Microsoft or 3rd party Hard drives?

Just curious as to what some of you out there on the interweb think about this.  I have been wanting to get a new hard drive for my 360.  I figure go with as much storage as possible so that I can keep lots of games on my system and wont have to put any unnecessary stress on the optical drive.  So I started looking into it and found that the Microsoft hard drives cost a lot more than the 3rd party hardware that is out there.  Now I am sure most of that has to do with the name stamped on the box, but lets be realistic; in these "tough economic times" one has to use every option at his/her disposal to save money.  My entertainment budget does not go as far as it used to, and I'm sure yours does not either. 

Just to give you an example of what I found:  Online retail seller Amazon has a 250gig hard drive listed at $129.  Now I have to admit that price is pretty good.  That is the cheapest one I was able to find when I wrote this and the most expensive was $169.  At that price it might be a better idea to go out and get a new system.  I could go get a wicked awesome holiday bundle with the new slim system that features built in wireless, a 250gig hard drive and 2 games.  Well I am not quite to that point and I was not really ready to throw in the towel, so I decided to check out Ebay.  I don't go there often, but I thought it was worth a try.  I ended up finding a 250gig hard drive virtually identical to the MS drive in every way, but only cost $36.89.  I decided to take the plunge, and hope to let you know how it works out in the near future. 

My only concern at this point is the chance that I am taking in what MS has in the EULA.  I have heard that I should be just fine.  I just hope the ban hammer does not find me when I get on Xbox Live.

Happy Gaming...