Dell Hard Drive prices

I was running through a desktop configuration today and noticed a 640 GB HD
costs $444.40 AU. I bought a 640 GB WD Caviar Blue HD recently for $99. Four
times the price of a local supplier sounds a "little" excessive. I'll buy
the smallest HD from Dell and use my own HDs. Is that what others do? Any
other cost cutting suggestions?

Brian,

I am in the U.S. so the $444.40AU shows up as $314US. The $99AU
price is comparable to what we would pay here at a good online website
for a hard drive.

Are you sure the whole system was not $444.40AU?

I would not think that that is normal pricing for Dell. Dell is all
about having a good price for the hardware they sell. Although they
may not have the cheapest system they do offer very good prices on the
systems the sell.

Back 20 years or so all the major manufacturers (IBM, Apple, Compaq,
Dell) had somewhat proprietary parts that you could only get from the
manufacturer and they were expensive. For the most part hard drives
have always been universal although some manufacturers made it
difficult putting drives into their computers. About 10 years ago or
so Dell's desktop power supplies were unique to their systems which
was a pain but most (if not all) are non-proprietary.

But nowadays everyone uses common components, even Apple started using
non-proprietary hardware even before they switched Intel based
processors.

After having written this I do think you may have misread the
article. Although they may have some exceptions where changing a
configuration may for some reason jack up the price.

David

David,

I guess we are both surprised. No, that wasn't the total price, it was the
price for the second HD. The price for the total system was $5000 AU. I was
just playing and choosing the best in each category. It's a Dell XPS 430
Desktop and no, I'm not planning to spend $5000.

http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellsto...0302AU&s =dhs

See if this link works for you. It should start on the processor page.

On Apr 4, 1:04*pm, "Brian K" wrote:
David,

I guess we are both surprised. No, that wasn't the total price, it was the
price for the second HD. The price for the total system was $5000 AU. I was
just playing and choosing the best in each category. It's a Dell XPS 430
Desktop and no, I'm not planning to spend $5000.

I am not a big gamer and I think that what these XPS are known for;
they are expensive high performing desktops.

I did a configuration on a Dell XPS 630 and found the following
option.

600GB Performance RAID 0 (2x300GB WD Velociraptor 10K RPM HDDs) [add
$550 or $17/month1]

It is a RAID system with what looks to be 2 separate hard drives so
$550 for 2.

I don't know the difference of 1 of these and a standard hard drive
but a apparently it is a higher end drive. I found the following
link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ptor,1914.html

The 300GB hard drive prices show about $200 when I did a product
search on Google. The article above mentions they are 2.5 (notebook)
size for some reason. I did not read the full article.

If you configure a Inspiron desktop the prices on the hard drive is
more in line with middle of the road pricing.

"vbDavidC" wrote in message
...

If you configure a Inspiron desktop the prices on the hard drive is
more in line with middle of the road pricing.




I just looked at an Inspiron configuration. The price for a 500 GB HD
(second HD) was $341 AU. I still think Dell's HD prices are outrageous.

I'm probably a year away from another computer purchase but I check the Dell
systems every month or so. For at least a year I've noticed Dell's high
prices for HDs. I have little idea how fairly other components are priced
but to charge four times more than the local supplier for a HD is
concerning.

"Brian K" wrote in message
...
http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellsto...0302AU&s =dhs

See if this link works for you. It should start on the processor page.

I just did some spot checks on the Dell US site. The few home or business
computers that offer a second hard drive option are asking about $250 USD
for a 500 GB drive. Good Grief! This seems to correspond approximately --
when exchange rates are figured in -- with the second disk drive prices on
the AU site. What is going on here?

- David Harper

"David Harper" wrote in message
...

"Brian K" wrote in message
...
http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellsto...0302AU&s =dhs

See if this link works for you. It should start on the processor page.

I just did some spot checks on the Dell US site. The few home or business
computers that offer a second hard drive option are asking about $250 USD
for a 500 GB drive. Good Grief! This seems to correspond approximately --
when exchange rates are figured in -- with the second disk drive prices on
the AU site. What is going on here?

- David Harper


they will probably say, that's the fitted (cables included) and formatted
cost :-).............its still a rip off.............

I have found it is the same deal with the ram. You can buy 4gb of brnad name
DDR2 800Mhz ram for under $90aus yet Dell charge you more than this to
upgrade from 2gb to 4gb when i last looked.
"Brian K" wrote in message
...
I was running through a desktop configuration today and noticed a 640 GB HD
costs $444.40 AU. I bought a 640 GB WD Caviar Blue HD recently for $99.
Four times the price of a local supplier sounds a "little" excessive. I'll
buy the smallest HD from Dell and use my own HDs. Is that what others do?
Any other cost cutting suggestions?

I guess after looking at your posts I will agree with y'all to some
degree.

After looking at configuring a standard desktop (Inspiron) you are
correct that the price goes up if you have to change the default
drive.

If I were to buy a Dell I probably would want a 750GB or 1TB drive.
An extra $80 for the 750GB does seem steep for an upgrade.

I will say though that I think for their standard configurations I
think they are competitive. Factoring in Dell's service and support I
think it is decent. Yes I know the support is outsourced and is not
as good as when they had good ole U.S. support people, but overall I
would recommend a Dell to most computer user's.

Being from Austin, Texas (Michael Dell's home) has no bearing on my
views.

David