Windows 7 - Skyrocketing price of mechanical hard drives

pparks1 · 10-26-2011

So, apparently there is an export of rare metals crunch in china right now which is causing the price of hard drives to rise. In addition, major flooding in Thailand causing steep price increases that will linger into 2012
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10...ces_shortages/

It seems that 1TB drives have nearly doubled in price to about $80 at NewEgg and 2TB drives which previously went for $79 are now running $129.
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

jimbo45 · 10-26-2011

Hi there
Not sure what planet you are living on -- but at least in Europe you can get usb HDD drives VERY cheaply -- even PC World in the UK - not the cheapest place or store to buy stuff in but looking at the prices a 1 TB HDD is around 65 GBP / 90 USD.

Cheers
jimbo

Sub Styler · 10-26-2011

Jimbo, those prices will be for drives currently in stock, once the current stock is gone, the new next drives on the shelves will be there with a heftier tag.

pparks1 · 10-26-2011

NewEgg here in the US used to have 1TB drives for about $45 and 2TB Samsung for $79. Now, the 1TB drive is $79.99 and the 2TB is $129.99.

Beta · 10-26-2011

The price rise is amazing. I bought 2 WD 750 GB Sata III two months ago for $50 and now on new egg they are $120 each. This has been caused by the flooding in South East Asia. WD stock has fallen alot since they said that they will be seeing a major delay in suppy.

patio · 10-27-2011

Speaking of rare earth minerals have you seen the price of flourescent light tubes lately ? ?

And it's gonna keep climbing.

serpentracer · 10-27-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by pparks1

NewEgg here in the US used to have 1TB drives for about $45 and 2TB Samsung for $79. Now, the 1TB drive is $79.99 and the 2TB is $129.99.

that was probably a sale on some refurbished units. or they were some 5400 rpm with 8mb cache or something.
I've never seen a 1T NEW IN THE BOX drive selling for much less than $60-80.
I just bought a segate barracuda 1T drive for $59 and I was excited to see it that low.
I live by a huge computer store called microcenter.
Micro Center - Computers, Electronics, Computer Parts, Networking, Gaming, Software, and more!

get ready to keep paying more and more for things. you can't expect the chinese or others to keep working for $500 a month doing the work that we used to do for $40k a year. eventually they'll realize like we did in the 1930's these companies are taking advantage of them and will grow tired of it.

pparks1 · 10-31-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by serpentracer

Quote: Originally Posted by pparks1

NewEgg here in the US used to have 1TB drives for about $45 and 2TB Samsung for $79. Now, the 1TB drive is $79.99 and the 2TB is $129.99.

that was probably a sale on some refurbished units. or they were some 5400 rpm with 8mb cache or something.

No, that was on Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB, 7200RPM hard drive with either 16MB or 32MB of cache. I bought a few of them for work.

Looking today, 1TB WD Caviar Blacks are $149.
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Today, the 2TB Samsung SpinPoint F4 is $159 and $7.28 shipping. I've bought 5 of these previously at $79 with free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152245

DeaconFrost · 10-31-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by jimbo45

Not sure what planet you are living on

The one where major flooding has caused hard drive prices to rise.

PC hard drive prices rise sharply - The Times of India

Don't you remember the memory prices skyrocketing everytime there's a natural disaster in Taiwan?

Sardonicus · 11-01-2011

Hard drive prices skyrocket | Computer hardware - InfoWorld

The HDD prices on Newegg are outrageous.
I bought this drive for 59.99, at Newegg. As of this posting, it's $124.99.
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive