[SOLVED] Where do you prefer to buy single components that are sensitive to shock?

Jul 6, 2019
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Recent considerations to replace an HDD have led me to the question where you would buy a single internal HDD (or different device of similar size and fragility) - from an online retailer specialized in PC components or in a brick-and-mortar shop?

The pro of the online retailer would be that the part would come from a storage that only the employees would frequent, but there's the danger that the component is being manhandled while it's being shipped to me (I don't know how effective the padding really is in the event that it gets literally tossed around or similar).

Brick-and-mortar shop is pretty much the opposite, I guess. The components may have been sitting there since forever and anyone can just grab a part, in the worst event maybe even drop it and just put it back. On the other hand, I'd rather trust myself to safely get it home.

I suppose that all in all, though, both options come with a certain risk. But I'd like to know if there tends to be a preference for either.
 
Solution
Store front from retailers/resellers who deal in large quantities.
Ive seen shipments from distributors and they are on pallets (i worked at a major reseller here in Aus). With 50-100s of HDDs at a time, all snug in their bespoke foam packaging from the manufacturer. These boxes are heavy as f*.

Absolutely no doubt they suffer less shock than if you get it shipped and its rattling around in its little box with the courier (and middlemen in postal distribution centres) playing football.

TLDR - HDDs from store front. Also motherboards because they are the part most likely to be DOA. (screw returns via post)

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
"I'd rather trust myself to safely get it home "

That is only the last few miles of a several thousand mile trip.


It comes from the same factory, off the same assembly line, on the same ship, in the same truck, to the same distro center, again in the same truck...
Buying from a store just means that you get to move it the last couple of miles, instead of the UPS guy.
 
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To be perfectly honest I've bought second hand drives from pre 2010 online and they still work fine, passing health tests etc. Even part which are breakable and/or risk static damage don't actually have high chances of breaking. For example, no-one really uses anti-static wrist bands to simply change RAM or a GPU (I'm talking pre heat spreader here). Also, I've dropped RAM onto tiled floors before and it's still worked. I am in no way saying that there is no chance of things getting damaged, I'm just saying that things breaking en transit or in an open display or shop is not likely. For me, there is no difference, both are equally unlikely to damage hardware.
 
Jul 6, 2019
9
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10
Idk, a big parcel that contains 10 HDDs seems less likely to be manhandled than a smaller one that contains only one. But maybe not. Anyway, my main concern was actually possible damage done by shop costumers vs. possible transportation damage. I guess they're more or less equally likely to happen.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Idk, a big parcel that contains 10 HDDs seems less likely to be manhandled than a smaller one that contains only one. But maybe not. Anyway, my main concern was actually possible damage done by shop costumers vs. possible transportation damage. I guess they're more or less equally likely to happen.
I'm sure, somewhere in the bowels of UPS/BestBuy/Amazon/Fedex/USPS/Newegg/Seagate/Western Digital....they have stats on the specific number of components that were DOA due to some shipping or handling errors.

I'd be surprised if there were any significant differences.
 

fredfinks

Honorable
Store front from retailers/resellers who deal in large quantities.
Ive seen shipments from distributors and they are on pallets (i worked at a major reseller here in Aus). With 50-100s of HDDs at a time, all snug in their bespoke foam packaging from the manufacturer. These boxes are heavy as f*.

Absolutely no doubt they suffer less shock than if you get it shipped and its rattling around in its little box with the courier (and middlemen in postal distribution centres) playing football.

TLDR - HDDs from store front. Also motherboards because they are the part most likely to be DOA. (screw returns via post)
 
Solution