Where's the best place to buy hard drives?

[Jarek Zabczynski]

Where do you guys buy hard drives?

For externals and mainstream drives I generally go with Amazon, but their enterprise drive offerings are a bit sketch. So many are unlisted refurbished or open box etc. Hard to tell what is legit.

I stopped using Newegg since they have monkeys running the shipping department. I'd say 50% of any drive I got from them were DOA.

I trust the big shops like B&H, but they charge top dollar.

Where's the secret hard drive shop?

 

[Brandon Veen]

Where's the secret hard drive shop?

I don't know the secret shop, per say, but if you know the specifics of the kind of hard drive you're looking for, PCPartPicker usually lists a fair amount of places selling them (some they do end up only listing as B&H, Amazon, and Newegg though):
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/

Or if there's a certain one you want, you can copy and paste the model number and it'll usually find it so you can check and see who all has it.

 

[DJ Meyer]

Some vendors I buy enterprise grade stuff from:

ProVantage, Exxact, SabrePC, CDW

I've had pretty good luck with Amazon though so long as you search for the specific part number and ensure that either Amazon or another major marketplace vendor is the one shipping it. But yeah it is getting worse over time as their marketplace program metastasizes.

 

[Neil Abeynayake]

These guys are not on top of the list. Sometimes, Fry's Electronics (frys dot com) has good deals on drives.

Enterprise drives too.

 

[L. Langer]

If you can get in and out of NYC easily, Micro Center can cover your needs. They price match Newegg and Amazon and usually adjust prices for computer parts like RAM, HDD/SSD, etc. on their own to match, but sometimes you have to bring it to their attention.

 

[Tim Gerhard]

On Newegg make sure you're buying something that ships and is sold by Newegg. Those marketplace sellers are pretty jank.

 

[Billy Jim]

Some vendors I buy enterprise grade stuff from:

ProVantage, Exxact, SabrePC, CDW

I've had pretty good luck with Amazon though so long as you search for the specific part number and ensure that either Amazon or another major marketplace vendor is the one shipping it. But yeah it is getting worse over time as their marketplace program metastasizes.

I was interested in getting some helium hard drives from Amazon,

but hesitated when some comments mentioned that the warranty is only one year [from the marketplace vendor].

Hopefully, ordering from Provantage comes with full five year manufacturer's warranty.

 

[Jon D Kline]

CDW is here in Chicago, and good for enterprise stuff.
Amazon's Amazon Warehouse Deals is great for client drives. Sometimes the HDD cardboard boxes get scratched or crushed, and then the drives get marked down a bunch.

 

[Kwan Khan]

B and H (Ask for Price Matching)