IDE storage prices tumbling?

I have not been keeping a close watch on the price of IDE hard disks here in
the UK but I took a look at prices recently and they seem to have fallen a
lot.

I know it's all "faster and cheaper" with a lot of computer equipment but it
seems that HDDs have really taken a big drop.

I am looking at paying no more than £60 (about $105) for a 160 GB hard drive
from a reputable manufacturer (WD, Seagate, Samsung) including all taxes.

Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?

Davis Rorgh wrote:

I have not been keeping a close watch on the price of IDE hard disks here
in the UK but I took a look at prices recently and they seem to have
fallen a lot.

I know it's all "faster and cheaper" with a lot of computer equipment but
it seems that HDDs have really taken a big drop.

I am looking at paying no more than £60 (about $105) for a 160 GB hard
drive from a reputable manufacturer (WD, Seagate, Samsung) including all
taxes.

Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?

I think it's due to the slow introduction of newer drives at the high end of
the market.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

In article , says...
I have not been keeping a close watch on the price of IDE hard disks here=
in=20
the UK but I took a look at prices recently and they seem to have fallen =
a=20
lot.
=20
I know it's all "faster and cheaper" with a lot of computer equipment but=
it=20
seems that HDDs have really taken a big drop.
=20
I am looking at paying no more than =A360 (about $105) for a 160 GB hard =
drive=20
from a reputable manufacturer (WD, Seagate, Samsung) including all taxes.
=20
Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?
=20
Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?

There are many factors. Part of it is that computer sales didn't rise=20
quite as much as forcast, so there is a bit of oversupply. Also, the=20
shrinking number, but much bigger, computer system manufacturers (Dell,=20
HP, etc..) are putting more and more pressure on the drive manufacturers=20
to cut costs.

--=20
If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the=20
law!!
http://home.att.net/~andyross

I think it's a combination of things: bigger format drives coming out,
changes in manufacturing process, competition etc.

There are some new IDE drives coming out now with 16mb cache and 400Gb
storage (eg. Barracuda 7200.8). Guess the "smaller" 160Gb will be
cheaper \o/.

Imagine taking a backup of a 400Gb HD. hmm.

Davis Rorgh wrote, On 17.09.2004 12:59:
I have not been keeping a close watch on the price of IDE hard disks here in
the UK but I took a look at prices recently and they seem to have fallen a
lot.

I know it's all "faster and cheaper" with a lot of computer equipment but it
seems that HDDs have really taken a big drop.

I am looking at paying no more than £60 (about $105) for a 160 GB hard drive
from a reputable manufacturer (WD, Seagate, Samsung) including all taxes.

Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?

Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?

They were holding at about $1 per GB for a while (little more for smaller
drives), and recently look to be about $0.80 per GB. SATA could be part of
the reason, but even SATA drives went down recently too.

My only complaint about the bigger drives is they don't offer much advantage
in speed. The fact that going from 7200 to 10000 RPM (about a 50% increase
in speed) doubles your sales price is an indication that they've hit a wall.
I don't know what to expect but unless they can up the bus speed (SATA 300
or even 600) and have every drive contain an internal RAID or something
there's not much reason to buy new hard drives these days.

Actually it seems like a lot of component technology is hitting the wall
these days. One exception I think is flash drives. They're up to 2 GB now
(maybe 4 GB). That's pretty impressive considering that 6 years ago you
were lucky if your internal hard drive was that size.

David Besack wrote:
Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?


They were holding at about $1 per GB for a while (little more for smaller
drives), and recently look to be about $0.80 per GB.

Is that Australian dollars? Lately Fry's seems routinely to have drives
in the U.S. 50 cents/GB ballpark, often without rebates.

SATA could be part of
the reason, but even SATA drives went down recently too.

My only complaint about the bigger drives is they don't offer much advantage
in speed. The fact that going from 7200 to 10000 RPM (about a 50% increase
in speed) doubles your sales price is an indication that they've hit a wall.
I don't know what to expect but unless they can up the bus speed (SATA 300
or even 600) and have every drive contain an internal RAID or something
there's not much reason to buy new hard drives these days.

Actually it seems like a lot of component technology is hitting the wall
these days. One exception I think is flash drives. They're up to 2 GB now
(maybe 4 GB). That's pretty impressive considering that 6 years ago you
were lucky if your internal hard drive was that size.




--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

"Davis Rorgh" wrote in message
...
I have not been keeping a close watch on the price of IDE hard disks here
in
the UK but I took a look at prices recently and they seem to have fallen a
lot.

I know it's all "faster and cheaper" with a lot of computer equipment but
it
seems that HDDs have really taken a big drop.

I am looking at paying no more than £60 (about $105) for a 160 GB hard
drive
from a reputable manufacturer (WD, Seagate, Samsung) including all taxes.

Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?

Have you noticed the 40Gb hdd's are getting more difficult to find at the
big box stores and have almost doubled in price to ~$80 USD.

I agree with a comment in the thread - flash memory appears destined to take
over for 5 Gb applications.

David Besack wrote:

My only complaint about the bigger drives is they don't offer much advantage
in speed. The fact that going from 7200 to 10000 RPM (about a 50% increase
in speed) doubles your sales price is an indication that they've hit a wall.
I don't know what to expect but unless they can up the bus speed (SATA 300
or even 600) and have every drive contain an internal RAID or something
there's not much reason to buy new hard drives these days.

Increasing the bus speed isn't useful for a single drive. The fastest
drives in existence barely peak at 100Mb/sec, AFAIR. The bus speed
business is more marketing hype than anything else.

The phrase "internal RAID" is something of an oxymoron. The "A" in RAID
stands for "array" so obviously you've got a collection of disks. The
only form of RAID that theoretically delivers significant performance
improvements is the striped variant, and you pay the price of losing a
lot more data if one drive fails.

Actually it seems like a lot of component technology is hitting the wall
these days. One exception I think is flash drives. They're up to 2 GB now
(maybe 4 GB). That's pretty impressive considering that 6 years ago you
were lucky if your internal hard drive was that size.

It's a question of focus. Hard drives being sold in mass-produced
consumer desktop machines are being sold on size and low price, not on
performance. Disks that are tuned for optimal performance tend to be
sought only by enthusiasts or those building high-end
workstations/low-end servers, thus they are more specialized and more
expensive.

--

GWC

"David Besack" wrote in message
Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?

They were holding at about $1 per GB for a while (little more for smaller
drives), and recently look to be about $0.80 per GB. SATA could be part of
the reason, but even SATA drives went down recently too.

My only complaint about the bigger drives is they don't offer much advantage
in speed. The fact that going from 7200 to 10000 RPM (about a 50% increase
in speed) doubles your sales price is an indication that they've hit a wall.
I don't know what to expect but unless they can up the bus speed (SATA 300
or even 600) and have every drive contain an internal RAID or something
there's not much reason to buy new hard drives these days.

Actually it seems like a lot of component technology is hitting the wall
these days. One exception I think is flash drives. They're up to 2 GB now
(maybe 4 GB).

That's pretty impressive considering that 6 years ago you
were lucky if your internal hard drive was that size.

Try 9-10 years back.

In article , says...
David Besack wrote:
Have IDE HDD prices fallen more than normal?

Is this because of theintroduction of SATA?


They were holding at about $1 per GB for a while (little more for smaller
drives), and recently look to be about $0.80 per GB.

Is that Australian dollars? Lately Fry's seems routinely to have drives
in the U.S. 50 cents/GB ballpark, often without rebates.

I just bought a 120G Seagate ST3120026A (8M buffer) from Best Buy.
Price is US$109.99, but there is $50 in rebates. That gives about
$0.50/G.

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If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law!!
http://home.att.net/~andyross