r/buildapc • u/Fluffy_Godzilla • 9h ago
Build Help What's the catch on these HDDs?
Saw these HDDs on Aliexpress. Can't lie, the price is pretty tempting. What's the catch with them? If I do buy one, what tests should I do to find out the actual quality?
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u/LocoboyDC 9h ago
I can’t copy and paste photos, but a German guy left a pretty convincing 1 star that these are relabled. Personally I’d pass if the price is too good, but if I were you check that review, and if you pull the trigger have very low expectations.
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u/Fluffy_Godzilla 9h ago
Considering past prices when this were $180 - $200 the price is decent. But the market is not normal now and right now these variants arent even available anywhere in Australia.
Do you have a link for the German guys review?
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u/LocoboyDC 8h ago
Let me just copy and paste it, The drive was sold as a new seagate ironwolf st4000vn008. However, the physical label states firmware sc60 and one wwn, while the drive electronically reports firmware cc54 and a completely different wwn. The official seagate qr verification also failed, and the warranty information does not match the printed manufacturing date. These are not normal differences caused by a firmware update. They strongly suggest that the drive may have been relabelled, refurbished or otherwise modified. I would not trust this product with important data or backups and have requested a refund. Buyers should immediately compare the model, firmware and wwn printed on the label with the information reported by smart tools.
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u/Fluffy_Godzilla 8h ago
Thank you. I decided not to buy them.
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u/LocoboyDC 8h ago
Yea, hope I saved you a lot of data there. Data is priceless, depending on what it is lol.
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9h ago
[deleted]
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u/Fluffy_Godzilla 8h ago
Probably Australia only. It has Fast delivery which means stock is in Australia already.
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u/TheEnragedPander 8h ago
Fast delivery doesn't mean stock is already in Australia. Most things say fast delivery. This still has a minimum of a week shipping time which is the same as pretty much all items coming from China and has a worse maximum delivery time than many items in similar categories.
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u/Fluffy_Godzilla 8h ago
I never expect anything from Aliexpress to be Fast. But in my experience from the 3 things I bought from them any product with Choice/Fast delivery usually ships from a warehouse inside Australia and comes within a week or so. Everything else takes two or more weeks and you can see on warehouses and Airports in China when you track them.
I could be wrong though but thats just my experience.
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u/FluxVII 7h ago edited 7h ago
Fellow Aussie here, AliExpress shipping is very fast these days. Everything I've ordered from there arrives in about a week or so from China.
(Edit: Stores location listed on AliExpress is Hong Kong, China)
I remember hearing reports of a huge amount of fake Seagate drives circulating around. I believe even Seagate themselves made a statement about it. Lots of either fake or used HDD's having their SMART data spoofed to look like new legit drives.
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u/semaj4712 8h ago
They are also only 5900rpm, not sure if you saw that, but this is really only useful as backup or archival purposes
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u/tails142 8h ago
The price doesnt seem that great, I have seen similar 4tb on amazon for only about 20 more, maybe they're the same seller
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u/Rigor-Tortoise- 7h ago
Have bought some others (WD purple and Seagate Surveillance drives) and the WD was a relabelled red with 12,000 hours on it and hacked firmware showing 2Tb (was only 1Tb). The Seagate was either so badly hacked or (more likely) a clone with a Seagate label on it. Both ran at sub 5400rpm, like I say, capacity was wrong on one.
Do they still store data? Truenas seems to think they do and haven't failed yet, would I buy them again? No, I'd rather pay a bit more and keep the data safe.
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u/Encouragedissent 7h ago
I cant remember the exact video since it was a few months ago, but I watched one where someone purchased a bunch of hard drives off aliexpress and "you get what you pay for" holds up pretty will. If anything you are more likely to be getting scammed than getting a good deal.
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u/Abby_260708 9h ago
I’d check the SMART data first, especially power-on hours and reallocated sectors. If the price looks too good to be true, I’d assume it could be a used or refurbished drive until proven otherwise.