Storage is Cheap: A Dilemma of Price Versus Need

I’ve often heard the adage that “storage is cheap,” when referring to computer drive sizes. And honestly, it is. Plus, it continues to get cheaper year after year. I got a 5TB external hard drive from Costco a few years back for about $120 if memory serves. This past summer, a similar drive from the same company at 8TB in size was available at the same price.

This trend isn’t just for hard disc drives, either. I’ve seen some popular solid state drives at roughly $100 for a 1TB external. The same goes for SD cards as well. The storage capacities continue to rise, while prices stay mostly similar or drop. Not to mention data transfer speeds that tend to go up as technology improves.

Realistically, if you wait a few months or years, any drive that you might want is going to be cheaper, larger, faster, or some combination of the three. In almost every case, a superior drive will be available later on. The problem then, is how soon you need the drive, or how much you need it now.

This isn’t an unusual scenario for the computer industry. Almost identical scenarios exist for the CPU and GPU markets, or any other component you might need. Technology gets better and easier to manufacture, so prices go down. I like to get the most bang for my buck, so I run into a dilemma where I get a better deal if I wait, but I may need the drive sooner.

To remove most of that mental anguish, I have a pretty simple solution: don’t buy it until you need it. It may sound simple, and come as common sense to most, but it really helps me get past that frustration of deciding when to buy.

I saw that 8TB drive at Costco, and I really considered picking one up. Imagine how much else I could store with 3TB more available. But my 5TB was barely half full, and a good chunk of that was redundant. Realistically, if I cleaned up my data, I would probably only have maybe 2.5TB of data in total. My current 5TB was more than sufficient, and I certainly didn’t need anywhere near 8TB. And as I’ve already pointed out, a larger drive for the same price will probably be available in the next few years. Maybe 10TB or more, before I come close to maxing out the drive I have.

Similarly, there is a 1TB solid state external drive that I’ve really been considering. I actually have a use case for that one, since I now have all my personal photos and videos on an external drive for portability. The drive they exist on is only 500GB, and I do genuinely have more than that because of all my GoPro videos. This drive is much closer to approaching the point where I’ll replace it, but again, I didn’t want to replace it until I actually needed it. Those drives go on sale pretty frequently at Costco, so I’ll likely buy one fairly soon. That’s only because I need it, though.

So if you’re considering a storage device purchase, think long and hard about it. If you don’t need it, there is an undeniable benefit in waiting. If you do need it, go ahead. Just don’t purchase a drive today for the goal of future proofing, when the more future proof thing to do is wait for the upgraded version.