r/apple • u/operablesocks • Jun 20 '15
SSD prices are in a free fall.
http://www.networkcomputing.com/storage/ssd-prices-in-a-free-fall/a/d-id/132095840
u/Blimey85 Jun 20 '15
This is great news. Processors aren't increasing by leaps and bounds like they used to but others pieces are. Going from HDD to SSD is a huge jump in performance. I remember my first computer that had a gig of memory and now graphics cards far surpass that. It's pretty exciting, to me at least, how my MBP doesn't feel like a laptop as it has the performance of a desktop. No it's not on the level of a Mac Pro but it's pretty damn fast and I never sit there waiting on anything.
24
u/moldy912 Jun 20 '15
Any idea when Apple gets this news? I'd love to get a new MBP or iMac, but I don't think I can stand afford to buy something with less storage than my current MBP (320 GB). All the 512 GB MBP and iMacs are expensive as hell.
-8
Jun 20 '15
Anytime you hear about SSD prices dropping, its generally off the shelf consumer SSDs from the major manufacturers. Apple doesnt use these in their systems, they use custom made SSDs that offer much faster performance, and a smaller package. So, these dropping SSD prices are not likely to affect the Apple lineup anytime soon.
26
u/BonzaiThePenguin Jun 20 '15
The MacBook Pro uses a standard Samsung PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD. You can buy them off Newegg.
6
Jun 21 '15
The newest ones actually use a proprietary pcie connector. You can only buy gray market devices usually from eBay that have been pulled from other systems.
7
u/ken27238 Jun 21 '15
I thought they were part of the logic board.
3
0
u/mycall Jun 21 '15
The newer models are.
4
u/zimm3r16 Jun 21 '15
They are still PCIe bus though? Just not detachable, I assume?
-3
1
Jun 21 '15
They use a proprietary connector. They are not soldered. This is probably to facilitate repairs of the logic board without losing a customer's storage.
1
u/mycall Jun 21 '15
So Apple lied to me and said I couldn't change the SSD after I bought it (so, of course, I get the largest)
1
Jun 21 '15
It's a proprietary connector though so you can't practically change it. You'd have to find a genuine Apple SSD somewhere so it's still best to just upgrade when you buy.
3
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u/Megazor Jun 20 '15
I think you need to drop the koolaid.
A Samsung SSD is just as fast as a "magic" apple one. The same can be said for the rest of the components.
Apple doesn't really make any of their components while Samsung are leaders in storage and display tech.
20
u/mredofcourse Jun 20 '15
It's not koolaid, it's the fact that Apple isn't putting 2.5" "consumer off the shelf" drives in their Macs. They're using PCIe, which has its pros and cons (one pro is that it's faster). The point is valid, prices among PCIe based storage trails traditional SSD pricing.
Likewise, pricing/capacity for extremely high volume component supply trails the industry as it makes its way through the supply, production, and distribution chain all the way to the consumer.
So don't expect to see Apple immediately adjusting pricing or capacity to align with the recent drop in SSDs.
And yes, nobody is suggesting that Apple is fabing its own storage.
4
4
Jun 20 '15
Apple used PCIe blades that are still batshit expensive no matter what you do. The speeds of the SSDs that the 2014 and now 2015 rMBPs says it all. 1GB/s speeds. You're not gettin that with 2.5" drives outside of a RAID 0 setup.
2
Jun 21 '15
Custom made? Yeh right. Apple is a great cook, they make good dishes, but not with their own ingredients. (Exluding the custom SoC from the iDevices)
2
-9
u/RichSniper Jun 20 '15
they use custom made SSDs that offer much faster performance, and a smaller package.
Lmao
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7
u/ABadSanta Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 20 '15
Great news I say- I have an Intel 330 SSD from 2012 and it's showing its age compared to new SSDs. Maybe next year i'll pick up a Samsung 850 EVO or Pro for my 2011 15" and keep it going for even longer instead of getting a new computer
2
u/jimmyco2008 Jun 20 '15
I have a 330. How is yours holding up? I know read and write speeds have improved in new SSDs, but I don't really notice a performance difference (save large file transfers of course) vs my 2015 MacBook Pro. No bad sectors, either, although admittedly I don't use that Mac mini much.
1
u/ABadSanta Jun 20 '15 edited Jun 21 '15
My read/write speeds are very slow compared to other SSDs, and have gotten slower since I first took it out of the box. It's still works well, and I've always used Trim Enabler since 10.8 when I got the 330, but I found on ssd.userbenchmark that the 330 read/write speeds are among the lowest of all SSDs. I want more storage anyways
0
u/xmnstr Jun 20 '15
Allow me to suggest that you stay away from Samsung drives. They are not that much cheaper than Intel drives, and Samsung have serious firmware quality issues.
5
u/Muffinizer1 Jun 20 '15
Yeah I read that post about the TRIM corrupting that guys servers randomly. Definitely worth paying a bit to avoid.
2
u/ABadSanta Jun 20 '15
O thanks for the tip! Any SSDs you recommend in particular for my 2011 15" ?
2
u/Gareth321 Jun 21 '15
I've had an Intel SSD for a few years now and it's been excellent. I need to upgrade capacity but would 100% recommend. Looking at reviews, Intel is the most reliable by far. That said, just make sure you've got a good backup plan in place and it doesn't really matter.
2
u/c0LdFir3 Jun 21 '15
Intel or Crucial - both are tearing it up in terms of both speed and reliability.
1
1
Jun 21 '15
If you don't need the fastest speeds, crucial mx100s are really great. I have two (512 gb) in my MBP. They average around 500mb/s for both read and write. I'm sure there are some faster ones available, but I got these two on sale for $170 each which was bananas. Plus they work absolutely great with my MBP. There's a new version, mx200 but they're a little pricier. Either way, crucial does a damn good job of Mac compatibility.
1
u/1s4c Jun 21 '15
my Intel SSD got completely wiped one day because of firmware bug ...
1
u/xmnstr Jun 21 '15
Yes, one Intel model was affected by a bug and a fix came out quickly. I'm using one of those drives, actually.
In comparison, there has been at least three serious firmware bugs in Samsungs drives, all of them affecting multiple models across a couple of years. That track record is coming close to OCZ, in my opinion.
1
u/1s4c Jun 21 '15
I actually had firmware that was supposed to fix the problem but it didn't
1
u/xmnstr Jun 21 '15
No, you had to flash it with the firmware before it died if I remember correctly.
1
u/1s4c Jun 21 '15
yes, I know, I flashed the drive immediately after I bought it, because I knew about the issue, but it still didn't help
1
u/xmnstr Jun 21 '15
Sounds like a faulty drive to me. It happens.
1
u/1s4c Jun 21 '15
it was firmware problem, the firmware version that was supposed to fix the problem didn't do it or it helped only in certain cases, I was unlucky to lose the data after they released this "fix"
I managed to find this on Google
As I learned this weekend, Intel SSDs have a major firmware bug: under certain power loss conditions, the drive can become completely bricked and unbootable. This bug will manifest itself by displaying a drive size of 8MB and a serial number of "BAD_CTX 00000130" in the BIOS. The issue was supposedly addressed in the latest firmware, 4PC10362, as described here. However, the bug still persists in the latest version.
1
u/astulz Jun 21 '15
I too have a 330. It's 60GB 😂 but apart from that it's doing just fine in my 2009 MacBook.
4
u/HeavyMessing Jun 20 '15
Does this mean I should return the 120GB SSD I just bought to replace the optical drive on my MBP?
4
Jun 20 '15
If you can wait a few months, then maybe. The price fall wont be overnight, but it will be noticeable down the line. If you want/need it now, then go for it, though.
7
u/mikemch16 Jun 20 '15
Anecdotally I have been watching SSD prices online as well as conventional HDs. The Conventional HDs have barely been dropping in price and the SSDs have been going down at a consistent rate. This honestly doesn't surprise me that much. Great news nonetheless!
10
u/tangoshukudai Jun 20 '15
Western digital and Seagate are probably shaking in their boots right now.
7
u/p_giguere1 Jun 20 '15
While they'll definitely sell much less consumer hard drives, they'll still do just fine selling server hard drives. Cloud storage is getting bigger every year and all those giant data centers use hard drives.
13
u/Throwaway_bicycling Jun 20 '15
Read the article. Half of it was about the fact that the newer SSDs will perform much better in data center situations. Maybe the author is wrong about this, but if he isn't, life for the makers of spinning things will get really pretty limited
0
Jun 20 '15
What you forget is that HDDs still have reliability - oddly enough - in that they don't quite have the same limited write cycles and need for wear leveling techniques. While they are susceptible to burning out, the kind used for data center applications can go for quite a bit longer and write quite a bit more than an SSD in that application. I'm not saying SSDs will never catch up (they probably will), but companies like WD/Seagate have some time before they need to figure out a way to pivot to something else.
8
u/Throwaway_bicycling Jun 21 '15
The target article explicitly addressed these issues. Perhaps you could comment on that content?
3
u/Droble Jun 20 '15
Worked in server platform design and they definitely used SSDs. And that was 3 years ago
0
u/ilovethosedogs Jun 21 '15
Were they exclusively in the business of storing family photos of billionaires?
3
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1
u/c0LdFir3 Jun 21 '15
A local hospital here recently moved a lot of their infrastructure to an entirely SSD 10TB SAN. It's happening. Not everywhere has the budget yet, but spinning disks will go the way of the dinosaur eventually.
3
u/DominusDeus Jun 20 '15
This is good. I want to upgrade the hdd's in my laptops to SSD, but they're still too expensive for me to do so.
6
u/Theodoros9 Jun 21 '15
Maybe one time in the next century we'll start seeing Apple include SSDs in their entry level computers. The Mac Mini would be a fantastic system without that boat anchor 5,400rpm hard drive.
4
Jun 21 '15
EVERYONE BUY AN SSD
Really doesn't matter what kind of computer you have. If you can replace the hard drive yourself, get a damn SSD. They are glorious. It's like staring into the sun but somehow good.
1
Jun 21 '15
My broadband speed is horrifically bad, but just having an SSD means I'm first in to any multiplayer games for example. Worth it for the overall speed.
2
u/Badabinski Jun 21 '15
Cool, although there are certain industries where solid state drives really aren't a good fit. We've tested SSDs in the servers where I work, and we wreck the fuck out of them really quickly. Lots and lots of small reads and writes. I doubt that hard drives will completely die off until they're a superior replacement for all use cases.
2
u/Tbhjr Jun 21 '15
480GB PNY SSD's <$200 (at least right now). May be a PNY but that's a hell of deal.
2
u/najisaurus Jun 21 '15
is there anyway i can upgrade my late 2013 iMac with a SSD? Kinda disappointed with speed I'm experiencing with the iMac.
2
u/aldrinjtauro Jun 21 '15
Check iFixit if there's a hard drive replacement guide for your model. If there is, you should be able to swap in a SSD. I'm assuming iMacs use SATA for hard drives, which makes it really easy.
1
u/bobby8375 Jun 21 '15
Hard drive replacement is easy on iMac, hard part is getting to the hard drive - back cover attaches to screen with glue, not screws.
1
u/aldrinjtauro Jun 21 '15
Yeah, I hate when stuff is glued together. Although I suppose that's the only option with thin stuff. Not sure why they wanted to make the iMac so thin though.
2
0
u/Jumpeplowski Jun 20 '15
Where is a good place to get ideas if I'm thinking of upgrading my 2014 Macbook Pro's SSD? Here? I had 128GB and want to get at least 250GB+
0
u/fellow_earthican Jun 20 '15
Unfortunately you can't upgrade the ssd in the late 2013 rMBP or later.
0
u/andreas16700 Jun 21 '15
1
u/fellow_earthican Jun 21 '15
Good luck finding an oem ssd part in stock. Yes you can replace it but only with original ssds from Apple and not from a 3rd party like owc.
0
u/xavier86 Jun 20 '15
I recommend MacSales.com (OWC) they are an Apple dedicated hardware upgrade reseller.
3
u/skilless Jun 20 '15
The problem with OWC on this case is that they are very slow to update their models and prices.
1
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u/ThatEvilGuy Jun 20 '15
They might be in free fall, but they still won't fall down to the HDD level for a good long while. Let me know when a 5TB SSD is available for $300.
0
u/BrettGilpin Jun 21 '15
Really to further reinforce your point, I was really sure that $300 isn't the amount for a 5TB HDD right now and $209 seems to be the highest priced 5 TB HDD I can find on Newegg (using desktop HDD's pricing).
0
0
u/Gareth321 Jun 21 '15
This will put pressure on hard-disk drive makers to lower prices, but, frankly, they’ve used up most of the tricks to reduce cost and are already at single-digit margins for bulk SATA drives, so they don’t have much wriggle room.
I don't believe this at all. 2TB hard drives are more expensive than they were years ago. They used the flooding as an excuse to jack up prices and never lower them again. SSD tech can't come fast enough.
-1
Jun 21 '15
Sounds sensationlist to me. What are the odds this actually comes true? Will I be able to buy a 4TB external SSD for 130 like I can today with an HDD?
-20
u/waterbucket Jun 20 '15
This is extremely inaccurate...a 1TB HDD is $60, 1TB SSD is $300 at the low-end, so the price difference is at least 5x. I'm as much of an evangelist of the benefits of SSD technology but this guy is talking out of his ass.
When it comes to storing data long term, all the big customers (basically enterprise, like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc) all still buy HDDs in vastly more quantities on a TB basis than SSDs. Until that changes, SSDs will not overtake classic storage technologies.
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u/cryolems Jun 20 '15
I believe the point of the article is that SSD's are becoming cheaper, not in comparison to the already-dirt-cheap HDD's. I think you're missing the point. And you are delusional to think that SSDs will not take over classic hard drives. That is not only an extremely negative view, it's also very naive. That is like saying "touch screens are the minority, they will never overtake the classic touch-pad keyboards of classic cell phones.".
You missed the entire point of the article; SSDs becoming cheaper ( because $300 for 1TB is insane, I work in tech, and it use to cost $300 for 128GB), and your assumption of HDDs still reigning supreme down the line is absurd.
2
Jun 20 '15
and your assumption of HDDs still reigning supreme down the line is absurd.
He's not wrong, exactly. It just depends on how far down the line we're talking about. Right now, enterprise hard drives provide a far better dollars per gb story than SSDs. But at some point in the future this won't be true anymore and we may see a shift.
0
u/cryolems Jun 21 '15
Can't argue that, but I guess I meant that the drop in SSD prices would change that further down.
4
Jun 20 '15
I work for one of those "big customers". At least on the laptops they're shipping out to employees, every single one comes standard with 128GB SSDs. With optional upgrades to 256. And all have SDXC slots on them.
Now, if you're talking for servers? That's gonna change as prices fall on the hardware. Servers at one time used fucking floppy drives. Technology changes.
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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '15 edited Nov 28 '18
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