Floods in Thailand Impact Street Prices for Western Digital Drives

For a quick check on the health of the computer market, take a look at hard disk prices at your favorite retailer. In the past month quoted prices for certain Western Digital hard drives moved from near $90 to over $180, a very unusual price pattern. The cause, of course, has been flooding in Thailand, which will shut a major Western Digital plant for many months. Take a look:

Inside WD's flooded Thai Factory (Forbes)

PC shortages 'inevitable' says Gartner (Channel Register)

Inside WD's flooded Thai factory [photos] (Channel Register)

Flood-hit WD could lose HDD leadership

[2TB "Elements" drive, now scarce and expensive]

Seagate has been less affected, and its prices seem to be lower.

Shortages of hard drives are expected to impact supplies of personal computers in the fourth quarter. If you are in the market for other components, however, the shortage of hard drives may create temporary surpluses of non-hard drive devices for personal computers. Could lower prices of RAM, CPUs, mother boards, and video displays emerge?