Equivalent Drive Definition

Compaq

Sun

Seagate

Fujitsu

Dell

Simpact

Datability

Xyplex

Cisco

Other

Complete Stock Listing

Equivalent drives are not manufactured for the original manufacturer but for sale directly to consumers or other computer manufacturers. These drives are functionally equivalent to the original manufacturer's part number. They include the same features, like storage capacity, physical size, RPM speed, access times and hot-swap trays as the original part number. Many of these drives are the same model the original manufacturer purchases for their own product; for example, we use some Fujitsu drives in our Equivalent product. Many major manufacturers also buy this model from Fujitsu and uses them as their original drives. Even though they are the same basic drive, equivalent drives do not have the major manufacturer labels, warranty or firmware. The tradeoff to the missing label and firmware is that the equivalent drives provide the similar performance for a fraction of the cost.

Typical uses for equivalent drives:

I want to replace my current RAID array with bigger drives to increase my storage capacity. Perfect! Why would you possibly want to pay so much more for product that will work exactly the same?

I have purchased a new server which does not carry manufacturer warranty, and I want to populate it as inexpensively as possible without sacrificing reliability. Is that OEM label on the drive really worth paying all that money for?

You probably need an original drive if:

	I have an existing RAID array, and one of the drives has failed. In this case you will likely need a drive identical (including firmware) to the one that has failed. It's possible that an equivalent drive will work here also, but unless it has been previously tested, we can't guarantee it.
	I have an on-site service contract on my servers which I don't want to jeopardize. Running non-original drives will possibly invalidate some service contracts.