i disasembled an old 2gb drive last month.

the heavyist(is that a word, lol) bits are the drive head assembly and the
chassis. The one i had felt like pure steel and wieghs about .25kg i guess,
i imagine that they use alloys and such for the components in newer drives.
plus the materials for the patters are different to encourage better
density.

" wrote in message
...
I didnt notice any big differences with the Seagate 160 and my other
recent 200 gig Maxtors and WDs but I just installed an 80gig WD and it
feels like its made of styrofoam. its really light like its made
differently.

Id also like to say that LEADTEK wasnt THAT BAD after all just to be
fair. I had the impression they stunk pretty badly a year or more ago
but that they were improving recently as some more recent posts had
said. I did get fast service --- one day RMA authorization by email
and I sent the thing in which they said took 4-5 days and then they
sent a replacement (according to them) within two days. Thats fast.

ABIT and ASUS took 3-4 weeks. They get your board then they take as
long as two weeks to finally give one to UPS or FEDEX which takes
another few days or week in my case.

The problem here is Leadtek has a very poor system for RMAs --- ABit
has a whole account system setup at their website so that you create
an account and all the info is update there so you can see when they
got your board, when they sent it out etc. They will also cross ship a
board if you give them $105 or so (at least thats the way it was when
I did it a while ago) as collateral to hold until they get your bad
board.

Leadtek despite their improvement , doesnt answer the telephone much
at all and they often dont answer emails too. Second since they dont a
structured detailed RMA system thats open to the customer at their
website --- you dont get ANY feedback as to whats going unless you
call incessantly or email them all the time and its hard to get
through. Since the time can take weeks it drives you insane. And
finally they use the post office which adds to the lack of reliability
and information of the whole situation. The USPS took almost two
weeks to get the board to me which convinced me it was lost in the
ozone and totally negated any time savings from fast service by
Leadtek.

On the plus side they sent me a brand new looking board , a whole
retail box with accessories. Its the same model but a newer version.
They also have written on the RMA sheet in the box - a blurb that they
stress tested the board since I told them I didnt want another bad cap
board. The down side though is they are using GSC caps though who
knows , youd think even the cap makers have learned their lesson by
now as well as the board makers. However EPOX according to customers
posts was replacing their bad caps (GSCs) with TEAPOs which the
customers called the "good caps" , Im assuming Leadtek isnt so dumb
or sleazy as to purposely or not , still be dumping bad cap boards
onto the public . If they arent then all they really have to do is
update their website by copying Abits system.