Tracking SSD costs

[mikerr]

As for the failure theory, I'm tempted to say that an SSD should be easier. I mean, with an SSD, the controller might fail, or a certain block might completely fail, but the drive is made up of independent bits of flash.

Last year I moved all my laptops and PCs (yes I have several) to SSDs using X32s.
I've had 2x SSDs die. On a reboot the PCs didn't boot up, and the SSD wasn't seen by the BIOS.
No warning beforehand. It wasn't after a firmware update either.

Reading forums this failure mode is not rare, though forums only show problems...

Every HDD failure I've had has had slight warning before, and I've had great success with recovery from them when needed - although you should never need to recover if you have proper backups !

[jim]

Last year I moved all my laptops and PCs (yes I have several) to SSDs using X32s.
I've had 2x SSDs die. On a reboot the PCs didn't boot up, and the SSD wasn't seen by the BIOS.
No warning beforehand. It wasn't after a firmware update either.

Reading forums this failure mode is not rare, though forums only show problems...

Every HDD failure I've had has had slight warning before, and I've had great success with recovery from them when needed - although you should never need to recover if you have proper backups !

I was more talking about professional data recovery there, but that's interesting - didn't realise it was that prevalent. Was it just a case of RMA'ing and getting a replacement then? Which models/brands failed?

[TooNice]

I've posted this link on Vertex LE news thread, but I'll post it again here. The reason why I said that the immaturity of the technology may offset the inherent advantage of the technology at the moment is because of Anandtech's latest article here: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3747

Now of course, drive fails all the time and without more data I wouldn't make definite claims about SSD being more or less reliable than mechanical drives right now.

[golwg]

What is the reliability like with an SSD compared to a mechanical HD?

[mikerr]

All drives of any kind will fail at some point. Just have a proper backup strategy so you don't cry when it happens !

Your local storage is just a big cache for your backup anyway

[Leper]

Drive failure and price per gb don't justify the extra speed for me yet. Waiting for 80gb X25M G2 or equivalent speed to come down to ~£100, that or have a few thousand pounds drop on me.

[jordan427]

Such a shame they're still rediculously priced

[j1979]

are the prices about to drop.. i noticed the prices are about 25% lower then the last time i checked.

scan got the 60gb vertex for £150, it was over £200 not so long ago

[TooNice]

Well, it's been one whole year since I started this thread. Let's see how things have changed when comparing apple with apple. Same drive, same e-tailer that is, the Vertex at Novatech:

30GB: £115 -> £100 (-£15)
60GB: £163 -> £175 (+£12)
250GB: £621 -> £614 (-£7)

They do not have the 120GB version. But there you have it, one whole year later, and the price change is rather negligible. MemoryC's is running a special offer on the Vertex today (60GB@£150, 120GB@£281, and the 30GB is not even worth mentioning as it's more expensive than Novatech).

Quite dull really, for completeness sake, I'll compare Intel G2 @Scan from 2 months ago:

80GB: £190.12 -> £187.98 (-£2.14)
160GB: £352.48 -> £352.48 (No change)

Yup, boring. How about the Falcons@ MemoryC:
64GB £151.82 -> £158.95 (+£7.13)
128GB £256.86 -> £282.35 (+25.49)
256GB £534.50 -> £511.37 (-£23.13)

@j1979: Not really if you look far back enough and are thinking more than single digit drops. Occasionally, price increase quite a bit for a month, then drop back to 'normal' suddenly, but for the last few months, non JMicron SSD still hovers above £2/GB.

[mikerr]

2 Months ago:

40GB Intel £92.82 @ scan

Today:

40GB: £92.82 -> £93.87 ( +£1.05 ) @ scan

[shamus21]

Forget about SSD`s until windows 8 is out.

[GoNz0]

Forget about SSD`s until windows 8 is out.

wtf?

[Antagram]

Not a Vertex, but I saw this Kingston V series 128GB SNV425-S2/128GB on ebuyer for £195.95

Was tempted by it for my laptop. But then again for that level of price I'd want it in my desktop, as it would get used more often.

[jim]

Forget about SSD`s until windows 8 is out.

A what?

I've forgotten.

[TooNice]

Right, it's almost 3 months since the last update. By now, the Indilinx is falling out of favour performance wise, while the price hasn't really moved so I'll drop them from the list. Intel's offering is showing it's age too, but I'll leave it for reference.

Intel G2 @ Scan:
80GB: £187.98 -> £181.89 (-£6.09)
160GB: £352.48 -> £349.16 (-£3.32)

Anandtech has acknowledged the C300 as a viable performance desktop drive (especially under Win7), so I figured that I'll keep an eye on it from now on.

For simplicities sake, Scan's price will be used. Crucial might be cheaper with cashback for the 64GB drive, but Scan is much cheaper for the 128/256GB drive, though it's not saying much.

64GB: £118.66
128GB: £296.08
256GB: £500.80 (well, it's just about under £2/GB)

Compared to the Falcon I tracked a year ago, the average price across the three capacities have only dropped slightly, but you do get a much faster drive.

I'd also like to track a decent SandForce, but I am not sure which brand to go for. Input appreciated. Ditto for the newer, allegedly trouble free JMicron based drives (AFAIK, those can be found for as little as £1.50/GB).

[neologan]

The 64GB Crucial drive is the first one to have me seriously consider pressing the buy button. But it's simply a matter of time before Intel launch their new drives and it will cut the price per GB significantly, so it's worth waiting for, I think.