News - OCZ's 64GB solid-state drive now selling for just $99

[HEXUS]

Solid-state drives are getting cheaper by the day, but this is the cheapest we've seen so far, by a long way.

Read more.

[b0redom]

Only any use if you live in the US though, as they usually send out cheques to US addresses I believe.

[nichomach]

Happy as I am that our colonial brethren are getting solid stateness for ludicrously cheap - $169 versus £160??? OK, the pound's been weaker recently, but ye effing gods...

[Salazaar]

UK customers can purchase the OCZ Core Series 64GB SSD from Scan.co.uk at a cost of £160.85

That says it all really...

[TheAnimus]

Scan have an intresting FX rate don't they?

Want to buy some USD guys? I can give you a slightly better deal

[shaithis]

I am sure the UK prices will drop soon. I expect the $169 is pre-tax as well.

[chrestomanci]

That is the drive that got a very bad write up in a recent review on anandtech. See especially the section Poorly Designed MLC from page 7.

In short the reviewer did some experiments, and found that thought the drive performs well in many respects, it is shockingly bad if you do lots of small random writes, as you might get when updating log or cache files while browsing the web. The average write latency is about a quarter second, and can be up to a second if the drive is loaded. This will translate into massive unexpected pauses. Even the hard drive they tested was over 20 times better.

The situation is so bad that windows will often refuse to install on the drive because it thinks the media is bad, so the only way to run windows from one is to copy an image from a mechanical hard drive.

In short, I would not buy one, and I would advise other people not to.

[Andeh13]

The OCZ Core Series 64GB SSD is available to buy from Newegg.com at a cost of $169.99 ($99 after $70 mail-in rebate)
UK customers can purchase the OCZ Core Series 64GB SSD from Scan.co.uk at a cost of £160.85

I know its been stated before, but its so frustrating the way we get treated in the UK. I know we have a higher disposable income then our american friends, but it still seems a joke the way we get the short end of the stick when it comes to pricing.

[finlay666]

Hmmm

May ask a colleague to get me one when he goes to the USA, he is meant to be there a month.... tempting

[kalniel]

That is the drive that got a very bad write up in a recent review on anandtech. See especially the section Poorly Designed MLC from page 7.

In short the reviewer did some experiments, and found that thought the drive performs well in many respects, it is shockingly bad if you do lots of small random writes, as you might get when updating log or cache files while browsing the web. The average write latency is about a quarter second, and can be up to a second if the drive is loaded. This will translate into massive unexpected pauses. Even the hard drive they tested was over 20 times better.

The situation is so bad that windows will often refuse to install on the drive because it thinks the media is bad, so the only way to run windows from one is to copy an image from a mechanical hard drive.

In short, I would not buy one, and I would advise other people not to.

The Vista install situation was worrying, but to be honest even in that article they still found the drive to be very fast in most normal situations. You just have to avoid situations that involve highly queued non-sequential writes. As long as you can get past the install (which I'm sure you've got to be able to - they can't possibly sell a hard drive that you can't install Vista on surely?) then just make sure to stick all temporary files, page file etc. on a mechanical drive. If you've got any queue depth then use several drives in RAID.

[b0redom]

I had no problems installing Vista on mine....

[Lanky123]

Problems or not, it's still a 64GB SSD for the price you'd normally pay for a 32GB USB stick.