Hard Drive prices - any news?

Im down to my last 131Gb from 13TB on my homeserver so Im hoping prices drop soon.
I could free up 150gb, but that would mean deleting all seasons of 24 :eek:
 
The prices are stupid, it's like fuel prices, the moment oil prices go up, so does petrol, when it goes back down, it drops a tiny bit over a very long period of time :(

I bought a 2TB Samsung F4 last year for £52, I wouldn't mind another, but not at £100+.
 
wazza300 said:
unless your naughty and mark it as "gift"
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That wouldn't work.

The Channel Islands are treated as outside the EU for fiscal purposes so excise duty and import VAT are payable on "gifts" exceeding £15 in value.

Even if they weren't treated this way there would still be a £40 limit.

From HMRC:

2.4 Gifts

Goods sent as a gift that are over £40 in value are liable to import VAT. Customs duty also becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135 but is waived if the amount of duty calculated is less than £9.

To qualify as a gift:
■ the customs declaration must be completed correctly
■ the gift must be sent from a private person outside the EU to a private person(s) in this country
■ there is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly
■ the gift is of an occasional nature only, for example, for a birthday or anniversary

Note: if you purchase goods from outside the EU to give as a gift to a relative or friend, whether or not addressed to that person, is treated as a ‘commercial consignment’ for which the import VAT relief threshold is £15 (paragraph 2.3 refers).
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Goods from the ‘Special Territories’, that is, countries who are not included in the fiscal territory of the EU (see paragraph 4.3), are subject to excise duty and import VAT, they are processed in the same way as goods imported from outside the EU.
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4.3 What are the 'Special Territories'?

These are countries that are part of the EU for customs purposes, but not for fiscal purposes. Goods imported from these countries therefore are free of customs duty, but subject to excise duty and import VAT. The ‘Special Territories’ are:
■ The Ǻland Islands (Finland)
■ The Canary Islands (Spain)
■ The Channel Islands
■ The French Overseas Departments of Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique and Reunion
■ Mount Athos also known as Agion Poros (Greece)
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andy_mk3 said:
The prices are stupid, it's like fuel prices, the moment oil prices go up, so does petrol, when it goes back down, it drops a tiny bit over a very long period of time :(
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I think you're being a bit insensitive there - the flooding has claimed hundreds of lives and uprooted thousands of people from thier homes and lively hoods - 37000 business are on the brink of bankruptcy.

http://www.wdc.com/en/company/thailandupdates/

And you're only concerened about paying £40 extra for a luxury IT item?

:rolleyes:
 
I think people got wowed a bit by the recent low prices; historically you'd be talking £100+ for a decent sized fairly fast drive (relative to the time of purchase), I'm sure I've spent ~£100+ on at least 5 drives over the years. Basically a year or so back all of a sudden 2TB drives started getting very cheap i.e ~£60 but IMO they still represent decent value at under £100.

Same will be the case for DDR3 RAM if prices start edging up, currently you are talking about £35 for 8GB of reasonable RAM, that's a bargain IMO and even if prices were to double I'd say £70 for 8GB is ok by historical standards, that's around (or below) what you've had to spend to give yourself a decent amount relative to time of purchase.
 
people expect to pay for new technologies but as technologies become cheaper to produce, matured and been out for several years you expect it to drop. its the cycle (until it hits no production and that forces the old tech prices up again).

ddr3 has been in constant production and commercially available for 3 years+, same with high density harddrives they have more than made their R+D costs back and the process has constantly been streamlined to provide higher and higher capacities for less.

i think people are more concerned of retailers artificially keeping the prices high even as supply levels out, we have heard stories of the factories returning to full capacity pretty quickly and there seems no shortage anymore but prices havent fallen to anywhere near what they were. whether its a few retailers profiteering or simply trying to get rid of the stock they bought at a high price during the crisis, who knows? but if it lasts much longer it will be interesting to see how other manufacturers take advantage of it.
 
Looking at it, is it not just that the cheap HDDs are all just "intellispeed" aka "slow as hell" drives that you wouldnt buy if you had the choice? I know i'm never getting anything with "intellispeed" on it for myself or anyone else.
 
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