Skyrocketing price of mechanical hard drives

[pparks1]

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/2011/10/20/wd_floods_prices_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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

And it's gonna keep climbing.

 

[serpentracer]

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]

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/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245

 

[DeaconFrost]

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]

Hard drive prices skyrocket!!

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

 

[pparks1]

I started a thread on this about a week ago.

I even used the term skyrocketing in my thread

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/193930-skyrocketing-price-mechanical-hard-drives.html

 

[Sardonicus]

I started a thread on this about a week ago.

I even used the term skyrocketing in my thread

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/193930-skyrocketing-price-mechanical-hard-drives.html

Oops I missed it. I looked in the News section of the forum and didn't see anything, so I started this thread. I should've looked in the Hardware section, also. I got Skyrocket from the article I linked. An honest mistake.....my apologies.

 

[pparks1]

I wasn't giving you a hard time, the mods will close it or merge it. I just thought it was funny that we both said "skyrocket", but I see your use came from the news story.

Sure seems odd to see high mechanical hard drive prices. perhaps this will encourage the sale of SSD's.

 

[Sardonicus]

One thing I've noticed, Newegg isn't selling the bulk lot of drives it usually sells, which makes sense now, because of a shortage.

 

[arkhi]

Woah! No kidding. Got this 99.99 4 months ago Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

 

[Lebon14]

What a shame... on Newegg.ca, a 500GB hard drive is around 130$, 1TB ~ 210$, 2TB is from 260 to 320$ and 3TB doesn't exist (at least in WD). When SSD pricing meets HDD.

 

[Phone Man]

Lot of profiteering by the retailers. My WD drives are built in Malaysia and the flooded plant in Taiwan builds drives for notebooks, but the retailers are raising prices on all drives. I was very lucky last Month. My brothers old HDD died and I got him a WD Caviar Black 700GB Sata III for $69. They are around $99 now. On my new system I got a WD Caviar 1TB Sata III that arrived defective. I did an RMA through WD and they crossshipped me a new drive. They had to substitute so they send me a brand new (Man: Sept 11, 2011) 2TB Sata III. I am all set for a while and prices should come back down the first part of next year after these flooded plants are back on line.

Jim

 

[mickey megabyte]

source

 

[ACR731]

Apparently flooding in Thailand is to blame...

 

[lehnerus2000]

I wondered why the price of HDDs at my local parts shop suddenly doubled.

I guess it was lucky that i bought my 2 TB HDD in August ($AU89).