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General discussion (archive)Interrogation About Price Changes For External Hard Drives(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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Posted December 26, 2011
k, I never purchased an external hard drive before and am now thinking about getting a new one.

As such, I don't really have a price reference, but was told that the prices increased drastically due to the floods in Thailand.

It's not an urgent purchase (could wait a couple of months if needed be), but boxing day sales are in a few hours and I saw sales up to 30% of the listed price so that is certainly worth some consideration.

At this point, I'm wondering how much of a price drop I can expect if I simply wait out the shortage and buy it at non-boxing day regular price then.

Anyone has a clue?
This question / problem has been solved by DodoGeoimage
Posted December 26, 2011
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Magnitus: k, I never purchased an external hard drive before and am now thinking about getting a new one.

As such, I don't really have a price reference, but was told that the prices increased drastically due to the floods in Thailand.

It's not an urgent purchase (could wait a couple of months if needed be), but boxing day sales are in a few hours and I saw sales up to 30% of the listed price so that is certainly worth some consideration.

At this point, I'm wondering how much of a price drop I can expect if I simply wait out the shortage and buy it at non-boxing day regular price then.

Anyone has a clue?
If you must buy buy an external one and convert it into an internal one. Externals are still somewhat cheaper than internals of the same size for some manufacturers.
Posted December 26, 2011
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GameRager: If you must buy buy an external one and convert it into an internal one. Externals are still somewhat cheaper than internals of the same size for some manufacturers.
Huh? I thought it was the other way around? I usually see crappy HDs with crappy enclosures sold at premium just because they're listed as "external hard drives". Or I may be nuts, I dunno. I've always bought better-rated internals and stuck them in external enclosures.

A quick look at newegg suggests hard drive prices are still 50%-100% higher than they were before things went boom, differing across brands and specific models. To give you some idea, 1TB 7200rpm drives were $60-$90ish.
Posted December 26, 2011
The price increase in some countries has been over 120% prices finally started to drop last week but they are still up almost 100%...
Posted December 26, 2011
Well it's the worst time to buy an HDD. If you can wait for the manufacturers to recoup from the floods.
When the production starts again they should return to normal.

Normal prices should be 50% of the current ones, so your 30% off on a sale isn't much in the situation the market is now.

Why?
If you are not informed:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2011/12/14/thailand-floods-send-hard-drive-prices-soaring/suB0pqJADEMYtbepUgBVpM/story.html
Post edited December 26, 2011 by DodoGeo
Posted December 26, 2011
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GameRager: If you must buy buy an external one and convert it into an internal one. Externals are still somewhat cheaper than internals of the same size for some manufacturers.
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grape1829: Huh? I thought it was the other way around? I usually see crappy HDs with crappy enclosures sold at premium just because they're listed as "external hard drives". Or I may be nuts, I dunno. I've always bought better-rated internals and stuck them in external enclosures.

A quick look at newegg suggests hard drive prices are still 50%-100% higher than they were before things went boom, differing across brands and specific models. To give you some idea, 1TB 7200rpm drives were $60-$90ish.
While the prices are up externals are actually cheaper now than internals in some brands.
Posted December 26, 2011
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GameRager: While the prices are up externals are actually cheaper now than internals in some brands.
Ahhh, OK, I see it. My bad. I didn't realize the prices had switched places. 3TB for $180ish really isn't bad at all, unless I guess you get stuck with a 5400rpm one. :)
Posted December 26, 2011
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GameRager: While the prices are up externals are actually cheaper now than internals in some brands.
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grape1829: Ahhh, OK, I see it. My bad. I didn't realize the prices had switched places. 3TB for $180ish really isn't bad at all, unless I guess you get stuck with a 5400rpm one. :)
Yup...and some people are just ripping the guts out of the externals and putting them into their cases as internals to save cash since prices on internals are so high.
Posted December 26, 2011
Thanks for all the feedback guys. Shame I could only give the solution to one person.

I decided to wait it out after all.

Prices looked almost reasonable for some of the externals, but a closer look and a bit of research indicated that they are older technologies that stores want to get rid of (meaning it should have been dirt cheap, not reasonably priced).
Post edited December 26, 2011 by Magnitus
Posted December 26, 2011
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Magnitus:
You might still be able to get good deals in brick and mortar stores. I almost grabbed another WD Elements 2TB External at Target for $89 a couple weeks ago. It runs at 7200 RPM, but uses USB 2. I don't have a computer with USB 3 and can't upgrade any time soon, so that doesn't matter much for me. I kind of regret not getting it because I don't think they're going to restock those any more.
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General discussion (archive)Interrogation About Price Changes For External Hard Drives(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
(10 posts)solved