When will we be able to aford mechanical hard drives again

It's not difficult to lower the price by now, I just think the manufacturers don't want to. They first had to get production going again, recoup their losses, and maybe they've seen people are willing to pay a lot so are in no rush to reduce prices.

That said, to echo what others have said earlier, I've seen several reports that prices after April are due to fall. I think with the price per GB of SSDs falling and becoming a more attractive option, they will have no choice but to provide competitive prices.

It's the waiting that's irritating, and I feel fortunate that in August I picked up a 2TB drive not knowing what was about to happen :|

 

dont think they will drop down to what they was before the flood for some time.... and i get why... milking it....

 

I kept holding off on a 3rd F3, always figured I'd have £30 when I really needed one finally managed to get a WD Green on the marketplace for a good price last week. Can't wait to things are back to normal, want to finally get this PC set up properly for editing.

 

i think it will some time yet...

i think it will some time yet... people are paying the price for the hdds. if the price drops it will only be by 15-20 each time...

 

I agree. I think prices will drop gradually as there is probably a back log of demand.

There are probably a lot of people waiting for the prices to fall to whatever price they think is okay. So when prices drop from £80 to £70 more people will start buying and clear out the inventories. Not to mention the lower the price goes, the more oems will start buying again.

In short for each price drop we will see more buyers enter the market. This will clear out inventories and keep prices high - It's only when all the demand back log is gone will we see £50 2tb drives again. My guess is by the end of the year.

 

they way ssd are advancing i would think hdd would be dropping faster than what they are.

 

SSD prices are dropping noticeably on a weekly basis almost, I fail to understand why HDD prices aren't following suit as within 5 years they're all going to be obsolete anyway.

 

There is still a problem with the supply chain probably.

 

how much was a 2TB drive before all this price increase? Is £80 good for a 2TB?

 

I bought 4 WD20EARX drives few weeks before the floods for 71€/piece.

 

It was about £65.

 

I paid £58 for a samsung f4 2tb in april of 2011. I'm still hesitant to buy another drive at £80.

 

I doubt that. I think they are just being greedy tbh. OEM warranties dropped to 1 year on a lot of brands, prices still high, sod them tbh.

 

You can hardly call it greed. They are supplying something that is in demand so of course they are going to keep prices high for a while.

 

The manufacturers need to recoup the money they lost from stopping production during/due to the floods, as soon as they can get the prices down they will do it as it will increase production which is what they want.

It's easier to make money with bulk sales at lower prices than lower sales at higher prices.