Why is intel ssd so expensive?

[yifat]

I took a look at the prices.
the range is very vast, some, like those of Intel are very expensive, why is that?
what make one SSD very cheap compared to other? or those cheap ones worth my money?

 

[po1nted]

They are worth what you are willing to pay for them. Why are some cars more expensive than others? Or computers, or shoes, or lipsticks.

It is the brand and they can charge X for it. I would say Yes. All my SSDs are Intel and I am very happy with them, some are going on 3 years old. I think they are worth every penny I paid.

In my case, I paid because I trust the brand and they were comparable or bette rin performance, at the time.

 

[kaydee]

When you see the SSD type (the flash memory used inside), there are two types, one is SLC and the other MLC. AFAIK, MLC can store doubled value in same segment, on the other hand SLC only can save one value in the same segment.

When you compare these two types, SLC is MUCH faster than MLC, but it requires more silicons to be placed, thus more expensive.

Go check the SSD detaile page, you can see if it's using SLC or MLC. I believe all Intel SSDs are SLC types. Maybe not.

 

[kamel5547]

When you see the SSD type (the flash memory used inside), there are two types, one is SLC and the other MLC. AFAIK, MLC can store doubled value in same segment, on the other hand SLC only can save one value in the same segment.

When you compare these two types, SLC is MUCH faster than MLC, but it requires more silicons to be placed, thus more expensive.

Go check the SSD detaile page, you can see if it's using SLC or MLC. I believe all Intel SSDs are SLC types. Maybe not.

Intel's are most MLC like everyone else. Their drives aren't necissarily better than anyone else's, brand recognition goes a long way. They also avoided some of the major controller issues that plagued others early on since they had their own design.

 

[yifat]

...
Go check the SSD detaile page, you can see if it's using SLC or MLC. I believe all Intel SSDs are SLC types. Maybe not.

can you paste a link please?

 

[RetiredChief]

SLC drives tend to be small and EXPENSIVE (Cost per Gig 3 to 5 X MLC). But you can always check which by going to the manuf web page for the specs on the drive. If you check for instants at newegg, they have as selection criteria MLC or SLC and Only show 4 SLC drives. Note: approx 20 gigs (Intel) at around $100 or about $5 per gig vs say a MLC drive thats around 120 gigs (Intel 530) for $180 - ONLY $1.50 Per gig.

As far as price variance between MLC drives (@ the same size).
It's primarily driven by the Law of demand vs availability.
.. demand is often based on precieved differences, of which reliability seems to be at the top of the list. Here Intel seems to be the "king" of the hill. Performance is probably highter on the list than it should be as Most of the drives with simular build do Not have much diff in real life performance; However artificial benchmarks refect a bigg diff in some cases - AND perception can outway facts.
.. Manuf cost and profit margins. Some manufs user Higher "binned" (quality) NAND chips (normally also higher cost) and there is often a diff between R&D cost, Intel's cost on R &D is Higher in most cases (they probably pay their Engineers More thaN SAY ocz). mauf use a timetable for paying off R&D which is factored into the price.

Then You also have a "mark down" factor.
I'll use OCZ as an example:
.. When OCZ first came out with the SATA III SSDs using the SF22xx controller they were HOT and smoking fast, BUT it was soon discovered that they had considerable problems and it took a long time frame to work thru the controller problem. One of the biggest aftereffects was OCZ displayed terribile Customer relations - They BLAMED the customer, rather than themselfs initially - This hurts more than the real problem with the drive as people Like me will refuse to buy an OCZ product based on company management.
Example: Agillity III's often are amomg the lower cost/Gig drives. The reason is simple:
... Tryin to Over come the Past "bad OCZ Press".
... It uses the cheaper NAND which as I put it results in "a SATA II SSD in a SATA III Wrapper". Reason is that it Performs NO better on SATA III port than it does On a SATA II port. (Documented in a review and I verified as I bought 2 128 gig AGillitity III when they first came out.)