i'd do raid-1 or use on in external box for offsite monthly backups for "parents". or both.

160gb in raid-1 plus one offsite backup would ensure a good DR policy for keeping long term items (kid pics,small vids, financials).

iranerd said:xxaiphaxx said:iranerd said:Just bought 3 of the the SATA 300's. 1/2 the people I build for won't use over 20Gigs their whole lives and it would only be a waste of money for them to have a bigger drive. The Seagate's a step up in quality and warantee from WD and Max. Thanks OP!

Technology is not as up to par as it could and should be. The drive is overpriced, consider a better alternative.

Overpriced and technology not up to par - compared to what?? Please enlighten me - what "alternate" new brand-name 160 SATA II drive with a 5 year warantee can I buy today for $35 (including shipping)? Tech reviews show overall performance of this drive compared to the highest performance 7200 160 gig drive made to be less than 10% for most functions - imperceptable to the low-demand people I build inexpensive computer systems for (under $175 - I live near Frys and read FW daily!)

I don't need a pseudo authority to validate that this is the right drive for them - I already know that - but I always remain open a link or reference to a "better alternative". That's how we FW people constructively communicate deals to each other.I think what xxaiphaxx meant is it's over-priced in a per/GB sense, as the total is obviously on the low end. It's like I said earlier. If you're doing something like a RAID you're proabably still better off with a couple 320s or 500s. BUT, if the system you're buying for is never going to use anywhere near 160GB, let alone more than, then this is a good deal. Getting cheaper $/GB is pointless if the total is more and the extra space is never used.

Danzilla said:iranerd said:xxaiphaxx said:iranerd said:Just bought 3 of the the SATA 300's. 1/2 the people I build for won't use over 20Gigs their whole lives and it would only be a waste of money for them to have a bigger drive. The Seagate's a step up in quality and warantee from WD and Max. Thanks OP!

Technology is not as up to par as it could and should be. The drive is overpriced, consider a better alternative.

Overpriced and technology not up to par - compared to what?? Please enlighten me - what "alternate" new brand-name 160 SATA II drive with a 5 year warantee can I buy today for $35 (including shipping)? Tech reviews show overall performance of this drive compared to the highest performance 7200 160 gig drive made to be less than 10% for most functions - imperceptable to the low-demand people I build inexpensive computer systems for (under $175 - I live near Frys and read FW daily!)

I don't need a pseudo authority to validate that this is the right drive for them - I already know that - but I always remain open a link or reference to a "better alternative". That's how we FW people constructively communicate deals to each other.I think what xxaiphaxx meant is it's over-priced in a per/GB sense, as the total is obviously on the low end. It's like I said earlier. If you're doing something like a RAID you're proabably still better off with a couple 320s or 500s. BUT, if the system you're buying for is never going to use anywhere near 160GB, let alone more than, then this is a good deal. Getting cheaper $/GB is pointless if the total is more and the extra space is never used.
Thank you for clarifying, that's precisely what I was saying. To add to what you're saying, I simply believe it's worth spending the few extra bucks to upgrade to a larger capacity drive (even if you're doing a RAID config) solely on a long-term investment basis. Hard drives, as you probably know, can easily be removed from one rig and be put to use in another (or used for other purposes). Keep in mind, when I took my time to respond to this thread, I did it to assist the people reading this thread. Obviously, if you're in a money crunch and the few extra bucks would make a difference, then by all means, $35 for a HD is not a bad deal. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and not have to explain it like I'm teaching the ABC's. If you're open to alternatives, do a simple topic search and see what the other available options are.

drive is not overpriced. its priced what it should be. its value depends on application.
(like was mentioned before) If you are a system builder it is a waste of money to buy, for example, $52 Seagate SATA 16MB cache drives when you can get 160GB 8MB drives for $35, when your customers want as cheap as possible and will never use the space..
ps- and these are RETAIL BOXED with cables.
pps- I have bought 5 before. Plan to buy more if enough people can hold out as they might drop these to $29

RedLance said:FYI for anyone needing a single larger drive check out my post here.

Basically, its a 320gb sata hdd with AMD processor combo for $80 shipped!

EDIT: Promo code in the other thread does not work with combos. So the price is $80 for a $320 gb hdd and AMD CPU.

Great find Redlance. I didn't end up getting the 'combo' you flagged (I already have a hard disk from this deal), but they also listed another combo deal giving $30 off the BE2400 including Coolermaster case and power supply all for $65. That's just what I needed. Thanks!

Thanks OP!

Experts out there. Can Seagate Barracuda 160GB Internal Hard Drives (SATA & Ultra ATA) - $35 shipped be used for the Dish TV PVR Upgrade mentioned here?

It says it supports Seagate IDE 7200RPM with ATA-3 support. Is this drive compatible?

whaaaaa, I put in an order yesterday and didn't recieve confirmation, looks like another $8 for shipping might kill it for me.

No one has any PROMO CODES for the Seagate site?

How quick is Seagate with the shipping?

Slvbeard said:How quick is Seagate with the shipping?

VERY quick.

Ordered 160GB SATA drive late Fri afternoon and they shipped it Fri via UPS from Ft Worth, TX.

Looks like free shipping is gone on all internal and external drives.