HDD

Since last year's update, there are a few interesting newcomers in the very large HDD section, including 10 TB and 12 TB offerings from Western Digital and Seagate. WD has also just released a 14TB helium SMR (shingled magnetic recording) drive, and we can expect it to be available soon. However, these drives are still expensive, and the most byte-for-buck is still in the 8 TB SMR Seagate, even though it has almost kept its price-point since a year ago.

In documenting the newer drives, it has become increasingly difficult to find information on what technology they use. Product listing often don't mention numbers of platters, helium (or not) or SMR vs. PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording), and not even WD's own technical specification sheets go into detail. Thus, some of it has become guess-work. I'm assuming that all drives at 8 TB and above have to use helium to be able to include more platters. Furthermore, it seems anything beyond 14 TB will need to combine helium and SMR. This is more or less in line with this prediction from 2014, where the next technology stage for the next fives years is Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR).

SSD

SSDs continue to grow in size, however, have moved only a little in price. The 1 TB Samsung EVO basic was €316 last year, and is now €238, or a 25% reduction. Most offerings are at least 10x more expensive per byte than HDD, which has always been the case.

More interestingly, NVM-M.2 based SSDs are becoming more common, and faster. The Samsung EVO 960 is now at 3500 MB/s read and 2100 MB/s write, and the 512 GB version costs €281, or a 2x premium from 2.5" SSDs. Whether they will make a noticeable difference in day-to-day applications is up for discussion.

Flash

Finally, flash cards and drives of all types are also increasing in size, and decreasing somewhat in price. Furthermore, several modules from SanDisk have significantly increased IO speeds, with the Extreme Pro micro SDXC range at 275 MB/s read and 100 MB/s write. And the Extreme Pro CFast series, using the newer CFast standard reaches 525 MB/s read and 450 MB/s write. (However, it is not compatible with the old CF standard).

Media Type Product Capacity Price CHF Price Euros Euros / GB GBs / Euro
HDD-SMR Seagate ARCHIVE HDD 8TB 8000 GB 233.00 199.15 0.02 40.17
HDD Western Digital Blue, 5400 RPM 4TB 4000 GB 120.00 102.56 0.03 39.00
External 3.5 Western Digital My Book 8TB, USB3 8000 GB 249.00 212.82 0.03 37.59
HDD Western Digital Blue, 5400 RPM 6TB 6000 GB 199.00 170.09 0.03 35.28
External 3.5 Western Digital My Book 6TB, USB3 6000 GB 205.00 175.21 0.03 34.24
External 3.5 Western Digital My Book 4TB, USB3 4000 GB 139.00 118.80 0.03 33.67
HDD-He Western Digital Red 8TB 8000 GB 279.00 238.46 0.03 33.55
HDD Western Digital Blue, 5400 RPM 3TB 3000 GB 105.00 89.74 0.03 33.43
HDD Western Digital Red 6TB 6000 GB 215.00 183.76 0.03 32.65
HDD Western Digital Red 4TB 4000 GB 145.00 123.93 0.03 32.28
HDD-He Seagate Enterprise Capacity 12TB 12000 GB 448.00 382.91 0.03 31.34
HDD Western Digital Blue, 5400 RPM 2TB 2000 GB 75.00 64.10 0.03 31.20
HDD Western Digital Red 3TB 3000 GB 115.00 98.29 0.03 30.52
HDD-He Western Digital Red 10TB 10000 GB 385.00 329.06 0.03 30.39
HDD-He Seagate Enterprise Capacity 8TB 8000 GB 320.00 273.50 0.03 29.25
HDD Western Digital Blue, 5400 RPM 5TB 5000 GB 204.00 174.36 0.03 28.68
HDD-He Seagate Barracuda Pro 10TB 10000 GB 410.00 350.43 0.04 28.54
HDD-He Seagate Enterprise Capacity 10TB 10000 GB 411.00 351.28 0.04 28.47
External 2.5 Western Digital Elements Portable 3TB, USB3 3000 GB 125.00 106.84 0.04 28.08
External 2.5 Western Digital Elements Portable 2TB, USB3 2000 GB 85.00 72.65 0.04 27.53
HDD-He Seagate IronWolf Pro 10TB 10000 GB 425.00 363.25 0.04 27.53
External 2.5 Western Digital My Passport Ultra 4TB, USB3 4000 GB 175.00 149.57 0.04 26.74
Blu-ray Verbatim BD-R SL 50 @ 25GB 1250 GB 55.00 47.01 0.04 26.59
HDD-He Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB 12000 GB 529.00 452.14 0.04 26.54
HDD-He Hitachi Ultrastar He8 8TB 8000 GB 362.00 309.40 0.04 25.86
HDD-He Seagate Barracuda Pro 12TB 12000 GB 557.00 476.07 0.04 25.21
HDD Western Digital Red 2TB 2000 GB 94.00 80.34 0.04 24.89
External 2.5 Western Digital My Passport Ultra 3TB, USB3 3000 GB 155.00 132.48 0.04 22.65
HDD Western Digital Blue, 5400 RPM 1TB 1000 GB 55.00 47.01 0.05 21.27
External 2.5 Western Digital Elements Portable 1TB, USB3 1000 GB 65.00 55.56 0.06 18.00
External 2.5 Western Digital My Passport Ultra 1TB, USB3 1000 GB 89.00 76.07 0.08 13.15
Blu-ray Verbatim BD-R SL 10 @ 25GB 250 GB 23.10 19.74 0.08 12.66
Blu-ray Verbatim BD-R DL 10 @ 50GB 500 GB 47.70 40.77 0.08 12.26
DVD-R Verbatim 16x DVD-R 100 @ 4,7GB 470 GB 46.00 39.32 0.08 11.95
DVD+R DL Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL 50 @ 8,5GB 425 GB 81.50 69.66 0.16 6.10
DVD+R DL Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL 25 @ 8,5GB 213 GB 41.00 35.04 0.16 6.06
SSD Samsung SSD 850 EVO Basic, TLC, 1TB 1000 GB 279.00 238.46 0.24 4.19
SSD Crucial MX300 SSD, 3D, 2000GB 2000 GB 579.00 494.87 0.25 4.04
SSD Crucial MX300 SSD, 3D, 1050GB 1050 GB 309.00 264.10 0.25 3.98
SSD Crucial MX300 SSD, 3D, 525GB 525 GB 165.00 141.03 0.27 3.72
USB Flash SanDisk Ultra, USB 3.0, 256GB 256 GB 84.90 72.56 0.28 3.53
SSD Samsung SSD 850 EVO Basic, TLC, 2TB 2000 GB 699.00 597.44 0.30 3.35
SSD Samsung SSD 850 EVO Basic, TLC, 500GB 500 GB 175.00 149.57 0.30 3.34
SSD Crucial MX300 SSD, 3D, 275GB 275 GB 99.00 84.62 0.31 3.25
SSD Samsung SSD 850 EVO Basic, TLC, 4TB 4000 GB 1475.00 1260.68 0.32 3.17
USB Flash SanDisk Ultra, USB 3.0, 64GB 64 GB 24.40 20.85 0.33 3.07
SSD Samsung SSD 850 EVO Basic, TLC, 250GB 250 GB 103.00 88.03 0.35 2.84
USB Flash SanDisk Ultra, USB 3.0, 32B 32 GB 14.60 12.48 0.39 2.56
SSD Samsung SSD 850 Pro, MLC, 1024GB 1024 GB 479.00 409.40 0.40 2.50
SSD Samsung SSD 850 Pro, MLC, 2048GB 2048 GB 969.00 828.21 0.40 2.47
SSD Samsung SSD 850 Pro, MLC, 512GB 512 GB 255.00 217.95 0.43 2.35
CD-R Verbatim CD-R 100 @ 700MB 70 GB 35.70 30.51 0.44 2.29
SSD Samsung SSD 850 Pro, MLC, 256GB 256 GB 145.00 123.93 0.48 2.07
SDXC SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC U3, Class 10/UHS 3 95/90MB/s, 128GB 128 GB 79.60 68.03 0.53 1.88
SDXC SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC U3, Class 10/UHS 3 95/90MB/s, 256GB 256 GB 160.00 136.75 0.53 1.87
SSD-NVM-M.2 Samsung SSD 960 Pro, M.2 2280, MLC, 3500/2100MB/s, 1000GB 1000 GB 629.00 537.61 0.54 1.86
SSD-NVM-M.2 Samsung SSD 960 Pro, M.2 2280, MLC, 3500/2100MB/s, 2000GB 2000 GB 1279.00 1093.16 0.55 1.83
SSD-NVM-M.2 Samsung SSD 960 Pro, M.2 2280, MLC, 3500/2100MB/s, 512GB 512 GB 329.00 281.20 0.55 1.82
SDXC SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC U3, Class 10/UHS 3 95/90MB/s, 64GB 64 GB 47.90 40.94 0.64 1.56
SDXC SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC U3, Class 10/UHS 3 95/90MB/s, 512GB 512 GB 389.00 332.48 0.65 1.54
microSDXC SanDisk Extreme Pro microSDXC, Class 10, 100/90MB/s, 64GB 64 GB 50.10 42.82 0.67 1.49
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme 120MB/s, UDMA 7, 64GB 64 GB 75.00 64.10 1.00 1.00
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme Pro 160MB/s, UDMA 7, 256GB 256 GB 326.00 278.63 1.09 0.92
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme Pro 160MB/s, UDMA 7, 128GB 128 GB 168.00 143.59 1.12 0.89
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme 120MB/s, UDMA 7, 32GB 32 GB 44.00 37.61 1.18 0.85
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme Pro 160MB/s, UDMA 7, 64GB 64 GB 92.70 79.23 1.24 0.81
microSDXC SanDisk Extreme Pro microSDXC, Class 10, 100/275MB/s, 128GB 128 GB 220.00 188.03 1.47 0.68
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme Pro 160MB/s, UDMA 7, 32GB 32 GB 57.20 48.89 1.53 0.65
microSDXC SanDisk Extreme Pro microSDXC, Class 10, 100/275MB/s, 64GB 64 GB 125.00 106.84 1.67 0.60
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme 120MB/s, UDMA 7, 16GB 16 GB 37.00 31.62 1.98 0.51
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme Pro 450MB/s, CFast 2.0, 128GB 128 GB 389.00 332.48 2.60 0.38
Compact Flash SanDisk Extreme Pro 450MB/s, CFast 2.0, 64GB 64 GB 236.00 201.71 3.15 0.32

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