[Canada] [BestBuy] Seagate Expansion 5TB portable drive (external) $100 CAD

[WkdPaul]

While it's an external drive, it can be shucked and thus can be interesting to some, especially at that price ($100 CAD = $76 USD).

 

Note that this drive is an SMR drive (meaning, shingled), so it will be slow in writing when it gets moderately full.

 

 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/seagate-expansion-5tb-portable-external-hard-drive-stea5000402-black/13862227

 

While not the greatest deal, at 20¢ (CAD, or 15¢ USD) per GB, it pretty cheap IMO.

 

 

EDIT ;

 

forgot to mention it's also available on Amazon Canada but it's out of stock for now ;

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07TNVBLNT/

[TVwazhere]

The odd #'d terabyte drives always tend to be cheaper (except for the 1 TB models). Cant remember the reasoning but back in 2015 I was able to buy my 5TB drive for less than a 4TB of the same type (WD black), and the % Value deal between the 2TB, 3TB and 4TB favored the 3TB as being the lower cost/GB. (Hence why i have a 3TB and a 5TB instead of two 4TB drives)

 

Perfect example? On PCPP the 4TB Seagate Barracuda drive is currently $85 USD (comparing the USD equivalent to this deal), and $110 for the 6TB

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#A=4000000000000,16000000000000&sort=price&t=5400,7200&f=2'

 

The same Barracuda 4TB drive is $105 CAD, so you get an extra TB and save $5 CAD. 

[seagate_surfer]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

-The odd #'d terabyte drives always tend to be cheaper (except for the 1 TB models)-

 

I had never paid attention to this, thanks! I'm going to check more models to compare. 

[ARikozuM]

4 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

The odd #'d terabyte drives always tend to be cheaper (except for the 1 TB models). Cant remember the reasoning but back in 2015 I was able to buy my 5TB drive for less than a 4TB of the same type (WD black), and the % Value deal between the 2TB, 3TB and 4TB favored the 3TB as being the lower cost/GB. (Hence why i have a 3TB and a 5TB instead of two 4TB drives)

They usually use the same platter densities, so could it be use of wasted space? 

 

Also, I'll never forgive the Canadians!

 

For reference:

Spoiler

 

[TVwazhere]

12 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

They usually use the same platter densities, so could it be use of wasted space? 

It was either platter densities,  or some other technical reason. Most 3 and 5TB models have been phased out, though I did manage to snag Seagate's 3TB hard drive for $65 USD for RGB Build 2019, the same price as the normal 2TB!

[WkdPaul]

21 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

I had never paid attention to this, thanks! I'm going to check more models to compare. 

Off-topic question, but kinda on-topic seeing how it's related to that product ... is shucking** a big issue for you guys? I'm guessing not, since doing so voids the warranty.

 

And while it's done in some circles, it doesn't seems a lot of people are doing it. It's ok not to reply

 

 

** for those unaware, skucking an external drive means pulling the drive out of it's enclosure to use it as an internal drive.

[seagate_surfer]

It is not necessarily a "problem" per se, because as you said, the practice of buying an external drive, opening it up (and breaking some of the internal tabs of the case in the process), and removing the bare drive from its enclosure for use within a PC voids your warranty. But we are aware that people make hardware shucking and generally the reason is the same; it's cheaper. However, I personally would not put my valuable information in an HDD that was manufactured for the purpose of being for external and non-internal use, they are not built in the same way even if those HDDs say on the label some known model as BarraCuda or Desktop HDD. External HDDs tend to be used for somewhat passive storage, but if you use it as an internal HDD and write data to it constantly every day all day, you will experience performance problems and you may end up ruining a unit by using it for what it was not manufactured. Some time ago there was a person who was talking about data recovery in Seagate brand HDDs, and how people who make data recovery for living hate the brand, I remember how almost instantly a lot of people began to say those same words (or something similar in their own words) for all over the internet, but what they don't know is that that HDD that appeared in that video literally tranformed in dust was from an HDD that was inside a LaCie Porsche external drive, and then again the same thing happened, the HDD was given an inappropriate use, it was demanded more than it could and it was lost along with all the data that was in there. Whenever I see someone doing this I try to inform people why they should not do it, or at least if they are going to do it, do it in HDDs that are out of warranty and that the drive shall not to be used as a daily driver, so just try to put in only information that can be obtained from the internet, such as movies or others secondary things because their performance/speed is not as good as internal disks, so forget about use them as an HDD for NAS because it is not going to help you.