OCZ announced that it will begin selling its 1 TB Octane 2.5-inch SSD in Japan in mid-May.
The drive will include 512 MB DRAM cache and deliver a maximum bandwidth of 460 MB/s in read processes and 330 MB/s for write processes. The drive tops out at 32,000 IOPS when reading random 4 KB data blocks and at 24,000 IOPS when writing 4 KB blocks.
The drive will be offered for a suggested retail price of 260,000 yen, which translates to about $3,240. There is no official launch date for the U.S. yet, but several retailers are already offering the drive for pre-order and some are promising delivery within 7-days. Pre-availability prices in the U.S. for the OCT1-25SAT3-1T drive are between $2,600 and $3,100.
Not sure when we can expect $ per GB to fall down on SSDs to more manageable levels. But the promise of cheaper SSDs is starting to become old. Interesting also that they had to curb their enthusiasm for a fast drive to keep the price from skyrocketing. At 460/330 this isn't exactly within the typical 5xx MB/s of current offers.
At its price range this single drive is more expensive than 5 240GB drives, which raises considerably the $/GB. Naturally it's a whole lot more convenient. But the question exists: Exactly what manufacturing process justifies these premium prices?
Not sure when we can expect $ per GB to fall down on SSDs to more manageable levels. But the promise of cheaper SSDs is starting to become old. Interesting also that they had to curb their enthusiasm for a fast drive to keep the price from skyrocketing. At 460/330 this isn't exactly within the typical 5xx MB/s of current offers.
At its price range this single drive is more expensive than 5 240GB drives, which raises considerably the $/GB. Naturally it's a whole lot more convenient. But the question exists: Exactly what manufacturing process justifies these premium prices?
My point was that we need to hit some manufacturing milestones yet before SSD technology becomes anything more than a pipe dream of mainstream computing. I should have elaborated.
Consider this, despite all the advantages we recognize in SSDs, their $/GB has been an inconvenience not just to our wallets but to the use we can make of the added performance. And we then learn that increasing capacity raises that dollar per GB ratio even further to nearly unmanageable levels. So, the closer an SSD gets to become a broad scope drive, the more we have to pay for it. Up to a point where a 1TB SSD costs as much as 10 240GB SSD.
Despite the coolness of the technology (which I'm not going to dispute), there's a real manufacturing process problem here that we need to overcome.
To be honest for consumer purposes, I don't see 1 TB being needed at this moment. Most people stick with a boot SSD or one for OS and APPS. I wouldn't put my data on an SSD just yet.
Consider this, despite all the advantages we recognize in SSDs, their $/GB has been an inconvenience not just to our wallets but to the use we can make of the added performance. And we then learn that increasing capacity raises that dollar per GB ratio even further to nearly unmanageable levels. So, the closer an SSD gets to become a broad scope drive, the more we have to pay for it. Up to a point where a 1TB SSD costs as much as 10 240GB SSD.
Despite the coolness of the technology (which I'm not going to dispute), there's a real manufacturing process problem here that we need to overcome.
It has always been the case the that $/GB on the largest drives are higher than the lower drives and that is usually from a few things
1) The cost to have densities that high are much more expensive that lower densities
2) There is more R&D that goes into having devices this high end
3) Usually more parts in the larger capacity drives (platters for HDD, chips for SSD) that they warranty
Look at the cost of 4TB drives and even 3TB drives, it shows there as well in the HDD sector
Also, to have 10 240GB SSD's, you would need an add in controller card, granted the cost for that will not be that much in comparison to the drive cost, but it is another part and expansion slot that is used, then there is the amount of power and space that having 10 times more drives (for ssd's power is pretty much negligible, but space is not)
btw if you think this is expensive, check out the enterprise grade drives compared to enterprise grade HDD's, there is a huge price difference at the same capacity there as well
I for one would be all for lower $/GB SSD's, but there are a myriad of reasons to why this is not so
The fact that you have a huge amount of fixed expenses and -in the beginning- only a small quantity to sell. The old story...once you go into mass production/volume sales the price comes down.
Smaller means more potential devices that can use them (Laptops, tablets, etc.).
Incidentally, has anyone noted how 'portable phones' went from 'brick' size down to small flip phones, and not cell (smart) phone sizes are slowly creeping up in size back to smart bricks (Samsung's new Galaxy for example) ?
Also this brings up the idea of a smart table... we call it the iTable naturally :-)
Toms, We need an EDITING option !!
Unfortunately doesn't seem so. It isn't the first time OCZ launches 1TB drives. 3 years ago it launched the Colossus series. The 3.5'' 1 TB drives cost in excess of three thousand dollars.
There's more than meets the eye concerning the SSD market prices. The math doesn't add up and more and more I'm convinced we are experiencing a distorted reality in which demand is helping keep the prices artificially up.
Please note that 2.5'' and 3.5'' SSD aren't necessarily enthusiast or enterprise-grade products, contrary to what some want to believe. The only thing that keeps them that way is exactly their price range.
is called Greed,this "process" happens behind doors at the very high level of the manufacturing "process".
Also this brings up the idea of a smart table... we call it the iTable naturally :-)
Toms, We need an EDITING option !!
there is an editing option, you need to click on "Read the comments on the forums" where it acts just like the forums on toms hwardware