Flooding in Thailand has blocked the production of hard disks and many retailers that have been forced to raise the price of products due to supply reduction. In some cases, however, there has been a real speculation , since the increasing has also affected the disks already in stock. The well-known online store Newegg has created a tool to monitor the progress of prices in recent months.
As you can see from the chart , the price of a hard drive Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7,200 rpm (model ST31000524AS) is tripled, from $ 49.99 (6 August 2011) to $ 149.99 (19 November 2011) . A quick search on Google Shopping shows that in Italy the minimum price is about $ 100.
For a Western Digital RE4 1TB 7,200 rpm (model WD1003FBYX) the price rose from $ 107.99 (September 6, 2011) to $ 249.99 (11 November 2011). In Italy, the same disc can be purchased at about $ 200, a very high value even if it is an enterprise-class product.
Finally, a Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 7200 RPM (model HDS721010DLE630) costs $ 149.99 (October 29, 2011), only $ 85 more than the $ 64.99 previously requested, but the increasing has been in just the vertical 23 days. In Italy the price is around 150 euros.
The production is expected to resume at full capacity until early 2012. Until then it is the best to avoid buying expensive, except in cases of emergency.
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