• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

is this a good time to buy a ssd?

B

benandjerry

Member
been out of the hardware loop recently. how does it look the upcoming few months, are the next gen drives right around the corner? any other reason to expect any significant price drops any time soon?

been thinking about getting the 128gb version of the samsung 830.
 
I don't think there's a reason to wait for an SSD purchase. If cost is a concern, even the low-end SSDs like the Kingstons are WAY better than regular hard drives. I'm running a 96GB Kingston V100 in my system and it feels very fast. Not sure I'd really notice a huge difference going to the latest and greatest SSD for my particular workload.
 
RaiderJ said:
I don't think there's a reason to wait for an SSD purchase. If cost is a concern, even the low-end SSDs like the Kingstons are WAY better than regular hard drives. I'm running a 96GB Kingston V100 in my system and it feels very fast. Not sure I'd really notice a huge difference going to the latest and greatest SSD for my particular workload.
Click to expand...

I probably wouldnt notice a difference either considering its for a lappy with a few years on its neck (sata1 I'm pretty sure), was more thinking about space might becoming a bit cheaper for each gen. Not willing to shell out much more than todays 120/128gb drives costs, but space is also quite valueable since its the only drive when on the go.

Maybe one of those hybrid momentus xt would be a better way to go? Would there be a big difference in performance, considering my current controller and otherwise somewhat outdated specs?
 
Just ask yourself if it's really worth waiting 6 months to save $30
I think demand will only increase as time goes by, and because of this prices won't drop a massive amount anytime soon.
If you have the money and want to have some fun or fill a need for speed, then right now is as good a time as any to buy an SSD.

120/128GB seems to be the "sweet spot" also
very easy to get a top end SSD below $200 after tax/shipping in that size.

$1/GB can be had, but you have to be patient and usually deal with rebates
 
Last edited:
Are you on an SSD already? If not, do so! 🙂 Don't worry about SATA 1, it's all about reducing latency and huge improvements with random reads. I agree with Raider about the Kingston V100+ 96gb. One of the best bargains and requires no babysitting. Perfect for friends and family.

Unfortunately the newer V200's look disappointing and seem to currently have an issue with writes. I'd rather buy the V100+. Fortunately, $1 a GB is sale price that you'll come across pretty often now.... so just get one already. 🙂
 
This is an excellent time to buy an SSD. There will always be something better around the corner but if you think like that you will never buy anything.

The current crop of SSD's are far better all round than the previous generation. The next generation I don't think the difference will be anywhere near as much. The only SSD missing from the current generation is the Intel 520. That's gone AWOL but when it appears, expect it to be expensive.

I would be suprised if we saw the "next generation" of SSD hit the shelves this year.
 
wow, didnt expect so many replies, love this place, thanks for all the input guys!

so ssd over one hybrid seagate momentus xt every day of the week?

how does the intel 320 120gb stack up against the samsung 830 128gb?

I can have the intel for about 190usd whereas the samsung is about 230usd, I've also looked a little bit at the crucial m4 since its gotten a fair ammount of praise, but since its a tiny tad more expensive than the samsung 830 and it didnt seem to have any major advantages over the samsung other than maybe being more "proven" I'm not considering it too much.
 
The Intel 320 is a refinement of a years old design. X25-M, then X25-M G2, then 320. Same controller, firmware refined. It is also SATA 3Gb/s. The Samsung is an updated version of their 470 but essentially it is a new SSD which is 6Gb/s. The Samsung is faster all around and also offers a good software package. The Crucial is similar to the Samsung in terms of speed and etc but offers no software.

I used to own an X25-M G2 80GB before I sold it to my boss and have posted the crystaldiskmark scores (first screenshot). The difference between these and a 120GB 320 series would be very minor. I now own a Samsung 830 128GB which I've posted the scores from (second screenshot).

IMO, go for the Samsung.

1.jpg


2.png


Edit: The hybrid drives are excellent for laptops with one drive bay. They offer sort of SSD speeds once the files have been cached into the NAND. They are still not as fast as an SSD and an SSD will offer its speed on everything stored on it. The latest hybrid drives have 8GB of NAND so obviously only offers max speed on 8GB of data.
 
Last edited:
Coup27 said:
Edit: The hybrid drives are excellent for laptops with one drive bay. They offer sort of SSD speeds once the files have been cached into the NAND. They are still not as fast as an SSD and an SSD will offer its speed on everything stored on it. The latest hybrid drives have 8GB of NAND so obviously only offers max speed on 8GB of data.
Click to expand...

I've heard they're supposedly not THAT far from ssd's once they've 'learned' your usage patterns. But 4gb (and 8gb too) NAND being sufficient I've always had a little bit of a hard time understanding. The sammy is still out of stock for another few weeks so I have a little bit of time pondering the decision... hybrid or ssd...
 
It was a good time to get an SSD three years ago! It's never too soon to bin legacy tech for something that's a vast improvement.
 
Always a good time to buy SSD.

Mechanical media needs to be put to death once and for all.

SSDs are already choked by SATA 6G, and I don't see SATA 12G around the corner any time soon. Other than tiny incremental leap frogs in IOPS that serve more as marketing pissing contests between vendors, I don't see current gen drives being surpassed in performance any time soon outside "exotic" measures like PCIe cards.

Unless Thunderbolt takes off and replaces both USB and SATA, we are probably stuck at SATA 6G being the bottleneck for a single drive for quite some time. The only thing that will really happen any time soon is prices coming down and capacities going up (but aren't we used to that in this industry?). But then you just say "dollar cost averaging" and you buy more SSDs in higher capacities when that happens. 😀
 
Last edited:
buy the samsung for the extra few bucks so you have better forward compatability when you decide to swap it to something else after you retire the laptop later on down the road.

You'll be glad you paid the extra cash and bought the faster model when that future hardware can make better use of it.
 
The best time to buy a SSD was in 2009 with the Intel G2 release. Enjoying years out of a high cost, high reward product that is still essentially being sold today that has TRIM, reliability and speed.

Now that it's 2012, you shouldn't be even wondering if the time is right- buy one now. Best money I've ever spent on my system.
Go Intel 320 series if you want to save money, but I like Samsung and Crucial as well. Crucial is my pick in today's market.
 
exdeath said:
Always a good time to buy SSD.

Mechanical media needs to be put to death once and for all.

SSDs are already choked by SATA 6G, and I don't see SATA 12G around the corner any time soon. Other than tiny incremental leap frogs in IOPS that serve more as marketing pissing contests between vendors, I don't see current gen drives being surpassed in performance any time soon outside "exotic" measures like PCIe cards.

Unless Thunderbolt takes off and replaces both USB and SATA, we are probably stuck at SATA 6G being the bottleneck for a single drive for quite some time. The only thing that will really happen any time soon is prices coming down and capacities going up (but aren't we used to that in this industry?). But then you just say "dollar cost averaging" and you buy more SSDs in higher capacities when that happens. 😀
Click to expand...

But isn't the choking only for less-common usage scenarios where you are doing sequential stuff?

When you consider the more-common usage, like 4K random stuff, then the SSDs are no-where near choking the SATA 6G interface.

I would venture to say that SSDs still have lots of room to grow without worrying about the SATA interface being the choke point, when you consider real-world usage of the drives and not the rarer fringe type usages.
 
KingFatty said:
But isn't the choking only for less-common usage scenarios where you are doing sequential stuff?

When you consider the more-common usage, like 4K random stuff, then the SSDs are no-where near choking the SATA 6G interface.

I would venture to say that SSDs still have lots of room to grow without worrying about the SATA interface being the choke point, when you consider real-world usage of the drives and not the rarer fringe type usages.
Click to expand...

Yes, but overall point was that we will be "stuck" with SATA 6G for a long time so it's not like a new SSD drive now will be tossed into a pile of old IDE drives any time soon. Any "SATA 3" SSD rated at 60k+ IOPS will be pretty future proof.

I've not heard or read even a vague hint of a new SATA standard around the corner. It's always a good time to buy when your socket or connector isn't about to be changed in 3 months. 😀

Maybe Thunderbolt will catch on and replace USB and SATA. When/if that happens expect 2GB/s sequential from a single SSD.

Random is more important for noticing the benefit in daily use, but most users still manipulate relatively large data files. A folder full of 30+ MB PDFs and PPTs for example would benefit more from a drive's sequential burst performance more than random, if you are running daily backups, A/V. Copying a "random" file to a thumb drive when that one file is 300 MB is still a sequential transfer, and copying a folder of 100 "random" files that are 50-100 MB in size is also sequential. 4K random IOPS are useful for an OS drive, but "real" data files are hardly 4k.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top