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Real reason why HDDs are sold as bulk OEM in europe ?

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Well I don't know how it's elsewhere, but most etailers don't sell HDDs with packaging, basically nothing except the hard drive, no screws, no papers.

I've been searching but didn't found an answer, i'm just curious because I pretty much made my own answer at the beginning and stick with it for years, which is that HDDs

This is just by the way nothing really important.

Thought about this because when I went to get a package into one etailer distribution center one weird noob guy opened the package up in front of everybody and talked about where's the original package looking at the HDD stuffed in cardboard-like paper, yes that was all in the etailers defacto cardboard shipping box. When he was getting annoying because I was just behind him waiting in line and didn't had time for this BS I told him this is that this is because it's sold as "OEM whatever" bulk, there's nothing of importance in the box and it's a bit cheaper. The guy had weird facial behavior walking out of the shop like was angry at something.

I have never seen a packaged HDD in real life. Is that just because I don't go to random mainstream overpriced tech store to get my hardware?
 
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Same here. Theory: It is related to 95% of HDDs being installed by shops and only some lonely freaks like us buy them and add them to our pc's.
Still some e-tailers offer boxed or oem, but truely I never saw a boxed one this century...

Same goes for mainstream RAM sticks...
 

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Same here. Theory: It is related to 95% of HDDs being installed by shops and only some lonely freaks like us buy them and add them to our pc's.
Still some e-tailers offer boxed or oem, but truely I never saw a boxed one this century...

Same goes for mainstream RAM sticks...

I think I've gotten a piece of paper with every new RAM stick I've bought in my life. Sealed packaging and a piece of paper with some warranty info. The OCZ Reapers I bought had some packaging but they were huge so they kind of had to. :p

But yeah I think it's because most buyers are OEM's and fancy packaging just doesn't matter. Is it the same with SSD's? I'm thinking they should have fancy packaging as they're new and cool. The same with high end memory imo.
 

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I think I've gotten a piece of paper with every new RAM stick I've bought in my life. Sealed packaging and a piece of paper with some warranty info. The OCZ Reapers I bought had some packaging but they were huge so they kind of had to. :p

But yeah I think it's because most buyers are OEM's and fancy packaging just doesn't matter. Is it the same with SSD's? I'm thinking they should have fancy packaging as they're new and cool. The same with high end memory imo.

iv gotten blister pack with ever set of ram even el cheepo please boot my rig sticks. HDDs? i bought my last HDD I got in a box was a seagate 320 i gtom from newegg in 05 since then i just get the HDD the 320 even came with a sata cable fancy that.
 

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packaging, screws and paper cost money.

most people, including me, will buy hdds at the cheapest shop, especially in times of price comparison engines.

what do you need the extra stuff for anyway? as long as the drive is in the sealed bag it'll be fine
 
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a drive without extras means less trash and clutter. give me more drives with just an anti-static bag! :)
 

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You do see retail boxed hard discs at some of the bigger retailers in the UK. And yes, they're stupidly overpriced for the privilege. Stick to OEM.
 
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what do you need the extra stuff for anyway? as long as the drive is in the sealed bag it'll be fine

No No, I feel the same way , I just wasn't sure 100%.

Okay, so I didn't said anything wrong to the guy ...
 

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I think they save the fancy boxes for Americans. Because we refuse to take anything "plain". We need all the bells and whistles.
 
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Hehe, very vaguely similar thing happend with WiiU recently, iwata dropped the bomb and talked about detailed specs in japanese direct just earlier on the conference day, truly a historic moment.

The Europe's shibata talked about specs too but did not mention everything iwata did.

But for US conference, there was no tech specs at all.
 
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It is the same on the side of the globe.
Usually it is just an egg box with an HDD sealed in an anti-static bag.
 
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The mounting screws come with the case when you buy it, and what are you putting it in? Ahh, the premade holder in the case, cables are included with the motherboard, and your power supply.......


Plus I have boxes of extra cables, adapters, screws, and much else.
 
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I'm not doing anything just a check I said it this was not that big of a deal.

That was more common that the screws are handled by the Case manufacturers, I thought maybe there was other unknown reason cause they tired to explain to the guy why was it like that way.
 
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OT slightly, didn't intel used to have different warrantees on OEM vs. retail chips?

I've never gotten anything but a bare drive bunddled in bubble wrap and packing tape from Newegg. Motherboards come with so many cables, and cases come with so many screws that it'd be hard to run out.

I've yet to see a bare version of a portable drive / enclosure
 

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I have never gotten a bare OEM box for anything. Everything I get comes in retail.
 
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When buying a new HDD, I google the model to check it's track record (very important for HDDs IMO) and order it online, at the cheapest price. I have never seen a hard drive itself that is boxed.

They usually come in a shipping container with packing peanuts, inside of a static-sleave and some silica gel.
 
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I've never experienced getting a HDD in anything but a single anti-static bag heat-treated shut.
 
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Newegg sells a number of drives with retail packaging, and always for a good bit more so nobody buys them.
 
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When you add together the facts that most HDDs are put in OEM computers and they are pretty simple anymore and rarely require jumper configuration, there's not much reason to sell them in a box with manual. That and the fact that they last and last, the warranty is a non issue too.
 

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Staples in Canada do it in boxes but specialised computer centers come OEM. True it is also cheaper in OEM format.
 
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At least we have less stupid "unboxing"* videos of HDD's on youtube.... ;)

* Talks miles of mental age....
 
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How bout a nice "unbagging".

"Here we have the anti-static bag packaging, the contents of which is the HDD, which you can clearly see through it".

Ten second video tops, without all those lengthy ramblings that make it obvious they're just coming up with an excuse to get subscribers. LOL
 
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New SSD disk, at least those from OCZ incl. brackets and everything.
 

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here in aus i have never seen a hdd with anything but an anti-static bag but ssd on the other hand i have always seen come in a box with screws sometimes and other extras depending on brand
 
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