Tom's Holiday Buyer's Guide 2008, Part 4

Samsung 64GB SATA II SSD

http://www.samsung.com/
$549
By: Chris Angelini

Solid state storage prices are still way too high (and capacity is still far too small) to justify going SSD-only. Sure, Samsung recently announced it was mass-producing its first 256 GB models. But given the $549 price tag on the 64 GB drive and relative unavailability of the 128 GB model at retail, we’re not sure when that larger repository will actually be a realistic option. For the time being, you can enjoy the MCCOE64G5MPP, Samsung’s OEM configuration of the drive that won our recommendation in Patrick’s 14-Way SSD Roundup earlier this year.

Why the hefty price tag? Unlike a lot of the other SSDs out there, this is based on SLC (single-level cell) technology—hence the beefy transfer speeds and 2 million hour MTBF. Samsung claims 100 MB/s sequential reads and 80 MB/s sequential writes. Our numbers weren’t as high for the drive’s writes, but they were still impressive. Where the SLCs really shine is performance per watt.

It’s worth noting that Intel’s 32 GB SLC drive recently launched as well, though it’s significantly more expensive, given the online prices we’ve been seeing (MSRPs put the two fairly close, though). If screaming write speeds are your thing and you can stomach the loss of capacity, we’d also be inclined to lean in that drive’s direction, too.

  • snotling
    The model is way too skinny. she makes the hardware look cheap.
    Reply
  • snotling
    SnotlingThe model is way too skinny. she makes the hardware look cheap.I did notice there were two girls in there, but even if you add them up you still get too little meat to call that a woman.
    Reply
  • wicko
    Wow, I can't believe I'm reading complaints about these girls. They are skinny, but not anorexic, they look like they're in very good shape. My girlfriend is getting jealous :p
    Reply
  • blackened144
    I personally like the brunette for the articles.. Something about her reminds me of Christmas.. The blonde, not so much..
    Reply
  • LSoares1
    Wait, Did I miss something? What happened to part 2 and 3 of the 2008 Holiday Guide? All I see is part 1 and now this one....
    Reply
  • LSoares1
    nevermind - I see the links in this article, but I didn't notice them on the Guide section.
    Reply
  • antiacid
    SnotlingThe model is way too skinny. she makes the hardware look cheap.Were you looking for "fat girls gone wild" when you opened this review? Seriously, this had to be the dumbest complaint of the year.
    Reply
  • WINTERLORD
    Of course, you’ll void your warranty in the process,

    does anyone know if intel really can tell if your CPU has been just mildly overclocked? with no burn marks ect. i wonder about that cause id love to overclock it's fun to tinker with, but could not afford getting a bum chip, and it not be under warranty.
    Reply
  • Nice to see the update about the Seagate fix, finally.
    Reply
  • WINTERLORD
    That "the Gigabyte’s board with 2 graphics slots" is a sweet looking motherboard. and for anyone who just needs one graphics card slot i bet this be an alswome rig as well. a deffinit choice if i upgrade to the core 2 quad route. prolly go nehalem core i7 though
    Reply