News - Crucial pushes SSD price boundaries

[miniyazz]

Just bought the 256GB one - gah, what have I done!?

Nah hopefully will be fine. Now I just need to order that Acer 3830TG lappy so I have something to install this drive into

Would have got a smaller one but unless the lappy has mSATA, can't have a seperate HDD so this was too good an opportunity to get a large SSD on the cheap...

This is the thing... even though I'll be putting it in my XPS which already has a second HDD, it's the same price as I bought my 80GB X25-M for 18 months ago.

[FoxdieUK]

We should remember the sales of goods act. Any product/service sold (by a business), regardless of given warranty should last a reasonable amount of time otherwise its simply not fit for purpose. Im pretty sure if it packed up within the year they wouldn't have a leg to stand on if you threaten a legal case.
Essentially a warranty is the stated time the company will not dispute a claim. Any time after and they'll try and hide behind "its not in warranty" but the fact is they a legal bound to make sure the products lasts a reasonable amount of time. Whats classesed as "reasonable"? well if the cost is still 80% of retail. its may be "reasonable" to expect 80% of the warranty too! But its all dependant on product and price.

[Noli]

Just to say, got this via the topcashback website and they confirmed that I got cashback just 1 day later. It was 7.07% cashback (but off the excl-VAT price) which was another £10.85 back. Takes the price down to 68p / GB - sweet!

[Saracen]

We should remember the sales of goods act. Any product/service sold (by a business), regardless of given warranty should last a reasonable amount of time otherwise its simply not fit for purpose. Im pretty sure if it packed up within the year they wouldn't have a leg to stand on if you threaten a legal case.
Essentially a warranty is the stated time the company will not dispute a claim. Any time after and they'll try and hide behind "its not in warranty" but the fact is they a legal bound to make sure the products lasts a reasonable amount of time. Whats classesed as "reasonable"? well if the cost is still 80% of retail. its may be "reasonable" to expect 80% of the warranty too! But its all dependant on product and price.

If it packs up within the first year, a lot will depend on who can prove what about why it failed. After any warranty coverage expires, the Sale of Goods Act only gives coverage for "inherent" faults that existed at the time of sale. For 6 months, that's assumed to be the case unless the seller can prove otherwise. But after 6 months, there's no liability for satisfactory quality or fitness for purpose unless the buyer can prove (on balance of probability) that the drive was faulty when sold, and that it didn't fail as a result of something the buyer did, like incorrect installation, or perhaps excessive use (like in a server if a drive's not rated for that).

So if you bring a legal case (over a £40 drive) in the first year, it entirely depends on when you bring it, and whether Crucial opted to fight it or not. If they did, and it's after 6 months, the onus is on you to prove your claim, not to them to prove theirs.

But, in my view, most electronic devices, most of the time, either fail quickly or last for ages. IO very much doubt they'd be selling these drives knowing they have problems. The damage to reputation wouldn't be worth it. They'd just skip them. More likely, these are things like DSR returns, etc, that can't be sold as new once opened, and a company like crucial is not a corner shop, and they aren't geared up for handing relatively small quantities of oddments. So, for products with perhaps minor damage (a scratch), or manky packaging, they just want to get rid of them and get a bit of revenue. My bet is this isn't about dumping dodgy drives, as some have suggested, but just getting rid if a minor problem, that being an accumulation of stuff they can't shift as new in the normal way.

I think these look like a minor risk, but overall, a pretty temptinbg deal. But I could be wrong.

[Hicks12]

dont forget guys.... it doesnt come with a 2.5---> 3.5 adaptor! Im now looking for one i may have lying around or will have to ebay one ... it came so fast in the post!

[RotoScopeGoat]

But, in my view, most electronic devices, most of the time, either fail quickly or last for ages. IO very much doubt they'd be selling these drives knowing they have problems. The damage to reputation wouldn't be worth it. They'd just skip them. More likely, these are things like DSR returns, etc, that can't be sold as new once opened, and a company like crucial is not a corner shop, and they aren't geared up for handing relatively small quantities of oddments. So, for products with perhaps minor damage (a scratch), or manky packaging, they just want to get rid of them and get a bit of revenue. My bet is this isn't about dumping dodgy drives, as some have suggested, but just getting rid if a minor problem, that being an accumulation of stuff they can't shift as new in the normal way.

I agree. I don't believe Crucial would sell refurb'd units that it hadn't properly repaired through the normal channels. Wouldn't that be illegal? Unless Crucial is actually just one guy working off the back of a truck?!!

With Seagate, a 30 day warranty is standard policy on refurbed HDDs via RMA so I don't see why it should be worrying with an SSD. I'd be more concerned about my replacement HDDs failing than these SSDs.

That's not to say the NAND lifespan won't be affected from prior use (will they really have replaced the NAND on units where say the controller failed?) but then aren't these SSDs built for hundreds of thousands of write cycles? Assuming the controllers don't fail first (and TRIM is running), surely there'll be years left on the clock before these c300s see their NAND performance degrade?

As you can tell, mine's in the post...

[Hicks12]

ive looked at mine and it clearly has "REFURBISHED" stamped on the back of it lol, im sure its fine. Anyone know how to find out date of manufacture from s/n or somethng? not sure if crucial stamp that on their drives

[Ciber]

Very Very tempting even though I already have a C300!

[danroyle]

i jumped and bought one of the 64gb's.

[zoomee]

Thanks for the heads up Hexus!!!!

- I've already got a 128Gb C300 - bought another 64gb one for lols.

[Ciber]

I'm a bit put off by the 30 day warranty. I bought an 'A grade' Humax PVR and that still came with a full years warranty, some tiny scratches and £50 off, so 30 days on these seems stingy. The offer is off now until 3pm monday now anyway and I've yet to persuade myself and my other half I need one, though it would be a nice upgrade on my old Samsung SSD.

I'm thinking they may just have a lot of old stock of these drives they want to shift on and start selling the new drives. Rather than new they may just be clearing their inventory and this is an excuse to sell them cheap and not have to support them.

[Sputnik]

I'm a bit put off by the 30 day warranty.

I was too but, At least it is the manufacturer that is selling them. They should have been properly tested and upgraded to the latest firmware.

I also wondered if they are just new ones they are trying to get rid of as they have launched the M4's now. I've bought lots of so called 'refurbs' that have just been new units sold at a lower price without retail packaging.

[aceuk]

upgraded to the latest firmware.

My refurb'd 64GB C300 came with firmware version 0006 so not the latest. This isn't an issue really since flashing the firmware is so easy.

[Sputnik]

My refurb'd 64GB C300 came with firmware version 0006 so not the latest. This isn't an issue really since flashing the firmware is so easy.

That is strange, As most people who bought them said they had version 0007.

[Noli]

That is strange, As most people who bought them said they had version 0007.

Yeah mine came with in a simple white cardboard box with sponge padding. "REFURBISHED" is printed on the drive and where it says Firmware Rev: the 0002 is overwriten with 0007 by hand. I will test to make sure. What is interesting is whether I can SMART test the drive to see if how many write cycles, if any, have already been made. Any suggestions as to what utilities can be used to test this would be appreciated...?

[miniyazz]

Mine arrived yesterday - 0007. Also says refurbished on it. Same cardboard box and handwritten 7.

PS - think I've hit my eSATA's maximum. HDTune tops out at 115MB/s, averaging 109MB/s. Odd, I thought it would be more.

Will see if I have a chance to install it tomorrow