why are HDD prices still so high?

[HalloweenJack]

http://www.techpowerup.com/172939/Ha...l-in-2012.html

A year after the Thailand flooding disaster partially derailed production, the global hard disk drive (HDD) industry has fully recovered, with shipments to the computer market expected to hit a record level this year, driven by the enterprise market as well as the arrival of the Windows 8 operating system.

output is now HIGHER than previously - so why are prices still massively inflated?

the day after the floods online etailers everywhere bumped prices by 200% - yet now theres a surplus in the market , prices still havent fallen , even though trade prices are lower than pre flood.

[DanceswithUnix]

Probably because we are down to just two suppliers now.
On top of that, I think the whole market is moving from 3.5 to 2.5in drives which causes uncertainly which holds prices up.
The drives I have looked at recently are about 20% more expensive than pre-flood, which is annoying but at least the gouging has stopped.

[HalloweenJack]

did you read it? wholesale prices are now lower than before the flood


so why are UK prices still so high?

[deejayburnout]

did you read it? wholesale prices are now lower than before the flood


so why are UK prices still so high?

That's simple

Living in the UK is a rip off. As long as people are buying them at the inflated prices, the retailers will continue to sell them.

Just like the cost of everything.

If we all boycotted buying HDDs for a few months, they would soon come down in price.

[ed^chigliak]

With all this extra money you would think that WD shortly after announcing NAS specific 2TB & 3TB Red red drives that you would actually be able to buy one. How long does it take WD to install different firmware on what is essentially an existing product and slap a red sticker on it?

[rheyworth07]

HDD prices are back to normal. It was around £40/ P GB before the floor, and now you can easily get 2TB for £70. SSD's have also decreased dramatically in price, almost 50% from Jan 2012/

[holy god of nil]

Toshiba also make hard drives these days, do they sell consumer retail?

[dacads]

Once a Terrabyte is £40 then we are back to normal..by christmas hopefully?

[IronWarrior]

HDD prices are back to normal. It was around £40/ P GB before the floor, and now you can easily get 2TB for £70.

No, they are not back to normal.

1 TB HDD before the floods was £38+ and an 2TB HDD was £52+.

[technodean]

Have to agree with the above, they are not back to normal. Had to buy a sata cable just to get a 2tb drive to £50 for the free shipping.

[deejayburnout]

Not bad deal. Odd speed though 5900rpm?

[technodean]

Not bad deal. Odd speed though 5900rpm?

Same as the seagate barracuda's, I think its the samsung and the wd's run at 5400rpm.

[DanceswithUnix]

did you read it? wholesale prices are now lower than before the flood


so why are UK prices still so high?

Yes I did read it. 10 mins of my life I won't get back is how I rate it

Really, sales driven by Ultrabooks? Windows 8 will save the day? Whatever they are smoking, I really don't want any.
Perhaps I missed it, but I thought it said shipments had returned to pre-flood levels. Unit volume isn't the same as pricing.

[DanceswithUnix]

With all this extra money you would think that WD shortly after announcing NAS specific 2TB & 3TB Red red drives that you would actually be able to buy one. How long does it take WD to install different firmware on what is essentially an existing product and slap a red sticker on it?

If you read the spec sheets, it really isn't that simple. ISTR they share the dual ARM core controllers of the black series, not the single core controllers of the cheaper green/blue ones. Bearings are uprated also.

Have you seen the studies that show hard drive performance dropping by shouting or playing loud noises at them? Knocks the track seeking right out. Stick a bunch of drives in a rack and you start getting beat frequencies caused by the slight mismatch in rotation speed which has a similar effect. That constant vibration can not just lower performance but can in a short time knacker the drive. I believe the RE4 raid drives have g sensors to counter that, don't know if the Red drives have gone that far.

Amusingly, I wouldn't be surprised if all WD drives ran a variant of the same firmware so that would be the only thing that didn't change much

[ed^chigliak]

Red drives are WD black RE drives at lower RPM. Pretty much the exact same hardware and firmware + red label. There is absolutely nothing new or revolutionary so you have to wonder why you cannot buy one several weeks after they being announced. The biggest change is the colour of the label. Maybe the label manufacturer got hit by floods and WD cannot afford to buy them.

Prices for 2TB drives are not back to the £54 I paid just before the floods.

[Unique]

2tb drives were just under £50 delivered before the floods, and the way prices were going down, i'd have expected them to be closer to £35 today, with 3tb drives closer to £55 and 4tb drives nearer the £100 mark

but whilst output is higher than before, there's still a bit of catching up until the output surpasses demand, and with less manufacturers and a years reduced output, it's not going to be in a hurry