Terabyte update 2023

[ChrisGreaves]

Ask Woody's Free edition can be read here.

Will Fastie writes "There are several important trend lines this year."

NL-2023-06-26-fastie-fig-2.png (29.11 KiB) Viewed 8223 times

Too, he has words of wisdom/advice for buying HDD and SDD.

My first hard drive (1985) was 40MB and cost, I think, $400.

Cheers, Chris

[therube]

So he used GB, I suppose, cause he also has SD & RAM in the chart, which kind of makes sense.

But in doing so, for the HDD/SSD you see .03 .04 .05 .06 & you (say to yourself) "oh, they're all about the same", when in reality they're not.

I track $/TB (for HDD/SSD).


As far as the lower capacity, 1 TB (HDD) drives, they can be priced higher (relative to larger capacity drives) cause they're the ones most likely to be OEM'd or picked up on a lark.

Someone will say, wow 1 TB, that's more then I'll ever need, & it's only $50.
Or, I could get a 4 TB, which I'd never use (all the space) for twice the price?
Meh, 1 TB is fine & less money too!

[NotNull]

Sidenote:
SSDs perform better when not filled to the rim. So it is worth buying those a bit "oversized"

[ChrisGreaves]

So he used GB, I suppose, cause he also has SD & RAM in the chart, which kind of makes sense.

Hello again therube. I agree with your analysis, and of course, to get to the source you can take it up with Will Fastie. Will is wrestling with the same kind of problem I am looking at now - indexing distinctly different types of "removable" media. In my study the interface is "user can remove media from a system", but then I have to define a "system" - in my case an HP15 laptop. not network.

Will is comparing spinning platters with SSD with RAM, the modern equivalent of comparing 80-column punched cards with spools of magnetic tape and disk cartridges.

That said, you could ask Will if he can provide a copy of his source data; I suspect he has a worksheet somewhere with much more data than he presents for general user consumption in the form of his published tables!

So it is worth buying those a bit "oversized"

Thirty years ago Gord Campbell's advice for buying a new computer was "Buy the biggest hard drive that you can afford, and then strap a monitor and keyboard onto it", and when I was buying my first laser printer and showed him my analysis he remarked "You only need to examine the HP brand"!

Cheers, Chris

[NotNull]

Thirty years ago Gord Campbell's advice for buying a new computer was "Buy the biggest hard drive that you can afford, and then strap a monitor and keyboard onto it"

My first hard drive (1985) was 40MB and cost, I think, $400.

Are you sure you weren't the one giving that advice to him?
(40MB was an insane amount of storage in 1985 ...)

[ChrisGreaves]

Are you sure you weren't the one giving that advice to him?
(40MB was an insane amount of storage in 1985 ...)

NotNull, You are correct in winking, We bought the XT chassis in 1985, It was 1988/89 when I bought the 40MB drive. It might have been 20MB. My memory fades as .....
Cheers, Chris