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I had not gone to Sim Lim Square or Funan Centre (now called Digitalife Mall or something) for two months, and I think that’s a record. The reason: I had overspent at the turn of the year on my crazy watercooling PC, and I was determined to stay away from temptation.
Yesterday, however, presented a chance to check out the latest gizmos again, since I had “sacrificed” my 2.5-inch 250GB portable hard disk to replace the faulty one in my wife’s Compaq laptop (that’s another story, trust me).
So, down I went to Funan to look for a replacement to put into my Silverstone TS01 hard disk enclosure. Man, are prices for 2.5-inch portable drives falling fast.
A 500GB Momentus 5400.6 bare drive from Seagate (running at 5,400rpm) costs S$165, while a nicely packaged Seagate FreeAgent Go external drive offering the same capacity costs just S$189 at Cybermind (there’s a discount on top of what’s printed on the price list).
That’s a difference of less than S$25 and a no-brainer, if you’re looking for an external drive. The FreeAgent Go, with its nice enclosure, is clearly the better choice.
But I had a problem. I already had an enclosure – one that I liked and came with a fancy RFID fob key to decrypt the contents of the drive. Grudgingly, I went for the bare drive.
Both offered five years of warranty, but the bare drive could be easily stripped and used as a replacement for my laptop if its hard disk stops spinning in future. For the external drive, the warranty is gone once you open the case, so I won’t be able to use the drive as a replacement while enjoying the warranty.
One more thing made up my mind for this Geek Buy. During these tough times, a S$25 saving is not something to be sniffed at – it’s 6 bowls of meepok at the boring Funan foodcourt.
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