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why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 12th 17, 08:05 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Lynn McGuire[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 198
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

Why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?
https://www.amazon.com/Red-8TB-Hard-...dp/B01BYLY4DM/

Do I need to buy an WD 8 TB external drive for $225 and remove the bare drive from it ?
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-...dp/B01LQQHLGC/

Please note that I am not interested in Seagate or any other manufacturer. I am going with WD for the moment.

Thanks,
Lynn
  #2  
Old January 12th 17, 09:31 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,453
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

Lynn McGuire wrote:

Why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?
https://www.amazon.com/Red-8TB-Hard-...dp/B01BYLY4DM/

Do I need to buy an WD 8 TB external drive for $225 and remove the bare drive from it ?
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-...dp/B01LQQHLGC/

Please note that I am not interested in Seagate or any other manufacturer. I am going with WD for the moment.


Because of the slashed $299 price (marked down to $225) for the USB
cased unit, looks like that is a sale price. So the non-sale price of
the USB case drive is about the same as the non-sale price for the
single drive to which you linked.

https://www.wdc.com/products/external-storage.html
Click on the "My Book (New)" image.

No matter on what size you select, all prices are listed as "promo".
WDC is doing a promotional sale on that product family. Now you'll have
to find or wait for a sale on red WDC HDDs, or wait until the 8TB My
Book is no longer on sale to see what is its actual non-sale price, so
you are not comparing apples to oranges regarding pricing.
  #3  
Old January 12th 17, 10:07 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Mark Perkins
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 110
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 14:31:06 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Lynn McGuire wrote:

Why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?
https://www.amazon.com/Red-8TB-Hard-...dp/B01BYLY4DM/

Do I need to buy an WD 8 TB external drive for $225 and remove the bare drive from it ?
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-...dp/B01LQQHLGC/

Please note that I am not interested in Seagate or any other manufacturer. I am going with WD for the moment.


Because of the slashed $299 price (marked down to $225) for the USB
cased unit, looks like that is a sale price. So the non-sale price of
the USB case drive is about the same as the non-sale price for the
single drive to which you linked.

https://www.wdc.com/products/external-storage.html
Click on the "My Book (New)" image.

No matter on what size you select, all prices are listed as "promo".
WDC is doing a promotional sale on that product family. Now you'll have
to find or wait for a sale on red WDC HDDs, or wait until the 8TB My
Book is no longer on sale to see what is its actual non-sale price, so
you are not comparing apples to oranges regarding pricing.


And since both of the links above are Amazon links, we can get some
additional information by plugging them into the Amazon price tracker
website, www.camelcamelcamel.com.

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Red-8TB-H...uct/B01BYLY4DM

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Book-Desk...uct/B01LQQHLGC

Not all secrets are revealed, but we get to see 3 months to nearly a
year of price history to help with the analysis and decision making.
I'm referring, of course, to the Price History charts on those two
respective pages.

  #4  
Old January 13th 17, 12:39 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,453
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

Mark Perkins wrote:

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 14:31:06 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Lynn McGuire wrote:

Why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?
https://www.amazon.com/Red-8TB-Hard-...dp/B01BYLY4DM/

Do I need to buy an WD 8 TB external drive for $225 and remove the bare drive from it ?
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-...dp/B01LQQHLGC/

Please note that I am not interested in Seagate or any other manufacturer. I am going with WD for the moment.


Because of the slashed $299 price (marked down to $225) for the USB
cased unit, looks like that is a sale price. So the non-sale price of
the USB case drive is about the same as the non-sale price for the
single drive to which you linked.

https://www.wdc.com/products/external-storage.html
Click on the "My Book (New)" image.

No matter on what size you select, all prices are listed as "promo".
WDC is doing a promotional sale on that product family. Now you'll have
to find or wait for a sale on red WDC HDDs, or wait until the 8TB My
Book is no longer on sale to see what is its actual non-sale price, so
you are not comparing apples to oranges regarding pricing.


And since both of the links above are Amazon links, we can get some
additional information by plugging them into the Amazon price tracker
website, www.camelcamelcamel.com.

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Red-8TB-H...uct/B01BYLY4DM

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Book-Desk...uct/B01LQQHLGC

Not all secrets are revealed, but we get to see 3 months to nearly a
year of price history to help with the analysis and decision making.
I'm referring, of course, to the Price History charts on those two
respective pages.


camelcamelcamel.com

What do you call a 3-humped camel?
Pregnant. ;-

Since the site shows the My Book unit (WDC USB drive) is consistently
lower priced (within that small sampling), is a WDC red drive really
used inside of it? The model number for the unit doesn't give the model
number for the drive(s) inside of the unit. The unit is only spec'ed
according to its capacity, not the drives inside. At 6.73"x1.93"x5.47",
maybe inside there are two 2.5" drives or even four 1.8" drives.
  #5  
Old January 13th 17, 03:46 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Lynn McGuire[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 198
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

On 1/12/2017 5:39 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Mark Perkins wrote:

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 14:31:06 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Lynn McGuire wrote:

Why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?
https://www.amazon.com/Red-8TB-Hard-...dp/B01BYLY4DM/

Do I need to buy an WD 8 TB external drive for $225 and remove the bare drive from it ?
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-...dp/B01LQQHLGC/

Please note that I am not interested in Seagate or any other manufacturer. I am going with WD for the moment.

Because of the slashed $299 price (marked down to $225) for the USB
cased unit, looks like that is a sale price. So the non-sale price of
the USB case drive is about the same as the non-sale price for the
single drive to which you linked.

https://www.wdc.com/products/external-storage.html
Click on the "My Book (New)" image.

No matter on what size you select, all prices are listed as "promo".
WDC is doing a promotional sale on that product family. Now you'll have
to find or wait for a sale on red WDC HDDs, or wait until the 8TB My
Book is no longer on sale to see what is its actual non-sale price, so
you are not comparing apples to oranges regarding pricing.


And since both of the links above are Amazon links, we can get some
additional information by plugging them into the Amazon price tracker
website, www.camelcamelcamel.com.

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Red-8TB-H...uct/B01BYLY4DM

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Book-Desk...uct/B01LQQHLGC

Not all secrets are revealed, but we get to see 3 months to nearly a
year of price history to help with the analysis and decision making.
I'm referring, of course, to the Price History charts on those two
respective pages.


camelcamelcamel.com

What do you call a 3-humped camel?
Pregnant. ;-

Since the site shows the My Book unit (WDC USB drive) is consistently
lower priced (within that small sampling), is a WDC red drive really
used inside of it? The model number for the unit doesn't give the model
number for the drive(s) inside of the unit. The unit is only spec'ed
according to its capacity, not the drives inside. At 6.73"x1.93"x5.47",
maybe inside there are two 2.5" drives or even four 1.8" drives.


Nope, just a single 3.5 inch drive. I am sitting here looking at one. I can see the drive plainly through the top air slots and
there is only one drive. But I cannot make out the drive markings without removing it from the case. And it is the new WD case.

Lynn

  #6  
Old January 13th 17, 04:21 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Ed Light
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 924
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

On 1/12/2017 6:46 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:

Nope, just a single 3.5 inch drive. I am sitting here looking at one.
I can see the drive plainly through the top air slots and there is only
one drive. But I cannot make out the drive markings without removing it
from the case. And it is the new WD case.

Lynn


Is it a case that clearly can be taken apart?

A long time ago I took apart a WD 1T USB 2.0 and it was an audio-visual
green drive, WD10EAVS, with the slow rpm.

FYI the little pocket WD's, at least some of them, have drives in them
whose only connection is a built in USB port. That's how they can be so
small - no drive to case interface.

--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.
  #7  
Old January 13th 17, 05:12 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,453
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

Lynn McGuire wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Since the site shows the My Book unit (WDC USB drive) is consistently
lower priced (within that small sampling), is a WDC red drive really
used inside of it? The model number for the unit doesn't give the model
number for the drive(s) inside of the unit. The unit is only spec'ed
according to its capacity, not the drives inside. At 6.73"x1.93"x5.47",
maybe inside there are two 2.5" drives or even four 1.8" drives.


Nope, just a single 3.5 inch drive. I am sitting here looking at one.
I can see the drive plainly through the top air slots and there is
only one drive. But I cannot make out the drive markings without
removing it from the case. And it is the new WD case.


Darn. Would've been nice to know what they actually used inside for the
HDD. Couldn't find anything about the HDD itself at the WDC site or in
online reviews. It's probably a snap-together case so trying to open it
means probably breaking a seal along with some tangs holding the two
halves together.

Is the side you can see through the case slots colored red, blue, black,
or purple?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFKbrppVBD4
This guy dismantles the case to look at the drive inside.

https://www.servethehome.com/wd-book...zx-benchmarks/
That review dismantles the case, too, to look inside.

That has the smooth case wherease the link you pointed at has the
textured case. Don't know if it makes a difference other than the
feature fluff they add with different models. The HDD inside is not
marked like a red-, green-, blue, or purple-labelled HDD from WDC.

The WD80EZZX (the model number shown on the internal HDD) in the My Book
is a 5400 RPM unit. I thought Reds, being used for NAS storage and
targeting business users would be 7200 RPM drives. Nope, they are just
5400 RPM - *unless* you get the Pro model of reds.

From those reviews, and because of the low noise, it looks to be a 5400
RPM HDD - but then so is your first link to the bare red HDD. This
isn't surprising since many pre-built external USB drives are 5400 RPM
to reduce heat and noise but also the gyroscopic force should the user
go mauling the unit while it is running.

The white label 8 TB HDD inside the USB case is made by HGST. It is not
stamped as a WDC drive. HGST is a wholly owned subsidiary of WDC. The
red drives from WDC are marked as coming from Malaysia whereas the
unknown HDD inside the USB case is marked as coming from Thailand. So
from neighboring countries but clearly indicates different manufacture
plants. I've owned both WDC HDDs and HGST HDDs with the latter used in
my laptops. Seems they are equivalent regarding quality and durability.

When I go to newegg.com, the 8TB HGST HDDs are generally more expensive
than the 8TB WDC reds. That's because the HGSTs are 7200 RPM versus
5400 RPM for the WDC reds.

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-d...ktop-drive-kit

I only saw 7200 RPM units mentioned there. Maybe HGST has forayed into
5400 RPM units at 8TB as a special production by WDC. Too bad the guy
in the 2nd article didn't compare the benchmarks for the mystery
WD80EZZX inside the USB case against a WDC red-marked HDD. However, he
would've had to take the WD80EZZX out of the case so he could hook it up
to the same controller using the same interface (no USB conversion
between HDD and mobo) to do a proper benchmark.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10762/...-hdds-review/2

That lists some benchmarks for comparison. Benchmarks are rare for this
unit to compare against other external and internal HDDs.

So the biggest difference looks to be as to which market the units
target. The USB drive is more like something consumers would want. The
internal red HDDs more target business deployments.
  #8  
Old January 13th 17, 07:45 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Ed Light
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 924
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

If you install the trial version of HD Sentinel, if it connects with the
USB drive ok (it can't read all of them), it will tell you the rpm under
Information Tab / Disk Information / Rotational Speed. In that same
group, Disk Family can tell you the model. Such as Caviar Blue, what I'm
looking at right now for my system drive.

I don't know if the newsgroup does attachments, but I'll try attaching a
screen shot.
--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.

  #9  
Old January 13th 17, 10:51 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Lynn McGuire[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 198
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

On 1/12/2017 9:21 PM, Ed Light wrote:
On 1/12/2017 6:46 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:

Nope, just a single 3.5 inch drive. I am sitting here looking at one.
I can see the drive plainly through the top air slots and there is only
one drive. But I cannot make out the drive markings without removing it
from the case. And it is the new WD case.

Lynn


Is it a case that clearly can be taken apart?

A long time ago I took apart a WD 1T USB 2.0 and it was an audio-visual green drive, WD10EAVS, with the slow rpm.

FYI the little pocket WD's, at least some of them, have drives in them whose only connection is a built in USB port. That's how they
can be so small - no drive to case interface.


Not really.

Lynn

  #10  
Old January 13th 17, 10:54 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Lynn McGuire[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 198
Default why is the cheapest WD 8 TB bare drive on Big River $303 ?

On 1/12/2017 10:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Lynn McGuire wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Since the site shows the My Book unit (WDC USB drive) is consistently
lower priced (within that small sampling), is a WDC red drive really
used inside of it? The model number for the unit doesn't give the model
number for the drive(s) inside of the unit. The unit is only spec'ed
according to its capacity, not the drives inside. At 6.73"x1.93"x5.47",
maybe inside there are two 2.5" drives or even four 1.8" drives.


Nope, just a single 3.5 inch drive. I am sitting here looking at one.
I can see the drive plainly through the top air slots and there is
only one drive. But I cannot make out the drive markings without
removing it from the case. And it is the new WD case.


Darn. Would've been nice to know what they actually used inside for the
HDD. Couldn't find anything about the HDD itself at the WDC site or in
online reviews. It's probably a snap-together case so trying to open it
means probably breaking a seal along with some tangs holding the two
halves together.

Is the side you can see through the case slots colored red, blue, black,
or purple?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFKbrppVBD4
This guy dismantles the case to look at the drive inside.

https://www.servethehome.com/wd-book...zx-benchmarks/
That review dismantles the case, too, to look inside.

That has the smooth case wherease the link you pointed at has the
textured case. Don't know if it makes a difference other than the
feature fluff they add with different models. The HDD inside is not
marked like a red-, green-, blue, or purple-labelled HDD from WDC.

The WD80EZZX (the model number shown on the internal HDD) in the My Book
is a 5400 RPM unit. I thought Reds, being used for NAS storage and
targeting business users would be 7200 RPM drives. Nope, they are just
5400 RPM - *unless* you get the Pro model of reds.

From those reviews, and because of the low noise, it looks to be a 5400
RPM HDD - but then so is your first link to the bare red HDD. This
isn't surprising since many pre-built external USB drives are 5400 RPM
to reduce heat and noise but also the gyroscopic force should the user
go mauling the unit while it is running.

The white label 8 TB HDD inside the USB case is made by HGST. It is not
stamped as a WDC drive. HGST is a wholly owned subsidiary of WDC. The
red drives from WDC are marked as coming from Malaysia whereas the
unknown HDD inside the USB case is marked as coming from Thailand. So
from neighboring countries but clearly indicates different manufacture
plants. I've owned both WDC HDDs and HGST HDDs with the latter used in
my laptops. Seems they are equivalent regarding quality and durability.

When I go to newegg.com, the 8TB HGST HDDs are generally more expensive
than the 8TB WDC reds. That's because the HGSTs are 7200 RPM versus
5400 RPM for the WDC reds.

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-d...ktop-drive-kit

I only saw 7200 RPM units mentioned there. Maybe HGST has forayed into
5400 RPM units at 8TB as a special production by WDC. Too bad the guy
in the 2nd article didn't compare the benchmarks for the mystery
WD80EZZX inside the USB case against a WDC red-marked HDD. However, he
would've had to take the WD80EZZX out of the case so he could hook it up
to the same controller using the same interface (no USB conversion
between HDD and mobo) to do a proper benchmark.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10762/...-hdds-review/2

That lists some benchmarks for comparison. Benchmarks are rare for this
unit to compare against other external and internal HDDs.

So the biggest difference looks to be as to which market the units
target. The USB drive is more like something consumers would want. The
internal red HDDs more target business deployments.


The drive inside appears to be white. No color.

It is not extremely fast. I am writing a LAN backup to it right now. About a dozen PCs of around 3.5 TB. Not fast is ok, I just
write to it once every seven weeks (rotating external drives written on each Friday night). The three internal backup drives get
written each night.

Lynn
 




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