That is, until next year when prices fall even further. And the year after that, and the year after that...
About six years ago, I changed my second MacBook Pro to SSD and loved it. That machine had networking problems and I replaced it about four years ago with a mid-2014 MacBook Pro with a 500 MB SSD. Love it. Dead silent and fast as blazes.
I only have spinning drives in my backup servers and audio/video servers. Everything quietly gets backed up via Time Machine and Synology.
I know why. It’s because I just bought one right before prices start to fall. I’m also the guy who walks into the room when our football team is crushing the opponents 35-0 and things immediately start to go South.
On my home linux machine I run a relatively cheap and small SSD as / for the OS. The /home mount where all my files are is on a large conventional spinning HDD. Makes for really fast boots and updates at a very reasonable price. When the SSD starts to go bad I just replace it and reinstall linux without disturbing my data. That just happened recently after about 3 or 4 years of use. I’m still going to use spinning drives for my primary storage. But SSDs are working their way in. My next project is going to be a RAID 5 array for our home network.
What is an SSD and how have I lived without one for so long?
I’m going to guess maybe an over production and the trade war might be influencing these prices?
Maybe it’s just me and I don’t buy a lot of SSD, but the last couple I have bought have been for more memory than in the charts at 1TB and 2TB. In each case I paid about what the current price the chart is showing for 500GB.
Are most people just not that much of a bargain hunter? Or did I just get lucky?
Seriously thought every time I have looked at 1TB SSD in the last 2 years they have been about $80-120 which is what the charts above are reflecting for 500GB drives.
Maybe a speed thing? Though with SSD I wouldn’t expect that much of a difference that the average person would recognize.
So much for Peak SSD.
They must have discovered some very large Reserves.
m.2 is the only way to go for desktops.
Computer technology has always been high priced initially. Eventually, the prices drop.
My dept mgr bought one of the earlier desktop computer set-ups in 1981: TRS-80, Model II with 2 floppy drives, 64K RAM and a printer for $8000. My most recent laptop (Linux) purchase in 2017 came with 8Gb RAM and 1Tb hard drive and it cost $500.
Same with widescreen TVs. I bought a VIZIO 32’ 720p in 2008 for about $800. Today a TV with similar specs costs $99.
This ASUS has both. It’s a hybrid.
Save for later
Moores Law.
Economy of Scale.
Improved process and yields.
Question: how reliable is flash memory? Historically, flash memory was not that reliable over time and number of writes. Your typical file system/storage hardware can heal itself by replacing bad sectors with good. But that masks the underlying defect rate of the storage media.
One reason is that there is a industry-wide certification for portable batteries and drives in Japan called PSE that goes into effect Feb 1st. (All must carry the label) Any no-PSE device is unsellable so they’re trying to get rid of them now.
Of course they go bad fast than spinning drives. So, buy some backups. Or better yet have a spinning drive.
Great timing for this subject.
I just picked up a 128gb ssd, and am trying to figure out how to transfer windows 7 to it. Tried installing it with the original 7’s CD, but that just put a second OS in without all of the goodies that I have in my old OS. Have to format the ssd and try something else.
Timely thread for me.
Both my MBPs have died. A 2007 and 2012. Hardware problem.
Anyway I’m looking for a 15” PC replacement. Not gonna pay $2k + for a 15” laptop. Esp when you have to buy and cart around a bunch of dongles, dingles just to read an SD card, dvd, etc.
Have been holding out for one w/ a SSD drive. But if they are less reliable I might rethink my choice.
I see a bunch of laptops with 1T, 5400 rpm HDs. Might look for a 7200 rpm model.