Upcoming SSD drives? Anyone follow the scene?

[RealEvil]

Hi,

I am about to receive my new MBP 2.53 with 320GB 7200 RPM disk. I ordered this with a heavy heart - I wanted the SSD option but it was a little too expensive and 128GB isn't quite enough for me.

Does anyone know of any new larger capacity SSD drives due within the next 8 months or so which will be relatively cheap? 160GB would probably be enough.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

There's a 160gb drive coming out from Intel early next year that should be pretty darned amazing if their 80gb version of the same drive is anything to go by. The 80gb version costs about $650 though so I wouldn't expect the 160gb to sell for anything under about $1000 minimum by the time it comes out. These drives from Intel are substantially better than most of the other SSDs on the market, however, in terms of both speed and battery life.
I wouldn't expect 160gb or even 80gb SSDs to become what I would consider 'affordable' for another 18 to 24 months at least.

 

[bcaslis]

I agree. There are cheaper 128GB SSDs out there for about $400 but they aren't worth it in my opinion, they aren't really much faster than the 7200rpm drives and much slower in some areas.

I got the Apple SSD (which is likely the Samsung SSD they only sell to OEMs) and it's much faster than these slower SSDs and faster than a Seagate 320GB 7200rpm drive I have. But it's not cheap. I expect bigger and faster in 2009, but it's going to be a long long time before the higher performing SSDs get anywhere near "affordable".