HDD storage costs could continue to plummet

In a world where everything is getting more expensive, and many computing components have hit record highs, there may be some good news coming in the storage world. 

Cloud storage specialist Backblaze reckons that HDD prices are set to plummet even further, which could be good news for the casual user.

Renowned for being less responsive than SSDs, HDDs are also larger and so aren’t as suitable for fitting into the small form factors that customers like. If having access to huge amounts of storage is of importance, though, the best is yet to come.

HDD vs SSD cost

Backblaze reckons that, by 2025, HDD prices will reach a record low of $0.01 per GB, placing the price of a 1TB drive in the region of just $10, and it has plenty of data to back up its prediction.

With purchase records dating back to 2009 (when the company was paying around $0.11 per GB), it has purchased more than a quarter of a million hard drives measuring as high as 16TB, with plans to place orders for 18TB, 20TB, and even 22TB drives as pricing meets Backblaze’s expectations.

It’s also keen to stress that it uses PMR/CMR drives as opposed to SMR drives which can be even cheaper. The tradeoff for using an SMR drive is that it can be significantly slower.

Despite the effects of the pandemic, Backblaze’s figures show a 56% decrease in the cost per GB between 2017 and November 2022. A broader look at the trends show significant drops to prices in earlier years, and while the chart does seem to be levelling off as we head into the mid 2020s, there still appears to be room for further reductions in prices.

While generally more expensive, Trendfocus analysts reckon that SSD prices could halve by mid-2023 (via Tom’s Hardware). Currently, buyers can expect to pay around $0.06-$0.08 per GB, making a 512GB hard drive to be about $30.72-$40.96.

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