Hard drive price increases in the last few weeks? [Archive]

Mark Grant

22-10-2011, 08:44

Has anyone else noticed the increase in hard drive prices recently.

2TB drives that where about £50 to £58 a few weeks ago are now £80 + :(

Floods in Thailand caused a shortage.

Think I will wait a few months before buying any...

MartinT

22-10-2011, 10:58

Yes, I noticed as we are constantly ordering replacement drives at work. I just had to buy 3 x 3TB drives and they were about £150 each. The hardest drives to get hold of now are old parallel PATA IDE drives for laptops that don't take SATA drives. I stockpile them when I see a good price.

Reid Malenfant

22-10-2011, 16:15

Yes, Western Digital factory got flooded in Thailand ;) Didn't a similar thing happen to RAM production when Kobe in Japan had a big earthquake a while back?

I just read about it as i didn't even have a PC then :) Wasn't it 95? :scratch:

AlexM

22-10-2011, 16:26

The Chinese are slowing down on shipments of rare earth metals to bump the wholesale prices, and this will feed through to components that use them like hard drives

Tim

22-10-2011, 16:48

I slipped up as I need a new drive and hesitated buying it in the week for 39.99 (1TB), it's now 65.00!

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2011/10/21/disk_drives_shortages/

WOStantonCS100

22-10-2011, 17:23

Why this doesn't turn on a light bulb for our countries, I will never know. We need to start manufacturing the stuff we are most dependent upon in our own countries. This shouldn't be a new concept. We didn't always outsource everything. (Not to be confused with protectionism, as they call it.) But, as I see it we have two options. Complain about market prices we can't control (not that, that is what we're doing in this thread) or we can mitigate the possibility of being taken to the cleaners in certain instances. For example, the cost of memory/RAM has always been a roller coaster; yet, we just grab a ticket and ride the ride, much like that dreaded three letter word... OIL. Doesn't make sense to me. I've never had good sense I suppose. :scratch:

Thing Fish

22-10-2011, 20:00

Because to make utter sh*t gadgets in the UK that every one seems intent on wanting would cost a lot of money to produce hence not possible..Cheap sh*t importing has basically destroyed manufacturing in countries such as the UK. Once upon a time we didnt need crap to get through life like we do now, this is the downfall imho Once upon a time we were famous for our superb if overly engineered products..We are now nothing but a bunch of pennyless wan*ers.

I do wish you wouldn't sit on the fence Andre...:confused:

MartinT

22-10-2011, 22:10

It's our own fault. There is little appreciation for quality in this country, people are simply not prepared to pay a little more for a quality product. Why do you think w*nkers like Alan Sugar have done so well and, even worse, are admired?

If people in this country had been prepared to pay a little more for a better made British product we might still have a healthy industry.

WOStantonCS100

22-10-2011, 22:24

Perhaps said a little less diplomatically... ;) but, I find myself in full agreement with Andre. It's enough to make your blood boil. :steam: No one seems to be willing to rewrite the rules; so, we all sit around taking it up the bum. At least in part, I think that's also what the "occupy" protests are about. The situation is so effed up and wrong... except for that very small portion of folks who have been raking it in... and laughing, heartily, about it.

Trickie_Dickie

22-10-2011, 22:27

There are too many mushrooms.

WOStantonCS100

22-10-2011, 22:29

Welder

22-10-2011, 22:38

Now that’s strange I though I thought we lost a number of markets because we made overpriced crap and the Japanese market in particular at the time made better quality stuff more cheaply; definitely the case for cars and motorbikes and early electronics :scratch:
However, I agree with the sentiment at least.

synsei

22-10-2011, 23:43

Would now be a good time to become a hermit? I think i'll found an Estate Agency specializing in Caves, I predict a growing market... :lolsign:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_t9pl9Dh5gGQ/SvJZxTXHk9I/AAAAAAAAKVc/EozhqXyRq7s/s400/3a285077a0b2633b38c85a226c4066f7.jpg

Welder

22-10-2011, 23:45

I don’t know Andre. You would have to ask someone like MartinT who if my memory serves drives a German car, has Swiss and Japanese watches, Japanese camera, and having a brief glance at his Hi Fi list, no British made products but obviously is prepared to spend that bit extra on “quality” products ;)

Welder

23-10-2011, 00:18

I’m not entirely convinced either Andre.
All I can say is I make a conscious effort to buy British made products if I can get what I want made in this country.
Granted, its not always possible but its back to that must have gadget thing again, quality or not, so I’m not much of mark for the hype.

Welder

23-10-2011, 00:31

Calls for a song I think; British of course ;)

EqP3wT5lpa4

MartinT

23-10-2011, 14:27

You would have to ask someone like MartinT who if my memory serves drives a German car, has Swiss and Japanese watches, Japanese camera, and having a brief glance at his Hi Fi list, no British made products but obviously is prepared to spend that bit extra on “quality” products ;)

Wrong. I drive a German car because they are the best made. It is European manufactured and that's fine with me.

I have a Swiss watch because, at the time, it was the best watch that my wife could buy me. Swiss watches have long been the best. It is the most precious thing I possess - not in terms of its market value.

In my hi-fi system I have a British power amplifier and phono preamp and several British ancillaries.

I do wish you'd check your facts. I buy British or European whenever I possibly can, provided the quality is there. Don't talk to me about computers or cameras because there are simply no reasonable alternatives.

Mark Grant

30-10-2011, 17:10

It has got even worse, a 2tb drive that was £80 a week ago is now £150 to £180. these where £50 or so two weeks ago.

a couple of screen grabs:
Samsung 2tb on ebuyer for £150.00
http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx234/server9/forum-pictures/ebuyer-samsung-2gb-Capture.jpg

Hitachi 2tb £180 on scan:
http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx234/server9/forum-pictures/scan-hitachi-2tb-Capture.jpg

I thought £80 was a lot, wont be buying any hard drives for a while as it looks like speculators bought them all to drive the price up as much as possible.:steam: Some people will have made lots of money out of the floods in Thailand.

Streaming might become more popular than ripping CD's for a while..

Tim

30-10-2011, 17:21

I doubt it will stay this bad for long, but probably at least until the new year. Manufacturers will be upping production for the Xmas period, which has no doubt increased demand and raised the prices further. I real bummer as I now really regret not buying that 1TB drive for £39.99 as I'm desperate for a drive at the moment - that 1TB drive is now £124.98 as well :doh:

synsei

30-10-2011, 17:43

It has got even worse, a 2tb drive that was £80 a week ago is now £150 to £180. these where £50 or so two weeks ago.

I thought £80 was a lot, wont be buying any hard drives for a while as it looks like speculators bought them all to drive the price up as much as possible.:steam: Some people will have made lots of money out of the floods in Thailand.

Streaming might become more popular than ripping CD's for a while..

I'm glad I picked up my 2TB WD external when I did, it only cost me £59.99 three months ago, I dread to think how much they are now :eyebrows:

Tim

03-11-2011, 10:24

On the Register today;

Disk prices double after flood - and could 'double again'

Not looking good, with a prediction they will be high for the next 6-9 months!

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2011/11/03/disk_drive_prices_may_double/

MartinT

03-11-2011, 10:34

I'm stockpiling them a bit; we get through half a dozen drives a month here, mostly 2.5" SATA laptop.

WAD62

03-11-2011, 15:07

If you have a large Tescos nearbye pop in, I picked up an external WD elements 1Tb USB 2 drive yesterday for £52 (for b'up purposes). Their web site states out of stock, but there are some in the stores.

I'd ordered a Seagate one from Maplins last week, but was told that they were unavailable due to the Bangkok floods.

And the prices are becoming a bit steep everywhere, as stated on this thread...:(

Reid Malenfant

03-11-2011, 18:41

MartinT

03-11-2011, 19:10

That's a crazy price for a 320GB drive.

Reid Malenfant

03-11-2011, 19:13

2.5" & IDE though, so getting a bit rare me thinks... Besides I don't need it anyway :)

spendorman

03-11-2011, 21:19

:lol: I went looking for a big 2.5" IDE drive to stuff in a caddy as an external drive. Well I found a nice 320Gb WD IDE drive for BIN £84.99 on fleabay about a week ago ;)

By the time it got onto my main watch page the same drive was at £124.00 :doh:

Nuts to it, I have a spare 80Gb 7200RPM Hitachi Travelstar so I won't bother :eyebrows:

I have several of this type of case, all work fine, SATA HD's are cheaper too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-SATA-USB-HARD-DRIVE-CADDY-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/260709523493?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosure s_RL&hash=item3cb37fa025

Reid Malenfant

03-11-2011, 21:23

spendorman

03-11-2011, 21:28

Oh I know, the only reason I go the IDE (PATA) route is simply because both my laptops have IDE drives ;) So the spare that I format in the caddy can become the main drive in the lappy if it goes down :)

There is method in my madness - sometimes :lol:

Sort of guessed that, 7200 RPM HD no advantage over 5400 one if connected by USB 2.0, as the USB limits the transfer speed, and the 7200 RPM one may consume more power. But you probably knew that anyway.

My next desktop must have USB 3.0.

s70rmp

03-11-2011, 21:59

I'm awaiting for a 100 pc order at work but problems with them getting the HD - been told they (supplier) are having to take a hit of a 300% price rise for the hard drives.
They cant pass that on to me either :-)

Mark Grant

15-12-2011, 13:55

Looks like there are starting to be some price reductions and offers :)

2TB Samsung under £100,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-097-SA&groupid=1657&catid=1660&subcat=1954

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-EcoGreen-5400RPM-SATA-II-Internal/dp/B0042SGDVG

Still not the £50 to £80 they where in September but not too bad.

sq225917

15-12-2011, 14:19

Welcome to pre Xmas price rises so they can discount them back for the sales.

Tim

15-12-2011, 16:56

Welcome to pre Xmas price rises so they can discount them back for the sales.
On this occasion it's not been down to that. The hard drive manufacturers are back in business and have started production again. Not fully up to speed yet, but thankfully production is again underway :)

Mark Grant

16-12-2011, 14:06

Going down now :)

Samsung 2TB £74.99 inc VAT, these where £180+ a few weeks ago at the peak of the panic.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sataover1tb/hd204ui.html

Not going to buy any until January as they where about £50 a while ago.