Why are external drives cheaper than internal?

How come Seagate -- to name just one manufacturer -- can sell an
external 6TB drive in a case with a USB 3.0 adapter and a cable for less
than they sell any 6TB internal drive?

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:46:45 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

How come Seagate -- to name just one manufacturer -- can sell an
external 6TB drive in a case with a USB 3.0 adapter and a cable for less
than they sell any 6TB internal drive?

I don't know, but it's been true for quite a few years now, so I take
advantage of the situation by buying an external drive when I need an
internal drive. It usually only takes a few minutes to strip the drive out
of its case.

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 12:09:46 -0500, Mark Perkins
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:46:45 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

How come Seagate -- to name just one manufacturer -- can sell an
external 6TB drive in a case with a USB 3.0 adapter and a cable for less
than they sell any 6TB internal drive?
Can you give specific examples?

I'm sure there are some examples of the same drive being cheaper
when buying in an external case, but many times:
1a. The drive is slower than you would normally buy for internal use.
1b. Since the actual drive model in the external drive isn't
specified, the model can vary depending on what is available.
2. The warranty period is shorter.
3. Two drives are in the external case, so a given capacity
can be achieved with cheaper disks.
4. If you are comparing retail packages, the retail package,
my include cables, brackets, and cloning software that
isn't in the (retail) external drive.
5. Maybe even, the external drive is being sold with a lower
margin for some business reason.


I don't know, but it's been true for quite a few years now, so I take
advantage of the situation by buying an external drive when I need an
internal drive. It usually only takes a few minutes to strip the drive out
of its case.

On 2015-09-10, Mark F wrote:
I'm sure there are some examples of the same drive being cheaper
when buying in an external case, but many times:
...

I've found a few instances where with an external drive, the drive itself
had a USB interface instead of SATA. (Don't know how common that is but
I have seen it.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 20:27:23 +0000 (UTC), Roger Blake
wrote:

On 2015-09-10, Mark F wrote:
I'm sure there are some examples of the same drive being cheaper
when buying in an external case, but many times:
...

I've found a few instances where with an external drive, the drive itself
had a USB interface instead of SATA. (Don't know how common that is but
I have seen it.)

I've never heard of such a beast. If you run across an example, please post
a link. Thanks.

On 09/10/2015 03:05 PM, Mark F wrote:
On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 12:09:46 -0500, Mark Perkins
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:46:45 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

How come Seagate -- to name just one manufacturer -- can sell an
external 6TB drive in a case with a USB 3.0 adapter and a cable for less
than they sell any 6TB internal drive?
Can you give specific examples?

6TB external $199 ($179 with a coupon code):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178681

Seagate's cheapest 6TB internal (bare) drive, which is what I am
*guessing* is in the external box (or perhaps with a smaller cache) is
$50/$70 mo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178783

I'm sure there are some examples of the same drive being cheaper
when buying in an external case, but many times:
1a. The drive is slower than you would normally buy for internal use.
1b. Since the actual drive model in the external drive isn't
specified, the model can vary depending on what is available.
2. The warranty period is shorter.
3. Two drives are in the external case, so a given capacity
can be achieved with cheaper disks.
4. If you are comparing retail packages, the retail package,
my include cables, brackets, and cloning software that
isn't in the (retail) external drive.
5. Maybe even, the external drive is being sold with a lower
margin for some business reason.


I don't know, but it's been true for quite a few years now, so I take
advantage of the situation by buying an external drive when I need an
internal drive. It usually only takes a few minutes to strip the drive out
of its case.

"Mark Perkins" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 20:27:23 +0000 (UTC), Roger Blake
wrote:

On 2015-09-10, Mark F wrote:
I'm sure there are some examples of the same drive being cheaper
when buying in an external case, but many times:
...

I've found a few instances where with an external drive, the drive itself
had a USB interface instead of SATA. (Don't know how common that is but
I have seen it.)

I've never heard of such a beast.

There are some around.

If you run across an example, please post a link. Thanks.

Percival P. Cassidy wrote

How come Seagate -- to name just one manufacturer --
can sell an external 6TB drive in a case with a USB 3.0 adapter
and a cable for less than they sell any 6TB internal drive?

Because the external drive isn't just a single 6TB drive.

On 09/10/2015 05:15 PM, Rod Speed wrote:

How come Seagate -- to name just one manufacturer -- can sell an
external 6TB drive in a case with a USB 3.0 adapter and a cable for
less than they sell any 6TB internal drive?

Because the external drive isn't just a single 6TB drive.

Hardly any different in size from my 2TB and 5TB ones. Don't think
there's room for two drives in there.

Perce

On 2015-09-10, Mark Perkins wrote:
I've never heard of such a beast. If you run across an example, please post
a link. Thanks.

Wish I could remember the model but it was a couple of years ago.
I do recall that it was a 2.5" model, a friend wanted to install it in
an old laptop that had a failed drive. Opened up the case and - surprise!

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------