Hard drive prices - for those that don't go into General Hardware

[StriderX]

LOL @ all the companies raising their prices obscenely.

Well frankly, its either do that or lose profits...what do expect?

Either way its acceptable, i bet the floods did a number on the manufacturing floor/machines, which will need replaced and the buildings probably need fixed.

Ultimately they need money to do these things without stretching too far into their piggy bank.

(havent been in a Fab before, but seems like it would be a problem)

Maybe this is just what the SSD market needed, thus accelerating the need for them and so on.

 

[TRNC]

Cashing in early to make a quick buck....sounds like the technology industry!

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Oh dear

 

[Castiel]

I wonder how long they will take to reduce prices once production is ramped up again?

What is the betting that it will be significantly longer than the time it took for prices of current stock (bought at the previous normal wholesale no doubt) to return to the previous levels, if they do at all.

 

[PermaBanned]

I wonder how long they will take to reduce prices once production is ramped up again?

What is the betting that it will be significantly longer than the time it took for prices of current stock (bought at the previous normal wholesale no doubt) to return to the previous levels, if they do at all.

That was kind of my point

 

[J-FRO]

just buy second hand from MM if it's that urgent.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

It happens with RAM. I bought a 512MB stick £55 in late 2001. One of the Japanese factories blew up and same product was £85 a month later. Dilemma repeats every few years. I know, cool story bro etc, but hard drives will go back to normal before long.

 

[Substance]

My local online computer hardware retailer aren't going on a massive price hike with hardly any excuse so I guess my next build will be coming from there

 

[King Damager]

Is every HDD manufacturer (production) based in Thailand?

Think everyone apart from Samsung, who can't keep up with the demand by a long way.

To be honest people just need to wait out till late Q1/q2 2012 and it'll be back to normal

kd

 

[Thorper]

£80 ~ for a 500gb hard drive when they were around the £30 mark!

I remember buying an 80gb external hard drive for £80 back in the day

 

[UK-AL05]

I remember buying an 80gb external hard drive for £80 back in the day

I remember buying 4gb hard drive for quite a lot.

 

[SkeeterUK]

Nooo... 2tb hdd i was going to buy soon for the usual 58 quid ish but now their over 100 quid in most places tho i have spotted a place for 63 quid so might snap that up if i can.

Edit - meh out of stock the cheaper places.

Edit 2 - And damn it that NOW you tell us AFTER the price increases. I dont visit latest deals thread often just GD and Food and PC Gamer sections. Should have been a global announcement which shows on all the sub forums.

 

[utajoker]

1TB £54 from a competitor near me.

was planning on buying a bit more storage in a few weeks, shall have to wait till now :/

 

[ExRayTed]

It's not really the end of the world is it, prices were obscenely low, I mean 2Tb drives for under 50 quid? So it's not a deal breaker if you suddenly need to pay 90 quid for a 2Tb drive instead of £50 is it?

Everyone is acting like its the apocolypse, I've even seen quotes that storage will be 'unaffordable'. Come on! Most of us paid £100+ for 60gb drives in the past...

Hardly the point is it? The fact that the floods are happening now and it has affected stock already bought and held by suppliers is more pertinent.

 

[kylew]

It's not really the end of the world is it, prices were obscenely low, I mean 2Tb drives for under 50 quid? So it's not a deal breaker if you suddenly need to pay 90 quid for a 2Tb drive instead of £50 is it?

Everyone is acting like its the apocolypse, I've even seen quotes that storage will be 'unaffordable'. Come on! Most of us paid £100+ for 60gb drives in the past...

I would have thought you'd understand why this type of thing is pretty bad. The fact that 2TB drives were at an all time low price is meaningless to them going up so much, that's how it works with hardware prices.

New stuff comes out, production ramps up pushing high end into mainstream, prices drop accordingly. I bought 4x 1TB Samsung drives around 3 years ago for less than £50 per drive, it's very clear why this is ridiculous. I can't see stock shifting much at all at the prices they've been put up to.

I also believe prices have been arbitrarily inflated on existing stock as well, arguably the prices on stock already paid for shouldn't increase so dramatically.

 

[PapaLazaru]

My local online computer hardware retailer aren't going on a massive price hike with hardly any excuse so I guess my next build will be coming from there

Depends on their turnover of stock. If they are small, and shift low levels of stock, they will not be likely to need to order new stock until the manufacturers have started producing again. OcUk sell units in their thousands and it is the replacement stock which is costing more.

 

[Matteysan]

Is every HDD manufacturer (production) based in Thailand?

The majority of them. I'm surprised this won't affect CD/DVD drives also aren't a lot of those produced in Thailand?

Anyway the floods in Thailand are the worst in 50+ years & expected to get even worse a lot of Bangkok is under water.

 

[Uther]

Must be some good overtime going on at Samsung now!
The F3 500GB I bought for £30 a few weeks ago is now over £60...
I bet the prices don't drop so quick once production is back to normal.

 

[Elixir]

Does this apply to external HDDs as well?

 

[Werewolf]

New stuff comes out, production ramps up pushing high end into mainstream, prices drop accordingly. I bought 4x 1TB Samsung drives around 3 years ago for less than £50 per drive, it's very clear why this is ridiculous. I can't see stock shifting much at all at the prices they've been put up to.

I also believe prices have been arbitrarily inflated on existing stock as well, arguably the prices on stock already paid for shouldn't increase so dramatically.

The problem is that IIRC there is a very finite amount of stock in the pipeline.

That stock now has to last whilst the production facilities (and ancillary ones), are put back into use.
To put that in perspective it can take weeks just to dry out a normal house properly, let alone replace much of the equipment which has been water damaged, dry out, and clean up (to clean room standards) the facility, then you've got the lag whilst the production actually gets started.

And that's after the water has dropped.

Also IIRC a lot of the parts used in many drive manufacturers drives are made in that area (and WD iirc own several of the smaller names).

And this is at the time of year when the drives are being used for everything from PVR's and Laptops/PC's people are buying for presents.

It's also worth noting that for the companies that need drives, the increase in price isn't going to be an issue - if they need the drives they'll buy them at whatever the price is if they are needed for business use.

Not forgetting that most of the industry doesn't sit on large amounts of stock of items, as it's a sure fire way to lose money when the unsold stock devalues - most retailers probably only hold stock for a couple of weeks supply max.

I suspect it'll be about 4-6 months before the supply is back up to the levels they were a couple of weeks ago, as it'll probably take a couple of months minimum for the factories to get up and running again (remember it's not just the actual WD factory, but the component suppliers in the area), and for the stock levels to equalise with demand again.