CompUSA - Generic 80GB UATA Hard Drive for $9.99 Shipped After Rebates

I saw this at CompUSA, its powered by Samsung, but is it any good?
 
I want to buy it, but since it's generic I’m not sure if I can trust it. I wouldn't put anything sensitive or important on it because I’d be too afraid of it failing. And I wouldn't use it as a scratch disk cuz it's too slow, but it's only $10!!! I don't know what to do :( if I could buy... 5 of them, then I could put them on a RAID 5 or something, then it would be super fast and I would have security, but I can't with the rebates. This deal confuses and infuriates me.
 
FYI... You only need 3 drives to make a RAID 5 array. Of course you would only have 160G of space using 240G of HD.
Also don't forget the extra power required, and the extra heat generated. If they are stacked one on top of another in the case, the top drive will have a tendency to fail. (personal experience) Be sure to keep them cool, or at least get some air moving away from the top of the stack.
 
These are EIDE hard drives. I think you have to try VERY hard to find a RAID-5 controller for it. I think you want RAID-0, which is stripping and you can have both of the HDDs working for you at the same time. I ordered 2 days ago and is waiting for the shipment. From another forum, these are Samsung drive.

luusyphre said:
I want to buy it, but since it's generic I’m not sure if I can trust it. I wouldn't put anything sensitive or important on it because I’d be too afraid of it failing. And I wouldn't use it as a scratch disk cuz it's too slow, but it's only $10!!! I don't know what to do :( if I could buy... 5 of them, then I could put them on a RAID 5 or something, then it would be super fast and I would have security, but I can't with the rebates. This deal confuses and infuriates me.
Click to expand...
 
hkninja said:
These are EIDE hard drives. I think you have to try VERY hard to find a RAID-5 controller for it. I think you want RAID-0, which is stripping and you can have both of the HDDs working for you at the same time. I ordered 2 days ago and is waiting for the shipment. From another forum, these are Samsung drive.
Click to expand...

Be sure to make both Master drives to get the maximum out of the RAID. If you make the RAID 0 on one cable with a master and slave, you are only using one controller, thus the speed advantage is diminished.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top