HDD Prices SkyRocketing

Worst flooding at Thailand in over 50 years made the HDD prices skyrocketing wildly. PC makers face the very real possibility of running out of hard drives, and they're reportedly turning to the gray market to secure supply.

Here's how the Newegg pricing of a handful of popular desktop drives has changed since the beginning of October:


Some drives have been impacted more than others, the overall trend is clear. We're looking at price increases in the 80-190% range, with the uptick beginning around the middle of last month.

Those results only cover 3.5" desktop drives, but 2.5" mobile models are similarly afflicted. In fact, they may be in an even more precarious position as notebook makers scramble to ensure they have enough drives to put into systems.

The Reuters news agency reports that Asus only has enough mechanical hard drives in its inventory to last through this month.

The supply problems are expected to persist through the current quarter, which means we could see prices climb even higher in the coming months.