Western Digital Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: This is a very fast drive with great reliability - I have had no problems in over 1 year with it. It gets moderate loads and is on nearly 24/7

Cons: Capacity/price per GB is not great compared to higher capacity drives. This wasn't a big deal for me though since it will take me forever to go through 500GB (all I have is documents, a couple apps, and a ton of photos - not much music/videos/games).

Overall Review: Faster than my older 74GB 10k rpm Raptor drive that I paid $190 for back in 2005...

Pros: It arrived on time...

RMA service available, Newegg rocks!

Cons: HD was DOA.
HD came in OEM packaging, which is another phrase for one layer of bubblewrap.
$$$ to ship back to Newegg, more than i thought.

Overall Review: Newegg is the best, so this is nothing against them, however there are a ridiculous number of DOA reviews for this item on Newegg. I recieved this item OEM and it arrived in only a single layer of bubble wrap, NOTHING else except for the small bag it was in. I felt that more could have been done to protect this product during shipping. All they did was throw it in a box with a wadded up piece of packing paper and it was free to bounce around with two other items in the box...

The drive went through the normal "reformat" process and got through the "progress bar". But, when it finished what appeared to be a successful reformat process Windows said it was "unable" to format the disc, suggesting that it "may be damaged".

So, I tried a second time. This time as soon as a partition was made and the reformat process began I got the BSOD (blue screen of death). I tried at least ten more times but never got past BSOD.