3 ms·

I'm still wondering why external drives are cheaper than internal ones. It seems silly that if I wanted to buy an 8TB drive for my desktop I should buy an exte

I'm still wondering why external drives are cheaper than internal ones. It seems silly that if I wanted to buy an 8TB drive for my desktop I should buy an external and toss the enclosure. My only guess is market pressure because of higher demand. Possibly externals drives are pulled from older stock? Does anyone have another explanation?

PascLeRasc 9y ago
People who shuck on /r/homelab often find totally different models when buying a few from the same place. It lets drive manufacturers stick any drive they want in the enclosure as long as it's the advertised capacity and RPM.
verbatim 9y ago
Just a guess, but, one factor could be a shorter warranty?
- losteric 9y ago
  Plus some external drive customers immediately shuck the device and receive zero warranty.
mrb 9y ago
"My only guess is market pressure because of higher demand." That's exactly right. In the mass consumer market (ie. people buying hard drives at retailers), a lot more external drives are sold than internal drives. Larger market → more competition → lower prices. On the other hand, for companies buying directly from manufacturers or from distributors, I would bet an internal drive sells for (a bit) less than the comparable external drive. Though I have never seen a price sheet. Would love to hear confirmation from someone in the industry.
Glyptodon 9y ago
Externals also often only have 1 yr warranties vs 2, 3, or 5 for bare drives in my experience.
fencepost 9y ago
Be careful about what drives you do this with - I've seen reports of some of these drives not having standard SATA headers once they're shucked.
- arthurfm 9y ago
  Are you referring to the 2.5" HDDs with native USB connectors? I've never come across an external 3.5" HDD like that.
brianwski 9y ago
Brian from Backblaze here. I don't have any more info than you have, but some of us assume it is a form of the "IT Tax". Basically anything for "businesses" or "datacenters" the sellers charge (unreasonably) more than if it is a product for "consumers". Only a tiny number of consumers ever buy a 20 pack of internal hard drives. Thus they are given the "business tax" pricing increase. The cost of a USB enclosure is about $2. So if the IT markup is larger than $2 the USB enclosure version, you'll see the same internal drive wrapped in a USB enclosure for less. Stupid? Yes.

PascLeRasc 9y ago

People who shuck on /r/homelab often find totally different models when buying a few from the same place. It lets drive manufacturers stick any drive they want in the enclosure as long as it's the advertised capacity and RPM.

verbatim 9y ago

Just a guess, but, one factor could be a shorter warranty?

losteric 9y ago
Plus some external drive customers immediately shuck the device and receive zero warranty.

mrb 9y ago

"My only guess is market pressure because of higher demand." That's exactly right. In the mass consumer market (ie. people buying hard drives at retailers), a lot more external drives are sold than internal drives. Larger market → more competition → lower prices. On the other hand, for companies buying directly from manufacturers or from distributors, I would bet an internal drive sells for (a bit) less than the comparable external drive. Though I have never seen a price sheet. Would love to hear confirmation from someone in the industry.

Glyptodon 9y ago

Externals also often only have 1 yr warranties vs 2, 3, or 5 for bare drives in my experience.

fencepost 9y ago

Be careful about what drives you do this with - I've seen reports of some of these drives not having standard SATA headers once they're shucked.

arthurfm 9y ago
Are you referring to the 2.5" HDDs with native USB connectors? I've never come across an external 3.5" HDD like that.

brianwski 9y ago

Brian from Backblaze here. I don't have any more info than you have, but some of us assume it is a form of the "IT Tax". Basically anything for "businesses" or "datacenters" the sellers charge (unreasonably) more than if it is a product for "consumers". Only a tiny number of consumers ever buy a 20 pack of internal hard drives. Thus they are given the "business tax" pricing increase. The cost of a USB enclosure is about $2. So if the IT markup is larger than $2 the USB enclosure version, you'll see the same internal drive wrapped in a USB enclosure for less. Stupid? Yes.