SSDs - State of the Product?

[Pradeep]

Regarding the wear on the drive, the MTBF is estimated to be 1,500,000 hours. That's 62,500 days, which is 8,928 weeks, which is 171 years. Even if the engineering (or marketing...) estimate was off by an order of magnitude that would still peg the average failure as occurring after 17 years.

I'm not concerned one bit about wearing out the drive.

Clearly for the average home user the SSD is acceptable, however it would seem to not be suitable at all for certain applications I can think of, any server that handles a lot of streaming write I/O could potentially wear out in a way that just doesn't happen with a traditional HDD.

Remember the whole 8*5 rated drive as opposed to a newly premium 24*7 rated drive came about from the Deathstar 75GXP fiasco.

 

[Fushigi]

One nice thing is you're less likely to have a catastrophic failure of an SSD. Sectors may go bad but the likelihood of an entire chip suffering a meltdown is quite low. Compare to the HD failure model which not only includes failed sectors but head crashes and failed motors.

For both, there are added failure points with the on-drive controller and connection points. I'll call reliability a wash between the two although the nod should go to the SSD as it doesn't get the constant vibration caused by the spinning motor and it likely sees less heat.

 

[timwhit]

I just got an email from Newegg saying that the new Intel 80GB SSD is in stock. I go to the page and try to order it and it says that it's now out of stock. I go back to the item listing page and it's now out of stock until tomorrow and the price went up $10. Son of a bitch.

 

[LunarMist]

I just got an email from Newegg saying that the new Intel 80GB SSD is in stock. I go to the page and try to order it and it says that it's now out of stock. I go back to the item listing page and it's now out of stock until tomorrow and the price went up $10. Son of a bitch.

Yes, I know. Someone must have a robot buyer or something. The price went up $20 from yesterday and it is not available until 9/2.

 

[MaxBurn]

Yes, I know. Someone must have a robot buyer or something.

I used to use a web page checker that would check for the presence or absence of certain words for things like that. Think the last time I used it was back when I wanted to get into demonoid though.

 

[timwhit]

I'm starting to get pissed off. I got another alert email from Newegg saying that the new 80GB Intel SSD is available again. I click to purchase and again it's sold out. The price has gone up again to $249.99. Now it should be available 9/2. Are they getting these in batches of 5?

 

[ddrueding]

I'm starting to get pissed off. I got another alert email from Newegg saying that the new 80GB Intel SSD is available again. I click to purchase and again it's sold out. The price has gone up again to $249.99. Now it should be available 9/2. Are they getting these in batches of 5?

They just aren't pricing them high enough...

 

[LunarMist]

The price is now $279.99. Pr*cks.

 

[LunarMist]

Holy crap, the X25-E prices are way up too.
Is there a flash manufacturing catastrophe somewhere?

 

[timwhit]

The price is now $279.99. Pr*cks.

Well, I won't be buying one anymore. That's a $50 price increase in one day. I guess I'll just wait for the supply and price to stabilize.

 

[LiamC]

Anandtech have their latest article up

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631

answers to a lot of common questions

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks LiamC. Another great article that took lil'ol'me more than an hour to digest.

 

[Fushigi]

Thanks for the link from me as well. It helped me decide that if I buy an SSD of the current generation, it would be the 160GB Intel G2. Since it's a want & not a need, though, I'm not sure when/if I'll actually take the plunge.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm ready to buy a pair of 160GB G2s as soon as they are available. I look forward to testing them against my 128GB Vertex drives in RAID-0.

 

[timwhit]

I was going to buy the 80GB G2, but then the price went up $50, so I'll wait.

 

[timwhit]

The 80GB G2 appears to be available right now, the price went up another $20 to $299.99. I attached an image because this will probably change in the next 15 minutes.

 

[sdbardwick]

Sheesh, 399.99 now.

 

[timwhit]

Sheesh, 399.99 now.

Holy crap. That's a 74% price increase from a week ago.

 

[ddrueding]

That's nothing, the 160GB drive is now at $900. With the 250GB Vertex at $725, there is no valid reason to buy Intel at the moment.

 

[LunarMist]

:cursin::cursin::cursin:

 

[LunarMist]

Sheesh, 399.99 now.

The 80GB is now $499.00, a 118% increase in five days.

 

[ddrueding]

Well, at least they have figured out supply and demand. All we can do is curse Intel until they get the supply thing figured out.

 

[LunarMist]

Who else but Newegg sells the Intel X25 series? Nobody likes gouging if that is the case.

 

[Fushigi]

That's nothing, the 160GB drive is now at $900. With the 250GB Vertex at $725, there is no valid reason to buy Intel at the moment.

I think it's more like there's no valid reason to buy a good SSD at the moment. I'm out of the market until prices come down for sure.

Do we call this the "Anand Effect"?

 

[LiamC]

Simple supply and demand. At least the U.S. is getting some shipments. Mostly out of stock down under. But the prices are just rude. When I can buy an 80~128GB drive for under AU$200, I'll bite.

 

[MaxBurn]

Yes, I am waiting too and am pretty sure I will have one by the end of the year but I will definitely wait till this pricing crap settles down. At least there is some competition now, must be more to come.

 

[Mercutio]

Hey, I've got four 80GB X25-Ms if anyone wants to make a deal...

 

[timwhit]

Hey, I've got four 80GB X25-Ms if anyone wants to make a deal...

G2?

 

[timwhit]

What's the difference between the SSDSA2MH080G2R5 and the SSDSA2MH080G2C1?

 

[ddrueding]

The reviews seem to imply that the C1 is OEM packaged.

 

[LunarMist]

Now the 80Gb G2 is deactivated and the old G1 version is $360. WTF?

 

[Handruin]

I guess we just be patient. When I got the email notification that it was in stock and $499, I thought I was notified of the wrong item.

 

[LunarMist]

What's the difference between the SSDSA2MH080G2R5 and the SSDSA2MH080G2C1?

They are both deactivated, so maybe it does not matter any more?
There were some complaints in the reviews that the retail version was the same as the OEM.

 

[Mercutio]

G2?

Mine are all the older one.
But still, how often can you say you have a computer part that has appreciated in value?

 

[Pradeep]

Something coming down the path next year:

"Is Intel's new motherboard flash poised to damage SSD demand?

Turbo memory is returning in 2010, says chipmaker Intel. Intel's original Turbo Memory, which first debuted in 2006, was less than well received. While it shipped millions of units by Intel's own estimates, reviews of the product were lukewarm. Armed with new drivers and a new plan, this time around Intel believes it has what it takes to achieve a much greater success.

Intel's upcoming Turbo Memory successor, Braidwood, will consist of NAND flash module residing on "5 Series" motherboards (used with the upcoming Westmere 32 nm processors) and serve as a cache for all reads and writes. Capacities will be approximately 4GB to 16GB, and the cost increase will be approximately $10 to $20 per system, according to analyst Jim Handy, who authored a recent report on Braidwood. The technology is set to launch in the first quarter of 2010, though it may be delayed.

Some former skeptics of Turbo Memory have become Braidwood believers. Some are even going as far as to say that it could send the burgeoning SSD market reeling. Mr. Handy is among those convinced that the new product will trouble solid state drive markers. He points out that the new cache uses SLC (single level cell) NAND, which is approximately a quarter of the cost of the DRAM traditionally used in caches. Meanwhile, it provides better performance than most solid state drives, which use the cheaper, but lower performance MLC (multi-level cell) NAND.

He states, "The move to NAND in PCs will boost the NAND market, soften the SSD and DRAM markets and pose problems for those NAND makers who are not poised to produce ONFi (open NAND flash interface) NAND flash.""

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=16171

 

[LunarMist]

It might help alleviate problems with cheapo SSD writes, but the data still has to come from somewhere (reads). Caching a few GB is not the same thing at all. I think SSD is here to stay in the long term for capacity increases, reduced power, and ruggedness. The new Turbo Memory is an add on.

 

[ddrueding]

It would be awesome if I could convert that cache to a hard drive. Even 4GB would be plenty for our workstations. One less component in the system.

 

[Santilli]

So, the company that owns, pretty much, the SSD market, is going to and undercut a highly profitable product they produce????

What also kills me is why it's so cheap to put on a motherboard, yet so expensive to have in an SSD drive...

Also, some of the other articles point out that it is possible to wear out SSD's, and, not in 100 years. Would putting it on the motherboard give a finite time limit on using the motherboard?
So folks like me with 10 year old computer setups would have had the flash memory die 5 years ago..?

 

[Stereodude]

I would think SRAM would be a much better choice than flash, but I'm sure it'd be more expensive.

 

[P5-133XL]

Now the 80Gb G2 is deactivated and the old G1 version is $360. WTF?

Both G1's and G2's are avail and both at $349.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150636 1421445225&name=80GB