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Why does anyone like OWC?
- Thread starter spyguy10709
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I've purchased stuff from them, I like their products, support and services. I'm a big believer in getting what you pay for. Sure there are cheaper alternatives, but given the level of support and the quality of products - I'm happy buy from them
I use OWC DIY hard drive enclosures to build RAIDs as needed. Never had a problem.
I've been using DMS for memory for about 15 years. Excellent prices and customer service. I get the lifetime warranty RAM, and of the many systems I have built over the years I've only had a single RAM stick go bad 6 years after purchase. They honored the warranty without any hesitation.
http://www.datamemorysystems.com/
I've been using DMS for memory for about 15 years. Excellent prices and customer service. I get the lifetime warranty RAM, and of the many systems I have built over the years I've only had a single RAM stick go bad 6 years after purchase. They honored the warranty without any hesitation.
http://www.datamemorysystems.com/
My G4 upgrade card 6 months in from OWC blew. They wouldn't honor the warranty because I self-installed it, properly.
My AMD 7970 blew up after 8 months, because I overclocked it too hard. Newegg replaced it.
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I'm sure if you told them you OC'd the CPU they'd be less willing to replace it.
Yes, yes I did.
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A 7970 is a GPU, not a CPU. And I did. Thanks for assuming that I'm an honest guy...
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For me, my experiences have never been "the right way" with them. Average CS at best, imho.
They're trustworthy, but so is Newegg. They offer better prices on commodity hardware, and often stand by their product just as much as OWC is fabled to do.
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I promise you I'm not schilling, but on this 8 dollar Amazon part, PRIME, nonetheless, with 62 total reviews, 53 are 4 and 5 star. http://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Speci...5M6/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1
Sure it's not as pretty, but it's not bad looking, and is functionally the same, if not better, due to its rigidity.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Personally, I've had nothing but good luck dealing with OWC and have purchased a wide range of products from them over the years. I do have to admit, however, that I've been even more impressed with NewEgg. They were a company I'd never really considered until my son purchased parts from them for a custom build. Shipping was extremely fast and they really helped us out quickly with the return and replacement of some bad memory.
All things being equal, I might be more inclined to consider Newegg over OWC in the future.
All things being equal, I might be more inclined to consider Newegg over OWC in the future.
Sorry to offend, it was not my intent, but the lack of details in your post meant people such as me could jump to conclusions. Kudos to Newegg for their customer support on this.
You asked why so many Mac users like them. You've seen plenty of responses that give you an idea why. While it's unfortunate that your personal experience wasn't to your satisfaction, such experiences are in the minority with OWC. No matter how great a company, it's products and its service may be, if it does business with millions of customers, it is inevitable they won't satisfy everyone, either due to the customer's expectations or the company's performance.
OWC has met or exceeded customer expectations for the vast majority of its customers for over 20 years. Are they perfect? No way. Are their prices the lowest to be found? Nope. Do they sometimes drop the ball in their dealings with a customer? Like every company, yes, they do. But they get it right far more often than not.
If you're not happy with them, the good news is there are other companies to choose from. OWC will keep thriving and enjoying a great reputation as long as it continues to perform at least as well as it has in the past.
My question was - why do people pay so much more for commodity? That was my actual question. Bad analogy - but it works - gas is gas, whether it's chevron or sunoco, especially when they're far from infallible.
I completely agree with you. They are no longer as unique nor focused as they once were. They are not without merit, some interesting effort with the SSDs. But much of what they sell is standard fare, at inflated prices. If they ever were special for their RAM and service, I've found both of those offerings to be, lets say, inconsistent. There are others in this thread that have moved their business elsewhere (myself included) and there seem to be many that find what satisfies them with OWC, regardless of cost. It's all theirs.
I read a lot of reviews of these other 'clones' from Amazon, and some of the reviews scares me.
If you're a Apple Mac owner, you know what you paid for in your investment, and most of the time, upgrading them is a hassle as it is, and you walk the fine line of voiding your warranty/Apple Care.
A lot of these other clones don't do as extensive testing as OWC/Macsales, and usually when you fudged up, they are hands off.
Macsales stand behind their products, perform more testing, and provides better instructions (with videos too if you go online) on how to upgrade various parts. Some of the things they sell are more highly compatible with Macs then other brands.
Ofcourse, on some of the thirdparty things they do sell that Amazon sells for cheaper (same brand, company, etc) I would buy it off Amazon! BUT i always go to macsales to confirm they work with the Mac.
I had to do 2 RMAs with them, and each time its pretty easy. No hassle other than the time I had to use to do.
If you're a Apple Mac owner, you know what you paid for in your investment, and most of the time, upgrading them is a hassle as it is, and you walk the fine line of voiding your warranty/Apple Care.
A lot of these other clones don't do as extensive testing as OWC/Macsales, and usually when you fudged up, they are hands off.
Macsales stand behind their products, perform more testing, and provides better instructions (with videos too if you go online) on how to upgrade various parts. Some of the things they sell are more highly compatible with Macs then other brands.
Ofcourse, on some of the thirdparty things they do sell that Amazon sells for cheaper (same brand, company, etc) I would buy it off Amazon! BUT i always go to macsales to confirm they work with the Mac.
I had to do 2 RMAs with them, and each time its pretty easy. No hassle other than the time I had to use to do.
Still, the previous post remains valid. If NewEgg knew you even tried to run this card above specs (even if it were "supported" by the manufacturer), they would probably have refused to honor the warranty. In fact, most retailers refuse to honor any warranty on semiconductors.
I would add that OWC's shipping prices, aside from the notable RAM exception, are quite high. What they do right is presenting a variety of products tested good with Macs, which is not the case for Newegg.
Huh, to me it looks like it's made from very thin sheet metal, and probably has a less-than-average rigidity. That said, I don't know how OWC's is built.
In fact, OWC is not incredibly more expensive than others. What made the difference in my case were simply the unreasonable shipping fees from OWC.
They offer a "peace of mind" for a price. I don't really know if it's a warranted reputation, having only dealt with them two or three times; but, they've never done me wrong and others sing their praises constantly. I'm sure they've had a few screw-ups like every business does, but I'd say the overwhelming positive word they receive in comparison to the negative speaks for itself.
They know Macs. I purchased an external hardware dock for my 3.5 inch internal drives at TigerDirect.com. The first problem is they only seem to focus on USB and the second problem is it doesn't support 4 TB drives. OWC has external hardware docks that support USB 3.0 and FireWire (800/400) and support for 4 TB drives for not much more money. I use USB 3.0 on my new Macs but I still have old Macs that will perform better with Firewire.
I have also purchased drives and memory from OWC and they always delivered fast and I had no issues from their products.
I have also purchased drives and memory from OWC and they always delivered fast and I had no issues from their products.
I think you need a little bit more research to make such bold defining statements.
Postage? I bought two RAID enclosures at separate times over the last two years and both arrived within three days to Australia. Yes, 72 hours across the world. Ordered Friday morning my time delivered to my door Monday 9am
Service? One of the RAID enclosures had a noisier fan than the other. It was ok but I felt there may be something wrong with the bearings/brushes or something. I emailed them and they posted a new fan immediately. No questions asked.
Actually they did... I told them... And they still honored the warranty.
Macs are PCs. For things like RAM and Hard Drives, there's no difference these days, and there hasn't been for 8 years now. For software-based accessories, yes - I'll agree.
It works for me. OWC's is a plastic frame. Not even metal.
Really? Let's examine.
This is a 1TB USB 3.0 HDD on Newegg. I have one right now. It's fast, stable, and smooth. Price? 59 dollars with free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822706010
The comparable product is 125 dollars, with paid shipping. Or if you don't mind a slower drive because of the "OWC" brand - 99 dollars. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
The exact same - down to the model number - internal 1TB Drive Newegg sells for 59 dollars.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145584
OWC sells for 75. And you need to pay for shipping.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/0J22413/
Fine, you say - Those are just commodity products. Their in-house stuff must be better, right?
Lets compare the fabled OWC mercury SSDs. 480 GB for 435 dollars. Not bad, right?
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/Mercury+Extreme+6G+480GB
The faster Samsung EVO drive - 500 GB is only 300 dollars. And you don't need to pay shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147249
And it's like this with everything they sell. They're a for-profit company selling things at crazy margins for no reason. And yet, the "enlightened" Mac community still keeps funding them. As an appeal, please - stop it!
That's indeed very nice of them.
That's true from an absolute side, however Macs were, and still are, to some extent, picky on RAM quality. While a non-Mac PC would simply crash in case of RAM failure to run in-spec (a behavior not inconsistent with Windows overall bugginess), a Mac may display weird, telltale behaviour.
Ah? I thought it would be made from milled aluminum, like their SSDs.
I guess you mean this $69.99 + $10.49 shipping hard drive? True, it's not too expensive for what it offers on paper. I am always wary before totally unknown brands of such products where reliability is paramount. This is not to say known brands always sell good products (think of baseline Lexar USB keys)., but why would I risk the live of my data in an unknown-quality enclosure+drive assembly?
But the one you point doesn't say what's drive is inside, only the warranty is 1-year long, and I am more tempted to think they are selling the same one that OWC is selling for $99+shipping, while giving a 3-year warranty. OWC enclosure seems sturdier also. So yeah, more expensive, but not massively considering what you get.
Newegg: $72.99 + 7.99 shipping.. So yes, a tad less expensive at Newegg. Still not massive.
Admittedly, OWC sells it for much more, but gives 5-year warranty vs 3 for the Samsung, and no, the Mercury 6G is a bit faster on paper. But you point an exception rather than the rule. Given how young the SSD market is, it comes to no great surprise that some SSDs give unpredictable performance on Macs.
Overall it seems you're comparing mostly on paper like many Mac detractors do with PCs, forgetting about build quality, integration, sturdiness, warranty, you name it.
Disclaimer: I bought my own Scorpio Black from Newegg during one of their New Year specials.
I find your argument conveniently one sided, and your research comparison not really valid except for 1 comparison, this one:
For the rest, you're not even comparing the same product, and yet you come here with these non-straight forward comparison and rebut (perhaps even insulting the intelligence of the 'Mac' community).
A Mac being a PC as in Personal Computer is true. Macs are personal computer.
BUT a Mac being what modern computer term that is tied to X86s that Dells, Lenovos, and Microsoft... well, though true for the most part since you can install Windows/Linux/Etc on a x86 Mac these days it is still not NOT entirely true in the sense of 100%.
Macs can be PCs, but not all PCs can be Macs without some really serious un-official hacks and even then you don't get 100% support on 100% of all things. I know, I had a hackintosh, though it was fun, before even reach 1 year using it for work, i ran into serious inconveniences that without a backup I would have been screwed. That was no way to run a business on top of. As a hobby maybe, but I need to depend on it, so I just went and out a Mac Pro.
Not an apples to apples comparison there. Not exactly invalid, though not valid either.
Everyone here is free to choose what brand you are confidence in, and once you find a good brand that consistently provided you what you need, its too much inconvenience to switch unless you run into a serious of issues with it that forces you to switch.
But lest start with this comparison. First, Brand is different. Second, you're right, For external USB drives that comes with a drive, I wouldn't go with OWC brand. I would have gone with some brand I trust more, like Seagate, or WD. I have never really heard of this 'Matsunichi' brand either, so $59 for that is invalid for me. I would have waited for BestBuy to have a sale for their 1TB drives and buy those.
For DIY external enclosures, I actually prefer OWC brand. Yes they do sell empty enclosures without drives inside. In fact I got a couple of them that has given no no issues for years, where a few DIY enclosures I got from Amazon had started giving me issues after about a little over a year... pass the warranty where I can not get an RMA. This is one reason why I prefer OWC enclosures for bare drives I have lying around that I need to re-comission. From personal experience OWC enclosures had work for years and years past warranty without giving me any issues.
Then your comparison against OWC Mercury SSD and Samsung EVO. These SSD are off 2 different classes. The OWC are MLC while the EVO are a class below the 840 (which is a class below 840 Pro) and I don't remember what exact the kind architecture they are... some cheaper lower quality MLC... off the top of my head.
OWC Mercury 6G is comparable with the 840
OWC Mercury 6G Extreme is comparable with 840 Pro
OWC Mercury 6G Enterprise -- can't think of the equivalent Samsung SSD for it.
And I do buy Samsung SSDs. BUT I also like OWC SSD as a boot drive for Mac OS X since MacOS as far as my last recent research does not support TRIM, OWC white papers advertises that their drives sustain write performance over time without TRIM. This made a huge factor in my decision for OWD SSDs when I need to run Mac OS X on top of it.
I just recently went to macsales for another drive enclosure purchase, why? Why they are the only trusted source AND the only source so far that sells Thunderbolt drive enclosures. Yes I have gone to google and amazon to see if there are others I can get, and sadly, no. OWC has an enclosure for DIY'ers who wants thunderbolt.
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That would be a great analogy, unless you somehow end up buying defective gas and have to rely on the gas station's customer service to make things right.
OWC = Goog for me (and I'm very picky about good service)
I have been purchasing my internal/external hard drives from OWC for 18 years and not once have I had a poor experience. I can only recall one drive that gave me problems multiple times and in the end they always made good.
I have been purchasing my internal/external hard drives from OWC for 18 years and not once have I had a poor experience. I can only recall one drive that gave me problems multiple times and in the end they always made good.
I've bought lots of components from OWC over the past 10 years and have yet to have a bad experience. Over the past 4-6 years its become noticeable that their RAM and disk prices are a bit higher than the competition but realistically they are still the small dog (I mean, not Small Dog, but, you know what I mean) compared to their competitors.
With this in mind I know there's no reasonable expectation for them to match the prices of their competitors who do much, much, more volume than they do. If we were talking $75-100 differences I would be inclined to shop elsewhere more often, but $15-30 here and there is a small price in my opinion to support the smaller business that has consistently taken great care of Mac users for a couple decades now. I'm confident that if there's a problem they'll take care of me without too much red tape.
With this in mind I know there's no reasonable expectation for them to match the prices of their competitors who do much, much, more volume than they do. If we were talking $75-100 differences I would be inclined to shop elsewhere more often, but $15-30 here and there is a small price in my opinion to support the smaller business that has consistently taken great care of Mac users for a couple decades now. I'm confident that if there's a problem they'll take care of me without too much red tape.