It seems silly that if I wanted to buy an 8TB drive for my desktop I should buy an external and toss the enclosure.
My only guess is market pressure because of higher demand. Possibly externals drives are pulled from older stock? Does anyone have another explanation?
The cost of a USB enclosure is about $2. So if the IT markup is larger than $2 the USB enclosure version, you'll see the same internal drive wrapped in a USB enclosure for less. Stupid? Yes.
That's exactly right. In the mass consumer market (ie. people buying hard drives at retailers), a lot more external drives are sold than internal drives. Larger market → more competition → lower prices. On the other hand, for companies buying directly from manufacturers or from distributors, I would bet an internal drive sells for (a bit) less than the comparable external drive. Though I have never seen a price sheet. Would love to hear confirmation from someone in the industry.