Dell adds $450 SSD option to XPS M1330 and M1530

It's not as momentous as the new enterprise-focused Precisions and Latitudes, but Dell's got a tiny little treat for consumers today as well: an available $450 Samsung SSD for the XPS M1330 and M1530. Sure, the benefits are debatable, but c'mon -- you know you want it.

[Thanks, Justin R.]

[captainpease @ Aug 12th 2008 5:52PM]

I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with Dell's releases today. Steps in the right direction, for sure.

[Samboini @ Aug 13th 2008 1:28PM]

I'm sure this was an option when I bought mine 4 months ago? I'm in Britain btw.

[kojo87 @ Aug 12th 2008 5:54PM]

i really dont see how that is worth $450

[Ignatius @ Aug 12th 2008 6:11PM]

Morbo is displeased!

[Matt @ Aug 12th 2008 6:14PM]

$450 is an amazing price for a 128gb SSD, although that doesn't go to say its a particularly good or fast one.

Even so, might be worth buying the laptop with one, ripping the drive out and selling the laptop on with a normal HDD in it.

[kojo87 @ Aug 12th 2008 6:40PM]

i understand this is a good price and all but i just dont think the advantages of SSD constitute that high of a pricetag. all things being equal i would get an SSD no questions asked but for the time being im totally satisfied with a 7200 RPM HDD

[MacGuffin @ Aug 12th 2008 6:08PM]

That's great news. Because if Dell is selling a 128 GB SSD, then that basically sets the price for other computer makers.

I'm personally waiting that the next gen MBA will have at least 128 GB and hopefully 256 GB.

[From My Cube @ Aug 12th 2008 6:38PM]

your so right...Apple has always been known to undercut the compeition on price alone...

[paul34 @ Aug 12th 2008 6:09PM]

Seems that while there are an increasing number of options available for SSDs, they still have a while to go (for factors other than cost). I looked around Newegg today, and it seems there's quite a bit of concern over real-world reliability and compatibility among SATA controllers and drivers (the latter seems to crop up as the most common issues).

Those cheaper OCZ Core drives seem to be getting a pretty bad rap.

Nonethless, I would imagine that even by next year, we'll have some pretty exciting choices for our computer upgrades.

And our kids will grow up asking us if we ever used those crazy spinning metal disk things. The 8-track of our generation ='(

[TechIT @ Aug 12th 2008 6:09PM]

C'mon we know we like it and we know this is the future of the hard drive.

[George @ Aug 12th 2008 6:10PM]

Where is the UMPC?????

[Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Aug 12th 2008 6:11PM]

Not a bad price considering how expensive SSDs were just a year back, I hope the quality hasn't dropped though.

[Baba Booey @ Aug 12th 2008 7:56PM]

I agree, but I'll wait a bit longer. btw, Yu Yu Hakusho FTW! Chinpo =]

[Phoenix @ Aug 12th 2008 8:22PM]

"Remember what happened to Chinpo?"
"NOBODY remembers Chinpo!!!"
"awww :("

Yu Yu Hakusho abridged FTW!

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 13th 2008 9:04AM]

zomg wtf ^_^ bbq lol CHINPO>>!? YU YU YU YU :) =| ^_^

..?

[Craiggiej @ Aug 14th 2008 10:21AM]

ummmm... it's DELL. odds are, the quality has gone down. They don't lower their prices, they cheap out on parts.

[chris fredette @ Aug 12th 2008 6:14PM]

Personally all I need at 64GB in a laptop and a mp3 player. I wish they would spend more time making this size the cheapest and fastest possible.

[Aaron @ Aug 12th 2008 6:24PM]

This has been available for a few weeks.....

[numlok @ Aug 12th 2008 6:31PM]

Yep... I first saw this about two weeks ago, and after a TON of cross-research, ordered mine (M1530) last Friday.

I was actually worried to mention it to anyone for fear it might get too much "notice", and be pulled.

The only other laptops I found with this size SSD were offering it for about 3 times the cost.

The reviews I've seen of the "normal" 64GB SSD offered earlier in these models have been generally positive, so I've got my fingers crossed (in a BIG way) that it'll hold true for this as well.

Should find out around the first of the month!

[Zephir365 @ Aug 12th 2008 6:36PM]

Don't worry, the SSD won't get pulled because it's an MLC drive. There's no such thing as a SLC drive at $450. Get real.

[Fanfoot @ Aug 12th 2008 6:32PM]

Its not a $450 SSD. Its $450 MORE for the SSD than the, what $75 5400 RPM 250GB laptop drive. So $525ish.

I'll be very interested in these things once they get the kinks out. Yes, it might be more reliable. Or less. And likely more shock resistant, probably. As long as everything stays attached. But so far not lower power or faster. I presume both of the latter issues will be resolved over time, at which point you'll really really want one of these. But it might be a different version to get the speed up, with changes to the hardware, and a new version of Vista, and ...

[rudefyet @ Aug 12th 2008 7:19PM]

I recently bought a 320GB 7200rpm Scorpio Black drive for my M1330, looked at SSDs, but 250GB is really my sweet spot in terms of the amount I can live with.

I'll be ecstatic once 256GB SSDs hit the market, especially with some of the speed claims from manufactuers I've seen posted on Engadget

[kal326 @ Aug 13th 2008 9:48AM]

I'm with you on this one. I can put two drives in my 17" HP. Already have upgraded from a 160GB 5400rpm to a 320GB for the main drive. Made a huge differance. This was right before the new 7200rpm WD came out. Might eventually swap over to a 7200rpm and put my current drive in my wifes lappy and use the 250GB 5400rpm WD that came in that one as my secondary drive. Total cost around $300 for both drives and 4x the storage, plus all of the original drives left over to put in external cages.

[Andrew @ Aug 12th 2008 7:45PM]

Gee, that's nice but I was hoping for a Centrino 2 update for the XPS notebooks.

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 12th 2008 9:41PM]

Will they have disclaimer on the bottom of the page that states these are MLC drives expected to die in a few years.

[Jonyah @ Aug 12th 2008 10:18PM]

hmm, they added that option a few weeks ago. (i've been configuring the 1330 for weeks now saving it in my dell cart). Glad i haven't bought yet though, the new line looks amazing.

[totoro @ Aug 13th 2008 12:14AM]

Newegg has a couple no-name 128G SSD SATA 2 drives for around $440-$480. Are these similar?

[Gordon Page @ Aug 13th 2008 2:55AM]

This is good, it helps lower the average price of the ssd market. Hopefully this means that we will see a high spec sony camcorder with a 128gb ssd drive soon. (The current hard drives are too bulky, power hungry, and don't operate above 3000m elevation).

[Chris Chatfield @ Aug 13th 2008 3:28AM]

Whilst this is welcome news, I don't see the point if the laptops still have fans :-(

We want S-I-L-E-N-C-E. Are you listening Dell?

[Brian @ Aug 13th 2008 4:40AM]

Does anyone know when Dell will release a blu-ray option for the M1330? I've been waiting for months for this option to be avialable!

Thanks

[phillip9 @ Aug 13th 2008 12:06PM]

the dell website says this is the samsung flashSSD 128gb SSD drive. I did a google shoppping search and the results say this would be over $3000.

Could anyone explain how this can be so cheap ,even considering buying the whole laptop?


thanks

[sg4 @ Aug 13th 2008 1:12PM]

This is a MLC SSD and is much cheaper than what you are looking at (SLC SSD).

Dell ships exclusively with Samsung SSDs. The 32 and 64GB models are the higher end SLC SSD, while the 128GB and soon-to-be-released 256GB models are the lower end MLC SSD. SLC is a proven technology, used in the military and government for the past 2-3 decades. MLC is relatively new - far cheaper, but reliability is questionable since it's too new for long term data.

Typically, SLC drives are faster than MLC and hard drives in 1) access times (the most critical thing for booting programs and OS), 2) transfer rates (though this is dependent on the drives being compared, though the SLC SSD has a constant speed throughout), 3) have no noise since no moving parts (also cooler, more rugged/resistant to shock, and lighter), and 4) use less power (though the battery life is debated in Tomshardware, again it depends on the make and model; however, higher end ones like Mtron and Memoright definitely give you better battery life).