SanDisk announces 32GB SSD: prices begin to fall

If yesterday's announcement by Samsung was a tiny step in the direction of solid state disk (SSD) ubiquity, then today's announcement by SanDisk is a freakin' leap. That's right, the big bad daddy of consumer flash -- SanDisk -- joins Samsung and TDK today with a 32GB SSD drive all their own. The 1.8-inch SSD delivers a sustained read-rate of 62MBps and a random read rate of 7,000 inputs/outputs per second (IOPS) for a 512-byte transfer – more than 100 times faster than most hard disk drives. Fine, but the most notable detail in the press release is the price. According to SanDisk, their 32GB SSD could increase the end-user price by "around $600" when released in laptops computers in the first half of 2007. That's down -- way down -- from the $900 to $1,400 premium we were paying for SSD equipped gear. Come 'ere, group hug all.

[Tburk @ Jan 5th 2007 12:34PM]

How nice would it be to be able to use one of these as a boot drive in the expansion slot of a laptop.

[Tobbe @ Jan 4th 2007 9:37AM]

This is great news! I'd take a 32GB SSD over a 100GB hdd in my laptop any day!

[Alex @ Jan 4th 2007 9:51AM]

That totally should have read, "come pull into hug harbor." (That is officially the dumbest line I've heard in a commercial so far.)

32GB is too small for most notebook comps, but would work for PMPs... oh wait... $600 for the drive itself, right.

[Revels @ Jan 4th 2007 9:53AM]

Can anyone think of a practical application for this drive at the moment?

[BK @ Jan 4th 2007 9:59AM]

One practical application: You can install MS Vista on this SSD, and it should load up close to instantaneously.

[wahoo scott @ Jan 4th 2007 10:04AM]

revels,

iirc, the benefits of ssd include better boot times and less battery power usage. i would be pretty happy if my macbook was instant on and lasted more than 3 hours on the battery.

[mogrinz @ Jan 4th 2007 4:11PM]

Absolutely. I have a database-activity heavy web site. Having just the temp db set up on a drive like this would increase performance immeasurably.

[I, Robot @ Jan 6th 2007 2:22AM]

@ Revels

Are you serious? You CAN’T think of any practical uses for a 32GB drive that’s half the size of a posted note? OK… I’ll be NICE and step over the first word I thinking to describe your question, and answer it by saying…

- MP3 players
- Cellphones
- Cameras
- PDAs
- UMPC/Mini Handheld PCs
- All Apple/Mac Crap
- Thumb Drives
- PMP devices
- PSP/DS
- Portable Hard-Drives
- HDD attachment for the X-BOX/PS3/Wii

Do I really need to continue?

[I, Robot @ Jan 6th 2007 7:10PM]

@Revels

OK… I read your entire post – your question is STILL stupid. It was stupid from the moment you said it. I gave you 6 good reasons how a drive like this would be useful, and yet you still have a complete lack of vision.

Post no.2:
Nobody is going to run out and “buy one now”. That’s not how it works. This is simply information from research and development, information that will be extremely useful to manufactures. (ie: Apple, Samsung, LG, etc) Consumers won’t see a stand alone drive like this 5 years at lease.

[Rolf Kohnert @ Mar 9th 2007 2:03AM]

Yes mate, in my notebook computer, I would just love it!

[Bob Liucas @ Feb 15th 2008 2:22PM]

Just Hold yuor horses , I suggested putting the OS on an EEPROM To enable HiSpeed boot years ago

[BK @ Jan 4th 2007 9:56AM]

So, what's the difference between SSD and CompactFlash/SD cards that go in most digital cameras. Aren't they all solid state?

[nate @ Apr 23rd 2007 9:22AM]

The difference is that you can put this into your laptop or desktop computer to replace a spinning bootable hard drive. You cannot do that with a camera memory card unless you purchase a memory card to IDE adapter. The largest camera memory card is 4-8gb, so that would be a pretty small hard drive. People are trying to get the speed and reliability of their camera memory storage out of a bootable computer hard drive.

[Alex @ Jan 4th 2007 10:50AM]

I do believe he said practical application... Vista doesn't qualify as one.

[Revels @ Jan 4th 2007 10:08AM]

wahoo scott,
That's why I used 'at the moment.' I'm well aware of the benefits of screamingly fast data rates. But I should have asked who's going to buy one right now while they cost so much?

[bl0nde @ Jan 4th 2007 11:32AM]

Once I can get an ultralight Macbook Pro, with 64gb SSD, 15" OLED, and 10hr+ battery life, dual booting Vista and Leopard, I will be a happy man.

[Ayle @ Jan 4th 2007 3:24PM]

Some will be the people ou buy $500+ graphic cards and other people who really need the speed but for me I'll wait for a 80+gb versions....

[GeneMack @ Jan 4th 2007 10:20AM]

A practical application is in a Tablet PC. I love my Toshiba, but it has HDD protection on it, which I like and don't want to shut off. But when walking around and using it as a Tablet, it oftens gets jumpy, as the HDD protection kicks on and off when moving the Tablet. An SDD is a perfect application for SSD.

[wahoo scott @ Jan 4th 2007 10:21AM]

well, i'm not a mind reader. you asked for practical applications at the moment, implying that the technology was not ripe for any current use; you're right, you should've done a better job of complaining about the price.

if you're a big enough nerd to be on here like the rest of us, and well aware of the data rates, then you're also aware that there will be plenty of early adopters who have to buy the newest, fastest, bestest _____. this is just the new shiny for that group.

[Dustin @ Jan 4th 2007 10:42AM]

Another application is for tough-duty use where a laptop could be bumped or drop, or subject to vibration, which could cause a hard drive to fail. With no moving parts, it would be one less point of failure. It could be adopted right now by the military and throughout different industries that require tough-duty laptops.

[seb @ Jan 4th 2007 6:01PM]

I'd put this in my laptop anyday.
this thing might just endup in someones ipod oneday

[JonSedar @ Jan 4th 2007 10:34AM]

anyone want to join me in a quiet pray for a 12" macbook pro with one of these in??

[tiuk @ Jan 4th 2007 10:39AM]

This is awesome, keep the price drops coming.

[Jonathan Allen @ Jan 4th 2007 12:56PM]

Burn!

[John Doe @ Jan 4th 2007 4:23PM]

RAID SSD drives? Yummy.

[Will @ Jan 4th 2007 11:08AM]

With solid state flash memory cards like you find in cameras, there is a limited life span. The cards can only be written, erased, and re-written so many times. Granted this is in the thousands, and most people probably never wear out a memory card. But what have this manufactures done to prevent this wearing out on these flash drives that are intended to replace hard drives? A computer hard drive is constantly writing and re-writing data, so it would seem to me that these flash drives, would have a very limited life span, or might not be as reliable as a traditional hard disk.

[bl0nde @ Jan 4th 2007 11:30AM]

The problems flash based drives have had with a (relatively) limited number of read/write cycles is becoming less and less of an issue with improving NAND flash SSD tech: wikipedia says that "modern Flash technology and error correction allow Flash SSDs to operate several years without fail (some manufacturers claim as many as 10 years)." Also, warranties given for flash SSDs are now beginning to equal or exceed those given for conventional hard drives, showing how much their reliability has improved...

[onihanju @ Jan 4th 2007 12:32PM]

According to SanDisk's press release, "SanDisk SSD delivers an outstanding two million hour mean time between failure (MTBF)..." A bold claim indeed.

[Squid @ May 22nd 2008 9:58PM]

SSD's use wear-leveling algorithsm to spread the wear evenly around the drive. In addition, there are often spare blocks that are not included in the capacity of the drive, used when a block wears out. These technologies improve the life of a SSD significantly longer than a standard drive.

[bluemonq @ Jan 4th 2007 1:20PM]

By the time that reaches an affordable price, you'll be hankering after the Macbook Pro Micro, with 500GB holographic storage, direct neural link, and powered by body heat.

[Joshua Ochs @ Jan 4th 2007 2:23PM]

Did nobody notice that these are 1.8-inch drives, such as used in the iPod, and NOT 2.5-inch drives such as used in laptops?

Sure, give me a larger capacity drive in a 2.5-inch form factor, and I'm there. :)

[Jas @ Jan 13th 2007 2:09AM]

That's the perfect upgrade for my X41 Tablet.

[Major Malfunction @ Jan 4th 2007 11:39AM]

Sweet!

I'll be getting one of these for my bootable drive on my PC, and in my UMPC [although I'll be selling my Q1 by the end of the first quarter 2007] 'nearly' instant on and extended battery life will do a body good. Now, add a zero to that size of drive, and keep it at the same price, and I'll be overcome with sweat.

[Sean @ Jan 4th 2007 11:47AM]

In desktop applications, I expect hard core gamers to be the primary market at first, since pair of these in RAID 0 will probably wipe the floor with dual Raptors.

[Jeff @ Jan 4th 2007 12:04PM]

What price do you think this puppy would have to be before the non-rabid, Beer-Ripple budgeted type of technofolk would buy? $300 US?

[C @ Jan 4th 2007 12:08PM]

What kind of casing would you need on your laptop for this kind of drive ? Is it possible to replace existing drive from your laptop and replace it with this SSD ?

[Shelterpaw @ Jan 4th 2007 3:30PM]

These drives seem to be increasing in size much faster than Hard Drives. I suspect once they hit below $200 for 100GB+ they'll start selling. If/when they catch up to hard drive capacity, game over for traditional hard drives. Well, as long as they're not too pricey. I imagine in the long run they'll be cheaper than traditional hard drives since they don't have any moving parts.

[uhsf @ Jan 4th 2007 2:38PM]

It's so funny many seem to wait still like totally clueless. I've been enjoying this technology since August in a Sony Vaio UX and its awesome. Now will the MacBook people ever shut it?

[Shelterpaw @ Jan 4th 2007 3:24PM]

I don't see the humor in your snide remarks. It's expensive and many don't have the money to burn. You're fortunate, many are not but that doesn't mean they are clueless and Mac Books are great computers and no, I don't have one.

[Michael @ Jan 4th 2007 3:43PM]

32GB is actually enough for corporate laptops, as they don't tend to have the things on them that take up all the space on our PCs - media files. Hard drives are the parts that are the most prone to failure, it could be worth it from a budget perspective if they don't fail. This could be cheaper then having the tech guys replace a laptop with a failed hard drive, not to mention the potential downtime for the user, especially if they're in a remote location.

I can also see another use for this - video cameras. There is a trend to replace tapes with hard drives, this is a great solution. You get better battery life and a lower failure rate, not to mention the higher transfer rate required for HD video. Capacities will increase and prices will fall, just like we see in normal hard drives. Give it a year or two and we'll all be installing these in our computers.

[John Doe @ Jan 4th 2007 4:35PM]

I guess you've never been in an environment where people are only allowed to have 100MB in there e-mail acct any given time. I routinely see 7GB archives on people’s hard drives for those who have been with the company a while. Add to that 1-1.5GB hibernate files, a couple GB for the page file. 5-10GB for applications. Another 1-2 GB for backups to patches. Another GB or two for system restore. Then add to that your download folder that always gets trashed with junk, and finally you have the OS itself that is going to take up about a 1-3GB. Never mind the actual data files themselves which may take 500MB-1GB if you are lucky.
Generally speaking on a 40GB hard drive, most of the people in the office I support have anywhere from 10GB-17GB of free space. While 32GB would still leave room, it wouldn’t be a whole heck of a lot. Then you have Vista which no doubt is going to eat even more space then XP. No 40GB is the sweet spot right now. 50GB would be preferable.

[John Doe @ Jan 4th 2007 4:22PM]

Meh. 32GB is still too small for a standard hard drive. Now a days most laptops ship at minimum with 40GB. Now if they can shrink this down AND put an additional HD in there for standard storage...with the SSD disk being used for OS and Apps. Then things get interesting.

[nothing now @ Jan 4th 2007 6:31PM]

better battery life faster response times I want one (or however many will fit) and wasnt there a story on a 32/64 gig notebook drive in pcmag a while backlast year?

[Sirocco @ Jan 5th 2007 12:06AM]

Solid state HDD are less fragile than the spinning kind, right? And no moving parts? Add unbreakable glass for the lcd screen and you'd have something as tuff as a brick. Add a hard rubber case, and you get the new face of laptops. It's what the world needs now.

[T�del� @ Jan 4th 2007 6:45PM]

For price of 300€ i'd consider to replace the Toshiba MK3004GAH (30GB 1,8") in my Vaio PCG-U101 with one of these.

The MK6008GAH Sandisk used for their comparision has 300.000h MTBF, an expected lifetime of 5 years or 20.000 hours and a transfere rate of bout 25MB/s.

What looks interesting is the speed and reliabilty increase.
Not so much the power-usage. In comparison to the other components of my system the HD is not that much of a factor.

The quoted 600$ is too much. The bulk-prices are much better, but you'd have to take a big markup because of returns by people that hammer those things with Vista and Bittorent...

Expect a drop to 400$ at the end of H1 or if Apple starts to sell Ipod with them, you'll get them for ~400$ wraped in an aac/mp3-player. :)

[Reg Muffet @ Jan 4th 2007 7:41PM]

@ JonSedar: "anyone want to join me in a quiet pray for a 12" macbook pro with one of these in??"

Consider yourself joined!

An ultralite MacBook Pro, completely solid state (with one of these flash drives and the optical drive removed), and a corresponding reduction in weight, would have my credit card number on its web order page faster than you could say "portable computing nirvana."

[XSportSeeker @ Jan 6th 2007 12:48AM]

Great stuff!
Yeah, it's still pretty expensive, and yeah, 32Gb is still not much...
But the real news here is: Price is dropping and capacities are upping!

Not long ago SSD drives were still in that "probable future tech" area... now it's becoming very real.
If prices drops more and capacities goes up, it'll be a great advance to storage technology. It's something like going from CDs to mp3.

[Dustin @ Jan 5th 2007 12:47AM]

Another practical application would be for digital musicians. Silence and speed are a dream for a computer music box. Would you believe that my HDD's motor adds a slight whine to my outbound audio? It's faint, but when doing postprocessing, it can become noticable and irritating. (not to mention, it feels slow as death sometimes) I've been waiting for an affordable drive like this for years.

[Kennie @ Jan 5th 2007 7:21AM]

Sure, put one of these babies in the PSP2.

[John A. Booth @ Jan 9th 2007 8:55PM]

When are we getting SATA? I want 4 of these things to hook to a server!

John A. Booth