SSD time to buy or wait

G

glen

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 30, 2007
Messages
230
I am looking to install Win 7 and am considering an SSD. The reviews are best for the intel and the OMZ. Still pretty expensive. I need about 64GB. Is the technology mature enough to buy an SSD that will last 4 years or so or should I wait for a next generation (maybe 6 months?.)
 
The OCZ drives are due in March and will cost more than comparable Intel. Micron C300 will be even costlier. Demand for NAND itself is high, so prices will remain relatively high. I personally can't see prices on existing drives dropping by more than 10%. IMO, I say look for a good deal after rebate and buy now, unless you want to wait for faster drives. Currently there's a great Newegg Shellshocker deal on the OCZ Vertex 60GB. That's just enough for an OS and some slack space.
 
I have a 60GB Vertex, a 60GB Solid Series, and a 160GB Intel. I've spent a lot of time on the OCZ and Intel forums..

OCZ says to expect the Vertex 2 Pro (Sandforce) to not be cheap. I decided to not wait for that, and wanted something a little more proven.. who knows what issues they could come up with using new controllers like that from small design houses. I went with the Intel G2 160GB. But I'm also getting the refreshed G2 when it gets here, and the G3 at the end of the year.

From all the drives I own, I would recommend the 80GB or 160GB Intel.

I wouldn't wait, because once you go SSD you'll never go back and it's a good thing.
 
I'm rarely an early early adopter... I usually wait 'till the bang-per-buck approaches something more palatable, but in the case of SSD I had to jump in once I read how much of a difference they make and witnessed it myself... And I'm SO glad I did. I waited 'till the cost of a decent sized (60GB+) drive was near $200, so I went with an 80GB X25-M G2 soon as I was able to find it for close to MSRP (I'm shocked it's still tough to find it for less than $250 tho)...

Just yesterday I bought a 40GB X25-V for $120 for my netbook, I was waiting for something decent for $120 or less since the netbook isn't worth investing more on (I'm upgrading it more for temps/ruggedness than performance)... Newegg's running a ShellShocker deal on the 30GB Vertex for $95 tho, I'm tempted to cancel my order (won't ship for a few days apparently) and go w/that instead.

Frankly I think the technology is more than mature enough by now, with TRIM support and everything working relatively smoothly (just no TRIM w/RAID yet)... Yeah there's been a few firmware issues here and there (both Intel and OCZ have gone thru it), but even regular HD manufacturers have gone thru that; just look at the mess Seagate made with their 7200.11 line. Personally I wasn't affected by any of the minor issues that the Intel drives went thru, mostly out of luck. I bought mine a week after the first recall (due to that weird BIOS-HD password bug), and I didn't install the TRIM firmware right off the bat either.

Third gen drives from Micron or based on SandForce controllers are around the corner (2nd gen was the X25-M G2 and Indillix-drives imo, 1st gen was all the bad JMicron drives that stuttered and such), but I don't see prices falling steeply for a few months since most of them are still gonna be using 34nm flash. Unless they're all more widely available than the Intel drives, it's just not gonna happen.

Frankly if Intel drives were more widely available the Indillix drives would've been lowered a bit by now, the 30GB and 60GB drives overlap a lot w/the 40/80GB Intel drives. Micron and SandForce-based drives won't be released in smaller capacities apparently tho, at 'least not initially, so they're even less likely to have an impact on the pricing of those before mid-year.
 
Pieded said:
I don't think the MIcron C300 will be costlier, of course i'm sure that demand will outstrip supply the first few weeks. According to Anand the MSRP for the Cruicial 128 drive is $399 which is comparable to other 128gbs on the market now.

http://anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3712
Click to expand...

I might be wrong, but that's probably not a MSRP since it mentions OEMs. Probably priced in volume. Crucial and OCZ have officially stated that prices are TBD. And if demand outstrips supply it will take time to stabilize. Of course, you can expect Newegg to be up to their usual pricing shenanigans.
 
Frankly, even tho Newegg was one of the first (if not the first) e-tailer to jack up the price on the X25-M G2 drives, everyone else followed suit eventually and the price is virtually identical ($270-290 for the 80GB) across most of them to this day (pretty screwed up considering MSRP was $50+ less than that). NAND flash shortages have hit the SSD market hard.
 
If you're willing to wait, the drive to get is a sata 3 ssd as current ssds are hitting the sata 2 barrier. Expect these to run very expensive (Micron) for a while until other drives come along. And of course, wait for Anand to review them before buying :).
 
I'd vote 80 or 160GB Intel. The price/performance is wicked.

It's such a night and day difference in every day use, I don't know how I ever got by with an old platter based hard drive.
 
While consumer level SSD technology is relatively new, there's not any real reason for an enthusiast to wait other than the lack of funds. Despite the earlier gaffe from Intel's firmware problem, they're actually very solid. Just think this way, if more people start buying them now, there's increased competition, lower prices, and the capacity and performance level gets pushed. As I've and others have said before, it makes a huge difference in the overall usage of the system. There's no one thing you can pinpoint, but the cumulative effect. I dread using a computer without one now.
 
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