Eli5 Why does a larger storage drive for a computer cost more when it takes up the same amount of space?
In: Technology
Because it’s more valuable to the user, so people will pay more for it it. It may or may not cost more to produce (depends on the technology and a bunch of other things), but the price it sells for is all based on what the customer will pay.
And people aren’t buying volume, they’re buying GB of storage. More GB is worth more.
Because it need more or higher precision components to get more storage into the same amount of space. A conventional HDD may have more disks (plattens) to store data on and therefore more heads to read and write it. And/or the tracks on the plattens may be narrower and closer together to fit more data in, requiring higher precision in the positioning of the heads. SSD drives need more individual transistors to make the memory elements. As well as simply needing more materials, that can lead to greater failure rates on test.
The actual casing might be the same size, but the writable area on the disk or equivalent in newer “flash” drives are not. The one with the larger size has more writable area.
Also, pricing is based on more than just how much it costs to produce.
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Why would a diamond ring cost more than a pop tab on a soda can when they both take up the same amount of space? Just because 2 things are the same size does not mean they should cost the same. They could be vastly different in lots of different valuable ways.
>Why does a larger storage drive for a computer cost more when it takes up the same amount of space?
Why wouldn’t it? How much space it takes up is not a relevant factor for pricing. Unless you’re talking scrap no piece of technology has ever been sold by *volume*.
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