Hard Drive Prices Increasing...

[Ranger]

Interesting point, but a future console release is definitely still a long way off.

[wmansir]

Aren't those console add-on drive prices already highly inflated? Sony or MS could cut their margin on the add-on for a while then go back to making money like bandits selling near obsolete drives for a premium.

[Drexl]

Originally Posted by wmansir

Aren't those console add-on drive prices already highly inflated? Sony or MS could cut their margin on the add-on for a while then go back to making money like bandits selling near obsolete drives for a premium.

Well, I was assuming that Sony would just let you use a standard 2.5" SATA drive as they did with the PS3. But, it's possible they won't.

[Mordred]

Originally Posted by zyzzle

Yep, it seems my fear 9 months ago that this flood would provide a permanate 'excuse' to price gouge has been realized. Damn greedy bastards! Hopefully it means many more folks will switch over to SSD drives sooner than they otherwise would. I'm looking toward that direction myself.

But, it will be a LONG time before we can get a 3 TB SSD for $69, or before hard drive prices fall to $69 for 3 TB, if ever. Now, to them, it's like asking if gas will ever fall to $2 / gallon again. No way, they say!

I just read my reply to you, and it looks like I might've been wrong. I guess we'll see where prices are in September.

[Ranger]

Some might be interested in these:

Western Digital Resurrects VelociRaptor Hard Drive Line with Beastly 1TB Model
Posted 04/16/2012 at 7:22am | by Paul Lilly
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Back in the day (as in, before solid state drives), Western Digital's VelociRaptor line was the cat's meow in terms of high speed storage. Fast and expensive, VelociRaptors were the tool of choice by power users willing to drop a bit of extra coin for better performance. Flash forward to today and you'll find SSDs are the popular option among power users, but just like billionaire InGen CEO John Hammond brought back dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, Western Digital has injected new DNA into its VelociRaptor line and is now shipping its most capacious mutation to date.

The new VelociRaptor 1TB features a 10,000 RPM spindle speed that remains the fastest of any consumer level hard drive. It also boasts a SATA 6Gbps interface and 64MB cache buffer, and consumes less idle power and uses similar active power as previous generation VelociRaptor models.

"WD is committed to providing customers with the best performing and most reliable SATA hard drives and our WD VelociRaptor family of drives underscores that promise," said Darwin Kauffman, vice president and general manager of WD's enterprise storage. "With ever-increasing demand for greater capacity, the new 1 TB WD VelociRaptor drive delivers the ultimate combination of speed and storage for the power user."

The updated VelociRaptor drives are 2.5 inches and ship in an IcePack enclosure with a 3.5-inch mounting frame and built-in heatsink. WD's 1TB (WD1000DHTZ) is priced at $320, while 500GB (WD5000HHTZ, $210) and 250GB (WD2500HHTZ, $160) models are also available. All three are backed by a 5-year warranty.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new...stly_1tb_model

[Ranger]

So can the new 2.5" VelociRaptor drives be used in laptops?

[X]

I was wondering that myself. You could maybe strip the drive out but the connectors probably won't fit a laptop. And I don't think you'd want to be running on batteries.

[Drexl]

Frankly, for $320, I'd much rather have a SSD and a conventional HDD, even with the HDD at the current inflated price. You could get at least 120GB on solid state and 1TB on a hard disk for that much, or maybe less.

[X]

Originally Posted by Drexl

Frankly, for $320, I'd much rather have a SSD and a conventional HDD, even with the HDD at the current inflated price. You could get at least 120GB on solid state and 1TB on a hard disk for that much, or maybe less.

My standard config for a notebook is a 128 or 256GB SSD and then I have an external 1TB USB-powered drive that I use for big storage.

[zuffy]

Originally Posted by Ranger

So can the new 2.5" VelociRaptor drives be used in laptops?

No because even without the heatsink, the drive is thicker than the laptop standard 9.5mm HDD. Even if you find a laptop that can support the 12.5mm in height, the SATA connectors are not at the standard backplane to fit.

[wmansir]

I'd be curious to know why they didn't just go 3.5" if they weren't going to make them laptop compatible.

[Drexl]

Originally Posted by wmansir

I'd be curious to know why they didn't just go 3.5" if they weren't going to make them laptop compatible.

It's probably the heatsink. If they made the outer case 3.5" it may still need a heatsink around it, which would then make it too big for a standard 3.5" HDD bracket.

[zuffy]

From what I have read, the 10k to 15k rpm HDDs platters are not 3.5" but 2.5-2.6". Also, it would not work in a laptop because the drive requires 12V, not the 5V that is provided in the laptop.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Drexl

Frankly, for $320, I'd much rather have a SSD and a conventional HDD, even with the HDD at the current inflated price. You could get at least 120GB on solid state and 1TB on a hard disk for that much, or maybe less.

Intel's new SSD330 180GB is around $240. That's my next drive.

[fumanstan]

I could see the 1 TB Velociraptor making sense if you need faster mass storage. I wouldn't mind pairing a 256 GB SSD with that drive, rather then a 512 GB SSD for instance

I'm happy with my 256 GB Crucial m4 though.

[Patman]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Intel's new SSD330 180GB is around $240. That's my next drive.

Newegg has it now for $209.99.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Patman

Newegg has it now for $209.99.

Yup, it's $220 Canadian, just bought it. Been waiting for it to go in stock, and then it goes on sale!

[argh923]

180GB for $210?

Just got a 1TB HD for $109 at Walmart. I figured that's as good as prices are gonna get.

[Tracer Bullet]

Originally Posted by abrg923

Just got a 1TB HD for $109 at Walmart. I figured that's as good as prices are gonna get.

Amazon has an external 1TB for $79.

[Patman]

Originally Posted by abrg923

180GB for $210?

Just got a 1TB HD for $109 at Walmart. I figured that's as good as prices are gonna get.

You buy the 180GB SSD for its read/write speed as the OS boot drive. The conventional HD you buy is for its storage capacity.

I also picked up a WD Caviar Black 64MB cache 7200rpm SATA III drive for $119 at Newegg yesterday (not sure if the $20 discount is still in-effect now - it is, for today 4/30/2012 is the last day of the promotion). I wonder how loud this drive really is...

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by abrg923

180GB for $210?

Just got a 1TB HD for $109 at Walmart. I figured that's as good as prices are gonna get.

I do software development on my laptop; SSDs are a godsend when I do things like compile, or even open up Visual Studio. The things I do with my computer are different than what you do (store and watch pron).

[Ranger]

Thought this was a nice deal. Adata 128GB SSD for $79 AR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211602

http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/305686

Anyone see a better deal recently?

[X]

I don't know anything about Adata SSD but I would stick to the best brands, Intel, Samsung (probably tied for 1st place), Crucial and Kingston.

Samsung 128GB has been down to around $100 recently and Intel has had some very good deals.

You don't have to rush to get good prices on these. Prices are plunging.

[X]

Starting 7/9/12, 12:01 am PDT @ Newegg

128gb Samsung 830 series SSD for $90 using coupon EMCYTZT1880

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147163

[X]

Another great deal for a SSD. I have a couple of the 240GB versions of this and they're great.

Kingston HyperX 120GB for $80 using coupon EMCYTZT1951. Today only.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820239045