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Solid State Drives Break the 50 Cents Per GiB Barrier, OCZ ARC 100 Launched

Posted by Unknown on from the ssds-for-everyone dept.

MojoKid (1002251) writes Though solid state drives have a long way to go before they break price parity with hard drives (and may never make it, at least with the current technology), the gap continues to close. More recently, SSD manufacturers have been approaching 50 cents per GiB of storage. OCZ Storage Solutions, with the help of their parent company Toshiba's 19nm MLC NAND, just launched their ARC 100 family of drives that are priced at exactly .5 per GiB at launch and it's possible street prices will drift lower down the road. The ARC 100 features the very same OCZ Barefoot 3 M10 controller as the higher-end OCZ Vertex 460, but these new drives feature more affordable Toshiba A19nm (Advanced 19 nanometer) NAND flash memory. The ARC 100 also ships without any sort of accessory bundle, to keep costs down. Performance-wise, OCZ's new ARC 100 240GB solid state drive didn't lead the pack in any particular category, but the drive did offer consistently competitive performance throughout testing. Large sequential transfers, small file transfers at high queue depths, and low access times were the ARC 100's strong suits, as well as its low cost. These new drives are rated at 20GB/day write endurance and carry a 3-year warranty.

24 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Not a barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    An arbitrary number is not a "barrier". A barrier is what your father should have worn.

    1. Re:Not a barrier by plopez · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That depends. If you have to cram a long term storage device into a small package then SSDs may win that battle regardless of the price difference. If you need virtualy 'instant on' storage or quick booting capabilities then SSDs win. If you need a very light weight solution the SSDs win. Price is but one factor.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    2. Re:Not a barrier by harrkev · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hmmm.. I remember the Atari 1020ST was sold as the first computer ever to be under $1 per Kilobyte. It is true that $0.50 / gigabyte is nothing magical from a tech standpoint, but this is not about tech, it is about psychology. Human beings are not entirely logical, and emotions play a large part in decisions.

      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  2. Cheaper drives by Vigile · · Score: 5, Informative

    Good drive, for sure, but keep in mind that the Crucial MX100 broke that barrier at its launch in June (and at $0.44/GB).

    http://www.pcper.com/reviews/S...

    1. Re:Cheaper drives by schlachter · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe Apple will soon be breaking the $2.00/GB barrier.

      --
      My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
    2. Re:Cheaper drives by Vigile · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, no particular technical difficulty, just another step in gradually falling prices. We have seen drives hit $0.39/GB as well with standard Amazon.com pricing. The Crucial M550 (a bit faster) is at $407 for 1TB model today, for example: http://amzn.to/1kBpIs1

    3. Re:Cheaper drives by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I love my Apple products, but let's be honest: their storage prices are outrageous. If we calculate the value they place on each GB based on the difference in prices between models that have different amounts of storage but are otherwise identical, the lowest they ever go with SSDs is $1.56/GB (which we see in their laptops and high-end iPads). For lower-end or mid-range iOS devices, the prices are as high as $6.25/GB (for the $100 16GB->32GB step up) or $3.13/GB (for the 32GB->64GB step up that costs $100).

      So, suggesting they are $2/GB seems fair to me, even if it doesn't universally apply across all of their products.

    4. Re:Cheaper drives by FuzzNugget · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup, I bought a 512GB Crucial MX100 for less than $250. It gives 90%+ the performance of Intel models I've used at 50% of the price, without using any nasty trickery like compression.

    5. Re:Cheaper drives by cdrudge · · Score: 3, Insightful

      $2.02/GB flash drive

      Boom! Proved you wrong. ;)

    6. Re:Cheaper drives by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't believe they make those claims explicitly, no, though they do tend to source higher-quality components, in general.

      When it comes to SSD quality, most of the distinctions would be in terms of the controllers that are used (which will play a large factor in reliability and speed) and whether it's an SLC, MLC, or TLC (single-, multi-, or triple-level cell) design. SLC has one bit per cell, MLC most often refers to two bits per cell (though it technically refers to more than that as well), while TLC has three bits per cell. 2-bit MLC and TLC are the most common in consumer-grade SSDs, with TLC becoming more common in the last year or two (e.g. Samsung 840 EVO).

  3. As do you by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Funny

    > 50 cents per GiB

    I prefer to think of it as 0.0007 cents per body part closeup.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  4. Performance by MozeeToby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If SSD's had come first we'd be talking about how HDD's finally broke the 3ms latency barrier or the or the 1 Gb/s barrier. SSDs' aren't about capacity, that's just not what they're for. While it's certainly nice that you can have a usable amount of space for a decent price, 120GB is enough SSD space to see 95% of the benefits for 60% of users. If laptop manufacturers would make 2 bay laptops standard that 60% would jump to 95%.

    1. Re:Performance by harrkev · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Bingo. Laptop users. Laptops are on the way up, desktops are dying. And since the higher-end laptops (ultrabooks) are even ditching optical drives to save size and weight, what do you think are the odds that they will make space for a 2nd drive. In fact, I would not be surprised of the 2.5" drive bays went away entirely in the next three years, to be replaced by slots (probably PCIe or something similar). Unless you are going for a larger device -- gaming or workstation laptop, you are not going to have the luxury of two drive bays.

      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
    2. Re:Performance by plopez · · Score: 3

      Laptops, hand held devised, tablets, space exploration verticals, drones, and remote sensing equipment are probably only a few examples.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  5. Yay! I can lose my data cheaply now! by omems · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After my only two Vertex drives spontaneously died when the power was cut, I'll never own another OCZ product. This turned out to be a common problem with the first gen Vertex, and I will not forgive their engineers. Thankfully my backups worked. +1 for Acronis.

    1. Re:Yay! I can lose my data cheaply now! by Admiral_Grinder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I hear your song, but I heard it before by the HDD cover band before the SSD members were even born. All hardware is prone to not coming back up after the power was cut (or turned off in the case of a laptop I have), SSD is not special in this. It appears you have heard it, but if not, tune in to the greatest hits channel and you will hear the number 1 song for the past 30 years: "Always have working up to date backups". I'm glad your backups work.

    2. Re:Yay! I can lose my data cheaply now! by thsths · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >All hardware is prone to not coming back up after the power was cut (or turned off in the case of a laptop I have), SSD is not special in this.

      But OCZ SSDs were. The failure of OCZ drives doubled the industry average failure rate, that is how bad they were. Returns were in the double digit percents.

      And still I hear your statement that this could happen to any company. Which is true. But OCZ ignored the problem and pretended it did not exist, instead of showing a bit of generosity towards the (rightly) disappointed customers. This I will not forget, and like me many others.

    3. Re:Yay! I can lose my data cheaply now! by Hamsterdan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And Intel had drives that reverted to 8GB after a reboot, IBM had the Deathstars, Quantum had their Fireballs, Seagate, well, about every model between 500 and 1TB.

      *everyone* in the industry comes out with bad products.

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    4. Re:Yay! I can lose my data cheaply now! by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You don't understand. OCZ has a history of a very specific form of manufacturing and marketing strategy.

      What they did for a long time was take a SSD controller that every else uses, and then disable every single data safety feature they can get away with so they can squeeze a little extra speed in benchmarks out of it. Then they actively market themselves as "fastest and cheapest SSD maker". The obvious result is that their drives are very fast, very cheap and very unreliable.

      This wasn't about one model being off. This is their consistent strategy and why their returns were over double industry standard and sitting in double digits of percent. Their strategy was to sell a lot of drives with marketing hype to overcome the costs from massive amount of failed drives.

      It failed and company went bankrupt and had to be bought out by Toshiba. And now it seems to continue with the trend.

  6. So much SPAM... by bobbied · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't see how this whole article is anything but a commercial advertisement. $0.50/Gig was broken a long time ago, at least for your average consumer. I have a 500GB SSD in a laptop that was well under $0.50/GB from a national brick and mortar retailer.

    So this is just more evidence how far Slash-dot has fallen? Come on folks, I don't mind the banner ads on the website, you all have to eat, but can we dispense with these kinds of stories?

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:So much SPAM... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I bought a 1000GB 840 EVO from Amazon for $495 back in March. That's about as mainstream as you can possibly get.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  7. Re:Huh... by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Informative

    OCZ's storage division was bought by Toshiba, who now sells Toshiba drives under the OCZ brand.

    Not sure what the thinking was on that one.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  8. Re:flash/disk/tape ratios still stand by wierd_w · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a little short sighted. Video files are not th eonly kinds of file that have grown demonstrably larger over time, due to "hey, everyone has the spaces these days, let's fill it! It's CHEAP!" being a development consideration.

    Be it audio files (FLAAC vs MP3), Images (jpg vs png vs bmp vs RAW), Documents (RTF vs DOC vs DOCX) 3D object files (OBJ vs MAX vs BLEND) and of course, application files (I've seen 10mb and larger DLLs and other libraries become commonplace these days, where previously they were a few kilobytes to meg or two, with 5mb being 'large')

    What you mean to say, is that 1TB is more than enough for anyone, "right now."

    4 years from now, not so much.

  9. Re:Huh... by thevirtualcat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are so many analogies I could make for that.

    Ford Motor Company eliminates Ford brand and replaces it with Edsel.
    Microsoft changes Windows 7 to Windows Vista Second Edition.
    Cisco to deprecate Cisco trademark in favor of Linksys. *

    * Yes, I realize that Cisco no longer owns Linksys.