32GB laptop SSD for less than $100: caveat emptor

It's finally happened, a 32GB SATA II SSD for laptops has just dipped below $100 ($159 list, minus $60 rebate)... with a catch. The SSD in question is the 32GB OCZ Core Series SATA II -- an SSD which could actually be slower and consume more power than your current, aged spinner depending upon your usage habits. But man, 99 bucks -- that's tempting.

[Via DailyTech]

Read -- NewEgg
Read -- Mwave

[PHO @ Sep 9th 2008 11:11AM]

I'll stick with the old spinner, but thanks for the offer...

[rock99rock @ Sep 9th 2008 11:25AM]

Agreed.

It might make sense for some corporations that supply laptops, to ensure data integrity. But as a typical (engadget educated) consumer, I have no need to sacrifice speed and capacity for peace of mind, in my desktop that has not been moved in 10 years (monthly upgrades not included).

[Flashpoint @ Sep 9th 2008 11:14AM]

SSD's are THE FUTURE.
Soon, 1 TB platter HD's will cost you less than $100.

Someone here on Engadget argued with me that it would take longer than 2009 to get SSD's this cheap. Told ya so !


I'm betting Blu Ray and DVD's will be replaced by digital downloads within 5 years - poibly 10.
Now that Television has moved from analog to digital and people are basically being forced to pay $100+ a month for their telephone/internet/phone service, cable and Fios speeds will be high enough to fascilitate digital downloading replacing physical media.

It took less than 10 years for MP3 players to largely replace CD players by the way.

[cg @ Sep 9th 2008 11:19AM]

hey flashpoint... everybody already knows that.. you are on a gadget blog, this is not some retirement home you are talking to.. of course we are up to date and know all these things.

funny guy.

[guns @ Sep 9th 2008 11:20AM]

quote
SSD's are THE FUTURE.
Soon, 1 TB platter HD's will cost you less than $100.
/quote

That's confusing.

[Kris @ Sep 9th 2008 11:32AM]

@guns, what's confusing about it? Hard drives today have moving parts so they'll obvious die at some point (both in the literal sense and in the hard-drive sector sense). SSD are obvious the future but we're still not there yet. For now, mechanical drives are very quick and cheap and will continue to evole.

[rock99rock @ Sep 9th 2008 11:32AM]

@guns

Its ok for Flashpoint to be confusing. Didn't you hear he has a Mercedes Benz? That's like a free pass to do whatever you want apparently.

[Flashpoint @ Sep 9th 2008 11:39AM]

cg

You could have fooled me. Cause most of the more intelligent comments I see people posting get low ranked due to their truth or ridiculed due to the stupidity of others.

[Boarderwoot @ Sep 9th 2008 12:13PM]

@rock, he'll only have it for about another 24 hours left to enjoy it. you'd think he'd be out on the road enjoying it instead of commenting on engadget.

[pfromg @ Sep 9th 2008 1:10PM]

since when have mp3 players taken over cd's ?
what planet are you on ?

pretty much the only medium you can buy retail in the entire world , is CD.

just because you own an mp3 player , please don't make the mistake of thinking the entire planet is doing what your doing.

the main reason for this deficit is that you can not realistically do much with an mp3 player without a computer, and on the scale things there are still not a lot of households with computers, let alone internet. Thus, there are still not many households (on a world scale) that have an mp3 player or are likley to get one with the forseable future.

CD and even tape recorders are still out there on a scale you cant possibly imagine as an engadget reader.

[wonkydonky @ Sep 9th 2008 3:06PM]

@cg: -C'mon Guys!! -It's all Ball-Bearings these days!!1

[cb88 @ Sep 9th 2008 11:15AM]

at least it wont die if you drop it....

[linuxamp @ Sep 10th 2008 12:03AM]

Depends how hard it hits the ground. Cracks can be a problem for SSD but I assume it can withstand a bit more shock than spinning drives. Vibration while in use, as in vehicle applications etc, now that's where SSD shines.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 10th 2008 12:21AM]

If your home catches fire, the data stored on your HDD will survive and be recoverable, but data on an SSD will be destroyed. It's a good idea keep an HDD around for backups of your SSD, because in the event of a catastrophic (physical) disaster the data on the HDD will save the day; even if it does not spin up.

[Billy Gun @ Sep 9th 2008 11:19AM]

No way I'll buy an SSD till it get a price match with HDD, pay U$ 100 for 32gb, when I can get 750Gb+ for the same price, no way I'll get an SSD for less than 20% speed improvement.

I'll wait till 2015 for an SSD.

[David @ Sep 9th 2008 1:53PM]

750 gig LAPTOP harddrive for $100? I'll take 100 for ebay purposes.

[ken @ Sep 9th 2008 11:20AM]

speed be damned. if it's cheap and operates with lower power than a traditional HDD, it'd be great for laptops/nettops.

[BigDaddyM @ Sep 9th 2008 11:31AM]

But this one is slower and consumes more power...
M

[ken @ Sep 9th 2008 11:47AM]

in that case, KILL IT WITH FIRE!

[Zeth Ethereal @ Sep 9th 2008 11:20AM]

I've had too many regular HDD's fail on me......that clicking sound still haunts my dreams!

[Adderz @ Sep 9th 2008 11:22AM]

32gb lol. Have i returned to 1998?

I'll jump on board when they have nicely priced 128gb options.

[Christian @ Sep 9th 2008 11:24AM]

This Product is EOL (End of Life) that's why its so cheap. There trying to blow them out. Even up here in Canada you can get it at that price.

[Garnser @ Sep 9th 2008 12:43PM]

These disks were released 2 months ago, the old drives that went for $600 is EOL though, this offer is both for the new and the old ones. Unfortunately I was one of the early adopters paying $600 for the first 32GB from OCZ, but oh yeah, it's fast.

[Sean @ Sep 9th 2008 11:29AM]

Hm... I wonder if this will fit in *INSERT NETBOOK NAME HERE*.

[Rob @ Sep 9th 2008 11:29AM]

Well, let me think about it here. It costs more, has less storage capacity, runs slower, and requires more power. I'm all for moving forward, but this card doesn't seem to be taking us that route just yet. I'll just wait a bit longer for when, compared to my spinner, these cards:

1- cost less.
2- offer more storage
3- run at equal to or faster than
4- require less power

Why pay a premium for something like this. Yes, spinners are bound to fail. But, so it's everything else inside your pc. I'll be waiting for when these cards are ready.

[sandra @ Sep 9th 2008 11:31AM]

Wonder if this would get faster boot times than a 5400RPM 2.5" normal drive, on the computer I want it in the boot time, shock, and temp ranges really are my main concern since it's in my car, aside from that all it's ever really accessing is MP3's and GPS map data, not like I need anything blazing fast for that.

[Jeremy K. @ Sep 9th 2008 11:56AM]

lol... this is one of the fastest drives EVER made.

[Jeremy K. @ Sep 9th 2008 12:04PM]

Whoops... disregard my above comment. SORRY. I didn't read the darn article.

[joe blow @ Sep 10th 2008 12:15AM]

Sandra, turn left 300 feet behind you.

[nidx @ Sep 9th 2008 11:32AM]

while the performance may not be the best, it will make NO NOISE, that is easily worth $100 for a HTPC or silent pc

[ipubs bastard child @ Sep 9th 2008 11:55AM]

Yes Im sure your 32 gb HTPC will be just full of the latest HD quality entertainment..

[Michael @ Sep 9th 2008 12:04PM]

Magic compression.

[james @ Sep 9th 2008 1:38PM]

All it needs to hold is the OS and other apps, all the content can be stored on a remote server.

[John @ Sep 9th 2008 11:35AM]

It's not a bad deal if you want to put together a computer with no moving parts so that you can have a completely silent desktop machine.

[WhoMe @ Sep 9th 2008 11:40AM]

Just the other day I had to return a (traditional magnetic) hard drive because of bad sector error (SMART status bad, yada yada). I'm curious, are SSDs susceptible to these or other kinds of problems?

Anyway, I love SSDs. I don't have one yet, but looks like they will make their big break sooner than a lot of people predicted. I'd buy a 128GB one for my OS and programs and then just store my backups and media files on my fat NAS. As soon as 128GB ones are relatively affordable that is.

At any rate, it's a major step forward for sure. Once these are cheap as chips that's another "problem solved". Now if they only would debut something to replace TFT LCD screens...

[Baz Anderson @ Sep 9th 2008 11:42AM]

Rebate = we know a large enough number of you are too lazy to fill out the forms and mail away for it, so it's kind of like a discount that is null and void if you're too busy playing World of Warcraft.

[Rob @ Sep 9th 2008 11:49AM]

Well, that's what they're counting on. And, most of the times, it pays off. These companies offering rebates are counting on our forgetful minds so they can keep the money. Numbers prove that people forget to fill them out all the time. Even I've done it. That's keeping in mind that the rebate company does honor it too. Most of them do the right thing. But, there are some that look for every little thing to screw you over, like Cavalry hdd enclosures.

[Jay @ Sep 9th 2008 12:05PM]

I learned in my biz econ class that rebate actually has an ulterior purpose. Rebate makes the price cheaper, attracting more buyers, increasing sales. The boost of sales as they do mark to market accounting lifts up their profit and shines polish to their fiscal statements of that quarter. But, eventually the money needs to be returned. The key to this is "eventually." Generally rebates will come after the company's financial statements are released for that given time period (otherwise rebates are pointless). Then they can give back on A/P, while legally duping investors into thinking the company is pwning! Rebates are gambles I suppose. At the beginning of the new quarter, they're gunna be a bit short on capital relative to profit relative to costs of good sold from the previous quarter, but hopefully the gamble pays off as the beauty of rebates pays off via more investors/increased popularity/etc. I think that was what I learned... I don't know, I was surfing engadget during class =[.

Forgetful, albeit stupid, consumers are an American phenomenon. Though Americans have brought in a new class of economic strategy--relying on consumers to be stupid =]. I ain't bashing. I live here, too! Can't wait to exploit it though and build the next Xbox 720 =] and become filthy unrich!

[JPT1 @ Sep 9th 2008 11:50AM]

Beware... Many of these companies will be dumping these 1st gen SSD's on the market to make inventory room for their 2nd gen SSD products that are faster and larger. For instance this company OCZ has just announced a 250gig SSD that has speeds of up to 170 MB/s read and 98 MB/s write speeds with an seek time of less than 0.2-0.3ms. The 1st gen stuff, though price attractive will just kill your system because they are soooooo slow compared to a traditional HD.

[John D. @ Sep 9th 2008 12:53PM]

This is correct. I have one of these drives and it is so slow as to be unusable with Windows. (Not a Windows fault, since the SSD in my much slower Eee netbook does fine.)

[Joe Dombrowski @ Sep 9th 2008 5:27PM]

@John D.
Wait...you're saying that because it works fine in Linux, it's not a Windows fault... That makes less than no sense.

[BOGRASH @ Sep 9th 2008 12:09PM]

sweet spot for me has to be $100 64gig that is appreciably faster than the 80gig stock hd in my 1000h. 6 months? 1 year?

[nicolas @ Sep 9th 2008 12:15PM]

Everyone compares it to a regular desktop drive... there it doesn't make sense... now when it comes to laptop drives, ssd drives are FASTER, and way more reliable... laptops fall, and when they do, there are a lot of chances you'll loose all those photos and documents you'd kill for with a regular platter drive

[Joe Dombrowski @ Sep 9th 2008 12:16PM]

I bought one of these a week ago when I first saw the deal (it was $109 then). Of course I did some research first, though. I don't really care that much about power consumption (it's a gaming PC for Pete's sake), so speed was the important point.

It is slower copying files from itself to a different location on itself, which isn't something that's done that often on a drive that's for booting and nothing else (and at 32GB, it will be that). It was almost twice as fast as a 7200RPM generic platter drive on pure read and write speed in nearly every single test, and boot time was greatly improved as well.

It's slower at 1 thing, but way faster at everything else. Jump on this while you can. (Mine is coming in today, so I'll post updates on how it works in real life)

[Chris @ Sep 9th 2008 12:46PM]

I bought two of these to build two silent Vista PCs. One lasted 2 days before dying completely. The other lasted just two hours beofre giving corruptions. Attempts were made to repair the installation from the Vista DVD but to no avail. Pretty soon the second system was unbootable. The PCs have gone back to the maker to be fitted with hard drives and the OCZs will be going back to the supplier for a refund. These SSDs are clearly not capable of running an OS like Vista. Pity because while it worked the performance was impressive and the silence deafening.

[Dognip @ Sep 9th 2008 2:24PM]

SSDs are exponentially getting faster and more reliable then any hard drive could ever dream of.

The size (32gigs) or power draw is NOT what fails in this case, if you are looking at a main C drive with additional hard drive storage drives.
The fact that it's shock proof is not good enough to win over a "small capacity" hard drive to power your OS.
It HAS to be faster period.

I will pass on this one, but IMO, it just means that the manufacturer is unloading these older drives to make room for the newer ones that BEAT ANY hard drive on any benchmark.
I would pay a premium for these new ones any day and fortunately, that premium is narrowing as we speak!!!!

[Jayeff2020 @ Sep 9th 2008 5:58PM]

What's so big a deal?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220261

32GB USB Super fast $105 bucks (AND a $20 Mail-In Rebate)
way smaller n a 2.5" hard drive AND nomoving parts. Prob'ly less power consumption too!

[raj @ Sep 9th 2008 11:29PM]

super fast?
180x means 27mb/s

[JR @ Sep 9th 2008 11:05PM]

When the price of 500gig hard drive equal 500gig SDD, My C drive will be RAID 6 with 6 hard drives
Life begins at 3 gigsbytes per second, thats a real hard drive spec,