[jqp]

This ends up being a sweet deal for those who need a 3TB drive for archive or utility purpose.

And it is not a 5400rpm drive but a full 7200rpm with a 6GB/s transfer rate = SATA3

It is a bare drive, no screws or anyting else. It is sold as a Toshiba but is actually a Hitachi -  HGST has been acquired Western Digital.

works out to less than $50 per TB!

Copying 600+ files totaling 171GB, from the old one to the new one, I get 140MB/sec!

I have been using the same drive, except an A instead of this E - for over a year every day and it used a lot for copying and downloads

HDS723030BLE640 is my new one - old one is HDS723030BLA640

in Windows 7 or 8 use GUID setup instead of MBT to get all 3 TB in one partition.


Toshiba DT01ACA300 (HDKPC08) 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive  $142 !!!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0094A4Y18

can't say if the price will stay here - post if you order this, I am contemplating getting 2 more

[jqp]

Just to let everyone know, the price has risen to $147.81, plus $7 shipping. Also it is now from a different seller...I got it with free shipping, so I paid $12 less than this current offer.

Now it is more comparable to other deals, but I am still very impressed with this Hitachi even at this price.

Amazon can really vary their prices day-to-day, so keep checking back! Its almost like ebay without the bidding

[jqp]

Here is a Seagate

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST3000DM001/dp/B005T3GRLY           $139.68 free shipping if you have Prime

and approved by Synology

[ctviggen]

Looks like prices are finally starting to come down again.  I usually use "green" drives, only because I use so many of them. For a single usage, though, the difference isn't enough to justify, especially if you shutdown the computer often.  My server runs 24/7, so I can't shutdown.

[jqp]

In my systems, the drives go to sleep after a while anyway, and so do the PCs. But when I am on the PCs I want those drives to be blazingly fast 

Yes prices are coming down now, guess we are getting to "the new normal" for large drives, unfortunately it looks like warrantees are not going to be as good as they were at one time (3-5 years!)