Barracuda 7200.7 : significantly cheaper than other 7200rpm

[CougTek]

I noticed this drive on my pricelist today (although it's been there for a few days already) and what stroke me was its price compared to other similar offerings. It is 10-15% cheaper than other 2MB cache 7200rpm hard drives. Am I the only one with such a price difference in favor of the new Seagate or is the new fish really cheaper worldwide in the "budget" segment?

 

[blakerwry]

last time I looked you were the only one, maybe I should recheck prices.

 

[Mercutio]

We're starting to see a move to "budget" and "performance" 7200rpm lineups. 5400rpm is dust in mainstream hardware. On the budget end, we have, er, Seagate and Samsung's offerings, the WD BB and the DM8. On the high end, DM9, *JB, and 180GXP.
Fushigi or iGary linked to a Gartner whitepaper some months back detailing this analysis. It has come to pass.

 

[Buck]

In particular, WD has been producing two types of BB drives. One from the normal family, let's say a WD2500BB and then another family with the same performance, but only a single platter and a different family name - usually these weigh less too. So in this case, you would get a 80GB or 40 GB single platter drive.

 

[e_dawg]

Yup. Just last week I noticed my local source selling Cuda V and 7200.7 drives for dirt cheap. The 30 and 40 GB Max DM+8 was even cheaper for a few weeks before that. Certain capacities and models of hard drives have dropped significantly in price over the last month. It has been about 8-10 months since I have seen that much downward movement on HD prices.