help me see if this is a good deal

July 30, 2008 2:37 PM

Can you tell me if this is a good harddrive and a good deal? Or even better, how would you go about finding out if its good? Thanks. From dealnews: Seagate 1TB Serial ATA 3.0Gbps Internal Hard Drive + $8 s&h ZipZoomfly.com cut its price on the Seagate 1TB Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive, model no. ST31000340AS, to $149.99. With about $8 for shipping, that's a $10 drop since last week and the lowest total price we've seen for this drive. This drive features a 32MB cache (more than most) and runs at 7200 rpm.
posted by irie1972 to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Do you need the drive right now, or can you wait six weeks or so? They will drop another $10-$20 by September for sure.

1TB drives are still commanding a slight premium right now. I bought a 750gb drive for $99 from Newegg with free shipping about six weeks ago and since then they have ran that sale twice. Paying for an additional 250gb was *almost* but not quite worth it when 1tb drives were $180 or so. If you can find a 750gb drive for $80 or so (unlikely) go for that...

But yeah, it's a pretty good deal, on a good drive. Go for it. You won't miss the money you save by waiting another month or two.
posted by wfrgms at 2:51 PM on July 30, 2008

newegg link for the ST31000340AS. $190 if you're curious.
posted by yort at 3:04 PM on July 30, 2008

They will drop another $10-$20 by September for sure.

And every six weeks thereafter, until the end of time.
posted by rokusan at 3:25 PM on July 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

That is a good deal for today. In a couple of months, it won't be.

As for the quality - see yort's link to Newegg. The reviews aren't so great. If it has SD04 firmware, you might have to update it.

Some recent SATA drives have problems with specific motherboard SATA chipsets. You might want to google ST31000340AS and your motherboard to see if anyone has reported problems.

I wouldn't use a 1TB drive for my primary storage right now, if that is worth anything.
posted by bh at 3:45 PM on July 30, 2008

And every six weeks thereafter, until the end of time.

Well, not quite. Unless I really can just wait a year and a bit and start getting paid to obtain terabyte hard drives, which I wouldn't mind at all. But yeah, you can always wait, and it'll always get at least a little cheaper.
posted by Tomorrowful at 4:41 PM on July 30, 2008

Price per GB? No.

750GB is the current speed spot can be had for around $90-$100.
posted by wongcorgi at 4:56 PM on July 30, 2008

*sweet spot, sorry.
posted by wongcorgi at 4:56 PM on July 30, 2008

if you're at a loss for space in your computer case, that's an ok price... i think i paid that much for mine... but if you just want to add more storage, go smaller and find the best gig to $ ratio.

i have that drive, and it's average, i suppose. no faults with it so far. but the only reason i went that big is that i had one drive bay and wanted to get the most storage for the space. if space wasn't an issue, i would have gone with a 750 or 500 gig.
posted by sary at 3:54 PM on July 31, 2008