Storage Prices

2011 seems to be the year storage prices stopped making sense. At least if only looking from a price / capacity point. You can now get an internal 1 TB disk for 61 Euros. However, add only 8 Euros (or +11.5%) and the capacity increases to 1.5 TB (or 50% more). Doubling the capacity to 2 TB costs only 16 Euros more (76 Euros or +25%). This is the cheapest drive though, in terms of Euros / GB. To go to 3 GB, you'll have to pay 183 Euros. The strange thing is, that the external Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 3TB, USB 3.0/2.0 is cheaper, at 147 Euros.

Some of this can be explained when looking closer. At 61 Euros for 1 TB, it seems WD has hit the bottom of what it costs to produce such a huge drive. The very bottom is at 38 Euros for the 500 GB drive. Furthermore, as Anand explains, the low power WD drives typically use four platters. It means that a 2 TB drive has 4 x 500 GB platters. To reach 3 TB, WD has increased the density to 750 GB per platter. And obviously, since this is still new technology it costs more. However, why the external version is significantly cheaper is still a mystery.

Still on the magnetic media, I've included two external 2.5 drives this time. The advantage with these is that they are USB powered, and thus very easy to transport. Why they 500 GB and 640 GB cost the same, I don't know. At only 53 Euros, the 640 GB version makes it below 0.10 Euro / GB, which is still not bad.

The optical media have not changed at all since October last year. While the SSD is difficult to track, so I've added some more options. Also new this time are a few USB sticks.

Finally, I'd like to come back to the 2 TB drive at only 76.38 Euros. That means every Euro gives you 26.18 GB. In January three years ago, the cheapest drive was the WD 750 GB, at 249 Euros, or only 3.86 GB / Euro. In other words, in January 2011, you get almost seven times more capacity for the same money.

Exchange rate: 1 CHF = 1.282989 Euros.