Why are SSD prices so volatile?

[dave_the_nerd]

Prices have been going down overall, yes, but they're going up and down now. Just last week, newegg had a 240GB Corsair Force 3 for $165 ($140 w/rebate) and now the same drive is $180.

I shop mostly based on price/capacity, but don't want to buy a dog.

I keep seeing this with any reasonably good price I find - I'll hold off for a day or two to research the model or brand, and then come back and the price has gone up.

I've been shopping around for a laptop upgrade and this is making it really quite annoying.

</rant>

 

[kleinkinstein]

Prices are far from volatile. They are tanking and tanking fast. The price shifting you see are just the retailers playing games looking to hook a few lazy and careless buyers. Monitor prices by the week, not the minute, and the trend is clear!

 

[sze5003]

Yeh they have gone down each week. I have a 128gb SSD now. Was thinking of getting a 256 but I only load a few apps and the OS on my SSD with 103 gb left. So a 256 won't do much if I want a lot of stuff on that drive. I'll wait until I can get a 512gb SSD and then ill be good to put pretty much everything on it.

 

[88keys]

I generally shop in terms of price/capacity ratio for HDDs, but not SSDs.

IMO, I think it would be better look at price/performance when shopping for an SSD considering performance is the only reason to get an SSD becuase $160 can get you a nice 2TB HDD.

As for the volatility in price of SSDs, my best guess would be the increasing demand for volatile flash memory due to increasing sales in smartphones and tablets. The Galaxy S3, and iPhone 5 just came out and I'm sure there are several armies underpaid asian workers cranking them out nonstop ATM.

 

[corkyg]

There has been a small price war going in in an effort to build market share. At the same time, we have new models coming out and that creates significant downward pressure. But - not really volatile - yet!

 

[KingFatty]

I really like seeing the downward price trends, even though I already own a 128GB SSD. The reason is that I no longer think of my SSD as some precious thing to protect from unecessary writes. Instead, it's, like, my little bitch that I'm going to ride hard into the ground and then write all over it.

 

[RU482]

the only volatility is the rebate extravaganza related to the death knell of the 2nd/3rd tier SSD guys like OCZ

 

[greenhawk]

but they're going up and down now. Just last week, newegg had a 240GB Corsair Force 3 for $165 ($140 w/rebate) and now the same drive is $180.

I shop mostly based on price/capacity, but don't want to buy a dog.

if not wanting to buy a dog, best not be shoping on a price/capacity approach. The cheap ones are old tech or ones people avoid (so price cuts to move stock).

as to the price increase, that I suspect is more newegg than anything else. I remember reading they have a habbit of increasing the price on items that are in popular demand or they have low stock of, so the current increase is probably only temperary.

With SSd's, just find a chipset you want, research which drives have it, and keep and eye open for a good price on one of those on your list. Not enough other difference between SSD's to generally worry unless you are looking for the best, price mostly be damed (ie: not on the price/capacity chart).