I can not keep quite any longer, some of you have been talking about
$99 for a 1GB MO disk?  Some else mentioned $135 for a 1.3GB?  If you
are paying these prices your being ripped off (unless you are
subsidizing a local computer shop so they will be there when your
system dies.)

        We've been using 650MB MO's, 1.3GB MO's, 100MB zips, and most
recently CD-R's (even used 20MB 3.5" flopicals a few years ago).

        general pricing (not supporting any one company)

        Media:

        74min CD-r's:   $3.99 to 6.25  TDK, SONY, Verbatim, Kodak, with
Jewel cases (quantitiies 1 - 500)      [$0.008/MB]

        74-min CD-W  (re-writable): $22.60    [0.035/MB]

        MO disks:

        (Quantities of 1, there are generally discounts for more)

        3.25" 128MB   $8.50 - 13.00     [$0.08/MB]
        3.25"  230MB  $11 - 16.00        [$0.06/MB]

        5.25"  600/650                           [$0.06/MB]
                SONY:  $35.00
                TDK      $36.00
                3m         $48.00

        5.25"  1.3GB                             [$0.03/MB]

                SONY:  $43.00
                TDK:     $49.00
                3m:       $48.50
                Verbatim  $ 48 -50

        5.25" 2.6GB   SONY  $60.00,  Maxells $70.00     [$0.025/MB]

        5.25"  4.6GB    ~$110-120                                [$0.025/MB]

        ZIP/JAZZ

        100MB Zipp $13.00-16.00                   [$0.145/MB]

        1GB Jazz        $95.00-100                      [$0.10/MB]


        3.5" 1.44MB Floppies   $0.21-0.25              [ $0.16/MB]



        Pricing per Megabyte runs from

         $0.16 for floppies (in quantitiy)
        0.145       Zipp
        0.10         Jazz
        0.08         128MB MO
        0.06         230MB MO
        0.06         600/650 MO
        0.035       CD-W  (640MB)
        0.03         1.3GB MO
        0.025       2.6GB MO
        0.025       4.6GB MO
          0.008       CD-R  (640MB)


        Yes, by far CDs are the cheapest, but at this price they are
Write Once Read Many (WROM),  the re-writable CD's are just hitting
the market and I do not have much info on the software requirments or
the readblitiy, the drives are running $600 - 750.

        But as has been said, nothing is stable in the computer world.
DVD's are just coming out, and the density of data/mm is ever
dropping, with 5.25" disks rapidly approaching 4 - 20 GB (by 2000?) -
how'd you like to loose 20GB of 1024x1024 confocal images?



Richard E. Edelmann, Ph.D.
Electron Microscopy Facility Supervisor
352 Pearson Hall
Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056
Ph: 513-529-5712        Fax: 513-529-4243
E-mail: [log in to unmask]


"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
     -- Bill Gates, 1981