this has to happen during packaging time @ newegg.

After the last batch of DOA drives from them I think I've given up... HyperMicro has been excellent every time. I also have an order in from allstarshop.com, will let you know how it goes (was great a few years ago).

 

[LunarMist]

I don't see any Samsung hard drives at allstarshop.com. Meanwhile Hypermicro.com has a lot of old or discontinued drives, and nothing over 400 GB in SATA.

 

[Will Rickards]

Any thoughts on the samsung F1 1TB drive?
I see it is only 279.99 on newegg. But the reviewers there were complaining about the price. But it is cheaper than the other 1TB drives I saw on newegg (excluding WD).
Tom's Hardware seems to like them. That was just the only review I found in a quick google search.
Storagereview has an overview but no review and it isn't in the database.

 

[LunarMist]

Any thoughts on the samsung F1 1TB drive?

Mine is fine so far. It is cooler and quieter than my pair of 7K1000s, but warmer than my WD Greenpowder 1TB. I don't have a Seagate 1TB 7200.11 yet, but the F1 is the favorite of the three 1TB models in my computer.

 

[Will Rickards]

Hey I went to samsung's website to RMA one of my 1TB drives but it seems to say what is up above, that you have to go back through the channel you bought the drive from. Is this true or is there some secret place I'm not looking?

 

[ddrueding]

Hey I went to samsung's website to RMA one of my 1TB drives but it seems to say what is up above, that you have to go back through the channel you bought the drive from. Is this true or is there some secret place I'm not looking?

I think it depends on whether it is an OEM drive or not?

 

[LunarMist]

That's why I don't buy Samsung drives anymore.

 

[MaxBurn]

It moved but this page told you to go back to the store?

http://www.samsung.com/us/support/repairpolicy/servicePolicyWarrantyHddOddExchange.do

 

[Will Rickards]

I went from samsunghdd.com (what is reported on the ESTool drive inspection utility).
It linked to http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/warranty/Support_Warranty.html

 

[Will Rickards]

Weird. I used samsung's ESTool to low level format the drive but it errored out. Then I erased the drive with their tool. Now it checks out fine with chkdsk and their estool.
I think I'll let spinrite at it for a while to see what it says.