Get Ready For an SSD Price War
Unnamed sources in the SSD industry are reporting that major suppliers such as Intel, Kingston Technology, Micron Technology, SanDisk and Samsung Electronics are gearing up for a price war. That's certainly good news for consumers as their needs for local storage on desktops and laptops are shifting to SSDs, which are faster and more reliable than mechanical hard drives.
On Thursday, the sources claimed that Micron has reduced the sales of its NAND flash to other companies because it plans to double its shipments of Crucial-branded SSDs quarter on quarter. Meanwhile, SSD rival Kingston is also ramping up its SSD shipments to 600,000 units per month. Sources state that the company is competing with Samsung and SanDisk for the #1 SSD vendor spot.
Currently, SanDisk is ranked as the second largest consumer-based SSD supplier, with a 16 percent share of the market in 2013. That's a big jump compared to its position in 2012, in which it was ranked sixth with a mere 6 percent claim of the SSD market. However, SanDisk has also been "aggressive" in the enterprise segment and is expecting to reach $1 billion USD by 2016.
Digitimes Research points out that Intel just launched the 9-series chipsets that natively support M.2 SSDs. These M.2 SSDs are compatible with both SATA and PCIe interfaces, and could replace the 2.5-inch SATA 3 SSDs we use today. The 9-series launch will likely push competitors into churning out related SSDs in the second half of this year.
Research company DRAMeXchange is saying something somewhat different, reporting that SSD pricing is expected to rise because there's a temporary supply shortage of NAND Flash memory. This shortage stems from manufacturers who are moving to new NAND production methods, and who are switching to smaller NAND.
MyCE reports that NAND Flash manufacturers are working hard to bring the prices down. By shrinking the NAND cells, manufacturers can cut costs as the number of chips on a wafer increases. However, prices are unlikely to drop as they have in the last several years, and right now prices are close to $0.50 USD per gigabyte for the cheaper SSDs, the report states.
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148821&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL062014&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL062014-_-EMC-062014-Index-_-SSD-_-20148821-L0G
i mean its 205 (with EMCPDHP92), whats 5 bucks? haha why not like $125-$150? id love to see them drop that much
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148821&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL062014&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL062014-_-EMC-062014-Index-_-SSD-_-20148821-L0G
i mean its 205 (with EMCPDHP92), whats 5 bucks? haha why not like $125-$150? id love to see them drop that much
Considering the failure rate I had with those at a shop I worked at, I wouldn't use it if it was free. Rather get a Intel or Samsung for quality over quantity.
I hope this does push SSDs to lower than $.50/GB. Right now HDDs are at around $0.07/GB or less. If we could get to at least $0.15/GB it would be so nice. I wouldn't mind paying $150 for a 1TB SSD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148821&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL062014&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL062014-_-EMC-062014-Index-_-SSD-_-20148821-L0G
i mean its 205 (with EMCPDHP92), whats 5 bucks? haha why not like $125-$150? id love to see them drop that much
Considering the failure rate I had with those at a shop I worked at, I wouldn't use it if it was free. Rather get a Intel or Samsung for quality over quantity.
You've seen high failure rates on that drive already? Didn't the Crucial MX100 only come out about a month ago (it's a replacement for the M500)? Do you mean you've seen many failures on Crucial brand SSDs in general?
I'd certainly agree with you that Intel and Samsung are safe choices for SSDs with regards to reliability. There are some others I'd consider, depending on reviews/price.
They've made a lot of money off of us with those inflated SSD prices for many years now, it's time they do us a favor and lower those prices!
Hell, let's not stop at just SSDs! Let's lower the prices of CPUs, GPUs. PSUs, RAM, Motherboards, Cases, Windows Operating systems and everything else that costs a testicle and big toe to own!
It's no mystery as to why pc component sells are down. EVERYTHING is too damn expensive!
They've made a lot of money off of us with those inflated SSD prices for many years now, it's time they do us a favor and lower those prices!
Hell, let's not stop at just SSDs! Let's lower the prices of CPUs, GPUs. PSUs, RAM, Motherboards, Cases, Windows Operating systems and everything else that costs a testicle and big toe to own!
It's no mystery as to why pc component sells are down. EVERYTHING is too damn expensive!
Uhhh ya only it's not useless because that's most people...
You definitely speak for yourself there. I have a 256 GB SSD, but if I could afford 1 TB, I would get one. Heck, if I could afford a PB SSD (if such a thing existed), I would get one of those.
CSR: *Gasps* You tried to install an entire OS on the SSD!!?!?!, What year do you think this is?!!! 2013???, You best come to your senses and only use your 256GB SSD for saving 5-10 small text files at the most.
Customer: *cries* I want to go back to 2013 and get a good SSD
Anyway if SSD's get much worst than the 840 evo, then for many users, it will no longer become a feasible solution for high performance storage.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148821&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL062014&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL062014-_-EMC-062014-Index-_-SSD-_-20148821-L0G
i mean its 205 (with EMCPDHP92), whats 5 bucks? haha why not like $125-$150? id love to see them drop that much
Considering the failure rate I had with those at a shop I worked at, I wouldn't use it if it was free. Rather get a Intel or Samsung for quality over quantity.
You've seen high failure rates on that drive already? Didn't the Crucial MX100 only come out about a month ago (it's a replacement for the M500)? Do you mean you've seen many failures on Crucial brand SSDs in general?
I'd certainly agree with you that Intel and Samsung are safe choices for SSDs with regards to reliability. There are some others I'd consider, depending on reviews/price.
Yes I meant Crucial as a brand. Not as bad as OCZ was (we had about 12 of them have issues from complete failure to randomly dropping from the SATA controller in a batch) but still high enough for me to steer clear.
So far Intel and Samsung have reviewed very well but of course are normally higher price. That is pretty par for the course though when it comes to technology. I bought a Corsair AX860i because of my experience with Corsair products has been superb but it also reviewed so well it made it a great buy and has a nice 7 year warranty with it. Did I pay more? Yes but the last Corsair PSU I bought was a TX850 that lasted 5 years without any issues and is still good to this day.