Hard drive prices to return to "normal" anytime soon?

[Nebbers]

I've been holding off on buying some storage thinking they'd be back down to Fall prices by now, but it's happening pretty slowly.

Amateur market analysts: Will prices drop a lot anytime soon, or am I better off going with one of the so-so deals that have been dropping by occasionally?

 

[Lyfer]

Not a chance. Who doesn't like excuses to make more money? Right now manufacturers have a firm grip on pricing and don't plan on adjusting unless supply significantly exceeds demand.


Good thing I bought a few 1tb drives back when they were only fiddy. My next HDD is going to be a 120gb Ssd with the current inflated prices.

 

[Bateluer]

Its happening slowly, they're milking it.

 

[QueBert]

20 something years ago I paid over a thousand dollars for a 120 megabyte drive that was about 10 damn inches tall and loud enough you could hear it down stairs. I find HD prices to be extremely reasonable now a days.

 

[DesiPower]

yeah, I dont think it will retun to the old $50/TB prices... but the current prices are not at all bad...

 

[Lifted]

Another issue that may have had an effect on the restart of manufacturing facilities in Thailand is the government raised minimum wages by about 50%. Some manufacturers may be looking for alternatives in Vietnam or China rather than reinvesting in Thailand where wages are now higher and seasonal flooding is still a concern.

 

[Lyfer]

And wtf @ seagate for dropping down to 1 year standard warranties. Le sigh (the 5 year warranty lets me sleep easy!).

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Just wait till they cause another flood just to drive prices back up like they did in the first place.

 

[child of wonder]

Thinking when I upgrade my ZFS SAN in a year or so I'm just going to go all SSD. Good bye overpriced spinning metal!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think they are at "normal" right now. We were just used to paying prices that were constantly sales prices. Hard drives were dirt cheap before the flood especially in the states, but even here in Canada where everything is usually double the price. I regret not buying more. I have 7 1TB drives in my raid 5 array and have 2 cold spares so I should be good for a while. By the time I need more the higher capacity ones will probably be cheaper and I'll just replace them all with 2TB or 3TB drives and double/triple my space. The 1TBs are the best bang for the buck at the moment though it seems.

 

[amdhunter]

I have a bunch of unused drives at home. Currently two 2TB drives, and 2 1TB drive. I am good for a little bit.

 

[apac]

Bought 6 3TB drives for $100/each about 6 months ago. Yay me.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I have a bunch of unused drives at home. Currently two 2TB drives, and 2 1TB drive. I am good for a little bit.

WB, how long you gonna stay?

 

[JPS35]

And wtf @ seagate for dropping down to 1 year standard warranties. Le sigh (the 5 year warranty lets me sleep easy!).

1 year? 5 years? I remember when they were lifetime! Now that's a warranty!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

In the early nineties, a fab in Japan burned down and memory prices went from $30 to $100 for a 1MB, 30 pin SIMM.

They were still $40-$50 per 1MB SIMM a couple years later. (They didn't drop in price so much as they were supplanted by higher density 72 pin SIMMs, then DIMMs.) But yeah, they milked it a long-ass time.

IIRC, they never rebuilt that fab. Just built a new one in China.

I would have upgraded my drives this spring, but now even small ones are absurdly expensive. (My computer runs a pair of 120GB drives I bought on eBay for $25. Used drives >250GB are pretty much selling for new prices. New drives are... ugh. My NAS needs some loving, too..)

 

[rcpratt]

I don't know, but my drives are getting packed and I can't hold out much longer.

 

[yhelothar]

Bought 6 3TB drives for $100/each about 6 months ago. Yay me.

DAYUM that's a lot of pr0n

/obligatory

 

[eplebnista]

Hope they will soon too.

 

[frostedflakes]

Kicking myself for not buying some drives before the flood. Just kept on putting off HDD purchases and waiting for prices to drop. We all see how that worked out lol. Now I'd be pretty stoked if I could find a 1TB drive for $80, whereas pre-flood $45-50 was a good deal on a 1TB drive.

Fortunately it's not like I need them so I can wait, but would like to put together a big 3-4 disk RAID 5 array for a home server whenever prices get more reasonable.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

CDW Outlet recently had a 2TB WD Green for $65 shipped, and WD Outlet was selling a 2x1TB external set for $95 shipped. If you actively scour SD, you should be able to walk away with a good deal relatively easily.

Still gloating about my $20 500GB external I got a few months ago...

 

[VirtualLarry]

I stocked up on 2TB drives before the flood, thankfully. I didn't get them super-cheap (retail-boxed at MC), but they were acceptably-priced.

After the flood, I managed to pick up a couple of 1TB Seagate drives retail-boxed, at BestBuy for pre-flood prices, they were one of the last holdouts before raising their prices.

 

[Vic Vega]

...

 

[Modelworks]

As long as people are willing to pay the price the manufacturers are more than willing to keep prices high. For the prices to lower you have to wait till the one manufacturer becomes more greedy than the other and lowers the price by a few dollars, then the other manufacturers try to beat that price, the cycle repeats, this happens anytime something spikes suddenly in price. Prices can increase quickly but they take forever to get back down to where they were.

 

[Doppel]

The hell you people need multiple terabytes for on a home computer, seriously?

 

[her209]

The hell you people need multiple terabytes for on a home computer, seriously?

Porn. Lots of porn. Terabytes of it in fact.