Marshal 8TB Hard Drives? $180!


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Marshal 8TB 5400RPM 128MB Cache SATA?(6.0Gb/s) 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive Near Line Model 128MB Cache 5400rpm MAL38000SA-T54. Other than the listing I stumbled across on Amazon US, all Google returns is all Japanese web sites. New MFG or rebranded somebody (Toshiba "accidently" in description)?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Marshal-5400RPM-Internal-MAL38000SA-T54-Especia%EF%BD%8Cly/dp/B01EAHL6V0/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1474843682&sr=1-2&refinements=p_89%3AMarshal

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Marshal 8TB 5400RPM 128MB Cache SATA?(6.0Gb/s) 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive Near Line Model 128MB Cache 5400rpm MAL38000SA-T54. Other than the listing I stumbled across on Amazon US, all Google returns is all Japanese web sites. New MFG or rebranded somebody (Toshiba "accidently" in description)?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Marshal-5400RPM-Internal-MAL38000SA-T54-Especia%EF%BD%8Cly/dp/B01EAHL6V0/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1474843682&sr=1-2&refinements=p_89%3AMarshal

If you google the part #, you will see a picture of it which clearly shows its a rebranded drive.  Which ultimately means that any warranty (is there one? couldn't find any mention of it) is with Marshall themselves.

 

 

But, caveat emptor:  30 day reviews are 67% negative, shipping is free (which more or less means that its coming from China), and they are really stressing about how much improved their packaging is (a drive wrapped with a single layer of bubble wrap and stuffed in an exact sized box according to the picture)  Yeah, that's how I'd want to ship a drive across the world via the post office.

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uhm, pretty sure a made in Japan drive would not come from China, and since I can get same day delivery where ever they were bulk shipped from, they are now sitting in Amazon warehouses like the ones down the street from my house.

 

I wish they were made in China as another serious manufacturer is needed. These look to be rebranded Toshiba, very much Hitachi split off.

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Marshal 8TB 5400RPM 128MB Cache SATA?(6.0Gb/s) 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive Near Line Model 128MB Cache 5400rpm MAL38000SA-T54. Other than the listing I stumbled across on Amazon US, all Google returns is all Japanese web sites. New MFG or rebranded somebody (Toshiba "accidently" in description)?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Marshal-5400RPM-Internal-MAL38000SA-T54-Especia%EF%BD%8Cly/dp/B01EAHL6V0/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1474843682&sr=1-2&refinements=p_89%3AMarshal

If you google the part #, you will see a picture of it which clearly shows its a rebranded drive.  Which ultimately means that any warranty (is there one? couldn't find any mention of it) is with Marshall themselves.

 

 

But, caveat emptor:  30 day reviews are 67% negative, shipping is free (which more or less means that its coming from China), and they are really stressing about how much improved their packaging is (a drive wrapped with a single layer of bubble wrap and stuffed in an exact sized box according to the picture)  Yeah, that's how I'd want to ship a drive across the world via the post office.

 

Yeah their Amazon customer score is through the floor. Surprised Amz hasn't suspended them.

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Amazon wants $318.95 for the superb WD Red 8TB units (helium-sealed, VERY good performance).

 

That's about $50/drive less than I paid for the ones I have; so the price is heading in the right direction ... although I certainly don't expect it to get under $200 anytime soon.

 

That said, if I needed more 8TB drives, I'd absolutely buy more Reds ... I wouldn't even consider these Marshall units.  Worth an extra $138/drive?  Clearly a personal decision -- but my answer is yes ... the performance; reliability; and warranty are easily worth the extra cost.

 

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Yeah their Amazon customer score is through the floor. Surprised Amz hasn't suspended them.

 

I don't think being convicted of murdering customers would get someone suspended from Amazon's marketplace.  Fortunately, Amazon's always made things right when I've been burned by a marketplace vendor.

 

On the other hand, Newegg's got 8tb Seagate "Expansion" externals for $180 with free shipping thru 9/30 with promo code so you can get a trusted-brand drive from a trusted-name vendor.  According to customer reports, they contain ST8000AS0002 drives.  I've run those both as parity and data with no issues.

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On the other hand, Newegg's got 8tb Seagate "Expansion" externals for $180 with free shipping thru 9/30 with promo code so you can get a trusted-brand drive from a trusted-name vendor.  According to customer reports, they contain ST8000AS0002 drives.  I've run those both as parity and data with no issues.

 

 

This is a somewhat rhetorical question but I have to ask anyway, popping out the drives and using them in an array voids the warranty, correct?  On the drive itself I mean.

 

Thanks.

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On the other hand, Newegg's got 8tb Seagate "Expansion" externals for $180 with free shipping thru 9/30 with promo code so you can get a trusted-brand drive from a trusted-name vendor.  According to customer reports, they contain ST8000AS0002 drives.  I've run those both as parity and data with no issues.

 

 

This is a somewhat rhetorical question but I have to ask anyway, popping out the drives and using them in an array voids the warranty, correct?  On the drive itself I mean.

 

Thanks.

 

Yes.  But if you thoroughly test the drive before you take it out, you'll hopefully avoid any infant mortality issues.  A lot of folks do this to save the few $$ over the cost of a bare drive -- personally I do not.  Note there can be other issues as well with these drives ... some external drives are set up with small HBA's for various purposes => even though the loss of capacity is trivial, that precludes using the drives as parity, since they'll be smaller than standard internal drives.

 

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This is a somewhat rhetorical question but I have to ask anyway, popping out the drives and using them in an array voids the warranty, correct?  On the drive itself I mean.

 

Thanks.

 

Yes the warranty is voided, but I choose to self insure. I am using 10 out of a total of 41 drives that started life inside a external enclosure. When it is time to buy, if I can get an external for $20 cheaper I'll go that route. I bought two of the $180 Seagate Expansion drives and have them running in my main array right now. I ran three three full Smart cycles on each before popping them out of their enclosures.

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Self-insuring is always an option.  If you're saving $20/drive, then as long as you don't have more than about a 10% failure rate you'll be ahead in overall cost ... and thoroughly testing before pulling the drive's significantly increases the odds of achieving that (as I noted earlier, that will generally eliminate any infant mortality issues -- and most drives that get past that stage will indeed last for several years).

 

Some folks do effectively the same thing by buying the lower-end drives, which still provides some warranty, but for a shorter period of time ...

 

e.g.  a 4TB WD Blue costs $130 and is warranted for 2 years vs. $150 for a 4TB Red with a 3 year warranty.

 

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I would avoid any product from a company that has a 50% negative rating on Amazon -- warranty or not.

 

Spend a few more $$ and get a reliable brand.  Personally, every drive I've bought for my servers in the past 3 years has been a WD Red ... 3TB, 4TB, and 8TB units.  ZERO failures in over 30 drives in service (although I did have one that failed my initial testing and I RMA'd it for a new one).

 

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While it's always good to get a "deal" on things, hard drives to store your data are NOT an area where you should be solely focused on price.    Buy quality drives -- even if they cost a bit more.  The savings in frustration are easily worth a few extra $$

 

<< Learning this the hard way.

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Haven't seen the he8's as low as $350 ... but they ARE superb drives.    The 8TB WD Reds are essentially the same drives at a lower rpm and with a shorter warranty ... but the HGST he8's give you both faster speed (7200 rpm) and a longer warranty -- and if you can get them at that kind of price they are indeed a VERY good value.  At the moment they're $437 at Amazon and $459 at Newegg.

 

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... Found the HGST HE8's for $367 at Provantage ... so it does indeed look like $350 is a "doable" price if you look long enough.    This is only about $50 more than an 8TB Red ... or about $6/TB more for the higher speed and longer warranty.  The only downside is that they run faster, which translates to a bit more power draw and more heat -- but if you need (or want) the higher speed that's likely not an issue.

 

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Haven't seen the he8's as low as $350 ... but they ARE superb drives.    The 8TB WD Reds are essentially the same drives at a lower rpm and with a shorter warranty ... but the HGST he8's give you both faster speed (7200 rpm) and a longer warranty -- and if you can get them at that kind of price they are indeed a VERY good value.  At the moment they're $437 at Amazon and $459 at Newegg.

 

Hi Gary, yeah I was mainly referring to ebay.  There is usually at least a couple sellers on there selling brand new he8's with manufacturers warranty for around $350 or less. 

Either way the WD red 8tb is excellent.  I have a few of those also and they've been great.

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I got my 8TB drives out of WD MyBook drives.  I paid £190 for them, which is a lot cheaper than 8TB Reds.  I've had no problems with them at all, and they run totally silently.

 

Obviously there's no warranty with them now I gutted them out of their case, but they're cheap enough that I don't care about that.

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