Consumer Alert - Buy Hard Drives Now. Prices To Rise.

[daveybrat]

Just got an email from my Dell sales rep in response to a request to purchase some desktops... no more SATA drives available over 500GB.

Wow, that's crazy. I have noticed though that even the nicer dell systems have come with 500-750GB drives lately instead of the 1TB+ drives they used to have.

 

[einstein4pres]

I decided on this one:
http://www.officemax.com/technology/...ct-prod2810003

2 Tb Seagate, 7200 rpm $90
It's in an external enclosure, but I can pull it out. (and put it back in if I have to)

In case anyone else is planning on buying this drive; it turns out that it's a 5900rpm drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148681

Not worth my time trying to convince OfficeMax to take it back after I opened it, and it's a reasonable price (for the times), so I'm going to swap my 1tb F3 from my NAS into my PC and put this in the NAS. Drive speeds should be limited by NAS performance anyway.

 

[wirednuts]

i still think all the pictures of the thiland flooding were just photoshopped, and this is an artificial price hike just to sell more ssd's

 

[amdhunter]

LOL, I saw a Hitachi 2TB drive for $259 at Microcenter today. That made me chuckle. I am glad I am not in need of any drives soon. They were even charging $10 more than advertised.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0356678

 

[SonicIce]

yea i bet it's gunna be a year or more before prices return to where they were a few weeks ago

 

[Schmide]

Although I got burned on memory in the past 4 months, I have like 7 2tb drives on my desk that I got for 60-70 bucks each. So ehh.

 

[MagickMan]

I can't begin to express how happy I am that I won't need new drives for the next year. This is brutal.

 

[Gardener]

Yes indeed. Thank you college economics! And this is a prime example of why Monopolies are great for business but bad for consumers, not that Newegg is necessarily a monopoly.

Remember this the next time you wish doom on AMD and root for Intel. If AMD loses their competitive edge, Intel can use any excuse to demand outrageous prices on their products. No competition makes a fat and lazy cat.

My question is which would be a better political policy...1. Let monopolies flourish until competitors naturally take back market share... or 2. Legally restrict the operation of Monopolies by forcing price ceilings, fines, settlements, etc

I would probably vote for the first policy because it would spur innovation and business start ups in the long term... I imagine option 2 would be a temporary relief for consumers but would ultimately stunt economic development within an industry. I guess this outlook is what makes me a "smaller governement" type of person and typically Republican, but I'd like to hear your views.

What do you all think?

This isn't P&N, Troll.

 

[dingleberrydorkbutt]

This isn't P&N, Troll.

This isn't the jungle, either. Try having some manners and post something worth reading.

Troll.

 

[BladeVenom]

LOL, I saw a Hitachi 2TB drive for $259 at Microcenter today. That made me chuckle. I am glad I am not in need of any drives soon. They were even charging $10 more than advertised.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0356678

Still $20 cheaper than at Newegg. http://camelegg.com/product/N82E16822145473

 

[locomo]

2TB External WD Elementsb for $80 - $23(ejunkie coupon) =
$57 + tax

http://www.staples.com/Western-Digit...product_884865

3TB Seagate External USB3 for $110 - $23 = $87 + tax
http://www.staples.com/Seagate-FreeA...duct-nr_912732

 

[marvdmartian]

2TB External WD Elementsb for $80 - $23(ejunkie coupon) =
$57 + tax

http://www.staples.com/Western-Digit...product_884865

3TB Seagate External USB3 for $110 - $23 = $87 + tax
http://www.staples.com/Seagate-FreeA...duct-nr_912732

That's a good deal. Saw it over at Woot this morning, and jumped on it. $1.99 for the coupon (paid thru Paypal), and used it right away, since I'm betting these 2TB drives will be sold out today. Just under $60 for the drive, for me, with tax, plus the $2 coupon cost. That's about 32-cents per GB, which wasn't all too bad a price for hard drives BEFORE the flooding. 😎 :thumbsup:

 

[MagickMan]

Oh hey, look. 1.5TB drive for $70.

 

[SonicIce]

Oh hey, look. 1.5TB drive for $70.

5900rpm but maybe its a good sign?

 

[QueBert]

I remember in 1990 I paid umm $900 or something for a 120 megabyte drive, rising prices always suck. But remember how much computer sh*t cost me back then I don't think any component will ever be expensive again 😀

 

[bankster55]

actually, WDC is already starting up now to build a big inventory for Xmas. Recov from flood going much better than expected.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/western-digital-partially-recovers-from-thailand-floods/14125.html

Maybe it wont turn out as bad as you think

 

[texasfury]

......

 

[daveybrat]

I wouldn't buy anything from the first startup run, they all will have waterlogged and salt corroded parts.

Why not? Who wouldn't want 'water-cooled' hard drives? 😛

 

[airdata]

I have a stock pile of velociraptors. Waiting to sell them for mad loot.

 

[MagickMan]

5900rpm but maybe its a good sign?

Sure beats the $120 Newegg was asking for the same drive just last week.

 

[formulav8]

The biggest thing i'm wondering is if the hd manuf's will just be loving the increased margins way to much to quickly lower the prices......

 

[fei_xng]

Now I see raised price....... what a pity because I did not buy one last month.

 

[mindless1]

^ I feel the same way about stocks

In the long term this shortage might be a good thing, a wakeup call that as our society continues to depend more and more on *computers*, that we can't rely so much on any particular region for products/components/rare metals/etc.

Luckily the recent disasters in Japan didn't raise prices or lower supply much (from a subjective consumer perspective, nothing I wanted to buy was affected).