I mean I understand the benefits of SSD over HDD and hence it being higher price than HDD is understandable but not by such a colossal amount like it is now a days ... why so expensive ? is it just apple taking undue-advantage of its consumers
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Why are SSDs so much more expensive than HDDs
- Thread starter zombierunner
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Apple is not the only one selling SSDs and SSDs are expensive because they use a relatively new technology for mass storage. It is still not cheap to produce. Remember when 100MB HDDs cost 400 USD?
Another reason SSDs are still expensive is because manufacturers aren't allowing the tech to become stagnant by just increasing size, they're spending millions in R&D to increase speed, durability, and other factors.
You can pick up older SSDs for less, but today's SSDs are much better and always improving. That cost $$.
You can pick up older SSDs for less, but today's SSDs are much better and always improving. That cost $$.
My first HDD for a Mac Plus, a 60MB external SCSI model (which weighed about 14 lb; serious sheet metal in that case) cost me... wait for it....
USD650 (in 1987, IIRC; it looks like that's about USD1230 in today's dollars).
How big can a 3.5 inch ssd be? Now 2011
My question is not why are they costly? I know why they cost a lot.
My question is how big can intel make a 3.5 inch ssd and what is their markup?
I have a 320 series 300gb in a 2.5 they make a 600gb in a 2.5
I figure they can put out a 2tb right now.
Remember to a certain extent ssd price is fake like the price of smaller diamonds. As long as people put up with little 40gb and 80gb ssd's makers will sell them.
below is a 1/3 carat diamond ring this is a like 40gb to 80gb ssd
http://www.kay.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product1|10101|10001|-1|161227400|15051|15051.15056
the markup is nuts. but kay will sell them because people buy them. much the same with ssds. lots of people make compromises by purchasing 40 gb 60 gb or 80 gb ssds. so intel and ocz/vertex and all others will sell them.
don't buy an ssd under 160gb and they will stop selling them.
The case and the controller are fixed cost for the builder so it is in the best interest of ssd sellers to sell small ssd's not big ones. Also seagate has mixed ssd with hdd as a defensive measure. All are compromised systems.
Think edison and the light bulb he built light bulbs that last 100 years a fact look it up. He did not sell them to the masses. here is a link to the worlds longest lasting light bulb:
http://www.centennialbulb.org/
Don't be a sucker do not buy small ssds unless they are for your business and you clearly earn more money by using them.
My question is not why are they costly? I know why they cost a lot.
My question is how big can intel make a 3.5 inch ssd and what is their markup?
I have a 320 series 300gb in a 2.5 they make a 600gb in a 2.5
I figure they can put out a 2tb right now.
Remember to a certain extent ssd price is fake like the price of smaller diamonds. As long as people put up with little 40gb and 80gb ssd's makers will sell them.
below is a 1/3 carat diamond ring this is a like 40gb to 80gb ssd
http://www.kay.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product1|10101|10001|-1|161227400|15051|15051.15056
the markup is nuts. but kay will sell them because people buy them. much the same with ssds. lots of people make compromises by purchasing 40 gb 60 gb or 80 gb ssds. so intel and ocz/vertex and all others will sell them.
don't buy an ssd under 160gb and they will stop selling them.
The case and the controller are fixed cost for the builder so it is in the best interest of ssd sellers to sell small ssd's not big ones. Also seagate has mixed ssd with hdd as a defensive measure. All are compromised systems.
Think edison and the light bulb he built light bulbs that last 100 years a fact look it up. He did not sell them to the masses. here is a link to the worlds longest lasting light bulb:
http://www.centennialbulb.org/
Don't be a sucker do not buy small ssds unless they are for your business and you clearly earn more money by using them.
If mass produced, i think SSD is in fact cheaper to produce than HDD. Just blame the market
Just blame reality. Might as well bitch about the sky being blue.
It is because it is new tech. HDDs are old tech, they have been manufactured for decades and refined and everyone uses them. The more something is manufactured, the cheaper it gets per piece...assuming there aren't ridiculous market controls thrown in which artificially inflate prices. Once the tech to make these chips and drives hits a certain level, and there are competing companies cranking the chips out, the price will drop quick. Expect it to come around 2013.
No market can make a new, advanced technology product and sell it for very little money unless the maker is a fool and wants to go out of business, meaning no one gets the product.
Flash isn't exactly new technology as first NANDs were released back in 1987. However, NANDs have not offered much capacity before today. Back in 2005, the biggest NAND we had was 1GB. I think 2.5" SSDs can hold up to 16 NANDs so this would result in capacity of 16GB. The biggest HD in 2005 was 500GB, which had more than 30 times bigger capacity than the best SSD could have offered back then.
Right now, we have a lot bigger NANDs. The biggest ones used in SSDs are 32GB I think but Toshiba has already announced a 128GB NAND. I don't know when they are shipping them but 64GB should already be available. 16x128GB would give you 2TB! In the mean time, HDs have not developed that much. In 6 years, the HD capacity has only become 6 times greater (500GB -> 3TB). In that same time, NANDs have become 64 times bigger in capacity (1GB -> 64GB).
Okay, that is it for the history lesson and why we didn't have SSDs until now. The reason why I think SSDs are still so expensive is the huge demand for NANDs. SSDs use the same flash memory as lots of other products, i.e. NANDs. If you look at the industry now, a lot products are using NANDs. Phones, tablets, TVs, computers... Pretty much all electronics with some kind of an operating system. Smart phones have become very popular during the last few years. Tablets are still very new but they are also becoming popular.
When the demand is big, then the manufacturers can keep the prices up because people will buy it anyway. What would your iPhone be without a nice amount of storage? Or would you prefer a hard drive in it which would make it a lot bigger and heavier? Those devices simply cannot be what they are without NANDs. This means OEMs must buy NANDs, no matter what the price is.
Right now, we have a lot bigger NANDs. The biggest ones used in SSDs are 32GB I think but Toshiba has already announced a 128GB NAND. I don't know when they are shipping them but 64GB should already be available. 16x128GB would give you 2TB! In the mean time, HDs have not developed that much. In 6 years, the HD capacity has only become 6 times greater (500GB -> 3TB). In that same time, NANDs have become 64 times bigger in capacity (1GB -> 64GB).
Okay, that is it for the history lesson and why we didn't have SSDs until now. The reason why I think SSDs are still so expensive is the huge demand for NANDs. SSDs use the same flash memory as lots of other products, i.e. NANDs. If you look at the industry now, a lot products are using NANDs. Phones, tablets, TVs, computers... Pretty much all electronics with some kind of an operating system. Smart phones have become very popular during the last few years. Tablets are still very new but they are also becoming popular.
When the demand is big, then the manufacturers can keep the prices up because people will buy it anyway. What would your iPhone be without a nice amount of storage? Or would you prefer a hard drive in it which would make it a lot bigger and heavier? Those devices simply cannot be what they are without NANDs. This means OEMs must buy NANDs, no matter what the price is.
So is it safe to say prices for NAND/Flash Memory hasn't gone down in the past year? Or have they only gone down slightly?
And if so, does this mean Apple will keep the same standard storage capacity in that rumored June Air refresh. The more I read about the refresh, the more I'm reading it'll be a "soft" refresh, just a few bumps in specs + Thunderbolt; not a drastically major update. Will we see the same 128 GB SSD standard in the 13"? And the same BTO upgrade prices to increase to 256GB? Will we even see an optional 512 GB?
Currently, it costs a whopping $1,250 to have a 512 GB with the Pro series.
And if so, does this mean Apple will keep the same standard storage capacity in that rumored June Air refresh. The more I read about the refresh, the more I'm reading it'll be a "soft" refresh, just a few bumps in specs + Thunderbolt; not a drastically major update. Will we see the same 128 GB SSD standard in the 13"? And the same BTO upgrade prices to increase to 256GB? Will we even see an optional 512 GB?
Currently, it costs a whopping $1,250 to have a 512 GB with the Pro series.
They have gone down but not dramatically. The prices go down steadily but it will take time before they are "cheap".
My guess would be that Apple keeps the same SSDs in MBAs as the price of 512GB is still astronomical.
yeah but a 600gb intel series 320 is $1079 it is a price drop of 200 and an increase in size of 88gb see link;
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-SSDSA...e_Internal&hash=item588dae1c02#ht_2405wt_1250
