SSD pricing likely to become stable – no more price drops expected

05 Oct 12 18:38 by in category Solid State (ssd)

Taiwanese technology site Digitimes reports that the prices of NAND flash memory are currently increasing. NAND flash memory is used in many smartphones but also in Solid State Disk (SSD) drives. Due to the increasing popularity of smartphones from e.g. Apple and Samsung the demand of flash has gone up. Combined with the fact that NAND manufacturers have cut production to keep the prices from tumbling a price increase or at least price stabilization is expected, which will likely mean that the expected fast price decrease of SSD drives will have to wait a little.

On the website DRAMeXchange it’s possible to monitor prices of several types of memory. DRAM is currently so cheap that major Taiwanese DRAM chipmakers are planning layoffs and mandatory unpaid days off. To avoid the same situation, NAND flash memory manufacturers have reduced their output. Signs of price increases are also there, contract prices for 32 Gb MLC flash chips went up 8.6% (at $2.41) and the same chips with 64 Gb capacity became 9% ($3.50 – $4.60) more expensive.

It is expected that the major chip manufacturers will continue with their limited output strategy in the last quarter of 2012, and also that prices will continue to rise this month.

14 Comments on SSD pricing likely to become stable – no more price drops expected

Bunny
Posts: 62
Posted on: 05 Oct 12 19:51
The price of NAND governs the price of SSD but I do not think the market could stand a price increase at this time
CDan
Posts: 3913
Posted on: 06 Oct 12 05:12
The price of NAND is only a small part of the cost of an SSD. Fairly large fluctuations will only mean a few dollars on the cost of a drive.
voxsmart
Posts: 219
Posted on: 07 Oct 12 12:36
I feel the price of SSDs needs to drop, or the capacity need to increase to be on par with disc hard drives. I'm sure it must be cheaper to build an SSD than a standard HDD. Perhaps I'm wrong. I wont buy any SSDs for storage even if they are vastly faster.
I guess we shall see what happens in the future of computing, things are changing, perhaps we will be forced to use the cloud for storage, who knows? That's not the way I want it to go.
TSJnachos117
Posts: 326
Posted on: 08 Oct 12 01:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by voxsmart View Post
I feel the price of SSDs needs to drop, or the capacity need to increase to be on par with disc hard drives.
I'm with you, Voxsmart. Until SSD's are up to par with HD's prices and capacities, I wouldn't consider buying one. But when that does happen (and I'm sure it will someday), I'll probably be overjoyed to buy one.
tmc8080
Posts: 964
Posted on: 08 Oct 12 14:01
system drives only need to be btw 1 - 2 TB.. when these prices drop sufficiently, the mass market can finally adopt them. however they are a long ways off.. this capacity could easily run $1-$2k vs $100 - $200.

In contrast.. USB flash will continue it's decline.. there re more mfg. companies vying for the same business. Some overlap could push SSD chip makers to rethink their strategy..
voxsmart
Posts: 219
Posted on: 08 Oct 12 14:05
I actually use a 256 Samsung SSD as a boot drive, but use a few TB of disk drives for storage. Boot drives are all SSDs are good for at the moment That's probably stating the obvious! The speed boost versus the cost was just about worth it at £140
A 2TB or more SSD at an equivalent price of a disc HDD would be great, I wonder when it will happen?
alan1476
Posts: 18349
Posted on: 08 Oct 12 21:24
Quote:
Originally Posted by voxsmart View Post
I actually use a 256 Samsung SSD as a boot drive, but use a few TB of disk drives for storage. Boot drives are all SSDs are good for at the moment That's probably stating the obvious! The speed boost versus the cost was just about worth it at £140
A 2TB or more SSD at an equivalent price of a disc HDD would be great, I wonder when it will happen?
If it happened now the price would be prohibitive. You could proabably buy a nice used car for what a 2 TB SSD would cost.
tmc8080
Posts: 964
Posted on: 08 Oct 12 21:57
As usb flash drives using usb 3.0 goes from $1 to .50 cents to .25 cents/gb , SSD will be cut at the knees as these drives could be raid/array'd to achieve ssd capacities of 1-2tb..
FreqNasty_RiseS
Posts: 165
Posted on: 09 Oct 12 08:25
$17,500 for a 3.2GB OCZ PCIe SSD

http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/OCZ_Technology_OCZ_Z_Drive_R4_C_Series_PCI_Express_SSD_CM88/ZD4CM88FH32T/11442096/pricegrabber/
FreqNasty_RiseS
Posts: 165
Posted on: 09 Oct 12 08:27
Quote:
Originally Posted by tmc8080 View Post
As usb flash drives using usb 3.0 goes from $1 to .50 cents to .25 cents/gb , SSD will be cut at the knees as these drives could be raid/array'd to achieve ssd capacities of 1-2tb..
There are adapters which enable some memory cards to interface to a computer, allowing use as an SSD, but they are not intended to be the primary storage device in the computer. The typical CF card interface is generally 3-4 times slower than an SSD. As memory cards are not designed to tolerate the amount of reading and writing which occurs during typical computer use, their data may get damaged unless special procedures are taken to reduce the wear on the card to a minimum.
Liggy
Posts: 8209
Posted on: 09 Oct 12 09:17
Quote:
Originally Posted by FreqNasty_RiseS View Post
$17,500 for a 3.2GB OCZ PCIe SSD
These are TB not GB. (Yes, I mix these up myself quite often)
voxsmart
Posts: 219
Posted on: 09 Oct 12 11:08
Mmm, "SSD pricing likely to become stable – no more price drops expected" = stagnation?
I hope this headline means in the short term?
FreqNasty_RiseS
Posts: 165
Posted on: 10 Oct 12 07:24
Quote:
Originally Posted by Liggy View Post
These are TB not GB. (Yes, I mix these up myself quite often)
yeah my bad, $17,500 for 3.2GB which have been a bit too much but totally understandable for 3.2TB :P
tmc8080
Posts: 964
Posted on: 11 Oct 12 02:11
Quote:
Originally Posted by FreqNasty_RiseS View Post
There are adapters which enable some memory cards to interface to a computer, allowing use as an SSD, but they are not intended to be the primary storage device in the computer. The typical CF card interface is generally 3-4 times slower than an SSD. As memory cards are not designed to tolerate the amount of reading and writing which occurs during typical computer use, their data may get damaged unless special procedures are taken to reduce the wear on the card to a minimum.
So you're saying usb flash drive's aren't up to the task as being SSD subsitutes? Hmm.. I already know you'd see a MAX of 200MB throughput with usb 3.0 flash drives (read) and maybe half on the write.. making this a negative when it comes to comparisons of SSD drives which are 450mb/225 write (fastest of the ssd drives are 600 read and 550 write).
I'm just speculating that cheaper USB flash drives will become durable enough to use if not as primary o/s but as a program-files directory and installed programs drive (with redundant backups-- just incase). The main advantage I'm hinting at is access times..
I've noticed w/ a simple 4gb readyboost flash drive.. loading a web browser or other simple program is almost instantaneous with that boost style cacheing. I got the usb flash drive for free so, I'm not caring if it dies.. by that time Microcenter will likely run another freebie (fingers crossed).
Tell us, what do you think about

SSD pricing likely to become stable – no more price drops expected

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