Why are disks so expensive?

Question

Hi,

I have a CX3-20 from Dell. A while ago we added another enclosure populated with 8 300Gb FC disks. I just got a quote from Dell for 300Gb and 450Gb FC disks. They were around $1.7K and $2.4K (respectively) each. When I search around, I see what I -think- are the same seagate disks (FC 15.7K) as are being quoted, but they're around $500 for a 450Gb nearly 1/5 of the cost from Dell.

I could understand a moderate prices difference for things like tuning for EMC, etc. but this seems excessive.

Can someone tell me why these disks are 5 times the price so I can explain to the CEO and CTO?

Thanks

dynamox · Answer

Did the quote include hardware/software maintenance ?

hudsterboy · Answer

I think they -are- valid, if you're comparing to consumer drives. I'm comparing them to what I -think- are enterprise FC drives, eg:

http://tinyurl.com/yhl7fqm

Here it sells for $442

http://tinyurl.com/yfqn4mz

AranH1 · Answer

Hmmm... you got me there

The maintenance shouldn't add too much to the cost of the drive.

While I don't pay the same prices you do (I average about 1.4k for the 300GB 15k and 1.9k for the 450GB 15k, probably becuase we buy a large amount at time) I do know that acrosst the industry the prices are similar. I.E. when buying an aray from IBM or HDS that comes with the same drive that EMC uses, the prices are pretty close.

AranH1 · Answer

There are a couple of things that I have heard to explain the price difference between the consumer and enterprise versions of the same model of drive from a disk manufacturer.

One is that the fibre channel interfrace is more expensive being that it is a dual ported high bandwidth interface.

Two is that to qualify as an enterprise drive there are some differences in the packaging of the drive that makes it more resistence to damage through vibration which results in a longer MTBF than consumer drives.

Not sure how valid those points are.... I can't confirm them.

hudsterboy · Answer

I'd feel better shelling out  the cash if I knew what I was paying for. If this is just $2000.00 support for a $500.00 drive, it starts to sound like extortion.

CLARiiON

Why are disks so expensive?

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