Time Frame For Cheap High Capacity SSD's ?

Soldato
Joined
19 Feb 2007
Posts
14,254
Location
ArcCorp
I'm looking at replacing my 2TB HDD which I use for games, Documents, Mods, Films, Music etc... as the very slight vibration in my case is starting to get annoying, It's a WD Black, Cost a total of £119.99, I checked the price of a 2TB SSD and the pricing is really over the top, £599.99 for an 850 Evo or £559.99 for a WD Blue, That's 6 times the price, That's mental.

Has there been any news or developments in the storage industry that may drive these prices down ?
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
10,712
Nope. Demand for flash memory is very high and every so often a factory gets destroyed to kick the price through the roof as supply gets wrecked.

But you're looking at value for money and wanting less noise.

Do you need 2TB of flash storage?

The HDD is noisy because it's a 7200rpm design and it's your main drive, it will almost constantly be at full speed.

You can have a smaller SSD for OS/Games, maybe 500GB and buy a quieter HDD model (5400rpm) for storage of music/films. You can further quieten the HDD by allowing the drive to spin down when not being used which will be silent.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2005
Posts
10,535
You can easily stop the drive making a noise. Just buy a rubber mounting kit or even cable ties & or use some lengths of rubber to suspend within your case!
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2003
Posts
3,697
Location
Aberwristwatch
What case have you got? I had a bargain basement Coolermaster with drove me up the wall with it's buzzing. Upgraded to a Silencio and the difference it made with regards to noise was well worth the extra cost
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Posts
22,598
Ive often wondered why they dont make 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 inch drives with lower capacity flash chips in them for budget mass storage devices on sata 2 / sata 3

I would happily take a budget sata 2 2Tb flash drive based on the old 32gb /64GB drives that were used for first commercial /retail usage 3 -4 years ago (given Im thinking of budget servers, so would need quite a few of them)

Im sure they could be made and marketed for much less than the mechanical drives around currently
 
Associate
Joined
23 Jul 2012
Posts
149
Unfortunately high demand and factories prioritising memory for phones means the flash memory for desktop uses is going to stay expensive for a while. I believe there was another factory being built to handle the demand but it will not be in operation until early 2019. So you'd have to go with some kind of sound dampening option, perhaps some of those small rubber/foam pads to stick around the edges of the HDD might help.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2003
Posts
5,776
Location
Birmingham
A few years ago OCZ released the 2E BigFoot which was a 480gb 3.5" drive and it was very cheap compared to everything else on the market for the capacity. Wasn't the fastest though, at about 200mb/s.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Aug 2005
Posts
22,947
Location
Glasgow
Ive often wondered why they dont make 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 inch drives with lower capacity flash chips in them for budget mass storage devices on sata 2 / sata 3

I would happily take a budget sata 2 2Tb flash drive based on the old 32gb /64GB drives that were used for first commercial /retail usage 3 -4 years ago (given Im thinking of budget servers, so would need quite a few of them)

Im sure they could be made and marketed for much less than the mechanical drives around currently

Because outside of that specific application, there'd be no use for big old low-capacity components. The focus is on smaller, faster and high-capacity.

HDDs would still be more cost-effective anyway.
 
Don
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
46,744
Location
Parts Unknown
As soon as they are out for a 'decent' price, everyone will snap them up, driving demand up and supply down.

Can't wait to have SSD only NAS.

It will be a few years yet.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Apr 2007
Posts
3,043
A good compromise would be a hybrid drive. They can learn if you game etc it can store the files needed on the ssd portion but still have the higher capacity.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Posts
22,598
Because outside of that specific application, there'd be no use for big old low-capacity components. The focus is on smaller, faster and high-capacity.

HDDs would still be more cost-effective anyway.

Given that nearly every desktop chassis has at least one 3 1/2 inch drive bay, I wouldn't say it was that specific at all.
By using cheaper / less dense SSD chips I'm sure they could make a much more reasonable 2tb ssd in that form factor that would be snapped up by anyone wanting a reasonable amount of local storage

A good compromise would be a hybrid drive. They can learn if you game etc it can store the files needed on the ssd portion but still have the higher capacity.

Everything I have heard indicates that hybrid drives are pretty pointless, the ssd portion of most are so small they don't appear to be as effective as they should be - ie more compromise than anything effective
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Aug 2005
Posts
22,947
Location
Glasgow
Given that nearly every desktop chassis has at least one 3 1/2 inch drive bay, I wouldn't say it was that specific at all.
By using cheaper / less dense SSD chips I'm sure they could make a much more reasonable 2tb ssd in that form factor that would be snapped up by anyone wanting a reasonable amount of local storage

But it wouldn't necessarily be cheaper if the production lines are mainly focusing on the actual components (e.g. chips) that can be used in a variety of devices as opposed to desktop-only.

Realistically, if they thought there was a market for them, they'd be making them.
 
Joined
10 Jan 2004
Posts
9,831
Location
Poland
I'm looking at replacing my 2TB HDD which I use for games, Documents, Mods, Films, Music etc... as the very slight vibration in my case is starting to get annoying, It's a WD Black, Cost a total of £119.99, I checked the price of a 2TB SSD and the pricing is really over the top, £599.99 for an 850 Evo or £559.99 for a WD Blue, That's 6 times the price, That's mental.

Has there been any news or developments in the storage industry that may drive these prices down ?

Im a sound nazi like you but in all honesty the price of ssd's is stupid, luckily i got my 250gb crucial before all this 'factories flooding' crap which is just code for Apple/Samsung have bought everything. If your drives are out of sight then you can insulate drives with cardboard as i find rubber still too hard and vibrates. I usually get 2.5" drives as they are 5k rpm and quieter even if they are smaller capacity.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Posts
22,598
But it wouldn't necessarily be cheaper if the production lines are mainly focusing on the actual components (e.g. chips) that can be used in a variety of devices as opposed to desktop-only.

Realistically, if they thought there was a market for them, they'd be making them.


There are cheap 16Gb / 32GB phones that are made in much higher capacities (for the indian / Chinese markets especially) than any 128GB /256Gb iPhone - these chips would be very cheap indeed
Using these in 2 1/2 " format would make a reasonable budget ssd
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Posts
22,598
Less dense processes cost more not less per unit of storage.
Apart from the fact that's not logical at all - its completely irrelevant

Cheap 32gb phones are practically given away these days they are so cheap. Which means the storage used is even cheaper

It should be relatively simple to put 8 chips into a 3 1/2 " drive and market it for peanuts (even as a Chinese knockoff)
 
Associate
Joined
31 Oct 2012
Posts
2,240
Location
Edinburgh
...
By using cheaper / less dense SSD chips I'm sure they could make a much more reasonable 2tb ssd in that form factor that would be snapped up by anyone wanting a reasonable amount of local storage
...
This is why I was pointing out that less dense doesn't necessarily mean cheaper. I don't disagree that there is potential for cheaper drives, just that this statement wasn't quite right.

I assume the reason for lower costs with higher density is smaller chips help keep yields high while low numbers of chips keeps assembly and controller costs down, but I don't really know :shrug:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom