2019 the Year of 1TB SSDs: Prices Fall by 50%

[John Naylor]

We keep all data on a pair of internal SSHDs .... these are backed up to a desktop HD dock daily and those or rotated out weekly for off site storage. Have not as yet seen a reason to move data to an SSD as everything that is accessed on it is bottlenecked only by user reaction time. When we can buy 2 TB of reliable SSD storage for $150, that's when I'll move from $ 250 GB. Outside of video, animation and modeling production boxes, just don't see any ROI on that investment.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Imagine if the backup drive comes faulty and without knowing it it dies. Suggestion? 2 backup drives? 3? 4? The paranoia.

I still use BDR 50GB Mdisc's for backups. If it's worth backing up, it's worth doing it right.

Those are unpurified trash. DRAMless, nonamed, no-rep products.

No they aren't. Have you actually been to a MicroCenter?

 

[R0H1T]

I keep important data on two internal hard drive and an external one. Some important files are also kept on dropbox. I don't have any issue with a (faster than TLC) QLC drive that will be used only for the OS, applications, temporary/working files and games. If it crashes it will simply get replaced. A few hours of work and that's it.

You do understand that QLC drives don't just die randomly because of NAND - the controller is the bigger point of failure & that's shared by many TLC drives, including the QVO/EVO from Sammy. As for endurance, they're generally rated very conservatively by most drive makers to the point that most consumers need not worry about TBW (almost) ever being exhausted.

 

[_UV_]

RAID5 is safe also as long as you use 4 or more drives.

as long as you use no more than 4 drives till first failure, if lucky enough with good drives, you may think RAID5 is like writing on stones, believe me, it's not

 

[Upgrayedd]

Does anybody make SLC drives still?

 

[silentbogo]

I won't trust my data with quad layer nand, but have fun y'all. 2 bit and 3 bit layer only for me.

People used to say the same thing about TLC and its lower endurance. Few years later - and pretty much the world is running on TLC.
I don't think I ever had a single dead TLC SSD due to NAND failure (only controller-related issues on cheap drives, like Kingston V300 and Team L5 Lite).
QLC looks promising, and so far there were no complaints about it either (Intel 660p, Crucial P1, Micron 5210). Performance is slow comparing to other PCIe NVME counterparts (even planar TLC), but the price is on par with SATA-III drives (and will only get lower with time).
Also, endurance numbers are more than adequate for any type of use. 100TBW for a 512GB drive is crazy. I had my X400 for 3 years now, and I use it as my primary storage/games drive. I'm barely closing on 10TB host writes (only 8.7TB NAND writes). With this tempo I might get to 160TBW some time in 2030.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

It's been great. I have a 2TB SSD now, and being able to hold everything in flash memory is joyous for loading things. Thanks to the low prices, I've been able to convince many people, from family to coworkers, to upgrade their old machines with SSDs. They have all loved the switch.

I won't trust my data with quad layer nand, but have fun y'all. 2 bit and 3 bit layer only for me.

People said the same thing about MLC, then TLC, now QLC.

If you are entirely trusting your data on the type of memory you have, you are screwing up. Backups Backups Backups. You should ALWAYS backup to either a external HDD or NAS solution, with critical items like paperwork backed up with an additional secure solution.

People used to say the same thing about TLC and its lower endurance. Few years later - and pretty much the world is running on TLC.
I don't think I ever had a single dead TLC SSD due to NAND failure (only controller-related issues on cheap drives, like Kingston V300 and Team L5 Lite).
QLC looks promising, and so far there were no complaints about it either (Intel 660p, Crucial P1, Micron 5210). Performance is slow comparing to other PCIe NVME counterparts (even planar TLC), but the price is on par with SATA-III drives (and will only get lower with time).
Also, endurance numbers are more than adequate for any type of use. 100TBW for a 512GB drive is crazy. I had my X400 for 3 years now, and I use it as my primary storage/games drive. I'm barely closing on 10TB host writes (only 8.7TB NAND writes). With this tempo I might get to 160TBW some time in 2030.

My 1TB drive started to die at 6.1TBW due to controller issues. I have never seen a SSD that has come close to the TBW rating during normal use.

 

[Prince Valiant]

I still use BDR 50GB Mdisc's for backups. If it's worth backing up, it's worth doing it right.
No they aren't. Have you actually been to a MicroCenter?

Optical media is great for long term storage, I have yet to have a burn go bad outside of mishandling the disc. Wouldn't single layer BD-Rs be more cost effective?

 

[silentbogo]

Wouldn't single layer BD-Rs be more cost effective?

not comparing to HDDs or tape. BluRay is probably one of the most expensive backup medias in the grand scheme of things

 

[trparky]

I won't trust my data with quad layer nand, but have fun y'all. 2 bit and 3 bit layer only for me.

I agree. TLC-NAND is the most I'll ever get. As for backup of my most important data, I have that stuff backed up in Microsoft OneDrive; offsite, safe and secure.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Hm..

..I kinda prefer my SSD to be really reliable. My old 40GB Intel still works. Was expensive as fck, but it works, years after it was made. Pretty sure many cheaply made new ones wont last even one tenth.

Yeah. My almost 8 years old Samsung 830 60GB SSD as a boot drive works flawlesly with no issues, and see no point upgrading it since it's only 70% full.

 

[Mescalamba]

Yeah. My almost 8 years old Samsung 830 60GB SSD as a boot drive works flawlesly with no issues, and see no point upgrading it since it's only 70% full.

I have 2x 240GB on my main PC, also tried to pick most reliable stuff I could. They should last more rewrites that its possible for me to ever achieve, which I hope is enough for them to last till they really obsolete. Kinda like my data.

Also trying to base my picks on controllers used and chips itself. So far it works.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Wouldn't single layer BD-Rs be more cost effective?

Yeah, but they take more time and I can afford the higher capacity disc's. I use the 100GB MDisc's as well but not so often.

Does anybody make SLC drives still?

Yes, but they're pricey still.

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

If only this where true, but the poster is pulling it out of his dreams and imagination.

 

[noname00]

You do understand that QLC drives don't just die randomly because of NAND - the controller is the bigger point of failure & that's shared by many TLC drives, including the QVO/EVO from Sammy. As for endurance, they're generally rated very conservatively by most drive makers to the point that most consumers need not worry about TBW (almost) ever being exhausted.

I did not know that. This just means there are no real downsides to QLC over TLC for an average home user.
I will probably replace my 500GB 850 Evo with a 1TB 970 Evo Plus sometime this year.

 

[bajs11]

Microcenter has 1 TB SSD for $109 search harder

uh i was talking about Europe... you know the continent west of Asia east of the Americas

https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294945779+667&Ntk=all&sortby=match
even if it's a high quality ssd with dram and a good controller
if any of those living in western Europe would to buy it directly from that website they would have to add sales taxes, duties, and customs clearance fees
that could potentially add another 60-100 USD...

 

[Prince Valiant]

not comparing to HDDs or tape. BluRay is probably one of the most expensive backup medias in the grand scheme of things

Using another HDD would defeat the purpose and tape has a high upfront cost for the drive. If you're only using BDs for a few TB the cost increase is negligible enough.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If only this where true, but the poster is pulling it out of his dreams and imagination.

Who are you talking to?(the reply button is easy to use)

 

[Rictorhell]

Already having two \o/

It is indeed the year of 1TB SSD's, and judging by the rate of price decrease... 2TB will also become quite affordable for many people.
4TBs are still way overpriced.

Yeah, I've been waiting for AFFORDABLE 4 terabyte SSD's for a while, as in, YEARS, and the price is still way up there because only one or two manufacturers are capable, or willing to produce SSD's in that capacity and that one or two are milking it for all it's worth. I overpaid for my Samsung 840 EVO, in my opinion, even though it's a good drive and years later I'm still using it. I could understand the high price, back then, for a 1 terabyte SSD, but this is pretty commonplace technology now, to me anyway, so at what point do they stop adding a "greed" surcharge to these MSRPs, or stop charging extra for R&D that's really probably not super high for this type of technology, at this point in time?

If only this where true, but the poster is pulling it out of his dreams and imagination.

I think the prices depend on where you live, to a certain extent. Here, in the US, I have seen a lot off affordable 1 or 2 terabyte SSD's, but everything over 2 terabytes is still hundreds of dollars, which I think is way overpriced for a 4 terabyte drive.

 

[newtekie1]

I won't trust my data with quad layer nand, but have fun y'all. 2 bit and 3 bit layer only for me.

Funny, the same thing was said about MLC when MLC came out, and then about TLC when TLC came out. And now we use both without issue, and we'll be using QLC without hesitation in a year too, because the reality is it has plenty of write cycles and people way overestimate how much they actually write to their drives.

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

Who are you talking to?(the reply button is easy to use)

It's enough to check the price evolution for Crucial and Samsung SSDs on Amazon UK and DE, for example Crucial 1Tb increased by 17 pounds from the 110 pounds I bought it for.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It's enough to check the price evolution for Crucial and Samsung SSDs on Amazon UK and DE, for example Crucial 1Tb increased by 17 pounds from the 110 pounds I bought it for.

That highly depends on the individual model of SSD. As I work in the retail sector for PC parts, I can verify that the general price of SSD's is on the down-trend year-to-year and by as much as 50% in many cases. The article is spot on and @btarunr is not dreaming or imagining things. You need to do more homework and research.

 

[EarthDog]

HMB helps with those DRAMless drives. The Helix-L did well for not having any.

Funny, the same thing was said about MLC when MLC came out, and then about TLC when TLC came out. And now we use both without issue, and we'll be using QLC without hesitation in a year too, because the reality is it has plenty of write cycles and people way overestimate how much they actually write to their drives.

this. All day long..this. writes havent been an issue for enthusiasts for at least a few years and few generations. Find something worthwhile to complain about.

 

[hat]

I haven't had an SSD die on me yet, out of the 4 I've bought. I have a Plextor M5S, the first SSD I bought... probably have had it for 6 years or so... as an OS drive, with the pagefile on it. Then I had a 512GB Agility 4, which I paid over 300 bucks for back in 2013... still going strong. Additionally, I have two cheap 60GB or so SSDs from the early days, which I bought used, both as OS drives with pagefiles on them. Not a scratch.

$100 1TB drives, even if they're QLC, are great for storage. They're much faster than HDDs in every way, and probably more reliable, as there are no moving parts that can break down. If you are worried about data reliability on a cheap SSD, you're doing it wrong. If I had data that important, it would be on a RAID 1 or RAID 5 array, which would periodically be getting backed up to something else in case of failure.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Where I'm living, the SSD prices actually increased a little over last months.... HDD ones too