Solid State... will it ever come down?

Pigchild

Does anyone anticipate that soon we may see a sharp price drop in SS hard drives? Most other hardware this last 3 years has had big price reductions, but SS just seems to hardly ever go down.

I have no use for TB storage, but an affordable 320Gb SS would be perfect if not so crazy expensive.

eclap · 01-21-2013, 00:42 | posts: 18,446 | Location: Hampshire UK

they are already a lot cheaper than they were 2 years ago. still a bit of a luxury item so it'll take some time.

hallryu · 01-21-2013, 00:58 | posts: 10,842 | Location: England

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pigchild

Does anyone anticipate that soon we may see a sharp price drop in SS hard drives? Most other hardware this last 3 years has had big price reductions, but SS just seems to hardly ever go down.

I have no use for TB storage, but an affordable 320Gb SS would be perfect if not so crazy expensive.

Really, prices are so much lower than a couple of years ago.

Mufflore · 01-21-2013, 01:00 | posts: 9,529 | Location: UK

^this and ^^ this

dr.noob · *Last edited by dr.noob; 01-21-2013 at 01:11.*

And that.

They are so cheap these days, just boot the OS with a small one, lets say 60GB and use 1TB for all the rest.

I still remember when i bought my Intel 80GB X-25 for 225€, which is still alive in good health.

Pigchild · 01-21-2013, 04:35 | posts: 2,265 | Location: Memphis TN

Quote:

Originally Posted by hallryu

Really, prices are so much lower than a couple of years ago.

They have a little, but nothing like the price reductions seen with RAM and other hardware. 2 years ago I had thought mechanical drives would have been obsolete by now. I guess some people still have use for them, but to me its like buying a tube TV to put in a state of the art entertainment center.

They keep adding capacity to these old platter drives in order to hook people into buying them. This diverts attention from the fact they are slow as a slug. I will take speed over capacity any day, then for movie storage use a TB external drive. As for op system, games, and programs. I want them on SS for speed of access and better boot time.

Mufflore · 01-21-2013, 05:16 | posts: 9,529 | Location: UK

For the same size, they have halved in price and doubled in performance (transfer rate) in 2 years.
My old Vertex 2 60GB was £120.
Modern faster 60GB drives start at £47, averaging about £60.

thatguy91 · *Last edited by thatguy91; 01-21-2013 at 07:29.*

Part of the reason is the infrastructure to produce RAM is already in place, and RAM doesn't really change much (comparatively speaking) in each generation. SSD's are still advancing, in terms of building and paying off production facilities, and developing new types of cells to store the data. Each time the cell changes, the production equipment needs updating, meaning it has to be replaced. This does not mean the prices won't come down, it just means it may not be as noticeable as with other technologies.

It has really become a necessity for new computers to come with a SSD, despite what some people may try to argue. I would argue though that 120GB is really 'needed', since 60GB is too little to hold Windows, programs, pagefile (no arguments about pagefile necessity here), etc. Then of course the default location to install programs and files on, and the location of documents, movies, and music files is on the SSD, which is less than optimal in terms of space management.

SSD's are beginning to encroach on the SATA3 limits, so it would be interesting to see when the next specification is released and what effect that will have on drive prices, and drive performance.

pimp_gimp · *Last edited by pimp_gimp; 01-21-2013 at 07:54.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pigchild

Does anyone anticipate that soon we may see a sharp price drop in SS hard drives? Most other hardware this last 3 years has had big price reductions, but SS just seems to hardly ever go down.

I have no use for TB storage, but an affordable 320Gb SS would be perfect if not so crazy expensive.

SSD prices have gone down quite a bit in the last two years. You can get a 360Gig SSD for $314 US or about $0.87 cents per gig. Honestly that isn't a bad price.

BLEH! · **Memory**: 24GB @ 1600 @ 9-10-9-27

512 GB for £300 was good for me. Vertex 4

hallryu · 01-21-2013, 12:36 | posts: 10,842 | Location: England

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLEH!

512 GB for £300 was good for me. Vertex 4

I want a 500GB SSD but I need them to come down just a bit more

BLEH! · **Memory**: 24GB @ 1600 @ 9-10-9-27

Quote:

Originally Posted by hallryu

I want a 500GB SSD but I need them to come down just a bit more

Was better to bite the bullet I think. Awesome drive though, even if it is running at SATA 2 speeds.

CPC_RedDawn · 01-21-2013, 13:23 | posts: 4,435 | Location: Wolverhampton/United Kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLEH!

Was better to bite the bullet I think. Awesome drive though, even if it is running at SATA 2 speeds.

Same here, I have my OCZ Agility 3 240GB SATA 3 running on a SATA 2 and its still amazingly fast. Can't wait til I upgrade to Haswell (i7 4770K) and finally get SATA3 for a nice boost in speeds

To the OP, SSD's are pretty cheap, because people mainly use them as OS boot drives and put all their programs, games, movies and music on a normal mechanical HDD.

I like others here long for the day when we can pick up 1TB SSD's for the same price as 1TB HDD's now! Unlike certain drives which cost a bomb, just look at the OCZ Revo PCI-E SSD Cards... The 940GB goes for nearly £800!!!

Cartman372 · 01-21-2013, 19:38 | posts: 945 | Location: Newton, NJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by hallryu

Really, prices are so much lower than a couple of years ago.

This^

I picked up a 120GB Intel 330 series for $125 USD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pigchild

They have a little, but nothing like the price reductions seen with RAM and other hardware. 2 years ago I had thought mechanical drives would have been obsolete by now. I guess some people still have use for them, but to me its like buying a tube TV to put in a state of the art entertainment center.

They keep adding capacity to these old platter drives in order to hook people into buying them. This diverts attention from the fact they are slow as a slug. I will take speed over capacity any day, then for movie storage use a TB external drive. As for op system, games, and programs. I want them on SS for speed of access and better boot time.

Well it's clear you must not have any actual storage needs. Using an SSD for storage is idiotic, wasteful and expensive because the speed is not needed.

Really? They keep adding capacity to hook people? Tell me please how I am going to make my 10TB storage server with SSDs instead of HDDs and not have it cost $10,000+

Ji1986 · 01-21-2013, 21:27 | posts: 820 | Location: Australia

SSD's to me are really for OS and programs + games, Although even with games these days you lose the speed as they all need to connect online which slows everything down anyway.

I dont see the need to ever go above 250gig on an SSD.

eclap · 01-21-2013, 21:56 | posts: 18,446 | Location: Hampshire UK

Bill Gates didn't see the need for more than 640kb ram.

StewieTech · 01-21-2013, 22:00 | posts: 655 | Location: Portugal

I have a 60gb one. Want a 1tb ssd for 100/200€.

Cartman372 · 01-22-2013, 02:57 | posts: 945 | Location: Newton, NJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by eclap

Bill Gates didn't see the need for more than 640kb ram.

Because Bill Gates totally said that

http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...really_say_it_

Quote:

Originally Posted by StewieTech

I have a 60gb one. Want a 1tb ssd for 100/200€.

People want many things, doesn't mean we'll be able to get them any time soon

Mufflore · 01-22-2013, 03:16 | posts: 9,529 | Location: UK

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cartman372

People want many things, doesn't mean we'll be able to get them any time soon

Way to miss the point.

Would you rather that your main storage is 1MB/s.
Or would you rather that storage tech had advanced?

Cartman372 · 01-23-2013, 05:54 | posts: 945 | Location: Newton, NJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mufflore

Way to miss the point.

Would you rather that your main storage is 1MB/s.
Or would you rather that storage tech had advanced?

...What? That doesn't make any sense at all....

My post said "People want many things, doesn't mean we'll be able to get them any time soon"

Does that say never?

Last time I checked, hard drive technology didn't just one day go to SATA3, 10,000RPM and 4TB.

It's a gradual thing

Agent-A01 · 01-23-2013, 06:54 | posts: 5,625 | Location: USA

i remember my first intel ssd 160gb, that was like 500 bucks. you can get a 128 gb for 100~ give or take. prices will get cheaper as time goes on.

dcx_badass · 01-23-2013, 11:21 | posts: 9,544 | Location: Leeds [UK]

I don't think they're bad now.

Got my first September 2011, was £80 for 96GB
Got my second September 2012, was £50 for 128GB

In december a friend got a 256GB Crucial M4 for £99 from amazon. 128GB is fine for me though and affordable at £50.

Mufflore · 01-23-2013, 16:26 | posts: 9,529 | Location: UK

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cartman372

...What? That doesn't make any sense at all....

My post said "People want many things, doesn't mean we'll be able to get them any time soon"

Does that say never?

Last time I checked, hard drive technology didn't just one day go to SATA3, 10,000RPM and 4TB.

It's a gradual thing

There was no need for your comment, he can wish for what he likes.
People wishing for things creates markets and drives prices down which is why we have cheap mass storage that can achieve well over 100MB/s.
He didnt mention a timescale and you did nothing other than knock him back.

CreationP · 01-23-2013, 20:21 | posts: 209 | Location: Greece

It won't come down as long as the previous technology (HDD) exists. As easy as that.

Norvekh · 01-23-2013, 22:18 | posts: 2,654 | Location: Ohio

Traditional drives are great for mass storage volumes. SSDs are great for system and programs. I don't see it necessary to have a SSD to load up my music or even HD movies as even modest spinners are able to play such content at far beyond the needed transfer rates to keep them consistent. The only reason I'd like a high capacity SSD at this point would be for games but as it stands I'm happy loading them from an 'old and moldy' 3TB 7200 RPM drive outside of the handful on my system SSD.