Please do not talk about something you know nothing about. Thailand is the world's 2nd largest producer of hard drives accounting for approximately 25% of the world's production. Most of the factories that make hard disk drives have been flooded with up to 20 feet of water. It has nothing to do with "rare earth elements." All I ask is you READ before you speculate about thing you do not know or understand.
Most SSD are still made in the good USA.
I am currently aware of the flooding in thialand..
I was replying to the post about SSD's not currently being effected..
And the largest manufacturer of mechanical drives is china.. Which currently has a reduction in rare earth element production and manufacturing...
That's why exports of drives from china hasn't filled the gap from the loss of Thialands production.
Seeings as 94-97% of the global rare earth elements such as the magnets in mechanical drives come from China.
All I ASK is you take an interest in the stock markets
Hi there
If you have any laptops you've replaced or have some colleagues who are replacing laptops then just remove the HDD and put it in a 10 USD enclosure -- these convert it to standard EXTERNAL USB HDD's.
Even a 160GB external laptop HDD is a useful stopgap -- you can store external data / music / backups even.
Incidentally if you actually BUY a laptop HDD and a 10 USD enclosure it's actually a lot cheaper than some of those "Passport" drives -- which are essentially the same thing only they are packaged up a "bit more sexily". (Note I'm not saying buy a laptop -- just a laptop hdd -- you can get these for as little as 30 USD for a 250 GB one -- enough for a stopgap).
Just wait and see in a few months in any case there will be Over production and prices will fall again.
People used to say only 2 certainties in life "Death and Taxes" -- however we should and a 3rd - "The basic laws of supply and demand").
(Finally as an Engineer -- I have to ask why on earth should a Magnet need rare earths to function -- when I was at school magnets were ether naturally created or done with essentially Ferrites (Iron) when an electric current was passed around coil(s) of usually copper wire wound round the iron core.
Maybe the Laws of Physics have changed since I was at school -- well nearly everything else has !!!).
As for the Stock Market -- I quite often do some trading -- one thing I've learned - and the hard way -- Markets are TOTALLY UNPREDICTABLE. - Sometimes the most depressing news comes out and the markets shoot up ridiculously high -- other times a company announces it's doing really well and its prospects are better than ever -- and guess what --its stock value tanks horribly.
Markets work on Fear and Greed --- people have been doing "Technical analysis" for years to predict stock movements -- with varying degrees of success or lack of it.
Human intuition, LEGAL inside knowledge and an understanding of "Market Psychology" -- The Fear and Greed factor-- are the elements that will make you a successful or a basket case trader.
Cheers
jimbo
I'm contemplating stealing the 250gb drive from my xbox that's never used.
I've stopped fixing computers with hard drive faults as well. Haven't had someone want a rig off me wither lately, which is good I guess lol.
I found a 1tb drive in a store at the weekend for £50! But I got side tracked and forgot to go back and inquire about it when I was done shoppingI'd have taken 2 or 3 if the spec was okayish
Hi thereI'm contemplating stealing the 250gb drive from my xbox that's never used.
I've stopped fixing computers with hard drive faults as well. Haven't had someone want a rig off me wither lately, which is good I guess lol.
I found a 1tb drive in a store at the weekend for £50! But I got side tracked and forgot to go back and inquire about it when I was done shopping
PC world in most places (not the cheapest usually) still has some quite cheap 3 TB drives !!!!.
I posted a link earlier in this thread.
1TB self powered drives still available too relatively cheaply -- I'm going back to work in Brussels again later today on a long term contract -- I was over in England this weekend to visit some colleagues for the Remembrance weekend --bought 4 of these and the store manager gave me 20 GBP off !!!!.
Cheers
Pc world and cheap never go hand in hand unless "is not" is somewhere inbetween! Lol
I shall check that out, I never even bothered looking at pc world, I just dismissed them as too expensive to start with based on past experiences.
Hi there
Here you are
3 TB GBP 119.99 Available in store today (14 Nov) (Approx 180 USD / 130 EUR).
INC VAT.
If you can get the VAT refund as well then it's a real bargain -- I got 1 of these as well as 3X 1 TB passport self powered drives
SEAGATE STAY3000202 External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - 3TB, Black at cheap prices | PC World
cheers
jimbo
Thanks a lot Jimbo!
I can feel my bank accout trying to run away from me!
Its just a question of do I buy 1 3tb drive and stick it in my home server, or 2 1tb drives with RAID. Orrr say sod it to my server and run one of those as NAS.. Why can't I have a cheap hobby!!! Already spent £1500+ in the last month or so on computer stuff!
I just purchased the last part of my latest pc!! So then technically I need nothing..
Just my new server build to finish after that.. But on hold due to stupid HHD prices!
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