HDD prices seem static

Deadly Ferret · 15 Nov 2006 at 15:22

I purchased a 300GB Western Digital SATA in September 2005 for £76. I was thinking of buying another one today, but was stunned to see the price of the closest option, the 320GB, was either £71 or £76 (depending on exact model chosen).

I should clarify that this is prices in general; I am not referring to any one retailer.

smids · 15 Nov 2006 at 15:42

Demand for space is keeping the market static at the moment. I think it has come down in the last year though. I remember 300GB being £85-90 rather than the £65 (yes)-75 for 320GB today. It's a small change but there has been some drop in price, albeit not much.

rpstewart · 15 Nov 2006 at 15:58

I certainly haven't noticed any huge price changes recently but I suppose when 250Gb costs £50 there's not much scope for change.

The growth in P2P apps over recent years has driven a need for large disks but I think it's now at the stage where most folk who want a big drive have one and there doesn't seem to be anything on the horizon which would drive another spurt in capacity requirements. Video on demand will do that but certainly in this country the distribution infrastructure couldn't cope, we've seen ISPs cutting costs and introducing caps & FUPs left right & centre.

Deadly Ferret · 15 Nov 2006 at 16:12

I suppose the average person is happy enough with one large disk, and will delete existing things to create space for new things.

I have a lot of things I'd like to keep around though, so the ~0.5TB available space I have overall is getting stretched rather thin.

Having gotten over the shock, I'll be going ahead with the purchase. At least it's not more than I paid last time.

Perhaps if there are enough hoarders like me showing themselves, prices will come down a little.

squiffy · 15 Nov 2006 at 16:19

I noticed that too, the first 320GB was around £75, bought another about 6 months later and hardly dropped at all. Probably got the receipts around here.