120gb IDE HD

[andypress]

I was thinking about buying this hard drive. Any suggestions?   http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=300779&pfp=home&cm_vn=cusa_2_21_03&cm_cat=Upgrades&cm_pla=hpf4&cm_ite=300779#checkstore

[pat]

I think I'd rather buy a name brand so I knew what I was getting.
You can get a Western Digital Special Edition 120gig drive from newegg for 141.00.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=14&manufactory=1306&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1
Costs a little more, but you also get a 3 year warranty and an 8mb cache.
Or take a look at what Maxtor has to offer. With a generic drive I question what kind of service you would get if you needed it.

[query]

The "generic" drives are made by one of the major companies in the business - but I wonder whether they might be seconds, or drives that didn't pass tests well enough to be labeled with the manufacturer's brand name, sort of like GradeB or C memory chips.

I guess if you have a play or spare system a generic drive might be OK - but I would not want to rely on a drive that the manufacturer won't stand behind for storage of anything important.

[Neon]

I suspect that pat and query's advice is sound. When I searched for the Mfg Part #:  L01J100 on Google, several "hot deals" sites are linked, including BestBuy. Some of these claim that it is a Maxtor drive. However, I was not able to locate this model number, or any similar number, at maxtor.com. Therefore, it would seem to be a model that Maxtor does not offer for sale through its retail channels. Proceed at your data's risk.

By the way, I just love BestBuy's description of this drive:

This generous hard drive starts with 100.0GB of storage, then adds 20.0GB free for a roomy 120.0GB maximum capacity. The 7200 rpm spindle speed access and saves your data quickly.

::) ::) ::)  Who writes this stuff?

[query]

Likely scenario:  these are OEM drives built either for system integrators (OEMs), or they're built specifically for sale by retailers.  Component vendors do this all the time with OEM parts - then the support and repair responsibility becomes that of the reseller, not the manufacturer.

I don't think it's a coincidence that these drives are showing up now -- Comp, Best Buy, etc. are likely taking advantage of the shorter warranties on drives these days to sell at low cost.

The drives may be just as good as the ones Maxtor sells itself -- or they may be marginal units that Maxtor doesn't want to take responsibility for.

Considering the amount of time that gets lost if a drive fails, and the already low prices on brand-name drives, I'd say they are likely no bargain.