On the heels of Sujal’s HDMI experiment, I wanted to share my experiences buying a backup hard disk, then and now.
1995: I bought a 750MB hard disk (to supplement my 250MB internal drive…an upgrade over the default 120MB) for $350. Approximately $467 per gigabyte.
2006: I bought a 160GB hard disk (to back up data for the three computers in the house) for $80. Exactly $0.50 per gigabyte.
We all know Moore’s inspirational message to his troops at Intel, that something doubles every something. Looks like I overpaid. If the price falls 50% every year for 11 years, I should have paid $0.23 per gigabyte, or $36.80.
But wait: one price hasn’t changed. The external case and power supply. Those always retail for about $50. And indeed…the cost per gigabyte is about $0.20, calculated at today’s prices or yesterday’s prices and Moore’s Something Something.
May 29th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I always feel odd whenever I think I don’t have enough disk space attached, especially when I realize I have over 500GB (687.8 to be precise) of storage attached to just one computer… over a half terabyte and I still have computers downstairs in the basement that have 10GB drives that were HUUUUUUUUUGE when I got them.