Quantcast

cost of hard drives

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
seems like 1TB and 2TB internal drives are more expensive then they were a few months ago, or am i not remembering correctly? did the Thailand rains swamp factories?

and 2TB internals to be had for ~100?
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
seems like 1TB and 2TB internal drives are more expensive then they were a few months ago, or am i not remembering correctly? did the Thailand rains swamp factories?

and 2TB internals to be had for ~100?
Yep. Thailand rains flooded disc factoriees. A lot of different electronics companies took a hit so a raise in prices may be real.
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
Wait a couple of months and the discounts will be back. Be nice if there was also some nice discounts on SSDs, 128gb OK, better 256gb......$100? Tell me I'm dreaming!
 

ucsbMTBmember

Monkey
Nov 20, 2009
137
0
try newegg.com caviar green arent great HDD. im not too happy with my ssd atm either. ive got a 120gb sandforce controlled ssd and the dumb thing crashes all the time.
 

Sghost

Turbo Monkey
Jul 13, 2008
1,038
0
NY
Wait a couple of months and the discounts will be back. Be nice if there was also some nice discounts on SSDs, 128gb OK, better 256gb......$100? Tell me I'm dreaming!
There are some excellent deals on SSDs atm, and coming up from leaked ads. You're dreaming about prices coming down within a few months though!

try newegg.com caviar green arent great HDD. im not too happy with my ssd atm either. ive got a 120gb sandforce controlled ssd and the dumb thing crashes all the time.
Caviar greens are being discontinued due to the slow ass speeds not being worth the pathetic power savings.

Look into updating your firmware. Some fixes have recently rolled out.
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
There are some excellent deals on SSDs atm, and coming up from leaked ads. You're dreaming about prices coming down within a few months though!
I think the weak American dollar is hitting prices more than anything else. I always have quick check of the American sites when I'm getting something and the price difference recently is hardly ever big enough to justify the extra shipping cost. Props though to Amazon for letting you use one account to access all Amazon sites throughout the world. I continue to be amazed however at how many places both here, in the US and in Australia refuse to ship internationally. That first "w" in www stands for world you provincial wankers.
 

ucsbMTBmember

Monkey
Nov 20, 2009
137
0
There are some excellent deals on SSDs atm, and coming up from leaked ads. You're dreaming about prices coming down within a few months though!



Caviar greens are being discontinued due to the slow ass speeds not being worth the pathetic power savings.

Look into updating your firmware. Some fixes have recently rolled out.
The updated firmware hasnt helped for the majority of people, including me. manufacturers are blaming sandforce
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
As a semi related aside regarding solid state drives. I have a netbook that is the tits for travelling because of the form factor and the increasing number of airlines who try to make life easier by putting laptop power in your seat (should be mandatory). Only problem is the hard drive skipping in even light turbulence and as you fly over the tropical convergence zone you can be rattling along for hours. So I thought an ssd would fix that. But in the mean time I have a 32gb HCSD card and I thought if I watch my videos from that card the skipping problem would stop. Anyone see any obvious flaws in my cunning plan? Should work right?
 

JetTeach

Monkey
Aug 18, 2011
511
0
Wait a couple of months and the discounts will be back. Be nice if there was also some nice discounts on SSDs, 128gb OK, better 256gb......$100? Tell me I'm dreaming!
This is what I am waiting for...especially the Crucial M4 SSD drives. I have one coming this week (256GB) that will get a fresh OS install and will replace my primary drive but I would still like more storage space. Fortunately my laptop has two drives so I will still have the other for that purpose.
 
Last edited:

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
bestbuy now has the caviar green for $129...not as good as the previous price, but still the cheapest by a bit.

i am using mine just for redundant storage, not as a system drive.
 

Sghost

Turbo Monkey
Jul 13, 2008
1,038
0
NY
The updated firmware hasnt helped for the majority of people, including me. Everybody is blaming sandforce
ftfy




As a semi related aside regarding solid state drives. I have a netbook that is the tits for travelling because of the form factor and the increasing number of airlines who try to make life easier by putting laptop power in your seat (should be mandatory). Only problem is the hard drive skipping in even light turbulence and as you fly over the tropical convergence zone you can be rattling along for hours. So I thought an ssd would fix that. But in the mean time I have a 32gb HCSD card and I thought if I watch my videos from that card the skipping problem would stop. Anyone see any obvious flaws in my cunning plan? Should work right?
Can get a SSD or do the card. Class 6?

Try putting it on your lap instead of the tray?
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
Can get a SSD or do the card. Class 6?

Try putting it on your lap instead of the tray?
Class 4, I'm cheap. I get a sore neck if I use my lap plus the netbook is small enough that you don't need to worry about people reclining into it when it's on the tray. I've tried the scientific method of playing a video from the card and picking up the computer and shaking it. Seemed to be OK.
Narlus- whisper is prices will come down after Christmas.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
You can try the card but it depends on why your laptop is freezing. Some laptops have drop detection mechanisms that pause the laptop at a system level (spinning down the hard drive, yes, but most stuff should be cached in RAM so that doesn't always explain the lockup that's experienced).

Have you tried shaking it without the card, to see if you can actually duplicate the problem that way?
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
You can try the card but it depends on why your laptop is freezing. Some laptops have drop detection mechanisms that pause the laptop at a system level
My netbook does have this feature so I'm sure that's why the video freezes but good idea to try my highly scientific coaxial disorientation mode when it's playing from the hard drive. {Interlude, cheesy 70's porn music}

Yes was able to reproduce problem therefore SD card solution works. Chalk another win up for the chronically engorged cerebral cortex of one Mr B Visions.

Now BV, theoretically I should be able to boot my computer from the 32gb SD card, in effect bypassing the hard drive and using it for storage only? Is it worth doing, that is would I get the faster boot times an SSD gives even if I'm using a crappy class 4 SD Card?
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
That would work, but probably not worth the hassle since A) the class 4 card is fairly slow, B) you're going to significantly reduce the amount of space available to store movies since you need the OS on it, and C) you're going to end up with some usability issues like having to always have the laptop powered off if you want to move something to the SD card, or not being able to bring a couple SD cards on a long trip to store a bunch of movies, or having to jump through hoops if you want to upgrade the card's size and speed.

For the cost of SSDs now, if you really want the improved speeds and solid state benefits, I'd just buy one. You can augment the size of the drive with the SD card(s).
 

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
I just dumped 8GB of ram in my cheap i3 laptop and I thought about putting in a faster/bigger drive till I saw the recent prices. Guess I'll wait on that one.

What's a good and fast drive in the 500gb range? The laptop will be mostly sitting still (sticking it in the new studio for demo recording)
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
Do you have a clever way to fit that one into an MSI laptop?
:D (wasn't there the first time I read it)

If its a laptop I'd probably get a WD with the highest aural density they sell spinning at 5400 RPM, they'll have nearly the same performance as some 7200 RPM drives with better battery life:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136546

I don't have any experience with the hybrid HDD-SSDs but Seagate has a new version with 750 GB capacity if you want some extra performance at a premium price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148837
 
Last edited:

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
:D

If its a laptop I'd probably get a WD with the highest aural density they sell spinning at 5400 RPM, they'll have nearly the same performance as some 7200 RPM drives with better battery life.

I don't have any experience with the hybrid mech-SSDs but I think Seagate has a new version with 750 GB capacity.
Battery life is meaningless, this will be sitting plugged in most of the time. I want speed.

I'll look into the hybrids when the cost comes down.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
Battery life is meaningless, this will be sitting plugged in most of the time. I want speed.

I'll look into the hybrids when the cost comes down.
If you laptop has eSATA, just buy a eSATA enclosure and desktop drive, will be faster and cheaper than notebook drives. You could even boot off the eSATA drive if you wanted.

Like so only you'd use any 3.5" eSATA enclosure (I have one from rosewill as my backup drive):

 
Last edited:

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
Let me expand on this:

It's a CHEAP laptop. MSI i3, originally 4gb of ram, now 8. It has a slow ass 320gb drive in it. 3 USB ports, one LAN port, and an HDMI, nothing else.

I grabbed a cheap 400/800 firewire ExpressCard adaptor to run some older pro audio gear, like the Presonus Firepod we had lying around.

I've installed Ubuntu Studio 11.04, and so far everything looks nifty. BUT, it's gonna need a bigger/faster drive at some point. Not for overall storage, but for tracking and mixing. Once the sessions are done, they will get dumped/backed up to other discs. (looking at a Drobo set up eventually...)

This will be the secondary system in the studio, the main one being a Mac setup with Protools.