SSD - now or wait

grit

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2002
Messages
136
I want to get an SSD to replace my main rig's 300gb raptor. What I can't decide is whether I should get one now or wait for the new sandbridge controller systems to come out. Do you think I would notice much of a performance increase with the sandbridge system vs the current OCZ SSDs? Also, what is the price bracket going to be for the non-pro version going to cost? I'm also trying to decide if there's a cost/performance issue I should factor in too.

Any help/insight would be appreciated. Oh, and its just my general home computer. I use it for gaming, occasional video/photo processing, surfing the web, etc.
 
i own a X25-m 160gb and it is fast...... really fast.

i recommend the intel ssds..... definantely

and with the 40gb version
 
So use the SSD for the os/aps, and use the raptor for games & scratch?
 
It's probably worth the wait since the new OCZ/Micron SSDs supposedly right around the corner. Might as well see if they change the game in any way. At the least, maybe they'll cause Intel to drop their prices.
 
Wait wait wait peeps! Sandforce is due(Q2) and also the new intel 25nm NAND based SSD's (Q2/Q3). Capacity will increase with the 25nm NAND flash so 512GB-1TB drives will creep into mainstream, prices are gona take a very sharp drop however its a 6-9 month wait at least.
 
Intel drives sound like Q4, maybe Q3. And the sizes will be 160, 320 & 600. Still no 1Tb.

And possibly an 80Gb X25-V as the capacity of each chip will double, so one with 5 chips (slightly crippled speeds) will double from 40Gb V series to an 80Gb V series. Assuming they still offer it.

To OP: I'd tell nearly anyone to do it now. However since you have a velociraptor, you do already have a VERY GOOD fast HDD. You're not going to be floored with the performance increase in daily use. In boot times, yeah, but how often do you reboot? In most tasks its just going to shave a second off here or there, I'm not sure if its goign to be worth it FOR YOU.
If you had an older 7,200 rpm drive or even a 74Gb raptor, etc.. I'd say do it. Your situation... its a hard call. Unless you have $230 to blow on just having the best for bests sake.
 
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I picked up one of the 64GB Kingston SSDs when they were under $100 AR.May not be the best but it runs fast & the price was reasonable. Im pretty happy
 
Could wait to see what SSD's have to offer when SATA-III is settled in?
 
I just bought the Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD.

Been a fence-sitter for a year now and felt the prices and support are where they needed to be to make the purchase. $270 is a good value when all I need it for was OS/Application loads. My original two Raptors were relegated to media and file storage.

I have no problem recommending buying an 80 Gb model now for the average user.

Single biggest real-world performance upgrade to date.
 
I can't see myself making the jump until I can get 60GB for about $100 - $150. I really hope that when I build my epic storage array in a few years, they'll be down to that price so I can use one as an OS drive.
 
Ok, so I'm confused. Some people think it is THE single biggest upgrade EVER. Others say that, compared to a Velociraptor, its not THAT big of a difference for your typical home computer (MS Office, music/video, gaming, etc). How can the opinions vary THAT much?
 
Some people think it is THE single biggest upgrade EVER. Others say that, compared to a Velociraptor, its not THAT big of a difference for your typical home compute

About a week ago, i upgraded from a C2D E6600 with 4GB ram and a 320GB maxtor for the OS, to a I5 750, 4GB ram, 80GB Intel SSD. To be honest the SSD hasnt made much difference at all, i always send my computer to sleep so boot/shutdown times were irrelevant (although much faster on the SSD), Office/Firefox/Photoshop/Visual Studio load faster, but Excel and stuff loaded within 2-3 seconds off my maxtor, so shaving a second or 2 off load times hasnt been worth the money, photoshop probably has 10 seconds cut off its load time, but 200£ to save 10 seconds once or twice a day isnt worth it. Its one of the things looking back, that if i had got to test it, i certainly wouldnt have bothered with.

Of course if your restarting your computer a lot you will see a massive difference in load times, but you could reduce that to 1second using sleep.
 
Just like with multi-core CPUs, if you multitask a lot then SSDs are a HUGE upgrade. If speed is your only objective on a few applications then they are a waste of good money. SSDs are only comparatively faster than modern hard drives, with mere seconds of difference.
 
Ok, so I'm confused. Some people think it is THE single biggest upgrade EVER. Others say that, compared to a Velociraptor, its not THAT big of a difference for your typical home computer (MS Office, music/video, gaming, etc). How can the opinions vary THAT much?

That's because it is, compared to getting either a faster processor or faster RAM. However, the differences we're talking about here in terms of load times is still usually in seconds, so from a absolute scale, it's not "mind blowing".
 
Personally, I don't think it's worth waiting. It doesn't look like the price of NAND flash is gonna drop anytime soon. Yeah, Intel/Micron announced 25nm flash but we won't see drives based around that before the end of the year (if that), all the new drives coming out soon (SandForce, Seagate, Crucial, etc.) are still using 34nm flash...

Yeah, some of 'em are faster than the Intel or Indillix/OCZ drives, but I don't think the difference is gonna be very large when it comes to real world performance and the introduction of more models (w/more companies vying for the same supply of flash memory) is only gonna make prices go higher. Intel's X25-M G2 was released in August wasn't it? It was announced (pricing and all) mid-summer IIRC, and it's still tough to find at anything close to MSRP.

After I bought my 80GB X25-M G2 I decided I'd wait a while and maybe buy a larger one eventually, thus shifting the 80GB drive to my netbook... When I saw the way the market was going, I jumped on a smaller drive for the netbook instead, once I saw a drive large enough and cheap enough for me to bite, the 40GB X25-V was it... Tho I was tempted by the Kingston equivalent when it was $85 AR... It never got TRIM support thru a firmware update but users have hacked the Intel firmware to work w/it.

I dunno where people are getting the notion that 25nm Intel drives will ship around Q2/Q3, production on the flash itself is barely gonna be ramping up by then...

SandForce drives won't drive Intel prices down, even the preview article Anand put out about a month ago seemed to indicate they'd be priced similar to current 120-160GB drives ($400-ish), and it'll probably carry a premium while it's new and demand is high. AFAIK they aren't putting out any 80GB versions either, so it might (at best) affect the pricing of the 160GB X25-M.

If you shop around you can get an 80GB X25-M G2 for $250-$260, Allstarshop and NCIXUS are two places I've seen that have it the cheapest. I think it's worth it even considering you have a VRaptor, biggest kind of upgrade you can do to a system right now imo. The difference between a SSD and a VRaptor is vast, it makes the difference between a VRaptor and a regular HD look puny...

'Course if you're happy w/how your computer performs and you're not irked by the speed at which any apps load or you're not a heavy multi tasker then it might not be worth it for you... For any true enthusiast I think it's a heck of an upgrade tho.
 
+1 for waiting. Competition and production capacity is ramping up so expect prices to fall later this year.
 
Like just about everything, I'd wait until it pops up on slickdeals. OCZs were available for pretty slick just a couple of weeks ago. You can find the OCZ Agility 30s for under $100 right now.

I run two OCZ Vertex 30s in RAID 0. It was quite simply the single greatest upgrade I've ever done. Since I still have old fashioned hard drives for storage, any time I have to wait for the platters to spin, I cringe. IMO, the Raptor drives are the most overpriced pieces of hardware currently available. They aren't really much faster (albeit a little bit larger) than the hardware I had 10 years ago. But remember, the only time you are going to feel that 10x upgrade is when you're using the drive. If your primary uses barely touch the drive, you won't feel that jump as often.
 
I don't think pricing will ever fall dramatically on Intel's current line (or drives yet to be released that are also based on 34nm flash), you might see a drop on some Indillix based drives which used larger flash modules tho... Intel's current line will probably just be replaced by either a refresh w/an improved controller or new drives w/25nm flash at the very end of the year. This notion that competition will drive prices down is kinda counter-intuitive right now... At 'least until SSD become really mainstream.

'Till then more competition will just drive more demand for drives that are all being built w/the same memory (from Samsung or Intel). Indillix-based drives have given Intel healthy competition amongst enthusiasts over the past few months and it hasn't had an effect on Intel's prices, at all, or on OCZ/Indillix's. Intel's drives just sold at a premium while Indillix-drive prices remained somewhat constant.

40GB X25-V has sold at roughly the same price as the 30GB Agility/Vertex, the Intel drive was available from Kingston for $85 AR for a very short while and the Vertex has dropped sub-$100 thru discounts at times... Same for the 60GB Agility/Vertex & the 80GB X25-M, prices are really really close, closer than they should be considering the capacity disparity... Intel's drive has consistently sold at a huge premium due to demand but it can be found for $240-250 if you look around.
 
If you have $400 for an SSD wait till Feb 22 for the RealSSD C300 to become available on Crucial.com. If your spending that much you might as well get the newest and best SSD on the market. There is a separate thread on the forums about the drive. If you want an overview check out my blog.

Otherwise if you can wait then see if you can get a sub $160 64GB OCZ Indilinx drive or Intel G2 80GB drive.

The new Vertex 2 is supposed to be out in Q1. That might mean April before it is available in retail. I'm expecting the fastest drives to create lots of interest in the enthusiast group, siphoning off some of Intel's sales. I think price drops will come soon since the market needs cheaper drives not just more capacity. Xmas at the latest but maybe not till Summer before the new drives are fully ramped and the competition drives prices down.
 
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Ok, i'm going to stall for a few months then and compare crucial's drive to the Vertex 2 and see where we are then. Good point - may as well wait to get the most up-to-date hardware for the price.
 
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