INTERACT FORUM
Devices => PC's and Other Hardware => Topic started by: JimH on April 23, 2013, 10:00:32 am
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(http://www.pix01.com/gallery/8D12431D-7EA0-495D-9EA2-775091458CB9/WD_Ultra-slim_drive/568456825_orig0.jpg)
5mm is a hair over 3/16".
Engadget article:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/23/wd-ships-5mm-blue-ultraslim-drive/
Western Digital source:
http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=800#tab11
Retail $89.
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Capacity and price seem to have peaked. I have watched both carefully for over a year and there has been no price movement down for 3 & 4 TB drives and no sign of bigger ones.
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I wonder if those thin drives will make it easier to make big drives like a 4+ TB?
It's been a little boring on the big drive front recently.
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? Maybe I'm lucky to live in the Netherlands ... ;D
I've been very excited about the pricedrops on 4TB drives. The Price per GB is very close to 2TB and 3TB now which is what I've been waiting for.
https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/297051/seagate-barracuda-720014-st3000dm001-3tb.html
Scroll down to the bottom, look at the graph. Price has come down the past year from about 170 euros to 110.
https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/298077/hitachi-deskstar-5k4000-4tb.html
Scroll down to the graph. Price came down from like 400 to 165.
I agree on the technology side its been quiet for mechanical disks. I guess manufacturers' focus is on SSD's which makes sense.
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I agree, we still have a long way to go with the price of 4TB drives in Australia stuck around $400 so I still get mine at B&H when they come on special around $180 (plus shipping)
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Capacity and price seem to have peaked. I have watched both carefully for over a year and there has been no price movement down for 3 & 4 TB drives and no sign of bigger ones.
This has been very frustrating to me. After the 2011 Thailand floods that caused shortages and prices to jump up - which have only just recovered - there doesn't appear to have been much development going on with HDDs - we have been stuck at 4TB for about 18 months now, and the prices are still high.
Similarly 2.5" HDDs have been stuck around 1TB for what seems to be years now - though some manufacturers are starting to offer 1.5/2TB disks. I know the 2TB disks are actually thicker though and can't fit in most notebooks. I'm not sure if that is also the case with the 1.5TB drives.
I remember reading about some new breakthroughs (such as HAMR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat-assisted_magnetic_recording#Outlook)) that should start increasing density significantly, but nothing seems to have come of it.
In some ways, I wonder if they are intentionally holding back, the way that the mainstream projector industry seems to be avoiding LED/Laser light sources - moving to them eliminates the sale of new lamps, which probably have a good profit margin. Moving to extremely high density drives - even just a factor of 10 - would mean that most consumers would only ever need one or two disks.
In the real world though, the latest thing seems to be moving from 800GB to 1TB platters, which means quieter/more efficient drives, and the top end moving to 5TB - most current drives use 5x800GB. Though we currently we only have 4TB drives announced using this technology.
And it seems that drives using HAMR may start to appear in 2014 - but will only be increasing density by about 50% for now.
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This has been very frustrating to me. After the 2011 Thailand floods that caused shortages and prices to jump up - which have only just recovered - there doesn't appear to have been much development going on with HDDs - we have been stuck at 4TB for about 18 months now, and the prices are still high.
Similarly 2.5" HDDs have been stuck around 1TB for what seems to be years now - though some manufacturers are starting to offer 1.5/2TB disks. I know the 2TB disks are actually thicker though and can't fit in most notebooks. I'm not sure if that is also the case with the 1.5TB drives.
I remember reading about some new breakthroughs (such as HAMR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat-assisted_magnetic_recording#Outlook)) that should start increasing density significantly, but nothing seems to have come of it.
In some ways, I wonder if they are intentionally holding back, the way that the mainstream projector industry seems to be avoiding LED/Laser light sources - moving to them eliminates the sale of new lamps, which probably have a good profit margin. Moving to extremely high density drives - even just a factor of 10 - would mean that most consumers would only ever need one or two disks.
In the real world though, the latest thing seems to be moving from 800GB to 1TB platters, which means quieter/more efficient drives, and the top end moving to 5TB - most current drives use 5x800GB. Though we currently we only have 4TB drives announced using this technology.
And it seems that drives using HAMR may start to appear in 2014 - but will only be increasing density by about 50% for now.
Interesting. Thanks.
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I just picked up 4, Seagate 4TB drives for $170 each from newegg. They have been running in my synology 1512+ in RAID 5 for about 3 weeks now with no issues at all. I know it's not a long time, but that is how long I have had them. Hard to believe my BR movies take up over 4TB.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178338&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL050713&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL050713-_-EMC-050713-Latest-_-InternalHardDrives-_-22178338-L0A