Looks like HDD prices are going down?

[alyarb]

You can't directly correlate DOA with reliability, but generally speaking Seagate and Hitachi ship more dead disks than WD and Samsung, and the ones that aren't DOA still don't live as long as WD or Samsung. I am biased because I haven't bought any Seagate or Hitachi disks in years since their respective firmware debacles...so that has only been my experience, but from customer reviews on amazon and newegg it would appear not much has changed.

Even if you assume that most happy customers don't write reviews, and that all the reviews are from bitter customers who were forced to RMA, there are simply far too many large, dead disks from Seagate or Hitachi for me to consider one, *and* their pricing is out of whack.

For instance, consider a RAID5 array fixed at $900. You can get 6 2TB Samsungs into 9.3TB (usable), or for the same money get 4 3TB Hitachis for about 8.4TB usable. When done right, the Samsungs are bigger, faster, cheaper, and inherently more reliable as the parity is higher in the Samsung array and in my opinion the build quality as well.

 

[StinkyPinky]

What size?

1TB+
Do they exist?

 

[BFG10K]

1TB+
Do they exist?

http://www.hitachigst.com/internal-drives/deskstar/deskstar-7k1000d

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-au/products/desktops/barracuda_hard_drives/#tTabContentOverview

I have the Hitachi and it's a very fast storage drive for file transfers. Don't use it as an OS drive though. The Seagate should be even faster but I'd question its reliability, especially since it only has 1 year warranty.

 

[FAUguy]

Earlier this year I purchased two of the Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001 drives for $179 at Amazon (which was a great price) but both were dead within a couple days of use.
After that I tried the Western Digital Black 2TB and Hitachi 7K3000 2TB, both were $200. Today I noticed the Hitachi has gone down to $160, but the WD is still $200. Hopefully this isn't just a short-term sale on the Hitachi and prices for all drives start to drop back down. I'd like to add two more Hitachi 2TB drives to the two I've been using (since Jan) for RAID backup.

I guess it must of been a short sale, as the Hitachi 2TB is back to $200. BOOO!

 

[ShadowVVL]

Just in case some are not aware but Samsung has been out of the hdds business for a wile.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/19/samsung-sells-hdd-division-to-seagate-for-1-375-billion/

 

[Bman123]

I only have a 320gb drive right now, I just can't muster spending the premium on a 1tb drive right now when I remember seeing them for $50 shipped last year

 

[FAUguy]

Earlier this year I purchased two of the Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001 drives for $179 at Amazon (which was a great price) but both were dead within a couple days of use.
After that I tried the Western Digital Black 2TB and Hitachi 7K3000 2TB, both were $200. Today I noticed the Hitachi has gone down to $160, but the WD is still $200. Hopefully this isn't just a short-term sale on the Hitachi and prices for all drives start to drop back down. I'd like to add two more Hitachi 2TB drives to the two I've been using (since Jan) for RAID backup.

Saw today the Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K3000 is now listed for $139. This is $60 less than what I paid for it a few months ago, but since I got two, it's $120less. If it gets to around $100, then I may pick up two more and do a RAID.

 

[Pandamonium]

I'm waiting for sub-$100 to $120-ish low-RPM 3TB drives. The warranty on the drives in my NAS are up this summer-ish, and the last time I didn't happen to upgrade before a warranty was up, my drive died. But Q3 2012 I can pull off =P

 

[randomrogue]

So when 1TB drives for $49 and 2TB drives were $69-$79 were they making a profit?

I have never had a problem with the newest drives costing a premium but 1TB/2TB costing this much today does leave a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[thelastjuju]

That's what you get in an oligopoly where price is not determined by supply and demand.. its determined entirely by the suppliers.

Since its almost inconceivable to think one can start their own HDD manufacturing business to compete against them.. they can price these drives at whatever price they want and there's nothing we can do.

Seagate was able to jack up their prices even though WD's manufacturing plants were the ones impacted by the flood. For all we know, they could even get together, collude and decide to never bring back prices all the way back down.

Even if prices were normal though, failure rates are way too high with any 3tb drive on the market.. unless you really don't mind having a very temporary hard drive.. but until now, the most reliable 2tb drive (the samsung f4) is now being manufactured in Seagate's factory.. D: .. and WD wants $270 for their 2tb black :thumbsdown:

 

[Revolution 11]

Are these increased failure rates mentioned anywhere? I mean, is there anything more than anecdotal evidence?

I blame the consolidation of the HDD industry for these pains. It is much easier to do price collusion and fixing with 2 main players instead of 4.

 

[Blain]

Are these increased failure rates mentioned anywhere? I mean, is there anything more than anecdotal evidence?

Wouldn't we live in a perfect world if that were the case? :\

 

[FAUguy]

Saw today the Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K3000 is now listed for $139. This is $60 less than what I paid for it a few months ago, but since I got two, it's $120less. If it gets to around $100, then I may pick up two more and do a RAID.

With a $20 coupon code on the NewEgg site good through May 4, it lowers it down to $119.

 

[hapylol]

WTB WD Caviar Black @ $50 again.