Cheapest site online to get a 320GB 2.5" HDD (5400 or 7200RPM's)

I found through a friend a way to order finally a new 320GB for my drive. I'm considering the 5K320 for the cheapest available price + shipping online, I'm thinking Newegg, but I'm open to another sites.
In order of preference:

1. Hitachi 5K320
2. Hitachi 7K320
3. WD Scorpio Black
4. Seagates

in other words any new SATA 3.0GBps 2.5" 320GB HDD for my T61. Cheaper is best. I'm avoiding Fujitsu, only Hitachi, WD & Seagate.

If you recommend me a 7200rpm please do in base considering the noise that the drive emits, so in other words if I were to get a 7200RPM it would have to be the most silent of all 320GB 7200RPM drives.

 

You could look at google/shopping and pricegrabber.com. They rate for lowest prices and best service.

 

Well froogle & pricegrabber are what I normally use just like Phil said, but right now ultimately the cheapest place would be ebay with 30% cash back from search live.

 

You sometimes just need a little luck with scouting for specials, a few weeks back you could pick up a 320GB 7200RPM drive for $70!

 

Zipzoomfly has had better prices on harddrives than Newegg for the last year or so. They usually have great deals with mail in or instant rebates.
Another option is google shopping searches. However google shopping will bring up numerous stroes you may have never heard of.
Please check the stores reseller ratings before buying, because their are a lot of fake e-tailers out their.

K-TRON

 

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/depthd-nb.hmx?

 

I was just about to say this. Zipzoomfly has had great deals on drives recently. They were the ones that had the $70 Hitachi 320GB drive for sale a few weeks ago!

 

Zipzoomfly.com is where I bought most of my notebook drives; I highly recommend them.

 

I wish they have 7k320 in Canada.

We only get the seagate 7200.3 :'(

 

Zipzoomfly.com usually has great deals

But I say you check out slickdeals.net. They always have an up to date forum on just about every great deal on the web

 

Thank you. I will recommend the site Zipzoom to get my new drive. Can't wait. Thank you guys.

 

2nd that. ebay with 30% live cash back is the lowest price.

A sample one with cash back is an awesome deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/WESTERN-DIGITAL-2-5-320GB-WD3200BEKT-SATA-7200RPM-16MB_W0QQitemZ170263354085QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170263354085&_trkparms=39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A15|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

I'm not exactly sure how the live cash back works...when exactly do you get your 30% cash back? Do you pay the full price and then get a refund of that 30% a few weeks later or does the final price you pay already reflect the 30% cash back?

If it's the latter then I may have to upgrade to a 320GB HDD lol, but I don't think I'd see a performance increase from my Seagate 7200.2.

 

You just need to create a live account(can use your hotmail) and search for something like "cheap wii" or "cheap xbox". That would get u a ebay link with live cashback. Inside ebay you can search and buy anything with buy it now. You will also see the 30% cashback at the top of the page.

It normally takes 2 months to get the cashback. I did get one few months back.

Even without 30% u get great deals at ebay. But one has to purchase carefully. Look at a sellers feedback before buying any product.

The product I linked is lowest for WD drive. Seagate is around $100 with shipping but bcos u pay shipping the cash back is lower(u get 30% of the buy it now price). hitachi I see around $128 shipped.

Occasionally u will see a great deal at buy.com/newegg/frys etc as well. Keep an eye on slickdeals.

edit: i see wd 320GB 7200RPM for $92 with free shipping at compusource. Not a bad deal at all. Not as good as ebay with live cash back.

http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=WD3200BEKT&vid=480&src=F

 

Buy is selling the cheapest on eBay but because it's a third party doesn't qualify for cashback >_<

 

mwave.com, just got my 7k320 83.9 max read on HDTach!

 

Here is a short compilation of your best options as far as I can see. I wouldn't go with the eBay deal, if you like it just take the ZipZoomFly - same waiting time and less money into it. (Starting $75 ending $65 vs. eBay starting >$105 ending $70)

Newegg, $90 with free shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&N=2010150380 1309733643&bop=And&Order=PRICE

ZipZoomFly, $55+shipping for the HITACHI Travelstar 5k320 ($55 after a mail-in-rebate; with shipping its probably $60-65).
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008232

SuperMediaStore, $80 and free shipping for the Samsung Spinpoint M 320GB 5400RPM
http://www.supermediastore.com/samsung-320gb-smhm320ji-sata150-5400rpm-hard-drive.html

 

That zipzoomfly is a 5400 RPM drive. You can get a 7200RPM for ~$85 from eBay.

 

Seagate 7200.3 320GB, class leading performance and power consumption for $85
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=311279

 

Who says it has class leading performance?

And it's sold out.

And that's before sales tax.

 

Tom's Hardware, HD Tune, PCMark 05, PCMark Vantage and Philflow

 

That's not entirely true. Tom's said it had the best performance / power ratio. The WD Black actually had the best performance. Same goes for this review also:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15079/1

"The Scorpio Blue should be fast enough for most users, but if you want to give your laptop's storage subsystem a little extra oomph, the Momentus 7200.3 and Scorpio Black are both good options. Unfortunately, the Momentus has a bit of a split personality. The drive's performance with large files and sequential transfers is excellent, and if all we used to test hard drives was HD Tach, it'd easily be the winner. However, despite scoring well in our multitasking tests, the 7200.3 really drags its feet when moving around smaller files—something we do often. Given the drive's IOMeter results, we suspect Seagate is fiddling with command queuing in order to improve performance with sequential transfers—a strategy that appears to be costing them in more than just multi-user server benchmarks.

While the Scorpio Black can't quite match the Momentus' prowess with sequential transfers, it doesn't slow down with smaller files. The Black is quicker in WorldBench, too, and it was faster in our game level load time tests while remaining competitive under multitasking workloads. Where Seagate has specialized, Western Digital has created a better all-around performer—and one that costs $5 less that the same 320GB capacity point. We'd rather have a drive that offers good overall performance than one that oscillates between fast and slow depending on the workload, which is why we're giving the Scorpio Black our coveted Editor's Choice award."

 

You're right and i am well aware of the Techreport Review.

But we've had a couple of members posting PC Mark results and Vantage results way higher than what Tom's hardware has posted. In PC Mark and Vantage the Seagate 7200.3 beats the WD and Hitachi hands down.

Add to this that Techreport performed their benchmarks on a desktop system with a very early edition of the Seagate 7200.3. The fact that the 5400rpm WD even outperforms the 7200.3 in many of their benchmarks raises some red flags for me.

So I think it's safe to say that the 7200.3 has class leading performance. But you won't go wrong with Hitachi or WD.

I am still waiting for a solid review though comparing these three drives head to head, in non synthetic settings on a notebook. The WD5000BEVT should be added to the mix as well.

 

zipzoomfly is selling hitachi 320GB 7200RPM drive for just $67 AR. That is a great deal.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008894