ZFS ready drives WAS: zfs performance degradation

[Quartz]

> once you take
> the 5 year warranty in account.

This assumes that the company in question will honorably honor the 
warranty. It's been our experience that they usually don't. I can't 
count you the number of times a drive manufacturer has pulled a fast one 
on a warranty replacement. WD is especially bad about this, they send 
back a cheaper drive than the original, a bottom-bin refurbished drive 
with twice the runtime/wear as the original that dies after a month 
(which mysteriously doesn't qualify for a warranty itself), or randomly 
insists we have to do a pay-and-reimburse replacement method then loses 
the records and never reimburses us.

I understand that this is all anecdotal, but personally I don't find 
warranties worth the paper they're written on and never assume getting a 
functional replacement anymore. Long term it's cheaper to just buy a new 
drive outright than to waste employee time arguing over the phone for 
days. I buy exclusively based on ratings and reliability reports now.