Storage Solutions Great deals on Intel SSD's on ebay - genuine?

If you had to buy one, which one would you choose

  • Intel 320 - 160GB

    Votes: 2 33.3%

  • Intel 520 - 180GB

    Votes: 2 33.3%

  • Intel 530 -240GB

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • Total voters
    6
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ch@ts

ch@ts

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There are a bunch of used SSD's on ebay that the sellers claim to have been pulled out of laptops.

Came across a few good deals for Intel SSD's.
160GB - Intel 320 - Rs.4500
180GB - Intel 520 - Rs.5500
240GB - Intel 530 -Rs.7700

http://www.ebay.in/itm/INTEL-SSD-52...mory_Cards_Pen_Drives_HDD&hash=item27e6d5f9a9

http://www.ebay.in/itm/INTEL-SSD-52...mory_Cards_Pen_Drives_HDD&hash=item27e6d5f9a9

http://www.ebay.in/itm/INTEL-SSD-16...mory_Cards_Pen_Drives_HDD&hash=item3ce4eeacc8


Factor in ebay coupons and the deals are really tempting.

I was considering the Intel 520 series, but apparently it causes BSOD's. And the 320 series had an issue where it suddenly showed up as a 8MB drive. I think Intel has issued fixes for the bugs, but I'm not sure if they've worked.
I was looking for a cheap 128GB drive, so the 320 and 520 series deals look good, I'm just not sure if the drives are reliable.

Are these deals genuine? Are these really hardly used ex-laptop drives?
Can the SMART data be tampered with?
Have the Intel 320 and 520 series bugs been fixed?
 
I bought one Intel 320 series 160GB and it was delivered yesterday. It has firmware 4PC10365.

I installed it in my laptop and installed Win 7 (through VAIO recovery DVDs) and some other softwares which I use.

Hard disk is working fine as of now but now, after reading all those reviews, I am worried.

What should I do? Should I return it? (bought from ebay, what reason should I give ?).

Do I have some other option ?
 
Crazy_Eddy said:
@Saiyan's 320 showed the 8MB bug even after he updated to the fixed firmware.
The warranty though is a question, since warranties for OEM drives in laptops are usually handled by the laptop manufacturer themselves.

The pricing is not that bad. But you get good Marvell controller based SSDs for quite less too - SanDisk Ultra Plus 128GB - 4.6k - http://www.primeabgb.com/sandisk-ultra-plus-128gb-ssd-sdssdhp-128g-g25.html
Click to expand...

The only reason I'm considering buying an SSD now is because ebay sent me a 15% off coupon (for purchases over Rs.5000) and I can't think of anything else I want from that site. The Intel 520 comes to about Rs.4800 after the discount, which seems to be a good bargain. I'm worried about the BSOD's though. And the lack of warranty for a drive with issues is even more worrying. But the pricing (after discount) is very tempting.

Prime's pricing seems okay, but some SSD's are a good 15% cheaper on Amazon and Snapdeal than on their site. I saw listings on them for the Transcend 340 and the UltraPlus for ~3900-4100.

The 530 is priced too close to the Crucial MX100 256GB to make sense.

prime said:
I bought one Intel 320 series 160GB and it was delivered yesterday. It has firmware 4PC10365.

I installed it in my laptop and installed Win 7 (through VAIO recovery DVDs) and some other softwares which I use.

Hard disk is working fine as of now but now, after reading all those reviews, I am worried.

What should I do? Should I return it? (bought from ebay, what reason should I give ?).

Do I have some other option ?
Click to expand...

I don't think you can return the drive, and I don't think you should worry too much. The issue affected a small percentage of drives, and Intel issued a fix.
Update the drives firmware, and keep your data backed up just to be safe.

Did you buy the drive from the sellers above? How much usage did the drives show? What's their health status?
 
ch@ts said:
I don't think you can return the drive, and I don't think you should worry too much. The issue affected a small percentage of drives, and Intel issued a fix.
Update the drives firmware, and keep your data backed up just to be safe.

Did you buy the drive from the sellers above? How much usage did the drives show? What's their health status?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I bought from the same seller.

The firmware is latest already.

"Powered On" figure was 3 times on first use. So it was 2 times before I connected ("2 times" was handwritten by a pencil on the SSD itself).

I don't care about data so much, it is just a boot drive with almost no data on my laptop (which is used just once or twice a week).
 
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prime said:
Yeah, I bought from the same seller.

The firmware is latest already.

"Powered On" figure was 3 times on first use. So it was 2 times before I connected ("2 times" was handwritten by a pencil on the SSD itself).

I don't care about data so much, it is just a boot drive with almost no data on my laptop (which is used just once or twice a week).
Click to expand...

Could you check the warranty on the Intel website?
I checked the warranty for 520 series SSD in the sellers pic and it's under warranty till 2018.

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/warranty
 
prime said:
Estimated Warranty Expiration*: Dec 08,2016

If required, can we RMA it from Intel (India) directly ?
Click to expand...

I don't know. But Intel drives are pretty reliable, and I'm sure you won't have anything to worry about.

The 520 series drive I was interested in is about 3 months old. I called the seller and he told me the power on count was something like 600. I don't think I'm going to buy it.
 
Guys don't take the sellers word for it. If I had a penny for everytime a computer seller lied or was just plain ignorant of important facts...
 
ch@ts said:
The only reason I'm considering buying an SSD now is because ebay sent me a 15% off coupon (for purchases over Rs.5000) and I can't think of anything else I want from that site. The Intel 520 comes to about Rs.4800 after the discount, which seems to be a good bargain. I'm worried about the BSOD's though. And the lack of warranty for a drive with issues is even more worrying. But the pricing (after discount) is very tempting.

Prime's pricing seems okay, but some SSD's are a good 15% cheaper on Amazon and Snapdeal than on their site. I saw listings on them for the Transcend 340 and the UltraPlus for ~3900-4100.
Click to expand...
The best price I found for the Ultra Plus is still ~4.6k : http://www.snapdeal.com/product/sandisk-ultra-plus-ssd-128gb/1776437103 (seller is primeabgb once again)
4.8k for 180GB is still a good price, but personally I'd steer clear of Sandforce drives.

I don't think you can return the drive, and I don't think you should worry too much. The issue affected a small percentage of drives, and Intel issued a fix.
Update the drives firmware, and keep your data backed up just to be safe.
Click to expand...
HP laptops received one more firmware update, which he's already running, but doesn't look like it fixed the issue : https://communities.intel.com/thread/30275
Could probably explain why these drives were pulled. I'm guessing they were from some HP business laptops, and IT probably replaced it with more reliable drives.
 
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I bought a 60GB 520 series from this guy and another 320 series when he was selling under seller name syed9986 . Same he has changed to universalcomputers2014 .
He had 45 feedback that time and I got an awesome deal on 120GB 520 series . He has increased the prices now seeing market response .
All his drives were as advertised in heath . His drives have no warranty as they are OEM drives . Check from intel with my serial number on 520 . These were as said taken out from laptops but he was giving me 1 week testing warranty all the time . So i took it , did a full check for a week . Plus after seeing Kingston Destryo series advertisement on youtube , I believe atleast with 520 series nothing bad could come so bought it .
Its awesome , as retail except No warranty .
Will buy it again whenever I require again . These were excellent deals .
Just checked , bought it in Apr 13 from him
My 2 cents
 
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Another seller listed an Intel 520 180GB SSD for Rs.5000.
Used a 15% off coupon and got it for Rs.4250.

Spoke to the seller before buying and he said it's probably been powered on less than 5 times. He's only got 5 feedbacks so far, which is a little worrying, but heck, a 180GB Intel 520 SSD for Rs.4250 was a little too tempting to resist.
Hope I'm not charged octroi/lbt now. And I hope the SSD is in the same condition as the seller described.
Fingers crossed.
 
All the SSD's listed above are used and RMA is impossible because they re OEM drives whose RMA is dealt with respective Laptop companies they cam with. They cannot be RMA'ed separately.

Ex: If Dell Laptop has the above 180GB SSD then Dell will RMA it not Intel as OEM Drives are handled by their respective partners only.
 
Just received the drive. It didn't look new. It looked like it had some glue stains on it, and a few minor scratches. Probably from removing it from the laptop hdd tray. Anyway, looks don't matter, if the drives in good shape, and the Intel SSD toolbox, and crystal disk info seem to think it is.
Total LBA's written = 832 MB
Total LBA's read = 1.56GB
Power on Count = 4
inteltb.jpg diskinfo.jpg
 
kuduku said:
I had also ordered another 520 series 120GB with 99% life . Lets see what condition i get
Click to expand...

Did you receive the drive? What condition was it in?

btw...according to a review I came across, apparently the undersides of all Intel 520's look they've been scuffed up.
 
ch@ts said:
Did you receive the drive? What condition was it in?

btw...according to a review I came across, apparently the undersides of all Intel 520's look they've been scuffed up.
Click to expand...
520 120 Gb 100% life
320 120 GB 100% life
Scuffed up means ?
 
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