Price of SSDs "in a free fall" says report

[HEXUS]

Deployment of 3D NAND is expected to help SSDs surpass HDDs in capacity next year.

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[cjs150]

I have already given up on HDDs in my computers. HDD still have their uses - my NAS is a prime example where multi-TB capacity is vital. Even for a gaming PC, I cannot see why I need an HDD.

The interesting thing though is that if we end up with 30TB SDDs at reasonable cost, maybe even RAID 5/6 NAS becomes an unnecessary luxury - simple mirror would be sufficient

[Spreadie]

As above, really. My main PC has no HDDs in there, just a bank of SSDs - I still have HDDs in the NAS box though.

[cheesemp]

I would love to go pure SSD and can see it happening soon (just not yet on my finances). Can't wait until a 1tb SSD hits parity with HDD!

[crossy]

Even for a gaming PC, I cannot see why I need an HDD.

You fair enough, but other people can't afford one of the current 1TB SSD's, or can't setup a RAID (e.g. laptop) or can't downsize their content enough to squeeze into the SSD space that they can afford.

Before everyone gets washed away on a wave of geek-drool at the thought of these large SSD's - remember that the really large kit is "enterprise only", so you're talking about astronomical price tags. Second thing, those with decent memories will remember the problems that have been with SSD's - first OCZ having a terrible rep for failures and more recently the issues with the Samsung 840 EVO's. Sure there's been similar screw ups with the HDDs way back (IBM Deathstars) but modern ones are pretty darned good.

So personally speaking, while I can't wait to replace my remaining boot/app/user HDD with an SSD, I think it'd be a bit premature at the moment. As cheesemp says, when we're talking about a small premium for the SSD then I'm in - but at the moment a terabyte disk you're talking about paying about £200 for the non-spinner. Other thing I want to do is decent consumer-grade disks above that 1TB threshold.

One point that I can't help wondering about - if SSD's are going to more or less replace HDD's in the low- to medium-capacity ranges, does that mean we'll see a dropping of price of the large size HDD's? Wouldn't mind a 4TB (or larger?) WD Green for my in-box backups.

[shaithis]

In a free fall? Oh really?

So how much have they dropped in the last week?

They are NOT in free fall yet at all.

[Saracen]

From my perspective, the cost-effectiveness of SSDs has clearly been improving over the last few years, and dramatically at that.

Sadly, my storage needs have been growing, too. And that negates much of the benefit of dropping cost/GB for SSDs.

For instance, replacing two 4TB with SSDs takes the cost from around £200 for the HDs to around £1000 for the SSDs. Do I get value for money from quintupling the cost? Personally, no.

It's a calculation, however, that compresses at the lower end. So what, for instance, does the average domestic user need in a PC? If it's a TB or two, the the cost differential is, in real terms, pretty nominal and the argument for going SSD much better. If they need a LOT more than that, the cost premium climbs pretty quickly. I know loads of people that have an £800 (or less) budget for the whole damn PC, never mind an £800 premium to have it entirely SSD rather than HD, and still have to buy the PC on top of that.

[DemonHighwayman]

Iv'e been patiently waiting for an SSD with more than 1tb for a few years now, so my fingers are crossed the Hexus prediction is true !

Consumer drives (SSD & HDD) don't seem to have increased in capacity at all in the last 3-4 years. So it'd be nice to see some of these things come our way.

[iranu]

SSD for c: drive, apps and games. HDD for storage. Simples. That way you get the best of both worlds.

[Jowsey]

SSD for c: drive, apps and games. HDD for storage. Simples. That way you get the best of both worlds.

Unless the thing you'll be using the storage drive for is very specific. Such as an application that requires a lot of IOPS, hard drives are fairly useless in this situation. Or perhaps something that is very sound sensitive. I wouldn't want a hard drive clicking away if I've just specced a totally passive system.

I understand your argument and that is what I currently do but as soon as it's feasible on my income I will be ditching my hard drive for an SSD.

[Percy1983]

Personally I couldn't afford an all SSD setup as I currently have 6TB storage which all gets regular use (do a a lot of video editing with a lot of raw data).

I think my current setup is the best of both, I have a 128gb SSD split, 80gb is the OS and the rest is a cache for a 4TB raid 0 array which gets used for video file storage and games. Games which get played get cache and video streaming fast enough for editing.

Yes SSDs are getting bigger/cheaper but I can't see then replacing my mechanical drives any time soon.

[LSG501]

I'm already planning on going ssd only on my next rig plus either a small server or a larger nas. I only use hard drives (and blu ray) to back up work and digital media so I don't actually need hard drives for my 'day to day' use, I'd actually benefit from the extra speeds of an ssd in some cases (scratch disks). I do agree that it's about time prices came down, they haven't really moved much since I bought my current ssd several years back

[Defiant]

I have used 120Gb SSDs for years, I paid £275 for my first one back in the day but I'm not willing to pay for £250 for a reasonable 1TB SSD currently as it would be purely for games. Another problem is that I'm near 1TB in game files currently and its likely that if I want room to grow I need a 2TB SSD so....

Yeah I'm not paying for one for a while, SSDs have a good while to go yet.

Did they ever sort Trim over raid btw?

[jag272]

Good news for me, I'm still running purely on HDDs as SDDs simply arent affordable for me yet, if it was just a small premium for equivalent storage I wouldn't mind paying the extra, though like for like prices would be great. For now its still out of reach though.

[crossy]

SSD for c: drive, apps and games. HDD for storage. Simples. That way you get the best of both worlds.

Similar setup here - C: (SSD) OS; D: (SSD) Apps; E: (SSHD) User; M: (HDD) Backups

Originally had an old Samsung HDD as my "User" drive but it wasn't the best, switched to a WD Black to get a speed up but this was worse. Saw a good deal on the Seagate 1TB SSHD and thought "I'll give this a go". Glad I did - darn thing really moves (for me at least - ymmv).

Just wish Seagate did a "Pro" SSHD with a larger flash cache - with the increasing density of Flash this must be possible.

[jag272]

Does anyone other than Seagate offer SSHDs yet? I've had such a terrible track record with them I won't even consider using one of their drives anymore.