unless this is a notebook drive (which i don't think it is) wouldn't it be better just to get the 1.5TB for $150?

Perpendicular recording = ?

we're going to be seeing free after rebate deals on hard drives by the holidays at this rate

#2, i just hope you are right. that's what i'm looking forward to on BF.

"Perpendicular recording = ? "

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/recording_head/pr/PerpendicularAnimation.html

#2, I doubt that they'll be free, but they will most likely be less exprensive.

is that OEM drive or in retail box? not sure....

at this rate, they might be all gone before black friday

Read the customer reviews on Newegg. This particular model has a majority of favorable reviews, but the number of 1& 2 star ratings (15%) may be a concern about reliability. Bad batch perhaps?

Is this any good? Has anyone used one of these?

These are great for storing data.

#9: No, no one has ever used one before.

good deal.. good deal

#6, almost likely a bare drive, as this description for "20PC Minimum" (which is odd enough by itself mentioning a large-volume minimum of 20 drives?) probably means that it's OEM.

SEAGATE ST3500320AS SEAGATE 500GB 7200RPM SATA 32MB 20PC MINIMUM

#9 (and all), I'm using one of these as the primary drive in my main PC, and it seems to work just fine. I DID have a problem shortly after I assembled this PC and transferred 100's of GBs of data to this drive, though. My PC was turned on and idle, and had been in this state long enough that Windows had turned off the display. I tried to use the PC and couldn't get any response, so I had to hit the reset button. The 500GB Seagate was not detected after reset, and it scared the crap out of me. I tried pulling the power cable from the PC in order to give it a full cold boot, but this did not help. I finally opened the computer case, reseated the SATA power cable and data cable (at both the motherboard and at the drive), and the drive was detected. This was four or five months ago, and I haven't had any problems since, so I guess that it was a cabling problem and not a hard drive problem.

should I wait til black Friday to buy a hard drive... or should I buy one now?

buy one now, our economy needs a boost. But honestly i wouldn't buy a thing from buy.com they have screwed me out of so many rebates its not funny. It might be a deal but for a few extra bucks you can find it on a reputable site like newegg.

In the past hard drives have dropped to ~$30 near black friday- that's what I'm waiting for.

I'll wait for BF.

#1, assuming that's a serious (but stupid) question, very few people need more than 500 GB. Paying 2.5 times as much for something you won't use probably isn't the smartest idea.

i have one of these. they are nice hard drives. Good price too, although im sure youll be able to get better on BF