Skyrocketing price of mechanical hard drives

Karma: it's a beach, and it's alive and well.

Seriously, guess they are all kicking themselves in the arse right about now. Should have stayed in the U.S. and this never would have happened. I know at least out here where I am in the West Coast, we don't have anything happen other than the occasional, very mild monsoon. That's it.

They should move it back home. It will be a win-win... we really need the jobs back now, thanks.

EvilOzzmess said:

Karma: it's a beach, and it's alive and well.

Seriously, guess they are all kicking themselves in the arse right about now. Should have stayed in the U.S. and this never would have happened. I know at least out here where I am in the West Coast, we don't have anything happen other than the occasional, very mild monsoon. That's it.

They should move it back home. It will be a win-win... we really need the jobs back now, thanks.

I agree. I'm not really a big fan of outsourcing stuff myself.

Just checked my local shop in town and a 2 TB will set someone back $160 to $180 for either a SATA2 or SATA3 version.

FredeGail said:

It's nearing the times where I think that it's even worth buying a Solid State Disk nowadays.

it's been that time for quite a while now.

you just have to get your head around the fact that the ssd won't replace your hdd - it will complement it.

ssd for os and programs
hdd for data and 'stuff'

magnetite said:

I agree. I'm not really a big fan of outsourcing stuff myself.

Just checked my local shop in town and a 2 TB will set someone back $160 to $180 for either a SATA2 or SATA3 version.

It's what is killing American industry and jobs... not the Government, as is the popular claim. These stunts are what's nailing the coffin down and holding up progress.


But yeah, the WD Caviar Black 64MB Cache, 7200RPM SATA III 2TB drive I was eying on Amazon for a future build (no idea when or even if that will ever be happening - still trying to get stable employment for the past nearly five years now) went through the freakin' roof. It's now just about $204.99! It WAS $100 or thereabouts earlier last week.

And the WD Caviar Blue 16MB Cache, 7200RPM SATA III 500GB now run around $99 (from $40)!

Just ridiculous. Money gouging if ever I've seen it. Disaster, shortage or whatever else... there's no excuse for this. PC sales are way down... they're not helping those purchases to go up right now, that's for sure! As for SSD... lol. Never going into one of my systems, at least not until they can produce a 2TB for around $100, which won't burn out after a certain number of read/writes but I think we all know that is never going to happen in this decade and maybe not even the next.

It's what is killing American industry and jobs... not the Government, as is the popular claim. These stunts are what's nailing the coffin down and holding up progress.

.

@EvilOzzMess:

Exactly:

The thing is that I am certain now that MOST Americans would gladly pay more for products if it meant that the fellow citizens were gainfully employed making a reasonable wage!


I'd would love to see hardware manufacturing return to the US.....heck I would assume that the old plants are there from twenty years ago that USED to manufacturer things like this in the USA....probably right in California!

Rebuild, rennovate, restart production here.

I'm willing to pay 40% more for US produced product because it helps my neighbors earn a decent living!

In the mean time I think this situation will force ahead the implementation of SSD into mainstream OEM brands not just their premium offerings either.

I'd expect to see companies like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, and Samsung all using SSDs in machines in place of the HDDs soon.

FWIW, Frys Electronics has not yet raised the price of most of its drives. They have just set a limit of one per person. You can still get a pretty reasonable price on their website. They actually have a couple 2 TB models for under $100.00. Granted, there are two stores in Phoenix which is rather convenient for me but their website isn't too bad.

BTW, it is awfully naive to think that manufacturers could move everything back to the US and things would just be fine. One of the reasons the prices have been so low is because of the lower wages and other costs of doing business in Asia. Insert American wages and you would not be getting anything near where prices have been. The fact is that many of the luxuries we seem to expect to have available at our fingertips are subsidized by Asian, Pacific Rim, labor.

I also assume the person who commented about how things would be so much better if manufacturers were on the west coast must have forgotten that the west coast is on the opposite side of the same techtonic plate. It is just as succeptible to earthquakes, volcanic activity, and tsunami. Just because they haven't happened recently doesn't mean they will not happen. We have just been remarkably lucky. Floods also happen in the United States and (ironically) some of the west coast areas that have the greatest risks of flood such as the vicinity of Sacramento struggle with the prospects of long term water shortages. Throw tech manufacturers back into the mix with agro-business and see who wins. One way or the other, it would not be the consumer.

Stephen