Thoughts on a “HDD shortage” from an industry insider

Post by scientismer » Sat, May 01, 2021, 11:35 PM UTC

shiftpgdn wrote: post #70

scientismer wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't count on the cheap hardware, it may be pretty much broken after endless full power use for mining.

I mined bitcoin, litecoin and later dogecoin on a bunch of workstations in a hot humid garage in Houston, Texas for years straight. I gave one of the workstations to a friend when I retired from mining in 2013 or so. It was still running fine when he retired it last year. Consumer electronics are much more durable than you would imagine.

Post by koofdoof » Sun, May 02, 2021, 12:25 AM UTC

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #94

beervirus wrote: post #21

https://old.reddit.com/r/chia/comments/n2lren/thoughts_on_a_... Fixed link.

Thanks, I can’t view the original on my phone without the app because ‘Reddit can’t verify the community is not 18+’ which is a thinly veiled user hostile move-to-our app play. Shame on them.

Post by andrepd » Sun, May 02, 2021, 12:48 AM UTC

nonameiguess wrote: post #14

hdhrnnrkrkf wrote: post #2

Sample size 1: every 3 months I need to buy a large hard drive (14TB+). I buy external USB ones since they are the cheapest. Since it was due, in the last couple of weeks I was scanning prices in Romania daily, in case I get lucky with a discount. In the last week, prices surged 60-100%, and stock disappeared for 4 TB+. I panicked and after a lot of scanning I managed to buy a slightly smaller one than I needed with…

I just checked my Amazon order history right now. Last time I bought a Samsung Evo Plus 1 TB SSD was last August, 2020, for $189. Price right now if I buy it today is $159. Last HDD I bought was a 12 TB Seagate Ironwolf for $269, in October 2020. Today's price for the same drive is $325. It is out of stock, but says I can get it May 18th.

Post by [deleted] » Sun, May 02, 2021, 12:57 AM UTC

gruez wrote: post #6

Ericson2314 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shortages are good. It's the perfect time to set up manufacturing capability, so nationalists can be happy. It's a good time to push for hire wages, workers should do it. If there is some alternative industrial process, now's the time to try it. This is no 70s oil moment, because there's no indication fewer widgets are being produced than prepandemic.

>It's the perfect time to set up manufacturing capability, so nationalists can be happy. >If there is some alternative industrial process, now's the time to try it. wouldn't this take years? >It's a good time to push for hire wages, workers should do it. This is just speculation on my part, but I suspect hard drive manufacturing is much more labor intensive than capital intensive. Therefore I doubt this will translat…

Post by hdhrnnrkrkf » Sun, May 02, 2021, 1:57 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #106

hdhrnnrkrkf wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure, in 2012 me and a lot of friends switched to SSD because it made the computer so much faster, not because there was a HDD shortage. And the tech press at the time was full of articles about how amazing SSDs are and how everybody should get one.

They were always better, but the price delta narrowed a lot because of HD price increases. If you only had space for 1 drive, you did have to choose between small capacity with high speed vs. High capacity and slower speeds. Plus (real or mythical) reliability issues with new tech.