News - SSD price war in full swing

[Whiternoise]

Once 256GB goes below £100 I'll take a punt. The price seems to be dropping about £60 every couple of months, so not long now!

[3dcandy]

whiternoise it's the single biggest upgrade I have ever done. Windows 7 from cold boot in 17 secs to everything loaded....it takes the BIOS etc. 5 secs at least of that! If you can afford a 64/60 gig unit now I'd take the plunge, you won't ever look back....

[Saracen]

SSD prices are expected to continue to dip steadily throughout 2012 as manufacturers push the latest-generation SATA 6Gbps models, but there's never been a better time to make the transition to solid-state storage. Have the lower prices encouraged you to take the plunge?

Hmmm.

Perhaps, given the first line, the latter bit should read ".... but there's never yet been a better time ...."

It's also perhaps worth pointing out that, compared to hard drives, they are still very expensive, per GB. I picked up a 2TB drive a few weeks ago for about the same as a 128GB M4 currently costs, so while the cash outlay for, say, a 128GB M4 has certainly dropped, they are still comparatively about 16x the cost of an HD (depending, of course, on which HD).

So it's really, still, a case of whether the performance difference justifies the price premium. Clearly, for many users of a forum like this it will. For the mass market, no so much. They have one hell of a long way to go before they are price competitive in cost/GB terms.

[Saracen]

whiternoise it's the single biggest upgrade I have ever done. Windows 7 from cold boot in 17 secs to everything loaded....it takes the BIOS etc. 5 secs at least of that! If you can afford a 64/60 gig unit now I'd take the plunge, you won't ever look back....

That depends on, based on that example, whether you care (within reason) how long Windows takes to boot. I don't. I boot the machine, go make a cup of coffee, and regardless of whether it's an SSD or HD, by the time I get back (2 mins later) the machine is booted. As far as I'm concerned, in the real world, the SSD and HD boot time are identical, that being .... 1 cup of coffee-making.

There might be other reasons for an SSD, but for me, boot time is utterly irrelevant, provided it's inside the time it takes me to make that coffee.

[Hicks12]

I think boot times are highlighted to much for SSDs, yes Saracen you can go make a coffee when you boot up ( much like myself, 9/10 i make one but its already booted before i leave now haha). SSD for me meant a quiet system, the noise of my HDD always were far to loud ! The other main advantage is that everything is fast, my browser opens instantly and visual studios office and everything else just loads like a snap.

Its one of those differences that you dont appreciate till you get one or lose it!. I agree they are high premium but now i think its excellent,buy a nice m4 128gb and you have a very large boot drive for all your main programs (or most!) and then you can buy a lovely large 2TB HDD for storage.

best of both worlds .

[Saracen]

I think boot times are highlighted to much for SSDs, yes Saracen you can go make a coffee when you boot up ( much like myself, 9/10 i make one but its already booted before i leave now haha). SSD for me meant a quiet system, the noise of my HDD always were far to loud ! The other main advantage is that everything is fast, my browser opens instantly and visual studios office and everything else just loads like a snap.

Its one of those differences that you dont appreciate till you get one or lose it!. I agree they are high premium but now i think its excellent,buy a nice m4 128gb and you have a very large boot drive for all your main programs (or most!) and then you can buy a lovely large 2TB HDD for storage.

best of both worlds .

I wouldn't argue with any of that ... but would add the proviso that the "snap" comes at a price. If people are willing to pay the price for the "snap", then great. But what I queried was the very broad "If you can afford a 64/60 gig unit now I'd take the plunge, you won't ever look back...."

Firstly, personally, and especially given the price drops, I'd query the 64GB cost versus the 128GB, and secondly, even if you can afford it, a lot depends on what you do with the machine. As you mention Visual Studio, Office, etc, then yes, you may get a real boost. But what if your main use is writing letters, a lot of accounts data entry and some email? Is it still a worthwhile investment? In my view, almost certainly not.

It's seriously nice to have that boost, but for most people and most purposes, it's all about the feel of the machine and has naff-all effect on real-world productivity. Hence, it's horses for courses.

[Biscuit]

So it's really, still, a case of whether the performance difference justifies the price premium. Clearly, for many users of a forum like this it will. For the mass market, no so much. They have one hell of a long way to go before they are price competitive in cost/GB terms.

Its not just booting though, it also helps general responsiveness when loading apps and navigating around.

My work laptop doesnt have an SSD and some app loading times really drive me insane because im so used to SSD speeds. Its definately not the CPU which is the issue either as my work laptop is a dual core 2.6 core2 and my home laptop is a an AMD E450 based netbook!

At the price they are at now, i would say its worth a bash even if you come to the conclusion you dont need the extra speed/responsiveness.
For the mass market i would say the same, my friend recently bought one for his laptop after months and months of saying 'i need the extra capacity'. He eventually got one because he needed his laptop to be a bit more shock resistant, he has now immediately gone out and bought them for his other computer. I would challenge 99% of people to genuinely convince me they haven't had an improved computing experience after switching to an SSD.

I think a lot of people will say they dont need when they havent tried it, once they have tried it they wont look back..

[rinoz]

Well price wars always benefits the consumer so bring it on. I bought a M4 128GB about 4 months back and paid £120 then and it was the cheapest I could find. Heck I remember way back paying that amount for a 80GB HDD.

[Dark Knight]

I seriously wouldn't say no but with the continuous drop in prices I think I will be able to hold out a bit longer until prices tail out. I don't think these drives are necessities for every day PC users more of a luxury item.

[Whiternoise]

whiternoise it's the single biggest upgrade I have ever done. Windows 7 from cold boot in 17 secs to everything loaded....it takes the BIOS etc. 5 secs at least of that! If you can afford a 64/60 gig unit now I'd take the plunge, you won't ever look back....

At the moment booting takes around 2 minutes from button to loading up Firefox, I'm reasonably happy with that and since I rarely turn it off during the day I don't mind that much.

I don't want it for my desktop, I want it for my laptop and as such 64GB just isn't enough, 256GB is what it came with and I can just shunt all the stuff that takes the space onto an external drive. The desktop will get one too, but that can wait!

Having 8GB Ram and a quad makes everything nippy...

[HalloweenJack]

aria have agility 3`s for £!49.99..... creaping close to the £100 mark

[semo]

I wouldn't argue with any of that ... but would add the proviso that the "snap" comes at a price. If people are willing to pay the price for the "snap", then great. But what I queried was the very broad "If you can afford a 64/60 gig unit now I'd take the plunge, you won't ever look back...."

Firstly, personally, and especially given the price drops, I'd query the 64GB cost versus the 128GB, and secondly, even if you can afford it, a lot depends on what you do with the machine. As you mention Visual Studio, Office, etc, then yes, you may get a real boost. But what if your main use is writing letters, a lot of accounts data entry and some email? Is it still a worthwhile investment? In my view, almost certainly not.

It's seriously nice to have that boost, but for most people and most purposes, it's all about the feel of the machine and has naff-all effect on real-world productivity. Hence, it's horses for courses.

I work in IT and from the feedback I've had from people doing simple office tasks and private clients who only browse the net and watch movies, I've not heard of one single user having regrets about upgrading to an SSD. I've done a lot of testing in classrooms and offices and I hear endless complaints about slow computers. Unlike your opinion, the staff I speak to prefer not to have to get a cup of tea every time they launch an application or the AV is updating or when we are pushing out security patches.

a 2TB drive may be cheaper in terms of storage but I don't know many casual users that need that much storage. In my experience, the biggest storage needs for most users is for pictures and you can store a lot on a 128GB SSD. People who like to film their holidays/lives are usually more advanced computer users and certainly not the norm because of the skill and computing power required to edit film footage.

[Saracen]

I work in IT and from the feedback I've had from people doing simple office tasks and private clients who only browse the net and watch movies, I've not heard of one single user having regrets about upgrading to an SSD. I've done a lot of testing in classrooms and offices and I hear endless complaints about slow computers. Unlike your opinion, the staff I speak to prefer not to have to get a cup of tea every time they launch an application or the AV is updating or when we are pushing out security patches.

a 2TB drive may be cheaper in terms of storage but I don't know many casual users that need that much storage. In my experience, the biggest storage needs for most users is for pictures and you can store a lot on a 128GB SSD. People who like to film their holidays/lives are usually more advanced computer users and certainly not the norm because of the skill and computing power required to edit film footage.

Nobody said anything about getting a cup of tea every time they launch an application, did they? I said when booting the machine, which most users do, typically, one a day, if that.

And of course such users don't regret an SSD. They didn't pay for it.

At no point have I said an SSD is a bad idea. All I say is that it comes at a cost, and it's for the user (or buyer) to decide if the clear benefits justify the cost. For some, they will. For some, they won't. That applies to individual home users, and to those with an IT budget, though the criteria may well be different.

[semo]

Nobody said anything about getting a cup of tea every time they launch an application, did they? I said when booting the machine, which most users do, typically, one a day, if that.

And of course such users don't regret an SSD. They didn't pay for it.

At no point have I said an SSD is a bad idea. All I say is that it comes at a cost, and it's for the user (or buyer) to decide if the clear benefits justify the cost. For some, they will. For some, they won't. That applies to individual home users, and to those with an IT budget, though the criteria may well be different.

I still don't know what you are talking about. I have not had one user think that an SSD's cost is not justified. The way I sell it is to ask my clients if they want a new notebook or upgrade their old one at a fraction of the cost. It is just a ludicrous idea to have your OS apps load from an HDD. Convincing individual home users to upgrade to an SSD is easier than convincing an IT manager to get one for all staff (yet they are more than happy to trust the slick salesman and spec i5s for everyone).

[Biscuit]

Nobody said anything about getting a cup of tea every time they launch an application, did they? I said when booting the machine, which most users do, typically, one a day, if that.

And of course such users don't regret an SSD. They didn't pay for it.

At no point have I said an SSD is a bad idea. All I say is that it comes at a cost, and it's for the user (or buyer) to decide if the clear benefits justify the cost. For some, they will. For some, they won't. That applies to individual home users, and to those with an IT budget, though the criteria may well be different.

It's definitely up to the individual, but I struggle to believe anyone would genuinely not think the cost is worth it once they have given it a go. I also think it does improve productivity, an SSD is a proper upgrade and the extra responsiveness you get from it makes the experience a lot more pleasant

[3dcandy]

Hey, I quoted the boot time because it's something tangible....what I can't quote are the almost instant switching between apps/programs, stuff like Firefox opening in under a second to the start page and the superb silky smooth Win 7 experience all round.

It's just the difference going from a non SSD setup to a well sorted SSD setup is like night and day...