MacGurus is carrying a great performing selection of current Retail SATA
hard drives. All of our manufacturers have something of a following from
the Mac
community,
rightly
so since the
manufacturing processes give reliability, low noise and low operating temperatures
fairly evenly with all of them.
WARRANTY INFORMATION: All hard drives sold by MacGurus carry
a manufacturer's 3 year replacement warranty serviced by the drive manufacturer.
We have found that both Seagate and Hitachi do a wonderful job, with very
few exceptions, satisfying end user warranty replacement needs. They are
very quick and responsive, even preshipping replacement drives when
required by circumstances. Warranty
in all cases is first determined by serial number on the drive. The only
time a purchase receipt is required for warranty coverage is if a failure
occurs after the three
year from manufacture (based on serial number) date BUT before the three
year from purchased date.
A word about OEM versus Retail Drives
MacGurus' strongly recommends that our customers avoid purchasing drives
marketed as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) hard drives. We suggest
that you stick always with Retail drives. Retail
drives carry the retail manufacturer's warranty, 3 years, with all
the contractual support that the warranty provides. OEM drives were
originally manufactured for one of the many major manufacturers of computers
and or servers. OEM drives may not carry a warranty from the drive
manufacturer nor from
the
OEM buyer. Most
importantly, these drives may have custom firmware as
specified by the OEM. We frequently see
customers with OEM market drives have compatibility problems in desktop
usage. There is just no way to know what you are getting when you purchase
OEM drives with non standard firmware - they are total wildcards as far
as compatibility with your computer or staorage systems. Compatibility issues
from non standard firmware is impossible
to support.
Because of these issues MacGurus ONLY sells Retail drives.
Seagate Barracuda LP 2 TB Drive. Newly out of our test lab,
these drives surprised us with their plug and play compatiblity with everything
in our inventory - From inside your G5 or MacPro to installations in a Burly,
they are fully compatible. Best of all, even though these are a 5900 RPM
'Green' Low Power drive, the performance was a fast sustained 110 MB/sec
range. With a low 5.5 WATT power usage they will improve the bottom line
on your electric bill as well. Lower power, cooler running and plenty of speed.
These drives are suitable for internal data or boot drive or storage system
drives
for
video and photo
database RAIDs.
For instance - you can achieve performance from 6 of these drives
in a RAID0 to edit uncompressed 1080p thoughout the RAID capacity and uncompressed
2k through 80% of capacity. These drives meet the same speed requirements
of earlier model drives for numbers of drives needed in the RAID for a given
speed requirement..
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 drives. This new drive model has
a denser platter (thus reducing the number of platter and the power usage
to spin them)
and higher performance - up around 125 MBsec!
They will replace all the current 7200.11 drives as production starts to
ramp up. The 7200.12 culminates in a 1 TB drive. Performance with these drives
exceeds what we saw with the 7200.11 model. Suitable for all internal, external
and RAID uses. After months of usage these drives are
proving themselves a very reliable choice.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives.
Great drive, still a perfect choice for your storage even though being replaced
with a newer model with different features. You will see 100 MB/sec plus
data transfers off the outer tracks on these drives making them a speedy
choice.
Seagate
has
dropped
manufacture of 3.5 inch drives smaller capacity than 500 GigaBytes.
If you are looking for those smaller sizes they will have to come from a
different manufacturer. All drives sold from MacGurus since Dec 8th '08,
when Seagate
released a firmware update, have been updated to latest firmware revision by
MacGurus technicians before shipping. 1.5 TB
Barracuda This drive is
one of the mainstays of storage today. A 7200.11 model that is capable of 120
MB/sec sustained data transfers. High reliability and compatibility with
all your storage needs, whether inside your G5 or MacPro or in your external
Burly enclosure.
The Hitachi SATAII drives - a performance standout.A SATAII
with a 300 MB/sec bus capability, NCQ and ATA-7 streaming feature set. A
3 year warranty and top level
performance
make this a first
choice for all your Desktop and Server needs. This is a fine choice for
all your needs, System, data, streaming media.
While we used to recommend Western Digital Raptors as a
performance enhancing upgrade, current models are excessively expensive and
being based on a 2.5
inch platter give less performance than their cost would justify. While great
great savings in power usage for huge server data rooms with hundreds of
drives
are to be had using these superb drives, the realized savings for desktop
computers
is
marginal
at
best.
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