HDD prices skyrocked, buy or not to buy?

[draggoth]

Hi all! I'm building a new computer and need some advice on choosing a new hard drive. Currently I'm planning on buying this:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB

For storage I already decided on getting a good old mechanical hard drive just for now, I rather wait at least a year before purchasing a SSD because I'm pretty sure they're gonna get cheaper/bigger/faster, just gotta be patient.

Right now I could get this HD:

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM 6.0Gb/s

For around $95.00 USD ( I'm from Mexico btw, so that would be like $1300 MXN), so I'm wondering if that is a good deal or maybe I should wait for the prices to get back down a little? I'm aware of the prices increases since the floods in Thailand, also I've read some pages saying prices are gonna stay high for the most part of 2012.

I'm not really in a big hurry to get a new HD and could easily re-use the disk from my old computer (Seagate 250GB SATA 1.5Gb/s), but I wonder if the performance difference between SATA I (1.5Gb/s) and SATA III (6.0Gb/s) is really worth spending nearly 100 bucks on a new HD?

 

[cumi2k4]

My suggestion:
Go find SSD for $100, use it as OS drive. Use old HD as data disk.

I don't think for mechanical HD, SATA I and III connector has significant performance difference (especially compared with SSD).

 

[pro-gamer]

SSD for special use like OS and some heavier games BF3,skyrim,rage etc
HDD for regular use like adobe photoshop,office, any other extra stuffs.

 

[Pyree]

No, SATA II and SATA III mechanical HDD in the TB size is a fair bit of improvement over the SATA I 250GB mechanical HDD. Go for Sata II and III drives if you are not using SSD.

 

[chesteracorgi]

The market analysts say that the HDD shortage will prevail into Q2 and maybe Q3 of 2012. The HDD you list is approximately at current market price.

SSDs will not get significantly cheaper before 2013, but you can find deals on older models. Shop around for SSDs and you will find some bargains.

If I were you I would try to find a a bargain on a good SATA 3 (6.0 Gbps) SDD (120 GB +) and use the old SATA 1 HDD for storage.