Just thought i'd post this in case anyone is interested, this is definitely a killer deal for that drive. I got one for myself a few weeks ago, retail box from Dell for $187.00 shipped. Can't go wrong with an OEM for $40 less.

On a side note, gotapex.com is a site I tend to hang out on a lot, they always have insane deals posted. I've gotten a ton of things from looking at their site and finding deals.

Cool, thanks. This is the drive I am looking at for my next PC that I am building in July. It's starting to come togther in specs.

Time to find the Plextor DVD/CD-RW drive somewhere too, this 4x burner is just not fast anymore.

Holly cow! My 100GB was about $200 and it was OEM too!

Just an FYI on some additional savings people can get:

o If you're a previous Dell customer, you get free shipping.
o If you order $250+, enter code 631CB5B20D66 to get $25 off (ends 4/22!)

I.e.: Order two drives, under the above conditions and the cost is $279.20 *shipped*. That's what I just did!

Thanks for the tip on this deal!

Remember folks !!!
You get what you pay for.
And for $185 plus shipping you can get the 120 GB IBM Desktar Drive
In my opinion, a MUCH better *more reliable* disk.

$139 vs. $185 + s/h... hmmm??? Tough call. I take it you've had bad experiences with Western Digital? I've had my problems with IBM's and Maxtor's, so I'll take my chances on the WD. The only drives I've never had problems with were Seagates, but those were SCSI drives and they just don't warrant the cost any longer. As always, to each their own. I'll be sure to let you know if the WD fails, though!

I'm usually an all IBM guy too, however, there have been a ton of problems with some of the recent larger IBM GXP series drives (especially the 120GXP series). Plus, IBM is combining the storage side of their business with Hitachi, and that's going to take a while settle. So, for this and for my TiVo upgrade (two Maxtor 80GB drives @ $115 each) i've gone non-IBM. Also, with a 3 year warranty, I don't really care who the drive is made by.

After having used IBM and Maxtor, both of which showed problems after a while, I thought it was time to buy a WD. I bought the 100Mb version of the special editions with 8Mb cache. It REALLY does make a difference. IBM is NOT better ! (certainly not performance-wise and probably not failiure-proof-wise anymore either)
All I can say after 3 weeks of use it that this WD drive is a great piece of hardware! of course, I can't say anything about the MTBF of this drive yet, but considering previous experiences with WD (granted, several years ago), I believe I'm golden.

I must say : if Dell would ship worldwide I would buy another one of those drives in a heartbeat. But of course, only US citizens are able to profit from this bargain...

I have always had great luck with Western Digital. Have had good luck with Maxtor. Not so good luck with IBM. And Seagate's IDE drives blow. In scsi they rock, but I'll never buy another seagate drive.

Yeah, I can agree 100% with you on this. If I had to make a list of my experiences, it would be identical. Even that thing about SCSI you mention.
What are the odds?

I'm sure glad this is already in the Off Topic forum!