intel 320 priced out on the egg

[ShatteredX]

Amazon just jacked up their price on the 300gb to $580, not in stock though. I should've pulled the trigger at $530

Edit: Nevermind. Amazon has two different versions like someone else already mentioned. A G3B5 for $539 and a G3K5 for $582.

 

[aceO07]

Amazon's G3 300GB is actually $623 now. This was the G3B5, which used to be $539.

"Please note that the price of Intel 320 Series 300 GB SATA 3.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid-State Drive - Retail Box SSDSA2CW300G3B5 has increased from $538.98 to $623.82 since you placed it in your Shopping Cart."

 

[mikek753]

will 320 300 drop down in a price in 2 weeks when Crucial 400 / m4 will be released?
Or it will take more than a month as m4 might not be ready to ship?
if m4 will cost the same as 320 - why to go with 320?

 

[exar333]

Stop clicking on the newegg 320 link! Its up to $239.00 now....
:biggrin:

 

[finbarqs]

hmm... still above MSRP

 

[mikek753]

no competition from Micron or others in 25nm yet
and this is in limited avail for a while
give it 2-6 weeks

 

[iwbwiwb]

I have a newbie question. Why is it that the lower the capacity the lower are the write speeds of Intel SSDs? The write speeds do not seem to change with capacity on Sandforce based drives, at least not according to specifications. Why is this?

 

[finbarqs]

it's just how it works i guess... but still, you'll get a drive that's whole a lot faster.

 

[mikek753]

I have a newbie question. Why is it that the lower the capacity the lower are the write speeds of Intel SSDs? The write speeds do not seem to change with capacity on Sandforce based drives, at least not according to specifications. Why is this?

in simple - they have designed controller to use so many NAND over channel
when number of NAND is less than less number the controller can use channels - in this case half channels and as result less speed

 

[VirtualLarry]

The write speeds do not seem to change with capacity on Sandforce based drives, at least not according to specifications. Why is this?

That's because their specs are based on ATTO, which zero-fills the files it uses, and so SandForce's compression scheme is most effective, which results in benchmarks that are at the controller's limits.

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that with uncompressable data, SF drives might actually show a difference in write speeds, based on capacity.

 

[finbarqs]

man... how does write speed affect real world performance? I mean does it decrease boot time and load time?

 

[aceO07]

Just got the Intel 320 SSD 300GB for $498 from newegg.

They emailed me a 10% off coupon (max $50) for all SSDs (and other coupons) and I couldn't resist.

Their regular price was $548.

 

[finbarqs]

wow!!! where did you ge tthe coupon from!!! I want!

 

[aceO07]

wow!!! where did you ge tthe coupon from!!! I want!

You have to be on their emailing list. You can sign up on their website. They've been sending me a couple of emails with coupons every week.

edit: Already shipped! Got tracking number before an invoice was sent. Better than Amazon's 1-3 weeks or 1-3 months wait..

 

[sticks435]

I wanna jump on an SSD so bad, but I'm waiting for Z68 anyway, so I'll hold out and hope for another 10 or 20% coupon. I hear that OCZ is coming out with an enthusiast SKU, so will wait to check that out also. Hopefully it will prop the speeds of the 120 up a little bit.

 

[California Roll]

If I need a 120GB SSD this week, X25-M for $230 or 320 for $240? I'm not understanding why there's only a $10 difference between the two.

I don't have SATA3 ports and I'm willing to pay a bit of a premium for reliably, even tho a Vertex 2 120GB for $160 has got me wavering now.

 

[pm]

I bought a 300GB Intel 320 SSD today... should arrive mid next week hopefully. I bought an 80GB and that was too small so I ended up selling it... I'm thinking a 300GB should fit the OS, games and programs with room to spare.

 

[finbarqs]

i have 160gb... i think that's just the perfect size.... got my important productivity apps installed on there! I have all my games installed on a 1TB 64mb black drive.

 

[Emulex]

i can tell you from my experience it sucks to have drives not come up on cold start or bsod from energy savings modes. not all machines but enough that i don't want to sell folks sandforce until they get their isht together.

everyone else fixed their problems. Sandforce isn't stepping up to handle the situation. uncool.

 

[nusyo]

Stop clicking on the newegg 320 link! Its up to $239.00 now....
:biggrin:

I am looking for the that ssd too ...

they raised the price from $229 to $239 couple of days ago in order to give the 10% tax discount .... how lame
don't they know that it's so obvious? (when i see stuff like that, i tend to buy somewhere else, even if it is couple of $ more)

btw they are not the only ones doing it (costco and other retailers do it all the time)

 

[nusyo]

if you use buy.com
http://www.buy.com/pr/product.aspx?sku=220601171
its $223 for Intel 320 ssd 120GB
if you select to get it through Buy.com (right column) it comes up to $228
there is a coupon $10 of $200 http://www.buy.com/retail/coupon.asp?prid=82955137 for first time customers

so that's $228-10=218 and you can select free shipping (5-8 days)

use ebillme and you get 10% cash back 218-21.8=196

and you also earn 218 super points on buy.com which translates to about $2

SO intel 320 SSD 120 GB for $194 sounds pretty good to me (UNLESS you have to pay the freakin taxes which brings you up to roughly $220 final price)

California
Maryland
Massachusetts
Tennessee
New York
Washington

 

[aceO07]

Speaking of saving techniques.. I just remembered I could have used ebates to get back 1% when buying from newegg. That would have 'saved' an extra $5. oh well..

edit: Actually using buy.com and billme to get 10% off (as nusyo said) would make buy.com's G3 300GB cheaper than $500. It would be $477, BUT it's not retail packaging.

 

[nusyo]

on a 2nd thought, maybe i should have posted in the Hot Deals sections
( i don't want to duplicate posts, so mods feel free to move it if u want )

 

[finbarqs]

oh wait.. just saw the coupon was for the "we pay the tax" day.... Damn... that means I still needs to pay tax

 

[OlafSicky]

i can tell you from my experience it sucks to have drives not come up on cold start or bsod from energy savings modes. not all machines but enough that i don't want to sell folks sandforce until they get their isht together.

everyone else fixed their problems. Sandforce isn't stepping up to handle the situation. uncool.

Had that problem with couple OCZ drives :thumbsdown: