12TB Elements for $175

[elorimer]

Well it looks like this shucking party is over. Advertising is shifting to chia mining, and sold out is the status quo. We seem to be looking at in stock prices twice what they were six months ago. I exaggerate, but not by much. The 8TB for $128 for a few days at Best Buy looks like it was the end of the party.

 

[Constantin]

That’s too bad. But it’s also a good reminder to have your qualified spares on hand rather than relying on the market to supply them as needed. Yes, the market usually works… until it doesn’t.

2011 was a massive wake up call in the HDD industry.

 

[ChrisRJ]

But it’s also a good reminder to have your qualified spares on hand rather than relying on the market to supply them as needed.

I am indeed extremely happy that I got such a drive just a few weeks ago. It is an Exos 16 TB that was on offer for 299 Euros. At the same shop I would now have to pay 899 Euros (if the drive is available).

 

[Constantin]

Such a waste of resources. There is, no doubt, a place for cryptocurrency in this world but the sheer amount of energy getting wasted to "mine" hashes and the like is simply mind-boggling.

 

[elorimer]

Yes indeed. Like storing (with appropriate backups), scans of all the losing lottery tickets ever printed.

 

[winnielinnie]

Like storing (with appropriate backups), scans of all the losing lottery tickets ever printed.

Because you can just never be too sure...

 

[elorimer]

At Amazon, Newegg, and B&H. See:

12TB WD Elements External Desktop USB 3.0 Hard Drive $175.50 + Free Shipping

Amazon has 12TB WD Elements External Desktop USB 3.0 Hard Drive (WDBWLG0120HBK-NESN) for $175.49. Shipping is free. Thanks Discombobulated Alternatively, BH Photo Video also has 12TB WD Element ...

slickdeals.net

Looks like it may be today only, in which case this post is probably too late.

Newegg today at $200 for the 12tb. Not enough to make me jump, but better than recent.

 

[betonq]

It's a good deal.

 

[elorimer]

It's a good deal.

Was, maybe, for that one day 8 months ago. I ended up doing 14s earlier this year for $200 and stopped looking.

 

[Yorick]

Such a waste of resources. There is, no doubt, a place for cryptocurrency in this world but the sheer amount of energy getting wasted to "mine" hashes and the like is simply mind-boggling.

Happily Chia-coin died, or near-as. What a terrible idea.

Ethereum is about to switch off all those GPUs and ASICs, towards the end of Q3 / early Q4 2022 it looks like. That leaves Bitcoin as the major crypto user of electricity, and they won't budge unless their big-moneyed users force them to.

 

[winnielinnie]

Happily Chia-coin died, or near-as. What a terrible idea.

"To the moon!"

I feel so much better after this episode subsided. Sorry if it seems cold, but Chia miners took their chances and gambled, investing time, labor, and lots of money. Hopefully it's a lesson learned for them.

 

[Constantin]

We may collectively chuckle as these crypto "investors" get fleeced by hucksters, but history sadly reminds us that whenever a large number of folk are wiped out financially, various political movements will embrace said losers with open arms, give them the same purpose / affirmation / group love that the crypto community used to (in this case), and start producing fascists en masse who blame "others" for their 100% self-inflicted financial misfortune.

I predict a lot more turbulence as the financial ramifications (such as sudden homelessness) start to hit families that used to think that they had "made it".

The above is also the reason that lottery tickets cannot be bought in some US states using credit cards. Gambling addictions (whether crypto, lottery, or the horses) are just that, an addiction, and the same reason that the Fed has a qualified investor definition. Bankruptcies frequently result in massive value destruction and may even spark civil unrest.

Given the very limited number of legitimate uses for crypto currencies in the present day, I wonder how long it will be before various governments start stepping in and regulating them out of existence.

 

[Yorick]

I share your worry about economic strife leading to fascism, but I am native German, so have a bit of a biased view there.

> I wonder how long it will be before various governments start stepping in and regulating them out of existence.

I expect "out of existence" won't happen, because there's too much money in it now by the banking sector. I expect there will be regulation. The bill that's being considered in the US looks like it might be enacted elsewhere in the Western world in a similar fashion: Crypto currencies that are decentralized are commodities (BTC, maybe ETH); cryptocurrencies that are under the control of a central entity are securities (most everything else). Since securities can only be bought/sold with registration (in the US, SEC; elsewhere, its equivalent), this would likely wipe out 98% of the crypto market, but by coins, not by volume. By volume, the market is dominated by a few large coins, and they'll likely be fine.

 

[mistermanko]

Happily Chia-coin died, or near-as. What a terrible idea.

When do the chia-coin used HDDs hit the market? I expect them to be thoroughly burned-in and ready to fill my pool.

 

[elorimer]

Prime Day brings 16TB Elements for a little under $240, and a WD Red Plus 14TB for $210, both around the $15/T mark.