Any downside to buying Intel SSDs via Supermicro?

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lunadesign

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Aug 7, 2013
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I'm looking to buy some Intel data center SSDs from Wiredzone, who gets them from Supermicro.

According to Wiredzone, these are stock Intel SSDs with Intel firmware. The only difference is that I'd have to go through Wiredzone (who presumably goes to Supermicro) for any support/warranty issues.

Is there any downside to buying this way (as compared to buying from a "normal" retailer)?

Thanks!
 

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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As I see it, you would be purchasing disks allocated to the OEM channel and they will be every bit as reliable as the retail versions. However, Intel and others generally don't directly support sales in this way and will not warranty them directly. This forces you to have to go through the original vendor for support, should a disk fail and need to be repaired or replaced. While it might be a great deal, and who doesn't like one of them, it comes with the caveat that you are relying on several "layers" of goodwill in order to make any claim under warranty, should you need to. If any of those additional layers decide not to support the arrangement going forward, you are on you own with them. So I would say it's a decision of how risk averse you are. If it really is a great deal, I would probably just buy some spares to swap in if you need to, and treat the whole thing as a self warranty. If you were lucky beyond that and manage to get a replacement from them, all the better.
 

i386

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Wiredzone has a good customerservice, ask them to type a serial number of such a ssd into the intel warranty check tool and send you the result :D
 

lunadesign

Active Member
Aug 7, 2013
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As I see it, you would be purchasing disks allocated to the OEM channel and they will be every bit as reliable as the retail versions. However, Intel and others generally don't directly support sales in this way and will not warranty them directly. This forces you to have to go through the original vendor for support, should a disk fail and need to be repaired or replaced. While it might be a great deal, and who doesn't like one of them, it comes with the caveat that you are relying on several "layers" of goodwill in order to make any claim under warranty, should you need to. If any of those additional layers decide not to support the arrangement going forward, you are on you own with them. So I would say it's a decision of how risk averse you are. If it really is a great deal, I would probably just buy some spares to swap in if you need to, and treat the whole thing as a self warranty. If you were lucky beyond that and manage to get a replacement from them, all the better.
These are all very good points....thank you very much!

I went with Wiredzone primarily because of availability. These drives are out of stock everywhere (thanks Chia!) but their ETA is a week or two while all the retail channels are quoting several months. (I'm *not* using these for Chia, BTW.)

My assumption is that if Wiredzone were to go out of business, that Supermicro would support me directly or assign a different reseller to go through.

I've generally found Supermicro support to be helpful but have never had to RMA anything.

That's an especially good point on self-warranty....I always buy at least 1 spare so I can fall back on self-warranty, if needed.
 

lunadesign

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Aug 7, 2013
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Wiredzone has a good customerservice, ask them to type a serial number of such a ssd into the intel warranty check tool and send you the result :D
I've been very impressed with Wiredzone's sales support so far. They seem solid.

Unfortunately, they don't physically have them. They are due to Supermicro in about a week and I believe Supermicro will be drop shipping them to me directly.

But I'm curious....why did you ask about the warranty check tool? Are you hinting that the drives might not be authentic? Or does the warranty check tool only work for retail drives?
 

T_Minus

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Feb 15, 2015
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I've been very impressed with Wiredzone's sales support so far. They seem solid.

Unfortunately, they don't physically have them. They are due to Supermicro in about a week and I believe Supermicro will be drop shipping them to me directly.

But I'm curious....why did you ask about the warranty check tool? Are you hinting that the drives might not be authentic? Or does the warranty check tool only work for retail drives?
The warranty check will work for Retail drives.

I'm going to guess these are retail drives, and warranty work though. You're buying retail.
 

lunadesign

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The warranty check will work for Retail drives.

I'm going to guess these are retail drives, and warranty work though. You're buying retail.
FYI - I received the SSDs today. They do not come up in the warranty check. Either the warranty check DB takes a while to update (the drives look like they were manufactured within the past 4 weeks) or these aren't retail.

Should I be concerned?
 

pricklypunter

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providing they arrived in good shape and show no defects (test the hell outta them before deployment) then I would call it a win :)
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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FYI - I received the SSDs today. They do not come up in the warranty check. Either the warranty check DB takes a while to update (the drives look like they were manufactured within the past 4 weeks) or these aren't retail.

Should I be concerned?
I would contact intel warranty and provide the #s and have them check.
I've had drives not show up, then they check them and they are covered :)
 

lunadesign

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I would contact intel warranty and provide the #s and have them check.
I've had drives not show up, then they check them and they are covered :)
Good idea / good to know!

I live chatted Intel today and they confirmed all of my drives are "generic" drives with 5 yr warranties with Intel. They are also going to file a support request with their DB guys to understand why my drives didn't show up in the web tool. I kept snapshots of today's live chat just in case.

i plan to thoroughly test these drives in the coming days.
 
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