There may be some good news in store for the storage industry in a world where everything is growing more expensive and the cost of many computing components has reached a record high. Backblaze, a cloud storage expert, predicts that HDD prices will continue to decline, which may be good news for the casual user. HDDs are known for being less responsive than SSDs, and because they are bigger, they are less suitable for the tiny form factors that buyers prefer. But the best is yet to come if having access to a lot of storage is important.
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 at 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 meet Backblaze’s expectations.
HDD vs SSD price:
Backblaze predicts that HDD prices will drop to a record-low of $0.01 per GB by 2025, putting the cost of a 1TB drive in the neighborhood of about $10, and it has a tonne of data to support this claim.
It has purchased more than a quarter of a million hard drives up to 16TB, with plans to order 18TB, 20TB, and even 22TB drives as soon as pricing matches the estimates of Backblaze. Purchase records go back to 2009 (when the firm was paying about $0.11 per GB).
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 a significant drop in 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.
It also makes a point of using PMR/CMR drives rather than SMR drives, which can be even less expensive. Using an SMR drive can result in drastically decreased performance as a trade-off.
Despite the pandemic’s consequences, Backblaze’s data indicates a 56% drop in the price per GB between 2017 and November 2022. While the chart does appear to be levelling off as we approach the middle of the 2020s, a larger analysis of the trends reveals considerable price cuts in previous years, suggesting that there is still room for more price drops.
Although SSD prices are often higher, Trend-focus analysts predict the prices could halve by mid-2023. At the moment, consumers may anticipate paying between $0.06 and $0.08 per GB, which makes a 512GB hard disc cost between $30.72 and $40.96.