Bigger, Cheaper HDDs Taking On Solid State

Micro Center, the provider of PCs and components with both brick-and-mortar and online operations, today is highlighting a 2 TB Hitachi Desktar drive for $129 - a 35 percent discount. How big is the price erosion on HDDs? Consider that two years ago, 1 TB drives were routinely priced at $299.

To be sure, pricing in the PC component arena is often volatile and based on a variety of factors including, for example, a distributor's inventory management needs. But Micro Center's pricing on the higher-capacity Hitachi drives takes place amid the backdrop of a Solid State Drive market that is becoming increasingly crowded and more competitive.

Western Digital is the latest, aggressive entrant into the SSD space, announcing its own line of Solid State desktop storage in capacities of as much as 256 GB. Street pricing on that drive (the WD SiliconEdge Blue) can run upwards of $1,200. However, lower-end and lower-capacity SSDs can be had now for as little as $300 to $400.

We like Solid State Drive technology a lot. In the CRN Test Center lab, we've found them to be fast, cool, quiet and reliable. Even at much lower capacities than HDDs, they're great. Plus, the whole idea of having no moving parts and lasting as much as twice as long before failure as hard disk technology is appealing.

But $129 for 2 TB?

At this rate, sometime in 2010 it will be possible to find 2 TB of desktop storage for under $100. When that moment arrives, the pressure will be on the SSD vendors to speed up their value curve much faster than they had previously planned. That has the potential to take the PC industry in significant, new directions.