[SOLVED] Why have HDD prices stagnated for the last 5 years?

[EvilHamster]

Hi all,

I was just browsing my Amazon search history, when I saw that I had bought a 3TB HDD (7200RPM) for £81 in 2014! (and that was NOT a sale!). Now, the cheapest 3TB HDD (7200 RPM) was like £70. Sure, the pound took a pounding in 2015/16, but not this much... a pricedrop of like 40% (with inflation) in 5 years seems amazing. It used to be, that prices fell like that much in 1-2 years.

What is the reason? Is is likely/expected that prices will drop again anytime soon, or is this stagnation something to get used to, like CPU performance not (barely) increasing for the last 10-15 years.

Cheers.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

It costs money to make an accurate mechanical device and there was no real way to make this cheaper by a lot.
there also is a minimum cost per drive, no matter the size. You need metal casing, ports, shipping etc. Costs the same for a 2MB, or a 6TB drive.

I also assume some production capacity was shut due to less demand (due to SSD).

SSD, on the other hand, benefited from smaller cells, 3D cells etc. So a given amount of silicon gives many more MB now than years ago.

 

[King_V]

Maybe that specific model is no longer available, and it's third party sellers keeping slightly inflated prices? For example, I've seen new GTX 1050Ti cards, at minimum, selling for equal to, and often more than, the better performing GTX 1650.

Maybe it's the pandemic screwing with supply chains?

And, as @HerrKaLeu mentioned - the physical/mechanical components have a cost that can't be avoided, regardless of whether the HDD is 500GB or 8TB or anything in between.

 

[EvilHamster]

I understand the whole "minimum cost", but that is closer to like £20 than £70, as you can fund like 500 GB drives for that.

Also, if it was about minimum costs, you could find like 8TB drives for about £80, as you could buy 750 GB drives for that in 2008. (i.e., 6 years before I bought the 3TB drive for about that). I am just saying that, the prices have remained surprisingly stagnant.