It seems that just in the last month or so we’re started to see SSD vendors drop their prices a little. Manufacturers like OCZ, Kingston, ADATA, Crucial and others that compete in the mainstream consumer space, have started to drop prices on many of their products to the point where the milestone $1/GB point is starting to become reality.
Here is a chart that caught my attention on Anandtech which shows the prices on NewEgg for a range of SSD products from various vendors at the three most common capacity points; 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB:
This chart doesn’t cover all SSD vendors, but it does illustrate the gradual drop in prices that we’re seeing at the moment. There are plenty of places on the chart that flirt quite closely with the $1/GB price point, and even some that are just under. Several other SSD manufacturers like Kingston, Corsair, Samsung, MemoRight, Plextor and Transcend also have drives float around these price points.
Check out this chart that shows the price per GB of several featured 128GB capacity drives - for me the ideal capacity for an Win 7 install:
This is great news for DIY PC builders. Sure the absolute fastest SSDs on the market will cost you more, but the important point for me is that there are many millions of systems out in the wild that are still running off traditional 7,200rpm drives. These PCs could all enjoy a fairly inexpensive, yet exponential performance leap by upgrading an SSD. Intel Smart Response is will remain an attractive option for folks on SSD capacities below 64GB, but with these new prices, the attraction to opt for a full OS install on SSD has never been stronger.
The charts in this blog can be found on an interesting SSD review article here on Anandtech.com
