International tangles

Most of you know that I deal with CCTV products. My recorders are basically computers, and store video on hard drives. We got notification yesterday that because of flooding in Thailand, hard drive components have become scarce, and hard drive prices have DOUBLED in the last week. Huh? When we checked with Tiger Direct, we saw huge price increases already. Hard to believe that a nature problem on the other side of the world could have such an immediate effect here. I don't recall anything like this after the earthquake in Japan, and they were hit far worse. My supplier says that it is pure price gouging. Can't do anything about it, have to pass the increases on to clients.

Sounds like when next month's oil delivery price goes up, the gas already in the tank at the store goes up.

Then when oil goes down, the gas in the tank stays the same price.

z31maniac wrote: Sounds like when next month's oil delivery price goes up, the gas already in the tank at the store goes up. Then when oil goes down, the gas in the tank stays the same price.

Threadjack:

How many pennies does a gas station make per gallon? They count on you coming in to get a 44oz Diet Coke and a candy bar.

On Topic:

It's business, man. You're willing to pay that price difference, and your customers are willing to pick up the slack.

Unfortunately, most people won't do what actually fixes it: not buy while prices are in gouge mode.

No alternative, no choice.

1/2 the wolds hard drive production was wiped out in a few days , its been all over slashdot and most of the major tech site.

This is what happens when you centralize all of of you production of a required item. Its not gouging just standard supply and demand.

Yep, I've read this in the trade press a couple of days ago. And as a smaller business you're way at the end of the line when it comes to grabbing part of the remaining inventory.

Eggs in one basket.......

wearymicrobe wrote: 1/2 the wolds hard drive production was wiped out in a few days , its been all over slashdot and most of the major tech site. This is what happens when you centralize all of of you production of a required item. Its not gouging just standard supply and demand.

For some reason in canuckland, lots of the stores had not increased prices yet. I informed a few people who I knew to be in the market to E36 M3 and get off the pot.

In other news, this makes SSD's a lot more tempting if they haven't been hit (and SSD's are typically not made by Seagate or WD, so they should be more readily available).

Might have been just the kick they needed to become truly market wide accepted. I paid $130 for my SSD, best money I think I've ever spent on an upgrade besides for a GPU!

How much capacity do the SSDs have? I need at least 1TB. What is the downside for them? Thanks!

cwh wrote: How much capacity do the SSDs have? I need at least 1TB. What is the downside for them? Thanks!

No such thing as a single 1TB SSD. If and its a big if the SSD manufacturers get cracking they can take a good amount of the maret share here. Not everyone needs 1TB of storage, the 150-250 range is a sweet spot to operate in if they can get them cheap enough.

I have a group of scientists that I used to work with who have a 9PB setup that needs to be almost doubled.

9pb= 10133099 Gig.

wearymicrobe wrote: No such thing as a single 1TB SSD. If and its a big if the SSD manufacturers get cracking they can take a good amount of the maret share here. Not everyone needs 1TB of storage, the 150-250 range is a sweet spot to operate in if they can get them cheap enough. I have a group of scientists that I used to work with who have a 9PB setup that needs to be almost doubled. 9pb= 10133099 Gig.

What he said. SSD's are not storage solutions, they are good for fast access of programs. You utilize a SSD as where your programs/operating system resides, then use normal mechanical hard drives for storage. As also stated, the 150-250 range is a perfect sweet spot for "normal" people.

Um, and that is an insane amount of storage. I thought I was badass at having over 2TB's of storage LOL!

Big storage is required for long term storage. Also, we are doing a lot with Mega Pixel IP cameras, and they generate huge files. My low end DVRs usually ship with 500GB. 250gb just won't do.

HiTempguy wrote: What he said. SSD's are not storage solutions, they are good for fast access of programs. You utilize a SSD as where your programs/operating system resides, then use normal mechanical hard drives for storage. As also stated, the 150-250 range is a perfect sweet spot for "normal" people. Um, and that is an insane amount of storage. I thought I was badass at having over 2TB's of storage LOL!

They intend to triple it over the next 18 months, they are generating raw data in the 1pb a month range.

SSDs also have a finite life span, a certain amount of writes/rewrites and then they're done (reads do not "wear" them much AFAIK.) They aren't really suitable for situations where large amounts of data are being recorded to and overwritten on them on a regular basis. I did some looking into this a few years ago but I'm sure the technology is improved by now.

wearymicrobe wrote: I have a group of scientists that I used to work with who have a 9PB setup that needs to be almost doubled. 9pb= 10133099 Gig.

Freakin' WOW

We buy LED signs (think digital billboards) from Shenzhen China - where every sign like that in the world is made, at least in part, despite what the US based companies will tell you. We have yet to run into that kind of increase in price, but as our exchange rate falls our buying there as a small business becomes less and less viable. The problem we have is the holidays. Seems like every time we're trying to rush an order they are having some week long holiday where everyone returns to their birth city. Add that to a 4 week production turn and a 4-5 week boat ride IF the weather's good and it can really give one ulcers.

Of course, this news on hard drives is gonna hurt us on another business product - interior flatscreen digital signage.

Better warn the customers....

I remember right after katrina gas prices went up about 60% round these parts. Total wtfage

In reply to ultraclyde:

Threadjack:

There's a local company, Watchfire Signs, that was still making LED billboards & signs here(as of a few years ago, anyway). Are they outsourcing them now?

I haven't been in WF's factory, so I can't say for sure. They do make very nice signs, if pricey. They also have good software, which is much more rare than good hardware. On the national level, they're one of the best 3 brands.

Most companies that say "Made in America" on these signs are importing the main LED boards or modules - the face piece that you actually see and that contains all the thousands of LEDs - and then assemble the modules or boards using American (or otherwise) sourced cabinet structures. Is that made in America? You can answer as you choose.

Knowing the labor involved in assembling all those thousand of LEDs into the circuit boards for the signs, I would have a really hard time believing that ANY company can do that with US labor. Almost all the LEDs in the world are made in Korea, Japan, and China - brands like Nichia, Cree, Everlight, etc. There was a company making the actual LEDs somewhere here in the Southeast, but I always heard they shipped them bulk to asia for assembly.

And I want to be clear I mean no disrespect for any of those companies. It does chap my ass sometimes when we lose a large contract based on the fact that we're honest about where our signs come from. Kind of like buying a Dodge built in Mexico instead of a Toyota built in Ohio. It's just kind of a gray area.

//end threadjack

I take back the statement that there are no 1tb drives, apparently this one will start shipping soon.

For the low low cost of ~2K.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/solid-state-drive-1-terrabyte-111026.html