Mtron announces a 1.8-inch 128GB SSD
By Nilay Patel 
posted Feb 18th 2008 5:06PM
posted Feb 18th 2008 5:06PM
We've already seen a couple 2.5-inch SSDs hit 128GB, but Mtron, our new favorite crazy storage vendor, has just announced a 1.8-inch 128GB SSD. That's the same size as the drives in the MacBook Air, Latitude XT, and Lenovo X300 -- and since drive height isn't as closely related to storage capacity for SSDs, look for 1.8-inch SSDs to become the new standard in most new laptops as capacities increase and prices fall. Of course, "prices fall" is the operative phrase here -- Mtron's 1.8-inch 128GB disk will probably set you back some $1600 when it ships in April. Yeah, we'll stick with the platters for now.[Via jkOnTheRun]
In just 2 years or so ALL Laptops will come standard with SSD's (if it takes that long).
Maybe 4 years. Just look at the prices today. I think SSD's will be a common option in 2 years, definitely, but they won't be standard across the line.
Suuure. They're not even high enough capacity to be useful yet, let alone cost-effective. As the years go by, computers are going to need more and more storage, so even if a 128GB drive was cheap enough by then (which I highly doubt), it won't be enough storage capacity by then. Based on Moore's law, in two years this thing will cost about $800. Considering you can currently get over 4 terrabytes for $800, and platters will be getting cheaper as well...And, short of any new interface, these are unlikely to be able to be any faster than standard hard drives (In fact, as far as I can see, platters are still several times the speed of flash)...I'd say _at least_ 6 years before these become common. Maybe they'll be standard in high-end laptops in a couple years, but since they'll likely be doubling the price of any computer they're put in for the next several years, I doubt they'll be that useful.
why does everyone assume that Moore's law (speaking of transistor density) applies exaclty to price? For example. When I purchased my first gen macbook pro less than two years ago, a single 2GB dimm of DDR2-667 cost upwards of a thousand dollars. Now a cheap one can be had for less than $40. Same thing, when I bought my PSP, i bought a 512 MB memory stick duo for 70$. A year later I bought a 1 GB stick for $50, and year after that I bought a 4GB stick for $40. By that logic, a 1.8in SSD with 8x the capacity (nearly 1 terabyte) will cost around $800 in two years. Still pricey, but of course there will be smaller capacities for lower prices. Not saying this will exactly be the case, but just to counter the retards saying "well moore's law says the price will go down by a half every two years"
@Urzu
I'm going to take a guess you are one of the same people who won't buy an Ipod Touch until they reach 128GB, saying they are entirely useless without some enormous amount of memory.
I'd be willing to wager that 90% of laptop owners today don't use all their HDD capacity.
I don't think most people will need large amounts of storage in notebooks, especially subnotebooks and UMPCs. Now I'm not saying 32GB SSDs will work for most people, but even 64GB would be adequate for a majority of people if they have an external drive for media, and 128GB would be a definite sweet spot. I don't think high-capacity SSDs will be standard for mainstream $1000 laptops anytime soon, they will fall very quickly in price and I expect higher end $2000 laptops will have them standard. Obviously this will change over the coming years, and maybe another solution for larger notebooks in the short term at least would be to have one small capacity 32GB/64GB SSD and a larger, slower 250GB drive
proof reading anyone?
"has just announced plans a 1.8-inch 128GB SSD"
can it, luigi. we all know italian is your first language ;p
I can take it any longer. Where do you guys get all those crazy mario avtars from? I vant to joinz youvs club!
@homesauce: NES avatars FTW! im in ur interwebz bringin teh retroz
@Homeboy
The Mario avatars are the default ones on Joystiq. A lot of the regulars there like to edit it for their pic, hence the various Luigis and pirate Marios going around.
The coolest one's I've seen so far is Sonic wearing mario's hat and Mario carrying a red coloured Apple logo in his hands.
This was too fast! I mean people are still trying to enjoy the 32 and 64 GB versions! lol.
I only need 16, but I need it blazing fast and as close to no power consumed as possible.
..Oh yeah, and I need it reasonably priced..
Vaio TZ94 with 128GB SSD, Montevina platform, and ULV Penryn processor
Price: $4000
HAHAHAHAHA OMMMGGGG
Nevertheless, that's all good news. We need more high capacity SSDs in the market to bring the price down, including the current Vaio TZ line.
OMG, my Fujitsu U810 will love me...no more clicking, no more annoying rev times. I will for sure be the first adopter since I've been waiting patiently for a 128GB model.
1600 dollas O_O Commooooon, you can buy a beast of a pc with that.
What's with the emerging companies + new tech = "Manager: lets sell this for 400$, CEO: here's something funny, lets quadruple that and see what kind of dumb fucks buy it...goahahahaha *CEO laugh*"
The Pointy Haired Boss Approves
Don't excite me. You want to know why?? Becuz read/writ spiid n0t goodz enuf!!!!111
Whats wrong with making 2.5" or 3.5" SSD's for Desktops at 256+GB ?
Because desktops don't benefit equally as much from SSD as portable devices. Further more HDD offer much better value at the moment. I've read various HDD vs SSD comparisons and the SSD on the market today offer very little performance boost compared with HDD.
What Homeboy said... laptops benefit from the mechanical ruggedness, low power consumption, instant-on, and light weight. Servers don't care about most of that, but they do benefit from ultra-low seek times. If that's what you're after, then try this 2TB flash drive: http://www.superssd.com/products/ramsan-500/
now put this in the damn iphone!
i would so pay for that in the iPhone
Yeah because the iPhone isn't expensive enough.
Could replace your Macbook Air with that, and for around the same price.
HEY... at least they list the price!! So many SSD announcements have been leaving out the price details recently.
Actually, I think they're going more for the "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" policy with SSDs.
Finally, a 1.8" Mtron!
I believe these are great idea for portable secondary machines. Save the HDD for desktops. Do think that these are growing too fast too expensive.
hot pi-- oh. damn.
i was soo close to squealing and making note of this for the later-on internal hard drive mod for my psp.
but alas, it's probably going to be an eternity until it's released. or cheap.
What's the biggest memory cards out so far?
Grab one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186045
And then grab one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2070070068+1053325335&name=32GB
Not bad for the price, anyone know what's the biggest CF Card made?
You could also use this one: Dual CF Card to IDE :]
http://www.syba.com/Product/Info/Id/379
That's great for the / partition on a server, or even on a low power desktop, but it's about 1/4 the speed of an Mtron or Memoright SSD, and maybe 1/3 the speed of a good 7200 RPM 3.5" hard drive.
But then, this is a 1.8" drive, the only place to really care about a 1/8" SSD is in ultraportables, UMPC's, and PMP/DAP's. If I really wanted quiet in a desktop or server (but not total silence, which is usually acceptable), I'd be looking at suspending a 2.5" 5400 RPM drive.
tshirt idea:
My SSD is smaller than yours.
And it can store more stuff than yours.
http://rocketdisk.com/index.php
here you can buy mtron ssd's
So when do the price/capacity curves cross for SDD vs HDD?
It will be a long time for that to take place. Rotating drives are in the TB sizes now with the largest solid state being 1/10th of that. Most of the SSD vendors are aimed at laptops. That then raises the question...how much space do you actually need? Unless you store alot of 'videos', I would guess that 128G would be easily sufficient. I could see more dual drive systems coming out, and/or the price of SSD dropping to around $150 for a 64G sometime within the next year.
Don't forget that laptop storage capacity is a moving target. Sure, 128GB sounds like enough today. In 4 years it won't be. I do believe SSDs will become relevant in the mainstream market in 2-5 years. But it won't replace disk drives totally at that time.
storageeffect.com