Never seen one of these before... TriGem hard drive?

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited September 2003 in Hardware
I've taken apart hundreds if not thousands of computers throughout my career, and I have seen just as many hard drives.

But when I opened a customer's 466mhz E-Machine the other day, I was shocked to see something I had never seen before: A hard drive brand that I've never heard of....

Comments

  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited September 2003
    It could possibly be a subsidiary of a larger HDD manufacturer. One that distributes to E-Machine, Gateway, and the like.

    Anyways, the name "TriGem" rings a bell, but I cannot put my finger on where/what I've heard the name.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    I've seen 'em before... A 500MHz Celeron HP I took apart a while back had one...
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    TriGem is the Korean parent company of eMachines i believe, not positive, but I thought thats what I remember, there was a TriGem drive in my old 366mhz emachine.

    Or it could be just the company that emachines buys parts from, but I know they make some video and motherboards as well.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    Don't think so. If that were the case, they'd probably use TriGem motherboards, and their newer AMD models have FIC boards in them. I believe TriGem is just one of the generic OEMs...
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Trigem just puts their sticker on other peoples stuff is all, then resells them :P

    I used to open up COmpaqs all the time with stickers covering stickers of the ACTUALL maker.
  • CaffeineMeCaffeineMe Cedar Rapids, IA
    edited September 2003
    Found this:

    "8. Samsung also known as Trigem in E-machines (Inexpensive, you get what you pay for!) Cheaply made, consumer use only but do a religious backup!"

    At http://www.driveservice.com/bestwrst.htm
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    CaffeineMe

    Good find!

    Did anyone else look at their "List"? I'm not sure how far I agree with them on that.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited September 2003
    I agree with some points on that list. Seagate drives, especially their Barracuda-line, have the lowest RMA rate out of any other drive manufacturers. Couple that with almost silent performance, 8 MB buffers and ATA/133 and you've got a winning drive. Seagate also makes very competitive SATA-150 drives.

    The only down side: Price. Seagate's are usually more expensive than their Maxtor/WDC/Fujitsu/Hitachi counterparts.

    However, this list looks quite old. Hell, they don't even mention the Cavair SE "JB" lineup of WD drives, or the Maxtor DiamondMax D740-XL's or DiamondMax-9's.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    Simguy, that's interesting, because in the computers at the office, my dad's had more problems with seagate drives than with any other brand...
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited September 2003
    Ive got a Seagate 427 MB HDD running in one of my 24/7 domain controller system's that was manufactured in 1990. It's still going strong today. No bad sectors. No wierd noises.

    It's way past it's MTBF rating and hasn't let up since.

    In any server system that I've custom built for businesses, I only utilize the Seagate Barracuda drive's simply because they do not fail as often as other drives. Out of 15 servers I've built for businesses, not one Seagate drive has had to be RMA'd. The oldest one has been out in the field for nearly 24 months.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    Hmm... just luck of the draw I guess. Either that or it's because the company he bought the computers from didn't set them up very well (no thermal pad between cpu and heatsink on a p3-600, no drive cooling, etc.) :rolleyes:
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Is that RMA rate based on percentage? I would like to see the amount of rma´s (in hundreds) together with the amount sold instead. That would give a much better picture of it all.

    IBM would lead that stats if it was presented like that.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I wasn't questioning Seagate at the top but it just looked kida weird with WD and Maxtor down at the bottom. I agree it must be old and if you think back maybe 4 years or so that would be about right!
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I have a Seagate Baracuda II, Medalist, Old Medalist and a Marathon (very, very old 840MB drive) and they are all still running perfectly and have been used for many, many years and none have even one bad block/sector.

    NS
  • tophericetopherice Oak Ridge, TN
    edited September 2003
    Checked out and older eMachine that a friend has w/ Celeron 366. It has a TriGem mobo. I guess they make all sorts or cheap $hit.
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    the maxtor 80gigs were a joke...between me and my friend...we RMA'd atleast 7 of these badboys because of the clicking problem...whatever the hell that means...why does a harddrive click neways
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    WuGgaRoO said
    the maxtor 80gigs were a joke...between me and my friend...we RMA'd atleast 7 of these badboys because of the clicking problem...whatever the hell that means...why does a harddrive click neways

    Been running a Maxtor 80GB in my server for a while now. No clicking there, but it is the 2MB version, not 8.

    Guessing the clicking is the head moving somewhere it shouldn't.

    NS
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    Clicking doesn't bother me anymore. My IBM SCSIs click ALL the time and the oldest one is going on 6 years now. Zero bad sectors (although since I DROPPED it the other day, I dunno anymore)
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