Samsung 840 Pro 256GB $139!!!!

I think all of you who are responding "good price" etc. ought to consider that we're FINALLY getting new SSD controllers with worthwhile speed increases in Q2 of this year. Considering we'll have products performing up to 3x as fast as SATA3, I personally would say that SATA3 drives are now worth a LOT less. Personally I don't think the 840 pro is worth any more than this deal with the new products on the horizon (and it is absolutely, positively not worth its normal price anymore). SATA is nearly dead as far as I'm concerned, at least for SSDs in an enthusiast-class PC.

If cheap is what you want, this was a pretty good deal, yes. If performance is what you want, you shouldn't be buying any SATA3 SSD anymore.

P.S. some of the upcoming products are previewed at http://www.thessdreview.com/, for those who might not have seen.
 
Last edited:
How much faster are the new SSDs supposed to be over the old tech ones?
 
How much faster are the new SSDs supposed to be over the old tech ones?

No benches yet but www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/lat...d-controller-questions-answered-lsi-ais-2013/ has some info (and there's more scattered throughout their recent articles from CES/StorageVisions including a bit of news of Marvell's new controller). The huge boost in sequential speed obviously only applies if you use a PCI-E-based solution. PCI-E M.2 SSDs will be about 1GB/s. For best performance in current machines, an x4 PCI-E card will be necessary. But it will be worth it!

The real question is how much the random speeds will increase.

There ARE benches of a 1GB/s M.2 drive on the same site, though. Samsung XP941.
 
Last edited:

The new drives I'm talking about will have new controllers on PCI-E - the x4 versions should be better. That'd be an analogue if I said something like "Get an SF2281 PCI-E drive instead! Huge speed gains!" (though I HAVE recommended the Mushkin Scorpion PCI-E SSD which has 2-4 SF2281 drives in RAID)

No, the OS won't boot in 1/3 the time with the new drives, but it will still be a noticeable increase, I feel. 1GB/s obviously won't make a huge difference, but I think 1.8GB/s should be noticeable, even if not major for many things. Personally I do things that would make it more noticeable. Just because some tests don't make a big difference doesn't mean they are all like that. And this isn't casualcomputeruserswhojustbrowsethewebandcheckemailforum.com ;) Not all of us need the speed, but I thought some might not be aware of what will be available quite soon. Obviously take your own usage into account and decide if you don't even need a faster SSD.

SF2281 and all other current-gen controllers are too old. I've been sick of this generation of SSDs for ages now and on a site like this I imagine I am not alone (though 100% of you won't agree). It still has a place, though - cheap SSDs. In the specific case of Samsung, the XP941 might use the same controller as the 840Pro, but without a SATA limitation... bu t I am not sure.

At the very least, the new controllers will push the older stuff down in price.
 
Last edited:
no luck for me either. Went to local Staples with Ipad in hand showing BB ad. They would only price match if they had the SSD in stock. They didn't so no love for me....
 
Thank you, OP. I have a confirmation email to my phone order, so we'll see if Staples actually ships the product.
 
I think all of you who are responding "good price" etc. ought to consider that we're FINALLY getting new SSD controllers with worthwhile speed increases in Q2 of this year. Considering we'll have products performing up to 3x as fast as SATA3, I personally would say that SATA3 drives are now worth a LOT less. Personally I don't think the 840 pro is worth any more than this deal with the new products on the horizon (and it is absolutely, positively not worth its normal price anymore). SATA is nearly dead as far as I'm concerned, at least for SSDs in an enthusiast-class PC.

If cheap is what you want, this was a pretty good deal, yes. If performance is what you want, you shouldn't be buying any SATA3 SSD anymore.

P.S. some of the upcoming products are previewed at http://www.thessdreview.com/, for those who might not have seen.

30% less than the previous all time low seems like a deal no matter what is 5 months out..

Mine have shipped so I'm thrilled.
 
no luck for me either. Went to local Staples with Ipad in hand showing BB ad. They would only price match if they had the SSD in stock. They didn't so no love for me....

Try again at a different location or go back when there's different people there. My local staples matched it. It's all about personalities.

BTW, I own one of these and have been looking for a second one. And don't pay no mind to what's coming later this year, PCI SSDs will cost a fortune anyway.
 
Not to mention, if you're running an SLI configuration, you'll be forced to choose between a PCI SSD and a sound card - and while I know the latter isn't as necessary these days, I just *really* dislike the Realtek codecs.

1GB/sec versus 520MB/sec, it'll only be noticeable in professional and processing applications. I feel like we're about to enter a new era of "I bought 2101Mhz DDR because it's better than your piddly 2100! Nyah!"
 
Staples on Limonite in Mira Loma CA doesn't appear to keep these in stock, manage was quick to offer to order it online, and have it price matched, but then said the ssd was out of stock online, no dice.

Anyone know if any Staples in the inland empire area keep these in stock? Or have them in stock?
 
Staples on Limonite in Mira Loma CA doesn't appear to keep these in stock, manage was quick to offer to order it online, and have it price matched, but then said the ssd was out of stock online, no dice.

Anyone know if any Staples in the inland empire area keep these in stock? Or have them in stock?

They are normally in stock, however this deal cleared out most stores.
 
I didn't notice much if any difference at all going from the Sata 2 ssd's to the latest gen. I think what makes the ssd's better is the controllers they implement, and features like trim, wear leveling, etc. But yeah I dunno if I want to give up a pci slot for a ssd card. I may wait it out to see if the new ones are any good and are worth the money especially for gaming. I can't really see my OS getting much faster because of it... Maybe boot times will go down from 15 seconds down to 12? Not worth big bucks for that imo.
 
And Asus has a pci card out already, it's not gettign much good reviews though. I've seen a few reviews on newegg where people aren't noticing much difference in speed over standard ssd.
 
yeHtpwP.png
 
Mine were delivered yesterday. To the house I moved out of 3.5 years ago... Not sure if this is on Staples or UPS, but I'm a bit annoyed. We'll see if they get it right tomorrow.
 
I think all of you who are responding "good price" etc. ought to consider that we're FINALLY getting new SSD controllers with worthwhile speed increases in Q2 of this year. Considering we'll have products performing up to 3x as fast as SATA3, I personally would say that SATA3 drives are now worth a LOT less. Personally I don't think the 840 pro is worth any more than this deal with the new products on the horizon (and it is absolutely, positively not worth its normal price anymore). SATA is nearly dead as far as I'm concerned, at least for SSDs in an enthusiast-class PC.

If cheap is what you want, this was a pretty good deal, yes. If performance is what you want, you shouldn't be buying any SATA3 SSD anymore.

P.S. some of the upcoming products are previewed at http://www.thessdreview.com/, for those who might not have seen.
Because we all know when these new products hit the shelves, for the first six months they will be very economical.... NOT!

So you wait six months for it to hit the shelves, another six months for it to become mainstream, and another six months for price drops... and generation 2.0 is on the horizon.
 
Because we all know when these new products hit the shelves, for the first six months they will be very economical.... NOT!

So you wait six months for it to hit the shelves, another six months for it to become mainstream, and another six months for price drops... and generation 2.0 is on the horizon.

Seriously you need to wait for that generation 2.0 as well, so they can work out all the bugs on the first batches of cheap consumer PCIe drives :D

2016 will be the year to buy next gen SSD! :eek:
 
Ordered mine on Wednesday, price-matched with Office Depot. Was just delivered this afternoon. Great deal IMO.
 
Looks like the deal is dead. Price is back to normal at both Best Buy and Staples. Too bad, I was considering getting one.
 
Looks like the deal is dead. Price is back to normal at both Best Buy and Staples. Too bad, I was considering getting one.

I wouldn't worry. In another three months this'll probably be their normal price. This might not have been a 'mistake' or goof so much as Samsung putting a lot of stock out at an amazing price seeing how the market would respond to a dramatic price drop on SATA SSDs. This just tells them they could put out 256GB drives at $160 in a week and everyone who missed out on this deal would jump all over it.

Price mistakes rarely get honored. Sales put out as price *speculations*, however...do.
 
Last edited:
Not to mention, if you're running an SLI configuration, you'll be forced to choose between a PCI SSD and a sound card - and while I know the latter isn't as necessary these days, I just *really* dislike the Realtek codecs.

That's going to depend entirely upon how well your motherboard layout was put together.

My motherboard has the following layout:
-1x-
-16x--------
-1x-
-PCI-
-16x--------
-PCI-
-16x--------

Which means it's possible to install a sound card, two dual-slot graphics cards, and STILL have access to a 16x slot along the bottom for an SSD.
 
That's going to depend entirely upon how well your motherboard layout was put together.

My motherboard has the following layout:
-1x-
-16x--------
-1x-
-PCI-
-16x--------
-PCI-
-16x--------

Which means it's possible to install a sound card, two dual-slot graphics cards, and STILL have access to a 16x slot along the bottom for an SSD.

Which motherboard is it, and what does the manual say about PCI-E lane distribution? A very crippling shortage of lanes for SSD use is the real sticking point for M.2 SSDs to get popular.
 
Would have loved one of these at this price. I'm leaning towards an X240 and I think the bay is 2.5
 
This deal got me thinking.

Either they took a bath on these at this price, or the markup on SSD's is criminal.
 
Someone tried to price match Newegg and they denied since it's lower than the cost of the drive.
 
This deal got me thinking.

Either they took a bath on these at this price, or the markup on SSD's is criminal.

There's a huge markup. I picked up my 2 Samsung 830's for $155 about a year ago from Amazon and they are no different than the 840 Pros.
 
Back
Top