When will HD prices be back to pre flood levels?

[drdoom]

I have been transcoding my DVD's to MP4 files and putting them on my home network storage. It is only a 2 drive system so I did not use any of the RAID options. I am quickly running out of space however. I have 2 1.5TB drives that format out to 1.34TB's. I want to get a 4 drive system and use some flavor or RAID. But HD prices have kept me from doing it.

[Timman_24]

IMO this catastrophe has given HDD makers a reason to inflate prices and keep them there. Cheap HDD were a combination of larges cale production and 20 years of iterative competition. Overnight the price at which was "reasonable" to a consumer was reset to 100% of what it was. Even if production is totally back on-line, it will take a long time to chip away at the price via competition and get back to where we were. I wouldn't be surprised if the prices stay high for years. It isn't like we have an option except for high priced SSDs.

[drdoom]

At this point a 4 drive network storage setup will run 600-800 dollars. At the rate I'm going I will max out my current set up in 3-4 months.

[kpxgq]

at this point, i would just give up on traditional HDDs and go SSD for everything... the economies of scale are readily hitting parity

[James]

Longterm nearline storage like a NAS would dictate something besides an SSD. they aren't quite there from a $/GB perspective. Primary and even secondary storage I would agree SSD's are a good fit, but for things like backup images, long term storage of rarely used files, hdd's are still the best choice.

I have a 5-drive 2TB array in my NAS. I will be close to filling it up by next year. At that point the 2TB drives should be down close enough to pre-flood price (say $80-$100) that it will make sense to add more into the pool.

I'm just sad that all of this happened shortly after 4TB drives were launched. It means they never really had a chance to become widespread and common. With several of the manufacturers using 1TB/platter tech, it would have been interesting to see what economies of scale would have done.

[wh666-666]

IMO this catastrophe has given HDD makers a reason to inflate prices and keep them there. Cheap HDD were a combination of larges cale production and 20 years of iterative competition. Overnight the price at which was "reasonable" to a consumer was reset to 100% of what it was. Even if production is totally back on-line, it will take a long time to chip away at the price via competition and get back to where we were. I wouldn't be surprised if the prices stay high for years. It isn't like we have an option except for high priced SSDs.

I fear this is true. Really annoying as i can't find affordable drives at all.

[drdoom]

Newegg's weekend deal has a Hitachi 500gb drive for 59.99. I think I payed 54.99 for the 2 1.5tb drives I got before the flood. I wasn't really thinking ahead or anything when I got them. I just got lucky that I saw a sale and picked them up with no specific purpose for them. I'm just waiting for the fire that always seems to drive up ram prices. Seriously, I don't know how these factories are laid out but maybe put stuff on the second floor next time. Off topic but sometimes I wonder about engineers.

[RealBeast]

at this point, i would just give up on traditional HDDs and go SSD for everything... the economies of scale are readily hitting parity

I use a lot of SSDs, all of my (8) computers have at least one, but no way that I'm replacing my 8 x 3Tb RAID 6 NAS array with SSDs anytime soon -- not in the budget.

Lucky for me I bought 10 Hitachi 7K3000's at $149 each the week before the floods, 8 for the array and 2 for replacements. Just shows it's better to be lucky than smart.

[RealBeast]

I'm just sad that all of this happened shortly after 4TB drives were launched. It means they never really had a chance to become widespread and common. With several of the manufacturers using 1TB/platter tech, it would have been interesting to see what economies of scale would have done.

Agreed, I have a buyer for my current NAS box as soon as I can get a box of 4 or 5 Tb 1Tb/platter replacements, which will probably not be for another year as things look now.

[Learux]

What is it that you guys store on these drives, I have 25Gb of pictures and that is all I need to save?

[James]

What is it that you guys store on these drives, I have 25Gb of pictures and that is all I need to save?

~120GB I have roughly 800 CD's worth of music ripped to mp3 for easy access.
~200GB ISO images for installs of OS's and programs
~1.0TB backups of all documents, photos, programs, etc. from around 10 years worth of systems, both mine and other peoples.
~2.9TB I have just under 750 DVD's and Blu-rays available from my HTPC, or any other system in the house.

[drdoom]

What is it that you guys store on these drives, I have 25Gb of pictures and that is all I need to save?

Yeah see start of my post. DVD rips probably average about 3 gigs each. I currently have 148 DVD ripped. That is probably less than half of what I currently own and I frequently pick up inexpensive DVD's, sometimes for less than 3 bucks each with some of the collection packs they are selling. Add to that 130 gigs of music, ISO's of most of my games, all kinds of game mod files. It adds up fast. I still have CD's I haven't ripped yet either. I love having it all on my wireless network for instant access. Anyone who comes over with a laptop can access it too. I am sure I could set my phone up to do it too if I wanted.

[richardginn]

What is it that you guys store on these drives, I have 25Gb of pictures and that is all I need to save?

We all store Offline porn

[Steven P Jobs]

I don't understand this digital hoarding. What percentage of all those DVDs you painstakingly ripped are you actually going to watch ever again? And does it really take longer to go and grab the DVD from some shelf than you spent on setting up your home server?

[James]

I don't understand this digital hoarding. What percentage of all those DVDs you painstakingly ripped are you actually going to watch ever again? And does it really take longer to go and grab the DVD from some shelf than you spent on setting up your home server?

I rewatch probably 50% of my collection per year. I also like to archive the media I consume. It's my thing.

As for the "longer to go and grab a DVD" thing, yes, yes it is. It's disturbing to discover that with Netflix, DVR, Hulu, etc. The idea of having to get up and track down what you want to watch seems like a lot of effort. I found myself literally not watching one of the DVD's surrounding my TV because I didn't want to put the disc in the drive. Instead I would watch whatever was recorded, or on TV right now, or on Netflix. I was literally ignoring the movies I purchased so that I could watch them again because the delivery medium wasn't as immediate as other options.