New Hitachi 3 TB, 5400 RPM Drive - $129.99!!!

[SSD]

Although you cannot use the full capacity with unRAID right now, you can downsize these to 2.2T and use them, with plan to restore them to their full capacity when unRAID supports the larger disks.  Look HERE.

 

Hitachi 3 TB Drive

[aiden]

Although you cannot use the full capacity with unRAID right now, you can downsize these to 2.2T and use them, with plan to restore them to their full capacity when unRAID supports the larger disks.  Look HERE.

Am I missing something?  Where is it on sale?

[SSD]

Although you cannot use the full capacity with unRAID right now, you can downsize these to 2.2T and use them, with plan to restore them to their full capacity when unRAID supports the larger disks.  Look HERE.

Am I missing something?  Where is it on sale?

 

Link to the product added to OP!

[kenoka]

Meh. With 2TB drives consistently going on sale for about $70, I think I'll wait. Heck, I still have 1TB and 1.5TB drives in my rig.

[Joe L.]

Meh. With 2TB drives consistently going on sale for about $70, I think I'll wait. Heck, I still have 1TB and 1.5TB drives in my rig.

$70 = $35 per TB

$149 = $50 Per TB

 

The price differential is not that big .

[dgaschk]

It's priced at $130.

[S80_UK]

It is now.  It changed in the last 6 or 7 hours.

[toby9999]

 

<sarcasm>Dear NewEgg, there IS in fact life beyond USA borders (you know, like 6,000,000,000+ !!!).  It's ok to worry about those nasty nigerian scammers stealing from you, but seriously, 99%+ of us "foreigners" are honest, hard-working, law-abiding citizens of our respective countries, who would happily pay you in advance with 100% cleared funds using any method of your choosing, so that we might participate in these wonderful types of bargains you enjoy ($130 for one of these hdds - amazing).</sarcasm>

 

*sigh*

 

Sucks living in Australia sometimes ... if they shipped internationally I'd seriously consider buying a bunch of these for myself and my friends (could even ebay some of them locally to cover my costs).

[SSD]

OP updated with new price. This is comparable to a 2T drive priced at $87.

 

With Hitachi going away in a few months, I wonder if this was a short production run that they are trying to sell off fast  I don't see this drive for sale anywhere else.

[S80_UK]

 

<sarcasm>Dear NewEgg, there IS in fact life beyond USA borders (you know, like 6,000,000,000+ !!!).  It's ok to worry about those nasty nigerian scammers stealing from you, but seriously, 99%+ of us "foreigners" are honest, hard-working, law-abiding citizens of our respective countries, who would happily pay you in advance with 100% cleared funds using any method of your choosing, so that we might participate in these wonderful types of bargains you enjoy ($130 for one of these hdds - amazing).</sarcasm>

 

*sigh*

 

Agree entirely.  We have a couple of resonably good suppliers here in the UK, but every time I see something on Newegg the prices make me want to cry.  Of course, our local taxes and import duty would erode many of the benefits.

 

Sucks living in Australia sometimes ...

 

I sympathize... 

[mcs]

Sucks living in Australia sometimes ... if they shipped internationally I'd seriously consider buying a bunch of these for myself and my friends (could even ebay some of them locally to cover my costs).

 

You could give www.priceusa.com.au a go. 

I have used them to ship products from newegg to Australia.

[toby9999]

@bjp999 - you know, after posting my message I had a really good look around the net for alternate suppliers of this deal but only newegg has it and I had come to the same conclusion that it's probably some sort of sell-off (of the hdds) prior to the sell-off (of the company) ... sorry lame joke   But hey, sell-off = bargain hdds = good for folks like us!

 

@S80_UK - I've heard the UK taxes etc are even worse than here in OZ ... time for me to shop around for a better country maybe haha

 

@mcs - yes, yes, yes!  I just found them and read their entire website and a bunch of postings over on whirlpool talking about them ... definitely a solution to my problem.  They charge a small 5% fee and your stuff is delivered to your door.  Returns and Rebates are even handled for you by their USA person.  Pretty awesome service.  And if they try to scam you (highly unlikely) they are local so you can sue them or call the police.

 

@newegg - why oh why is there a 5 hdds per customer limit?  I'm greedy and seriously was thinking of buying 50 of them!  Oh yeah, the limit is there to stop greedy people!! haha

 

[abq-pete]

If you have a Fry's Electronics near you, they also have it for $129.99 (in their new sales ad).  It looks like a retail box version.  The PLU# is 6554803.

 

Regards,  Peter

[hklt]

unRAID still doesn't support 3TB drives, right? As in, we can't make use of all 3TB?

[Rajahal]

Right.  See the link in the first post in this thread which describes how to short-stroke these drives to 2.2 TB and make them usable with unRAID.

[toby9999]

@abq-pete ... unfortunately there aren't any frys in australia, but!, they ship internationally so that's great!  However when I search on that pl# code, it shows a boxed unit with a $159.99 price, not $129.99 ... how would I get the sales ad price?

[Rajahal]

Fry's ads only work in-store, unfortunately.  I believe that Fry's stores and their online presence are actually two different companies, so the prices are often different.

[toby9999]

oh well, guess all paths have led to a dead-end, but at least I've found a method of getting stuff to australia when the reseller doesn't ship internationally (www.priceusa.com.au).

 

also, with my research, I'm getting the clear impression that hdd prices are starting to (maybe quickly) move downward ... so it may not be long before I can buy 3TB hdds very cheaply here in australia, or 2TB hdds very very cheaply.  think I'll play the wait-and-see game for a few months -- also need to wait for unraid >2TB support anyway.

 

Thanks guys.

[SSD]

Newegg price back to $149.

[aaronwt]

Meh. With 2TB drives consistently going on sale for about $70, I think I'll wait. Heck, I still have 1TB and 1.5TB drives in my rig.

$70 = $35 per TB

$149 = $50 Per TB

 

The price differential is not that big .

 

43% more is a big increase. Still that's an amazing price at $150 for a 3TB drive. I paid twice that much for 250GB drives in the early 2000's and also for a MB drive in the early 90's.

 

It's amazing how much storage you can get now. And 4TB drives are right around the corner.  

[SSD]

Meh. With 2TB drives consistently going on sale for about $70, I think I'll wait. Heck, I still have 1TB and 1.5TB drives in my rig.

$70 = $35 per TB

$149 = $50 Per TB

 

The price differential is not that big .

 

43% more is a big increase. Still that's an amazing price at $150 for a 3TB drive. I paid twice that much for 250GB drives in the early 2000's and also for a MB drive in the early 90's.

 

It's amazing how much storage you can get now. And 4TB drives are right around the corner.  

 

Having gone through a couple of "replace all my drives" cycles, as the new drives got so much bigger that the old ones weren't worth keeping in the array, I feel it is worth investing in higher density drives when the premium gets reasonable.  Whle $ / gig is certainly a reasonable way to look at a purchase decision, you also need to look at it from the perspective of how long are you going to keep the drive.  If the 3T stay in the array a year longer than the 2T, than that has a value as well.

 

Also, you need to think of the cost of the slots and controller ports.  Making each one go 50% further has a value as well.

 

Finally, the recent Hitachi products have been absolutely rock solid (good, fast, cheap - pick all three ).  Really sorry to see them go.  I'm willing to pay a premium to get them while I still can.

 

Just my perspective.

[toby9999]

@bjp999 yes that was my thinking also ... since there is little advantage to having more physical hdds with unraid (because it's not striping the data, so there's no performance benefit), it's more about increasing capacity so going from 2TBs to 3TBs = +50% capacity with same number of hdds, so less physical space, possibly less heat/power (depending on the specs of the 2TBs vs 3TBs), fewer drive cages, fewer cases etc etc.  Cheers Toby.

[MortenSchmidt]

Meh. With 2TB drives consistently going on sale for about $70, I think I'll wait. Heck, I still have 1TB and 1.5TB drives in my rig.

$70 = $35 per TB

$149 = $50 Per TB

 

The price differential is not that big .

 

43% more is a big increase. Still that's an amazing price at $150 for a 3TB drive. I paid twice that much for 250GB drives in the early 2000's and also for a MB drive in the early 90's.

 

It's amazing how much storage you can get now. And 4TB drives are right around the corner.  

 

Having gone through a couple of "replace all my drives" cycles, as the new drives got so much bigger that the old ones weren't worth keeping in the array, I feel it is worth investing in higher density drives when the premium gets reasonable.  Whle $ / gig is certainly a reasonable way to look at a purchase decision, you also need to look at it from the perspective of how long are you going to keep the drive.  If the 3T stay in the array a year longer than the 2T, than that has a value as well.

 

Also, you need to think of the cost of the slots and controller ports.  Making each one go 50% further has a value as well.

 

Finally, the recent Hitachi products have been absolutely rock solid (good, fast, cheap - pick all three ).  Really sorry to see them go.  I'm willing to pay a premium to get them while I still can.

 

Just my perspective.

 

True, if the 3TB drives end up staying in the array longer, it has value. It will however also mean there will be less benefit in upgrading to larger drives next time you do want to upgrade to, say, 4TB drives.

 

What it comes down to in the short run is you will need to purchase two to see any benefit. One for parity and one for data.

 

I have sketched out 3 scenarios, all assuming a 2TB parity drive is in use (feel free to add your own your own or expand them to purchasing more than 2 3TB disks):

 

A) You have 2 empty drive slots and want to add a 3TB drive. You are out 2 x 129 = 258 as you need to upgrade your parity before you can add anything larger than the existing parity drive. Array expands by 2 + 2.2TB = 4.4TB including the old parity drive (58.6$/TB) in the short run. In the long run when unraid learns to support more than 2.2TB, and after You recalculate your parity (again) and recover the new data disk to it's 3TB size (leaving your array unprotected a total of 2 times minimum including the first time you replace your parity to 2.2TB), you will have gained 5TB (reducing your cost per TB to 51.6$/TB).

 

B) You are upgrading an array with all 2TB drives. You are out 2 x 129 = 258 as you need to upgrade your parity before you can add anything larger than the existing parity drive. Array expands by 0.2TB (1290$/TB) in the short run. In the long run when unraid learns to support more than 2.2TB, and after You recalculate your parity (again) and recover the new data disk to it's 3TB size (leaving your array unprotected a total of 3 times minimum including the first time you replace your parity to 2.2TB), you will have gained 1TB (reducing your cost per TB to 258$/TB). With this scenario, 2 2TB drives also come out of the array that you may or may not have a good use for.

 

C) You are upgrading a 1TB drive with the new a 3TB drive. You are out 2 x 129 = 258 as you need to upgrade your parity before you can add anything larger than the existing parity drive. Array expands to 1.2TB (215$/TB) in the short run. In the long run when unraid learns to support more than 2.2TB, and after You recalculate your parity (again) and recover the new data disk to it's 3TB size (leaving your array unprotected a total of 3 times minimum including the first time you replace your parity to 2.2TB), you will have gained 2TB (reducing your cost per TB to 258$/TB). With this scenario, a 1TB and a 2TB drive also come out of the array that you may or may not have a good use for.

 

In common to all 3: Keep in mind 3TB prices may have come down by the time unraid does support 3TB drives. If you can wait that should do you good.

 

Of course, sticking with 2TB will be a lot cheaper:

(a 2TB drive price of $75 is assumed here, if you get em cheaper, it will be even more advantageous).

 

D) If you are adding a single 2TB drive, 37.5$/TB (27% lower cost per TB compared to scenario A's long-term cost). Plus you don't have to leave your array unprotected for even a minute. And you can expand a single disk at a time (you are only out $75).

 

E) If you are upgrading a 1TB drive, 75$/TB (71% lower cost per TB compared to scenario C's long-term cost). Plus you only have to leave the array unprotected one time.

 

Bottom line, I'd say unless you are already at full capacity and can't add either controllers or bays (and absolutely absolutely need to upgrade NOW), 3TB disks don't make a lot of sense at this point. The price premium is simply too great unless you add more than 2 3TB drives (you do the math) or factor in that subsequent expansions can be done with lower priced 2TB drives (in which case it would still be preferable to wait for price drops before plunging if at all possible). Or of course if you have a really good use for old 2TB drives outside of unraid.

 

[SSD]

...

 

Every time you buy a 2T drive, you are reducing the possible expansion of your array by 1T.  As your math shows, replacing an existing disk is the most expensive storage you can buy.  (Replacing a 2T drive with a 3T drive costs $150/T, even a more sensible replacing of a 750G drive with a 3T drive costs $66/T).  The best option - don't run out of slots until you are ready to retire the old drives anyway.  If you will not run out of slots in the forseeable future using 2T drives, and you don't need storage, there is no overwhelming reason to buy drives now.  But it you need storage and forsee slot or port shortages with your case and motherboard, it is smarter to spend more for larger drives now, than look at even more expensive replacement options 1-2 years from now.

 

Disk prices have been steadily falling over the past decades, and purchasing a bunch of drives right now is not necessary.  This long term trend will likely continue.  4T drives are coming relatively soon.  Maybe for you and others it is better to wait.  But I see Hitachi leaving the market as a big negative for us.  They have been the best consumer drives (my opinion) and lowest prices for the past year or more, pushing other vendors to compete on price.  As the WD / Hitachi merger drawn nearer, I would not be surprised to see prices continue to increase (in the short term) as they have been of late (when was the last time you saw a 2T EARS for $69, and shell shocked for $59 w/out rebates).  After Hitachi is gone, we may see a sudden increase.  And with gas pricing heading north, and Japan issues, there is more pressure on increased prices.  

 

With Hitachi goes what is left.  Seagates and their performance issues and buggy firmware (we don't even know what firmware to run anymore), Samsungs with their poor QA (recent firmware fiasco) and very limited offerings, and the WDs with the LCC issues / tendency to lock up requiring a hard boot.  No, there are no great options that I am seeing.

 

I still feel that for $129 / 3T, these Hitachi's were a great buy.  Mine are preclearing as we speak.  YMMV

[MortenSchmidt]

As i said, I see how some people could be forced into 3TB now - but I looked up your rig from your signature and if the description is still accurate, I really don't understand why you would bother. I would rather invest in more SATA ports (and PSU if needed), even if it means bolting drives directly to chassis parts    Or just upgrade the 500GB drives with 2TB's. But to each his own!

 

I do think You would be hard pressed to set up a favorable economic calculation on the 3TB drives, even with the above 69$ prices the 2TB's go for these days (I just paid 75 CDN plus shipping). Don't feel like you have to - I'm just say'n.