Tracking SSD costs

[TooNice]

I am more frustrated with HDTach than any other HD benchmark tools. It's far from being useless, but a lot of people seem to see it as the end and all in determining HD performance.

It's a shame that Storagereview appears to be a declining website. They've put a lot of effort to put together their test methodology for mechanical drive, and I've learnt a lot reading their articles and forum posts over the year.

It's a shame that updates have become sparse, and it does not look like they'll be expending their focus to SSDs. Still, so far I've been impressed by Anandtech's articles on SSDs.

[malfunction]

It's a shame that Storagereview appears to be a declining website. They've put a lot of effort to put together their test methodology for mechanical drive, and I've learnt a lot reading their articles and forum posts over the year.

Me too - it's a very geeky website but it's nice to know what the performance difference is between what you have and what you're buying next.

It's a shame that updates have become sparse, and it does not look like they'll be expending their focus to SSDs. Still, so far I've been impressed by Anandtech's articles on SSDs.

I like the detail in the anandtech articles but I have to wonder if the intel SSDs are as outstanding as their articles make them sound (not saying they aren't good but it reads as biased, would love to be able to compare them myself in terms of real world usage - random writes are obviously very good on the intel drives compared to the rest)

[TooNice]

5 weeks since the last update.

G.Skill Falcon from MemoryC:
64GB £160.63 -> £158.70 (-£1.93)
128GB £307.43 -> £296.24 (-£11.19)
256GB £473.37 -> £469.75 (-£3.62)

Intel from Scan:
80GB: £171.12 -> £192.68 (+£21.56)
160GB: £338.28 -> £501.39 (+£161.11; £365 at OcUK; Places listed for cheaper are out of stock)

I'll keep this thread/post for reference. And I have to say that I agree - I'd love to be proven wrong, but £200 for 500GB? Not a chance in my opinion.

60GB drives are only £5 down from 7 months ago.
120GB drives are £10 down (but up from 5 months ago).
256GB drives are £148 down (up from 2 months ago, but still impressive-ish).

[TooNice]

8 weeks since last update.

G.Skill Falcon from MemoryC:
64GB £158.70 -> £153.34 (-£5.36, but out of stock)
128GB £307.43 -> £315.14 (+£7.71, however the Falcon II, which I've not had to read up on is £261.20)
256GB £469.75 -> £474.82 (+5.07, and out of stock)

Intel from Scan:
80GB: £192.68 -> £197.17 (+£4.49)
160GB: £501.39 -> £328.96 (-£197.17, though TBH, the £500+ price was more of an anomaly presumably due to a temporary shortage. Still, it's £9.32 cheaper than back in September)

I don't know anything about the Falcon II right now, but if it is at least equivalent to it's predecessor, then it could be the most interesting development in terms of price drop since the Intel G2. It's barely (a penny) cheaper than the later per GB, but it's the first I've seen at 128GB.

[Perfectionist]

Posting this again in case anyone missed it:

anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631

Helped me decide after over month of researching options (check my posts about SSDs previously regarding seek times IOPs etc), really well done article.

Went for the intel G2 (silver case, not black they are the old G1 version) 160GB (the size of the disk doesn't affect speed with SSDs, in fact larger ones can be faster due to easier to find empty space to dump data fast in)

IN GENERAL USE SEQUENTIAL READ SPEEDS ARE A MARKETING RED HERRING AND ONLY MATTER FOR TRANSFERRING/CREATING VERY LARGE FILES, WHAT MATTERS IS THE IOs/per second SPEED (IOPS) FOR 4K DATA CHUNKS

[Hawks3k]

Hi all,

Not sure if i'm meant to post this here, but I have a Brand New SSD drive available for sale. If anyone would like to make me an offer, please go ahead.

The P/N is CMFSSD-256GBG2D.

Thanks.

[watercooled]

No you don't post here you post in the for sale forum which you aren't allowed in yet because you don't have enough posts.

[Hawks3k]

Ok, please ignore then. Sorry.

Been a member for ages just don't post much

[UseItNow]

SSD's seem to be getting cheaper, I think Aria have some Patriot 32Gb ones for around £60 plus delivery.

Don't know about it performance wise, just saw the price.

[TooNice]

Prices have gone down a lot for drives of that capacity, but overall, we are still looking at over £2/GB for non limited special offers (Aria has 6 more drives at just under £60, then it's back to £70). To me, prices per GB has become quite stagnant.

That said, drives are also getting better so you are getting ever slightly more for your money.

This particular drive should be faster than mechanical drives, but slower than the Intel/Kingston and I believe Indilinx based drive. Review here: http://www.servethehome.com/?p=206

[Scarlet Infidel]

80Gb x25-m for £179.95 inc. next day delivery on CCL.

I was waiting until these were about £160 though stock levels are variable and prices seem fairly stable.

My boot drive has just died and my 5400rpm storage drive is proving painfully slow as an emergency boot disk (my i7 machine suddenly feels like my netbook). This is the perfect excuse to spend some money that's burning a hole in my pocket. I'll let you know what I think when it arrives.

[dirky]

www.skinflint.co.uk show graphs and prices of stuff, including SSD. I'm also keeping my eye on the 80GB Intels, 179 is just a tad high for my liking

[Hawks3k]

How good are these SSD drives? do they make a real difference apart from speed?

[jim]

Er, what kind of difference were you looking for aside from "speed". Surely that's the point of virtually all PC components?

Benefits are:

Low access time (low latency)
High transfer speeds
High physical shock resistance
Low power requirements
Low heat

Obviously the first two are dependent on model, although the first one becomes more or less standardised if you ignore the initial JMicron junk and any budget junk that's currently working its way through OEM channels primarily for the sake of the latter benefits.

[Tinlau]

How much do they charge for delivery?

[jim]

Who are "they"?