Why are external HDDs still cheaper than their internal equivalent?

X

Xizer

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 7, 2010
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227
It makes no sense to me. Often it's the same model of drive, same capacity... but the external version will always be cheaper, sometimes considerably so. $10-$50 cheaper. It makes no sense, as with an external drive they now have to produce the same amount of product as the internal and now they have extra costs stacked on top of it for the enclosure, its screws, power supply, cable and box, whereas with an internal they can just ship a drive by itself out in a static-free bag.

I thought they started doing this a few years back with the transition to 3 TB drives to discourage noobs from picking up internals >2 TB and being unable to get their PCs to read them, but we should be well past that phase now. What possible reason are they still doing this?
 
I am guessing that they price the externals cheaper in part because they usually carry a shorter warranty.

They also probably don't have to warranty as many percentage-wise since people will tend to physically damage external drives than they do internal drives.

I am also guessing that they sell a higher volume of external drives since there are a lot more people that don't know hot to add/change an internal drive than there are people that do.
 
Demand by consumers, perhaps? Almost everyone I know has bought an external HDD or two. But, only a handful I know have bought an internal.
 
Yeah, laws of supply and demand. More people are interested in buying external drives so they have a lower margin (than internal) so they sell even more.
 
SirMaster said:
Yeah, laws of supply and demand. More people are interested in buying external drives so they have a lower margin (than internal) so they sell even more.
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So that raises an interesting question: Why should we techies pay more? Why can't we buy an external drive, take the drive out of its own case, mount the drive into our case, and plug in the SATA and power cables? Plus, you have a space external drive case, instead of having to pay $30-50 for one?

:confused:
 
x509 said:
So that raises an interesting question: Why should we techies pay more? Why can't we buy an external drive, take the drive out of its own case, mount the drive into our case, and plug in the SATA and power cables? Plus, you have a space external drive case, instead of having to pay $30-50 for one?

:confused:
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The fact that you void any warranty you may be able to get from the drive manufacturer? Having drives with a 5 year 'It broke, take it back' warranty makes it really easy to avoid dealing with issues when one of the drives takes a dump in year 3.
 
It boils down to warranty. Externals are typically only guaranteed for a year, where internals are more commonly 3+ years. Given the assumed mobile nature of the drives, the warranty is limited and therefor their true cost per unit is lower. Your usage of the devices is irrelevant.
 
Nate7311 said:
It boils down to warranty. Externals are typically only guaranteed for a year, where internals are more commonly 3+ years. Given the assumed mobile nature of the drives, the warranty is limited and therefor their true cost per unit is lower. Your usage of the devices is irrelevant.
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Sounds to me like we have to "protection" money to the drive manufacturers. Of course, who are we being "protected from?" Why it is the drive manufacturers themselves. :eek: When did we last hear about this "business model?"
 
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It could be return rate and/or support costs.

Look how many buyers of internal hard drives don't know what they are doing, or give up and return it. Compare that to an external USB drive.

Then, on the flip-side, buyers of the internal drives are willing to pay more. They are also more likely to use the warranty. They can further enhance this price differential for their benefit by voiding the warranty if removed from the externals, and making the external drives use a direct USB interface instead of USB to SATA and only supporting 4Kn (Do they?).

So, I think it is cheaper for Seagate to sell externals, and they do what they can to maintain that spread for the more discerning internal buyer who will pay more.
 
x509 said:
So that raises an interesting question: Why should we techies pay more? Why can't we buy an external drive, take the drive out of its own case, mount the drive into our case, and plug in the SATA and power cables? Plus, you have a space external drive case, instead of having to pay $30-50 for one?

:confused:
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As the quest to make all things smaller continues, some of the USB drives are getting very "non-user serviceable".

I have destroyed or damaged the last several cases that I removed drives from. They do not have screws anymore, its all snaps and glues.

Western Digital has a popular product line that actually has a USB controller on the hard drive instead of a traditional SATA to USB circuit.

152766-7.jpg
 
I always found it silly too. If it really is for warranty reasons they should maybe offer the choice to get a smaller warranty for an overall price break. The easiest for the retailers would be to have two models of the same drive, one with 5 year warranty and a cheaper one that is the exact same drive but different serial number format and only 1 year. (by the time you get the drive it might be like 6 months depending on how long it sits at retailer). When buying lot of drives it would make more sense to risk it and go with the lower warranty ones.

It's also too bad most externals arn't very user serviceable either. I cracked one open once to get the drive because it was the only way to get a hard drive locally in a pinch and it was quite the challenge getting that thing open while trying not to damage it. I did end up with a circuit board that would be usable as a USB to sata adapter though but the actual case was pretty much a goner.

I just find it's wasteful to trash all that plastic though so I hate doing it even if it's actually cheaper.
 
It's always been one of those mystery's. It didn't start out that way. Back in the day you paid a slight premium for External HDD's, but these days you'll be hard pressed to find a computer user that doesn't have one. I treat them like thumb drives that never detach, but portable enough that I can if I need to.

As far as the warranty issue goes that would make sense. Most of those drives are really bottom of the barrel types. There used to be heat issues and were notorious for failing a lot quicker. I've never had a problem, but I know a bunch of people that got the short end of the stick. So it makes sense they would trade a lower price for a lower warranty.
 
This has been a big frustration of mine as well, however this is why external drives are cheaper. It has nothing to do with warranty. Firstly, only techies by OEM drives and there just isn't enough techies in the world to push the volume required to churn big profits. Techies are also willing to pay more and volumes for OEM drives does not increase as rapidly with price reduction. As oppose to external drive which is bought by both techies and the average Joe. The manufacturer can push way more volume at the lower price point.

Shoving OEM drives in external cases was a quick fix process to create a new product line. No new manufacturing process required, no new PCBs to print. Now that these a generating good revenue, the manufacturers can further reduce cost with the mass production of a single interface for external drives. Expect to see more externals with USB baked right unto the PCB.
 
ezno_matrix said:
This has been a big frustration of mine as well, however this is why external drives are cheaper. It has nothing to do with warranty. Firstly, only techies by OEM drives and there just isn't enough techies in the world to push the volume required to churn big profits. Techies are also willing to pay more and volumes for OEM drives does not increase as rapidly with price reduction. As oppose to external drive which is bought by both techies and the average Joe. The manufacturer can push way more volume at the lower price point.
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But if it's the exact same drive in the enclosure then it isn't cheaper to sell them as a USB device. It's actually more expensive for them over a bare drive because they need to cover the cost of the enclosure.
 
S-F said:
But if it's the exact same drive in the enclosure then it isn't cheaper to sell them as a USB device. It's actually more expensive for them over a bare drive because they need to cover the cost of the enclosure.
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It's not a matter of the cost to produce. It's a matter or the return on sale.

1000 external drive with a profit margin of %5 per drive is a lot more that 10 internal drive with a profit margin of 50% per drive, assuming the cost to produce the external drive is always greater than the internal drive.
 
Perhaps the external drives are the ones that failed the QC of the internal drives? Externals don't use that big of a bandwidth
 
Thats nuts now they are doing USB interfaces direct on the drives, they clearly feel a threat to their margins knowing techies will just rip the drives out to save money...

Or it is the same cost or cheaper to make a PCB with USB instead of SATA and then make a USB adapter, taking more space in an enclosure,,
 
I don't even get why they make discrete external drives, why not just stick to making enclosures so people can put the drive they want in it, and just make all drives cheaper so that it ends up being the same as a current external in price to buy enclosure + drive. It's techies getting the shaft yet again by the industry. Make everything easy and cheap for regular users and make the rest more expensive.
 
Because then they'd sell very few drives. External drives are just easier for most people, and with the migration away from desktops over the last ten years, make a lot more sense as consumer products. Why would a manufacturer want to make it more difficult for someone to buy their products?

There are several reasons why externals are often cheaper than their bare drive counterparts. Shorter warranties are definitely a big factor. But also, external drives are a retail product, so come under a lot of pricing pressures like sales and discounts from competing sellers.
 
JJ Johnson said:
Because then they'd sell very few drives. External drives are just easier for most people, and with the migration away from desktops over the last ten years, make a lot more sense as consumer products. Why would a manufacturer want to make it more difficult for someone to buy their products?

There are several reasons why externals are often cheaper than their bare drive counterparts. Shorter warranties are definitely a big factor. But also, external drives are a retail product, so come under a lot of pricing pressures like sales and discounts from competing sellers.
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Guys, we are all being too :eek: rational :eek: about all this. It's about "market segmentation." (yeah, I know, a non-techie word.) :D Think about the last time you bought a plane ticket. Why is it cheaper to fly from NY to LA than say NY to Omaha, Nebraska The NY-LA flight is much longer, costs more in fuel to get you there. But NY-LA is a much more competitive market than NY-Omaha.

Same principle applies here.
 
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