HD prices may be going down sooner

4GHZ_or_bust · Nov 19, 2011

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111116PD212.html

Several channel retailers are already preparing to dump their hard drive inventory, which was piled up due to concerns over potential shortages, in December as the imbalance between supply and demand is not as serious as originally expected and the retailers are trying to shed some stock to avoid from being hurt as hard drive capacity will be gradually restored in January and February 2012, according to sources from channel retailers.

Since Japan-based hard drive motor supplier Nidec already announced that one of its plants in Thailand has resumed production, while many other hard drive component suppliers are also aggressively seeking solutions to substitute their lost capacity in Thailand, the sources believe the hard drive shortage issues will see an obvious improvement in January 2012.

Since the hard drive shortages may not be as serious as expected, while demand in the PC market remains weak as pricing has surpassed consumers' sweet spot, several retailers are already set to drop their hard drive prices and dump inventories into retail channel in December.

wingman99 · Nov 19, 2011

That sounds good. :popcorn:

ssjwizard · Nov 19, 2011

If the prices get back to close to normal levels by Feb I will be happy. I wanted to build a NAS before winter but a delay to spring time is reasonable. If it was going to be even longer I would probably just drop this idea completely.

I really hope that this is accurate info, HDD prices have been killing budget builds since this started.

madhatter256 · Nov 19, 2011

*crosses fingers*

Marshmallow64 · Nov 20, 2011

This is great news!

Pinky · Nov 21, 2011

I'm skeptical of course until I see the actual price drops...

My guess is there could be a flush of new hard drives to the general market, but how quickly those are absorbed and how quickly the factories/manufacturing get back to full steam will really determine if it's just a couple week lull only to be followed by another rebound.

Pinky · Nov 21, 2011

My other suspiscion is with a major sale day coming this week there's probably a TON of pressure to get more drives on the market since this has been one of the most common sale items on Black Friday in recent years. No drives = less bait material to get people to shop.

OC101 · Nov 22, 2011

I wasn't aware of the whole price change thing. I almost purchased an external hard drive as extra storage, then I came to realize the price is at "rip off" level when I saw the customer comments mentioned how much they got their drives for... generally 60~70% of the current listed price...and some comments even mentioned the flood in Thailand.

I guess I can wait a little since I am not in a hurry. No point spending more money for the same thing when it can be cheaper.

HankB · Nov 22, 2011

I just posted the same thought (are drive prices dropping?) in one of the many threads in the Storage forum.

I see that Amazon has the WD20EARS for $175 US and Microcenter has it for $150 (in store price.) It's $210 at Newegg.

Pinky · Nov 22, 2011

HankB said:
I see that Amazon has the WD20EARS for $175 US and Microcenter has it for $150 (in store price.) It's $210 at Newegg.

Which is insane considering Best Buy had similar drives on sales 3 weeks ago for $80.

By 'going down', do we mean from $180 to $175?

SteveLord · Nov 24, 2011

Hmmm...Seagate claims production won't get back on track for up to another 12 months.

HD prices may be going down sooner

4GHZ_or_bust

Now 6GHz or Bust!

wingman99

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