SSD Won't Make Sense In Laptops For Two Years

kgagne writes "While solid state disk drives can vastly improve random read performance and are perfectly suited to most mobile devices, many operations are sequential in laptops and desktops and involve writes where SSDs most often lose to magnetic hard disk drives in performance. While introducing multi-channel flash memory controllers and interleaving the NAND flash chips increases performance, it will still be about two years before the cost versus benefit ratio will make sense to install SSD in your laptop or desktop PC, according to a Computerworld story. '"I think you need to get to 128GB for around $200, and that's going to happen around 2010. Also, the industry needs to effectively communicate why consumers or enterprise users should pay more for less storage," says Joseph Unsworth, an analyst at Gartner Inc.'"

Comments

I completely agree

[moderatorrater]

The small increase in performance isn't worth the several hundred in cost it would add to my laptops. I bought my laptop for $650, and a better HD just isn't worth increasing that to nearly $1000. YMMV.

Re:I completely agree

[Idiomatick]

SHHH! if we cant convince rich idiots to buy these things en masse we dont have to wait as long before they are useful.

battery life?

[bigdavex]

I think people are willing to pay a premium for extended battery life. If I can use my device more, it has more utility.

Re:120GB is too much.

[Anonymous Coward]

"16GB for data is plenty for almost anybody."

Hahaha oh wow

Re:Ah...No.

[ottffssent]

Sure. If speed, durability, power, and acoustics are valueless to you.

For the rest of us, SSDs are worth a premium. The amount of that premium depends on the user and workload.

However, given the success of WD's Raptor line of drives, I would suggest that there's certainly a segment of the population who needs or thinks it needs faster rather than larger disk. And further that this segment is sufficiently large to support a business.

It's not just database users who are buying fast SSDs (which can hit 200MB/sec read and >100MB/sec write these days), and prices are plunging as a result.

$200?

[davidpfarrell]

Maybe its just me, but I fully expect 128GB SSD to go for much less than $200 by the end of 2010.

How much HDD space will you be able to buy by that time for $200? I'd say easily 10-15x capacity.

I feel like TFA is trying to set you up to accept higher prices on the hardware for a longer period of time.

SSD is merging onto the superhighway that is Moore's Law for HDD and I can't see settling for lower capacity and higher prices for more than another year or so.

Re:120GB is too much.

[bigstrat2003]

Ever try to torrent something that isn't popular? Yeah. That's why you keep a local copy.

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[cybereal]

Also, the industry needs to effectively communicate why consumers or enterprise users should pay more for less storage," says Joseph Unsworth, an analyst at Gartner Inc.

MAGIC

Seriously, solid state electronics, even after years and years of being around them as an early 80's baby, still just seems like magic to me. I can't wait to get rid of every little motor whine in my computing world, even if it's another 10 years, that will be a happy day to have a powerful computer without any moving parts.