Report: Intel SSD Price Cut on April 26
Cheaper, but will be they cheap enough?
We asked you yesterday in our question of the day whether or not you’ve upgraded your systems yet to incorporate a solid state drive.
With no mechanical moving parts, no spinning platters, and just really fast flash memory, a SSD is likely the best upgrade that you can perform on your rig due to the storage subsystem being the slowest part of the typical computer system.
The majority of your responses pointed squarely at the high price of SSDs as being the main reason why most of you have yet to take the plunge. It’s certainly understandable, with 1 TB HDDs priced at sub-$100 points, who would want to pay hundreds more for just a fraction of the capacity?
Thankfully, prices are falling, though probably not fast enough for it to be the way we’d like it. Undoubtedly, our pick of the SSD litter are the Intel X-25 line as they are the fastest both for the enthusiast and the enterprise user. Sadly, their premium performance also comes at a premium price, being the most expensive SSD solution out right now.
Hopefully VR-Zone is correct, then, as it reports that Intel will next week be cutting the prices of its SSDs. According to the website: “Intel 80GB X18-M and X25-M will see their prices dropped from $385 to $335 while 160GB versions will be lowered from $760 to $660. However, the prices of the SLC models remain unchanged at $410 for 32GB and $790 for the 64GB.”
Still not even remotely cheap, but at least it’s headed in the right direction.

if 80gb for 100$, then I might think about it
intel is supposedly releasing not only a new line of SSDs late 09... but also a new controller with it... (larger capacity and cheaper to manufacture)
I'm getting these assuming they don't flop and aren't the same $/GB
Reading all the SSD reviews on Newegg, each model and brand seems to be unique and some seem to get horrid reviews mixed with fantastic reviews. It's not a mature technology yet. I consider myself on the cutting edge of technology (most of us on THG are) but I'm going to wait until Microsoft updates their OS to take advantage of SSD's strong suits.
be affordable in two years. Maybe in two years they can find a way to make them in
higher volume at a much lower price. Chopping 50 dollars off a $700.00 HD isn't
enough to prompt me to buy one. For $ 700.00 i can by a complete CPU, the extra speed is
nice but it will just have to wait.
Dude... if you're gonna try and get all up in someones face with a "boo yah!" then at least say it right. Its Vertex, OCZ Vertex. Yea, I like em too and that's what I'd buy if I were buying an SSD
(also, that'd be two words)
I'll save 500 bucks and wait an extra 4 seconds for windows to load, or an extra 2 seconds for a videogame level to load... lol
Go to Anandtech and read his SSD article and you'll see that SSDs are ready for mainstream use. Some are just better than others, but all are getting better. ARS and Anand tend to have much more in-depth technical explanations of tech, but the 32 page articles is a turn off for some. SSDs just need a price cut and a few new controller technologies to take full advantage of features that are unique to them.