Seeking cheap IDE storage in UK - any good deals?

John Smith · May 12, 2004

Who is selling the cheapest IDE storage measured in cost per gigabyte for a
UK user?

Want to store about 200 to 250 GB of data on hard drive(s) which will be
kept disconnected from the PC.

I don't mind if the drive is 5400 or 7200. I don't mind if it is 100 or 133
Mbps. But I do not want several relatively small drives 'cos that would be
hard to manage.

Noise, speed and heat do not really matter. Although I don't want to go to
the extreme 'cos I might connect the drive(s) permanently to the PC in the
future.

Any good deals out there?

Crazy Aizy · May 12, 2004

John Smith said:
Who is selling the cheapest IDE storage measured in cost per gigabyte for a
UK user?

Want to store about 200 to 250 GB of data on hard drive(s) which will be
kept disconnected from the PC.

I don't mind if the drive is 5400 or 7200. I don't mind if it is 100 or 133
Mbps. But I do not want several relatively small drives 'cos that would be
hard to manage.

Noise, speed and heat do not really matter. Although I don't want to go to
the extreme 'cos I might connect the drive(s) permanently to the PC in the
future.

Any good deals out there?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=45013

Semach.the.monkey · May 12, 2004

doogie · May 12, 2004

John Smith said:
Who is selling the cheapest IDE storage measured in cost per gigabyte for a
UK user?

Want to store about 200 to 250 GB of data on hard drive(s) which will be
kept disconnected from the PC.

I don't mind if the drive is 5400 or 7200. I don't mind if it is 100 or 133
Mbps. But I do not want several relatively small drives 'cos that would be
hard to manage.

Noise, speed and heat do not really matter. Although I don't want to go to
the extreme 'cos I might connect the drive(s) permanently to the PC in the
future.

Any good deals out there?

I'm looking for a hard drive myself

been looking at this one from scan 8mb cache and 200 gig storage
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=42167

Never used scan before so not sure how much postage will be.

Rod Hewitt · May 12, 2004

doogie said:
Never used scan before so not sure how much postage will be.

£7 for little things - £10 for bigger. They use City Link (usually/always
for us) - who are fine in my area.

S.Chang · May 12, 2004

doogie said:
I'm looking for a hard drive myself

been looking at this one from scan 8mb cache and 200 gig storage
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=42167

Never used scan before so not sure how much postage will be.

I bought a few LaCie Firewire drives, from 160GB P3(designed
F.A.Porsche) to the 500GB d2 LargeDisk, overall I would say the 250GB P3
is the most value for money, the cheapest one is only 150 pounds(when I
bought 5 in one go from Cancomuk.com with free delivery, they have
discount for buying 3+ too and single unit at 158.63 pounds), the
highest price I have paid for this model is 175 pounds from Microanvika,
it comes with 2 years warrenty, compare to what I found from Scan,
eBuyer, dabs or Aria, a cheap 250GB IDE HDD would cost from 135 pounds
with only one years warrenty.
with those LaCie drives, you can choose ether firewire 400 or USB 2.0
depands on what type of connection you have on your computer, but I
would choose firewire as the starnfering is far more steady than the USB
2.0, if you are working with large files, those external drives can be
very useful, unless you have a 1000Mbps LAN, the 10/100 network would
take ages to transfer 100GB file across.

HTH
S.Chang

Mark M · May 13, 2004

doogie said:
I'm looking for a hard drive myself

been looking at this one from scan 8mb cache and 200 gig
storage
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=421
67

Never used scan before so not sure how much postage will be.

That product comes to about £100 delivered. Instead have a look at
this:

<http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/Productview.htm?quickli
nx=2PHM>

Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB UDMA100 for £70.02 including delivery.

Very good review at StorageReview (and others sites) but watch out
'cos it has the same parentage as IBM. :-(

<http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200310/20031007HDS722525VLSA
80_1.html>

One site warns: "They all tend to have a touch of whine, low
overall noise, and a fatal flaw that makes them unacceptable for
most Silent PC enthusiasts: A loud head reset noise that occurs
periodically whenever in low activity for more than ~10 minutes.
This noise has been described variously, from a meow, to a screech,
to a braying kind of eeee-awwww. Still, some people don't seem to
mind, and the 7K250 are about the fastest 7200 RPM drives going."

And StorageReview says elsewhere: "it seems that Hitachi has
extended the 7K250's architecture up from its maximum of three to
five platters, making the 7K400 the first Deskstar to feature a
five-platter flagship since, well, the 75GXP"

Probably better still to go for a Samsung 160 GB for just under £75
delivered:

http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/harddiskdrives/internal
ide/productView.htm?quicklinx=2S6S

Rob S · May 13, 2004

On Thu, 13 May 2004 00:50:04 +0100, Mark M

-Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB UDMA100 for £70.02 including delivery.

-One site warns: "They all tend to have a touch of whine, low
-overall noise, and a fatal flaw that makes them unacceptable for
-most Silent PC enthusiasts: A loud head reset noise that occurs
-periodically whenever in low activity for more than ~10 minutes.
-This noise has been described variously, from a meow, to a screech,
-to a braying kind of eeee-awwww. Still, some people don't seem to
-mind, and the 7K250 are about the fastest 7200 RPM drives going."
-

We supply the odd SCSI system which has the IBM 36Gb SCSI disk, and this noise
is very familiar, and quite disconcerting. Every so often it does the
eee-awwwing. Still, we have a few out there and none have gone down quite
yet....................

-Rob
robatwork at mail dot com

Carl Farrington · May 15, 2004

Rob said:
On Thu, 13 May 2004 00:50:04 +0100, Mark M

-Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB UDMA100 for £70.02 including delivery.

-One site warns: "They all tend to have a touch of whine, low
-overall noise, and a fatal flaw that makes them unacceptable for
-most Silent PC enthusiasts: A loud head reset noise that occurs
-periodically whenever in low activity for more than ~10 minutes.
-This noise has been described variously, from a meow, to a screech,
-to a braying kind of eeee-awwww. Still, some people don't seem to
-mind, and the 7K250 are about the fastest 7200 RPM drives going."
-

We supply the odd SCSI system which has the IBM 36Gb SCSI disk, and
this noise is very familiar, and quite disconcerting. Every so often
it does the eee-awwwing. Still, we have a few out there and none have
gone down quite yet....................

When / if they do (mine are fine, apart from a few of the notorious GXP's
(was it 75GXP ?)) you'll wish like hell you hadn't bought from Dabs.. we're
having an absolute nightmare returning a HP Colour Laserjet 3700 to them.
Telephone? You wish!

Rob S · May 19, 2004

On Sat, 15 May 2004 08:04:26 +0100, "Carl Farrington"

-Rob S wrote:
->
-> We supply the odd SCSI system which has the IBM 36Gb SCSI disk, and
-> this noise is very familiar, and quite disconcerting. Every so often
-> it does the eee-awwwing. Still, we have a few out there and none have
-> gone down quite yet....................
->
->
-When / if they do (mine are fine, apart from a few of the notorious GXP's
-(was it 75GXP ?)) you'll wish like hell you hadn't bought from Dabs.. we're
-having an absolute nightmare returning a HP Colour Laserjet 3700 to them.
-Telephone? You wish!
-

LOL @ thought of buying business critical equipment from dabs.

In fact I never ever buy anything off dabs. Rather go without.

Consistently good returns and service from Misco and Inmac. For some items there
is a price premium, for others like printers there often isn't. But they answer
the phone. They are polite. They deliver when they say. They collect RMAs. Their
website stock levels aren't fiction.

-Rob
robatwork at mail dot com

Tony Houghton · May 19, 2004

In <[email protected]>,

Rob S said:
LOL @ thought of buying business critical equipment from dabs.

In fact I never ever buy anything off dabs. Rather go without.

Consistently good returns and service from Misco and Inmac. For some
items there is a price premium, for others like printers there often
isn't. But they answer the phone. They are polite. They deliver when
they say. They collect RMAs. Their website stock levels aren't
fiction.

Misco = Simply don't they? Either they treat business customers
completely differently from private or it's a long time since you
ordered from them.

Mark M · May 20, 2004

Tony Houghton said:
Misco = Simply don't they? Either they treat business
customers completely differently from private or it's a long
time since you ordered from them.

Misco is very close to Simply with different admin staff. Misco
charge a relatively large minimum carriage fee compared to Simply.

Rob S · May 20, 2004

On Wed, 19 May 2004 13:21:49 +0000 (UTC), Tony Houghton

-> Consistently good returns and service from Misco and Inmac. For some
-> items there is a price premium, for others like printers there often
-> isn't. But they answer the phone. They are polite. They deliver when
-> they say. They collect RMAs. Their website stock levels aren't
-> fiction.
-
-Misco = Simply don't they? Either they treat business customers
-completely differently from private or it's a long time since you
-ordered from them.

Are Simply part of Misco? I have never ordered from Simply. But since you ask, I
ordered from Misco this Monday - goods arrived 0830 next day. As they always do.

Is your gripe with Simply or Misco?

-Rob
robatwork at mail dot com

news · May 20, 2004

On Wed, 19 May 2004 13:21:49 +0000 (UTC), Tony Houghton

-> Consistently good returns and service from Misco and Inmac. For some
-> items there is a price premium, for others like printers there often
-> isn't. But they answer the phone. They are polite. They deliver when
-> they say. They collect RMAs. Their website stock levels aren't
-> fiction.
-
-Misco = Simply don't they? Either they treat business customers
-completely differently from private or it's a long time since you
-ordered from them.

Are Simply part of Misco? I have never ordered from Simply. But since you ask, I
ordered from Misco this Monday - goods arrived 0830 next day. As they always do.

Simply and Misco are both owned by a US company called Systemax. I've
never ordered from Simply either, but I get great service from Misco. Some
of their prices are a bit higher than Dabs / ebuyer, but they're mostly
quite competitive, and they're the only company I know who when you pay
for next day you definitley will get it next day. FWIW they use Amtrak,
who have never failed to deliver to me on time.

Rod Hewitt · May 20, 2004

Simply and Misco are both owned by a US company called Systemax. I've
never ordered from Simply either, but I get great service from Misco.
Some of their prices are a bit higher than Dabs / ebuyer, but they're
mostly quite competitive, and they're the only company I know who when
you pay for next day you definitley will get it next day. FWIW they
use Amtrak, who have never failed to deliver to me on time.

Lucky you! Ordered a graphics card from Simply the other week - they sent
it out but Amtrak didn't deliver. When chap arrived on Tuesday (had been
due Friday before bank holiday) he just shrugged his shoulders and said
that he had had too much stuff to deliver on Friday. Bad - but not as bad
as the deopt man saying categorically nothing was due to be delivered to
our address at all.

Refused delivery and we have just got our refund.

Seeking cheap IDE storage in UK - any good deals?

John Smith

Crazy Aizy

Semach.the.monkey

doogie

Rod Hewitt

S.Chang

Mark M

Rob S

Carl Farrington

Rob S

Tony Houghton

Mark M

Rob S

news

Rod Hewitt