I've been thinking for a few weeks now in getting one of those new 120GB Spinpoint 8MB cache hard drives.

Seeing as I couldn't find any at Canadian retailers that I know of, I thought I'd ask Samsung Canada where they are (Google searches also came up with nothing, only 2MB cache drives).

They answer I got from them:



The Samsung's were the only drives I thought would be both a worthwhile upgrade for speed and noise.

Seems like if i really want this drive, i'm gonna have to buy from the States and risk getting shafted by brokerage fees.

Anyone know of any reputable US retailers with the hard drive that are willing to ship to Canada via USPS? It's the only courier that i'm sure won't slap on an extra brokerage fee on top of duties/taxes. Gonna check out Newegg's policy, it seems to be the most popular online store on forums.

Edit: Newegg seems to be out.
"Does Newegg.com ship internationally?
Newegg.com does not ship internationally. At this time we only ship within the United States and Puerto Rico."

Yep, I tried to get the exact same drive here in Canada too. After waiting 3 weeks with them on order, I finally found out the only ones available were the 2mb cache ones. Almost gave in and purchased a Seagate 7200.7 instead but finally gave in and decided to try the 2mb cache Samsung. Still waiting for the case to come in but I hope I won't regret going with the 2mb cache Samsungs!

I've found two US retailers with the 8MB cache drives that will ship via USPS. Only thing is I won't have warranty with Samsung Canada, though I still think I can deal with Samsung USA in case something happens to the drive, just shot off a email to Samsung USA asking about this.

You might want to check with Samsung Canada about the warranty. Seeing as how they claim they aren't selling it due to lack of demand, one would think they'd honour the warranty if you found it elsewhere as a result.

I'll be interested to hear how you make out with border fees if you decide to get them. They've really been cracking down on that. But I'm with you on the USPS thing. I won't go any other way now.

I checked with Samsung Canada and they said the warranty is for the country where the drive is purchased, so they wouldn't handle anything.

Gee, well you'd think they'd try a little harder to make them available then eh? Sheesh! Hopefully Samsung USA is a little more cooperative...

bah! Samsung is pretty good at replying quickly to inquiries, but I'm not liking the responses...



I need some American responses here!
Have any of you had experience with Directron? That's the retailer I'm thinking of getting the SP1614N from, and now I'll probably pay that extra $8 to have them test it before shipping, since a DOA would really suck. They say on the webpage that they'll cover the warranty for the first year, so at least I'm not worse off then buying another brand in terms of warranty.

I'm in the same boat looking for the 8mb Spinpoint in Canada. Directron is very reputable I believe. But whenever I've looked at ordering from them I found the shipping to be very expensive (last I checked they only used UPS for international).

I think I will break down and get the 2mb cache version. Anyone know if it's much slower than the 8mb? Or at least faster than my Barracuda V?

Directrons Shipping Policy to Canadians



So there's no set shipping price at Directron, but I don't think it'll be very expensive. At eXcaliberPC (the other retailer I'm thinking of buying from) has USPS Global Priority without tracking for $12, and with tracking for $20.

I want to buy from Directron because they state that they'll cover the first year of the warranty (so i'm not completely screwed over by Samsung), and they have the 160GB version for only $10 more then the 120GB.

Be careful with USPS Global Priority. If I remember correctly, that's the service that gets picked up by a courrier on this end (once it crosses the border)...and then...the brokerage fees get tacked on! What you want is the Air Parcel Post service. At least that's been my experience...

How big of a performance hit would you take by going with the 2Mb cache drive?

I don't recall that note when I tried ordering something there a while back. But just now when I tried to place a test order for the Spinpoint there was no proper USPS shipping option. I suppose you'd have to wait for the 'manual adjustment' after you've paid, which doesn't put me at ease. It might be worth contacting them, especially after I noticed all sorts of contradictory information in their help forum about the availability of USPS.

I may try contacting them as well because the Directron price for the 8mb is quite good even compared with the 2mb in Canada. Let us know what you hear and I'll do the same...

I got this info about USPS Global Priority Mail:



So there should be a $5 or $8 CDN handling fee (equivalent to brokerage fee?) depending on whether or not it is an EMS item (no idea what EMS stands for). That's still a heck of a lot better then UPS for sure. I got charged $23 brokerage fee for a RMA motherboard, and even if they based it off the value of the item, the mobo was only listed as being worth $10!

Does korsch happen to be the new member, Jerz, at Directron's forum?

Well he posted asking about the USPS shipping to Canada, and the Moderator replied,

So we just have to make sure we add that 'note' during check-out to find out the final shipping cost.

Yeah, the price for the 160GB 8MB is really good, most 160GB hard drives I can find at stores are ~$190-200 CDN, so even with shipping and possible Canada Post handling fee the final price will probably be no more than normal price for a 160GB here.

Yep, that's me! I feel a little reassured now with the forum response. I wrote customer service at the same time and got a similar answer, so I might just go ahead...

The only thing holding me back is I would like to find a review showing the performance difference between the 8mb and 2mb. If it's really small I might still consider going local.

Just thought I'd let you know my experience with Directron.
Basically, they're pretty good. I left a note for them to call me about shipping prices, and I'm not sure if they would have because I just called them first and quoted my order number and asked for USPS. So they recalculated and I got the much lower USPS price for shipping. It really look awhile though (like 2 or 3 weeks if I remember correctly). However, there was a mix up with one of my pre-order goods and they didn't want to ship them to me because I hadn't reported the issue within 30 days or whatever. I explained that half of that time was just waiting for the package and the other half I wasn't alarmed really since it was pre-ordered and who knows when it would come in to them. Anyways, we got it finally straightened out (but it did require quite a bit of effort). Also, I returned one of the items because I thought it was causing system crashes (turns out it was something else) and they gave me my money back without any issues.

Furthermore I would like to stress to avoid UPS as they really are evil and should be banished from the face of this earth:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=5357

Just as an update.

I ordered the 160GB SP1614N and it shipped out with USPS last Monday from Directron.
The soonest I'll get the drive will probably be later this week, and once i get the drive I'll update again with info about the handling fee and duties/taxes that I'll have to fork over to Canada Post.

Right now it's looking like it's a fairly good deal for me, or at the very least I shouldn't end up paying anymore then other 160GB 8MB buffer drives available locally. My credit card got charged $173 CDN, of which $15 US was for shipping, and $8 US for testing it to make sure it ain't DOA. The only thing is that there is no Tracking Number for the particular USPS shipping used (Priority Mail i believe).

lb131,

Thanks for posting these details. Please let us know the end of the story. I may choose the same path if it works well for you.

Alright, the deal went pretty well for me. I just picked up the hard drive from the Post Office, and had to pay $24.69 to Customs.
GST was $9.19
PST was $10.50
Handling Fee of $5.00

Directron shipped it with a declared value of $100, so Canadian Customs converted that to $131.31.

So in total I paid $197.63 CDN for the SP1614N.
$172.94 paid to Directron + $24.69 to customs.

Edit: Oh yah, it took 2 weeks for it to get here, I got the Post Office parcel slip thingie on Dec 1, but didn't have time to pick it up till the weekend.

I just got mine and the costs were exactly the same. Haven't tried the drive yet but so far so good.

I thought folks might be interested to know that frontier computers
(www.fronet.com) is listing

samsung SP1213 with 8MB buffer

on their web site for CAD125

Yes, but... does it come with Canadian warranty??

1. SP1213 is not listed on Samsung Canada web site.
2. According to Samsung Canada, 8MB models are not available in Canada.

If it's grey import, chances are Samsung won't honour the warranty.

I emailed Frontier and asked them to clarify the issue. I'll post again if/when I hear back from them.