Still problems with SSD drives?

[imported_wolla]

Hello

I am currently looking intop buying a laptop with a SSD drive (probably a Dell). However, I stumbled upon these two articles from 2008, which indicate that there have been problems with these drives:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/0...ssd-laptops-in-droves/

http://perspectives.mvdirona.c...gradationProblems.aspx

Is this still the case? And should I just purhcase a laptop with a "normal" harddrive?

Thanks in advance!

 

[WildW]

Things in the SSD sphere have moved on a lot in the last year. The early drives suffered from poor memory controllers which slowed things down badly. Don't know so much about the number of flash cells dying over time.

I've been running Windows from a solid state disk for a couple of months now, and never want to go back. I bought a laptop with a regular hard disk and swapped in a fast SSD myself - the transformation from a slow 5400rpm drive is nothing short of awesome.

If you buy a laptop with an SSD you will likely pay a premium for the privalege, and not know what type of disk you're getting. Buy a laptop with a regular hard disk and swap in a quality SSD (e.g. Intel, OCZ Vertex). It's expensive but I feel it's been really worthwhile.

If you can find a laptop with two hard drive bays you can keep the original hard disk for storage and install Windows on the SSD - the big capacity flash disks are still pricey.

 

[VinDSL]

A friend of mine bought a OCZ Vertex recently (within the last month) and he's insufferably happy!

He's running it in a high-end desktop machine. I get daily reports on how fast it is, and how great it works, blah, blah, blah.

If it was me, that's the way I would go... and I'd do it soon. The chips that 'they' use in those things have doubled in price, during the last couple of weeks, sooo the prices are probably as good as they're gonna get!

 

[WildW]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
If it was me, that's the way I would go... and I'd do it soon. The chips that 'they' use in those things have doubled in price, during the last couple of weeks, sooo the prices are probably as good as they're gonna get!

Really? And here was me moaning about the £90 30GB Vertexs' I keep seeing that I paid £150 for two months ago.

 

[VinDSL]

I'll see if I can find the article...

 

[VinDSL]

I Google'd 'nand flash memory prices' and got several hits. Here's one...

SOURCE (Published: 7/9/2009): http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5153

NAND Flash Memory Prices Hiked
According to a DigiTimes report, a price hike in NAND flash memory prices will significantly affect the notebook SSD market this year. A 16GB NAND flash memory chip in the fourth quarter of 2008 was $1.80, but right now the same chip is $4.10, a 127.8% increase. This naturally makes it much more expensive for notebook makers to add SSDs onto notebooks and the increase will affect the SSD market accordingly.

Matter of fact, the article I read said that NAND price increases are going to kill the SSD...

Why the price hike?

Evidently it's because smart phones, so called, are gobbling up production.

 

[VinDSL]

LoL!

I don't know if you guys run ad blockers. Personally, I think it's bad form to use a web site, but block their ads, e.g. ad revenues, but...

They're sure advertising the OCZ Vertex a lot on Anandtech!

Anyway, I checked into the Vertex after my friend bought one, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better SSD.

You might want to click their Vertex and earn Anandtech a few shekels...

Here's a direct link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...scription=ocz%20vertex (Anandtech banner ad to Newegg)

 

[IlllI]

seems like the most benefit from ssd comes from file transfer.
i posted some reviews a while back that compared ssd to typical hd http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=51&threadid=2312624

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
Evidently it's because smart phones, so called, are gobbling up production.

If this is the case, then prices will fall when production is increased to better meet demand.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: VinDSL
Evidently it's because smart phones, so called, are gobbling up production.

If this is the case, then prices will fall when production is increased to better meet demand.

I don't know if you've heard, but...

There is a worldwide economic recession/depression, and the next 20 years are NOT going to look like the last 20 years!

I'm just going by what the industry publications are saying...

Fact: NAND prices have doubled in the last month.

Question: Why would manufacturers want to drive down profits?

Maybe you're right, based on the way things used to be...

I wouldn't bank on it!

 

[IlllI]

i think prices are already starting to go down, aren't they? http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3608

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: IlllI
i think prices are already starting to go down, aren't they? http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3608

Yes n' no...

In the real world NAND prices are rising!

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsS...90709PR201_files/2.gif (NAND price chart)

As you can 'see', prices are gapping up dramatically. However...

While the chart PREDICTS prices will drop - look where we ARE.

An exponential rise is taking place (classic hockey stick upswing)! What would reverse this trend?

If you believe the predictions are right - if you think world economies are under control - and inflation is of no concern to you - go ahead and play the waiting game...

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: VinDSL
Evidently it's because smart phones, so called, are gobbling up production.

If this is the case, then prices will fall when production is increased to better meet demand.

I don't know if you've heard, but...

There is a worldwide economic recession/depression, and the next 20 years are NOT going to look like the last 20 years!

I'm just going by what the industry publications are saying...

Fact: NAND prices have doubled in the last month.

Question: Why would manufacturers want to drive down profits?

Maybe you're right, based on the way things used to be...

I wouldn't bank on it!

Believe me, I have heard.

But your question above assumes something that may not be true.

You assume that they can have higher profits by keeping production low. And yes, they can most likely increase their profit margin by keeping production lower, but profit and profit margin are certainly not the same.

It seems to me that if the high prices are due to demand being higher than supply, then it certainly could be true that increasing production, even if it means lower prices, could be beneficial to producers. Yes, it may mean smaller profit margins, but could very well mean higher profits overall.

And especially in this economy, producers are definitely looking to increase their bottom lines.

Beyond that, if one of the two, Samsung or Intel, does increase production significantly, doesn't it kind of force the other to do the same?

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: IlllI
Yes n' no...

In the real world NAND prices are rising!

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsS...90709PR201_files/2.gif (NAND price chart)

As you can 'see', prices are gapping up dramatically. However...

While the chart PREDICTS prices will drop - look where we ARE.

An exponential rise is taking place (classic hockey stick upswing)! What would reverse this trend?

If you believe the predictions are right - if you think world economies are under control - and inflation is of no concern to you - go ahead and play the waiting game...

how can they predict what the prices will be a year from now though?

according to this http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3605

"The move to 34nm gives Intel the ability to both decrease costs and increase capacity. It now costs Intel the same to make a 160GB drive as it used to cost to make an 80GB drive, and about half to make an 80GB drive. Given the current cost structure, I?d say there?s still more room for Intel to drop prices but there?s just no need to given the competitive landscape."

so ultimately i guess the competition will reverse the trend?


anyways, i don't think ssd will really take off until theres more, larger options under $100