# HDD & SSD prices go down the hole . . . .!



## dlf (Apr 11, 2012)

I doubt anyone of us can give a correct answer but when is it expected that Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives to go down in price - because of the flood last year. And by how much do you think? One third (1/3)?


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## mastrdrver (Apr 11, 2012)

They're already on the down run (disk drives).


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## slyfox2151 (Apr 11, 2012)

dlf said:


> I doubt anyone of us can give a correct answer but when is it expected that Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives to go down in price - because of the flood last year. And by how much do you think? One third (1/3)?



??

OCZ vertex 3 60GB are only $90 now... and the 120GB vertex 4  is around the $200 mark... seems very cheap to me.


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## Frizz (Apr 11, 2012)

SSD drives have always been going down in price. HDD price are gradually coming down but not sure when they'll stop going down in price.


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## bmaverick (Apr 11, 2012)

Bought a Samsung 1T 3.0 SATA HDD for $32 two weeks before the flood.  A week after, that same drive is $90.  It hasn't moved in price since. 

It could take at least another 5 years or even more to have the prices adjust.  BUT, the supply and demand cycle would have to change the market swing in the right direction otherwise. 

As the world economies keep plunging and debt just builds up, I wouldn't think that the HDD nor the SSD would drop any time soon.  Most counties buying power is diminished by hidden inflation factors.


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## 15th Warlock (Apr 11, 2012)

Dunno about HDDs, but prices of SSDs are going down by the minute, check this OCZ Agility 3 120GBs for $99 after MIR:

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III...

Heck, I'll probably get one more of those to pair to my current LAN box drive in RAID 0


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## xenocide (Apr 11, 2012)

SSD's are slated to drop pretty nicely this year, and HDD's are finally recovering from being Price Fixed.  I would expect HDD's to be back down to acceptable prices by the end of the year.


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## TheOne (Apr 11, 2012)

Newegg had the 120GB Vertex 3 on sale Monday for $110 after a promo code and $20 MIR.


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## Xiphos (Apr 11, 2012)

> the HDD market is now starting to rebound with year-over-year unit shipment growth of 7.7% in 2012 and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% for the 2011-2016 forecast period, which sounds very healthy. *So, will this result in HDD prices sinking to their pre-disaster levels? Apparently not, as it looks like the industry (composed now of just two players) looks to "reset" pricing to somewhere in the middle of the two extremes*



http://www.legitreviews.com/news/12765/


These new prices are going to stay.
pre-flood it was 4 players, now only 2.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Apr 11, 2012)

SSDs have been trending down constantly. The crucial M4 drives in particular. Their 512 GB is nearly affordable at $550 now, and the 256 is $300, dipping down much lower during one of it's frequent sales. They were both 18% higher a few months ago. Seagate HDD prices are nearly returned to normal. They've got a 7200 3 TB drive down to pre-flood prices.



bmaverick said:


> Bought a Samsung 1T 3.0 SATA HDD for $32 two weeks before the flood. A week after, that same drive is $90. It hasn't moved in price since.



That had to be a sale price. It stuck around $60 most of the time.


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## ironwolf (Apr 11, 2012)

As far as all my distributors have told me, the SSD stocks/production were not greatly affected by the floods, it was the mechanical drives that took the hit as many of the mechanical drive makers had at least one factory over there or were otherwise affected.  General concensus in the industry is that mechanical drive prices are slowly falling and *might* return to pre-flood levels by the end of the year, although many of us who are a little bit skeptical feel they may never drop back down to pre-flood prices.

This of course boasts well for the SSD makers.  The higher the cost of the mechanical drives, the better the prices on SSDs looks.  It's certainly a great time to dive into SSDs.

PS, yeah some mechanical drive models have fallen in price faster than others, but overall it's taking a long time, too long.


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## mastrdrver (Apr 12, 2012)

As I read someone rightly pointed out.....how long does it take to make a clean room clean again?

It is also apparently cheaper to clean up the tools then to buy new ones. Those tools also go in clean rooms too. Add all this together and taking a year to get prices back down doesn't seem far fetched to me.


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## dlf (Apr 16, 2012)

It is a bit odd to me that 512 GB SSD price right now are about that much in cost (to us) but a 1 TB SSD is nearly 3K. I seem to recall them (preflood?) being about 1 thousand. How strange that double the amount of space is like 6 times the cost. Sheesh.


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## Athlon2K15 (Apr 16, 2012)

15th Warlock said:


> Dunno about HDDs, but prices of SSDs are going down by the minute, check this OCZ Agility 3 120GBs for $99 after MIR:
> 
> OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III...
> 
> Heck, I'll probably get one more of those to pair to my current LAN box drive in RAID 0



The Agility drives are cheap because they use Asynchronous nand.


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## scoutingwraith (Apr 16, 2012)

Yeah some of these prices are outrageous. I remember before the flood I was able to buy a WD Black 1tb for $60 and now it's over 100. Hopefully they go down so i can grab a couple for my NAS


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## mastrdrver (Apr 16, 2012)

I just want a 2GB WD green drive for less then $100. Running out of space on my two 1GB drives.


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## Athlon2K15 (Apr 16, 2012)

mastrdrver said:


> I just want a 2GB WD green drive for less then $100. Running out of space on my two 1GB drives.





I sincerely hope you mean TB and not GB


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## xenocide (Apr 16, 2012)

scoutingwraith said:


> Yeah some of these prices are outrageous. I remember before the flood I was able to buy a WD Black 1tb for $60 and now it's over 100. Hopefully they go down so i can grab a couple for my NAS



I bought a WD Black 1TB for $70 almost 2 years ago, and they dropped to around $60 pre-flood.  A few days after the flood it was sitting at--I kid you not--$200.



Xiphos said:


> http://www.legitreviews.com/news/12765/
> 
> 
> These new prices are going to stay.
> pre-flood it was 4 players, now only 2.



I'm no expert but that sounds suspiciously like Price-Fixing.


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## AhokZYashA (Apr 16, 2012)

pre-flood i got a 2TB external drive for 110$ USB3 and 100$ USB2 both are Western Digitals

lately i got myself a 2TB Hitachi Touro Desk USB2 for 150$


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## n-ster (Apr 16, 2012)

It's still 2x the price on many drives. Sucks balls


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## mastrdrver (Apr 16, 2012)

AthlonX2 said:


> I sincerely hope you mean TB and not GB



 Maybe, maybe.


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 28, 2012)

I read that the one plant that made the arms that read the disk was or had to have all the equipment and the plant redone refurbished,They said in that article that it would take until April 2012 to have it up and running tests again,So who knows reminds me of the Thailand earthquake late 99 when all the memory prices shot up.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carljohnson/2011/10/28/inside-wds-flooded-thai-factory/



Here is the one from Jan,It would seem the first article explains the slider arms equipment was lost,That it would take 6 months to have a new one made,The reason it is taking so long that slider plant also made them for the other guys too.

http://www.wdc.com/en/company/pressroom/releases.aspx?release=29d5d9bd-4e44-4814-aa15-7c4c5346606c

Operations Update
The company also announced it has made significant additional progress to restore its manufacturing capacity following the recent flooding in Thailand. It has continued to ramp HDD production in Thailand and yesterday resumed slider production which had been suspended since October 10. The company now believes its manufacturing capacity will be back to pre-flood capabilities in the quarter ending September 2012.

"We have made substantial progress in restoring WD's manufacturing capabilities in the aftermath of the historic flooding in Thailand, and this is reflected in our second quarter financial results and in the resumption of our operations there," said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer. "While much work remains to be done over the next several quarters to reach our pre-flood manufacturing capabilities, the progress thus far is significantly ahead of our original expectations and is a tribute to the dedicated and effective actions of our employees, contractors and Thai government agencies, the efforts of our supply partners and the support of our customers. We are grateful to all involved in this extraordinary effort."


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## Jetster (Apr 28, 2012)

There slowly coming down in price. I think they took the opportunity to retool after the flood so recovery has been slow to pay for the new factory


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## dark2099 (Apr 28, 2012)

If I remember correctly from a couple quick news posts on here, maybe linked to other sites, was that by 2013 prices should be back down as low as they go, with everything being as close to normal by 2014.  With the trend of SSDs becoming more affordable, I think we'll see a situation where HDDs never get back to the price they were since SSDs will eventually become the main option for pre-built PCs.  Wouldn't be surprised if we actually start to see them offered with a smaller 60GB SSD with the OS, then a larger sized HDD for storage.


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 28, 2012)

You 2 need to read what i just posted........

It appears they got very lucky to save 2 of the machines that made the sliders,They are still waiting for the rest to be made ,And should be going in the plant in June/July and running around August.Also look at the bright side we should have cheap storage just in time for this years Christmas rush......

My thoughts on the SSD Why they still need to have the 60-80 gigs up here at $120-$199 price point,Most of us would like to see the over 240 gis drop.They go for around $240-$250 and it is more cheaper still to buy a 1tb-2tb drive..What gets me is ddr3 ram is like $30 for 4 gigs 8gigs is $45......


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