SSD Deals - where did they go?

[mazeroth]

I used to see multiple, good SSD deals posted each week in Hot Deals but haven't seen any deals posted in about a month. This is bad timing because I was given the thumbs up from my wife to put a big fat SSD in our HTPC but only buy things when I get a really great deal.

Any insight?

 

[Elixer]

They are still cheaper than in past years.
About the best you will get for 128GB is ~$90-100, 256GB is ~$170-200ish...
So, if you want better than that, wait for black friday I suppose.

 

[2is]

I think what were good deals are now your standard price.

 

[mazeroth]

I picked up a Kingston V200 120GB for $58 with tax from Staples some time ago. Now the cheapest 120-128GB models are $100. My brother snagged an Intel 240GB for ~$150 and now the cheapest 240GB drives are $170+ with the Intels over $200. The prices were probably close to those when we got ours on sale, but I just haven't seen any SALES on drives which is frustrating. I'm not the kind of person that can buy something at regular price; it's just not in my blood.

 

[2is]

Your blood is gonna have to wait then lol... On a serious note, if you're in the US, today is Memorial Day, there should be some one day sales going on

 

[Eeqmcsq]

I think the SSD deals happened because of the oversupply of flash chips. Now that the supply/demand of flash chips have stabilized, SSD deals will only show up occasionally.

 

[kmmatney]

I don't get why the Crucial M500 960GB seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. They sold a few on NewEgg, and they've been out of stock for weeks now.

 

[tweakboy]

Good deals will come as we go to third quarter and end the year. gl

 

[ensign_lee]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35070041#post35070041

Ta da! ^^

 

[Hellhammer]

I think the SSD deals happened because of the oversupply of flash chips. Now that the supply/demand of flash chips have stabilized, SSD deals will only show up occasionally.

Exactly. The demand for NAND has increased rapidly over the past few years (not just SSDs but smartphones/tablets use NAND too) but manufacturers have not added production capacity (in fact, there were even reports of Toshiba cutting down production by 30-50%, although I've heard this was false). NAND manufacturers have no need to drop NAND prices (at least radically) since they no longer have enormous stocks of excessive NAND.

Several SSD OEMs have also told me that they're experiencing NAND shortages. These are the manufacturers who used to drag the SSD prices down by constantly dropping prices, so now that they are having supply issues, the big boys have no urge to drop the prices of their SSDs.

 

[fffblackmage]

SSDs are definitely cheaper than ever. $100 for a 128GB SSD used to be a hot deal, but now it's just more like the regular sale price.

I kinda wish there are more deals on 64GB SSDs though. I should have picked up a couple while they were still cheap and common last year.

 

[blastingcap]

What I would like is ~32GB SSDs again. With certain rigs I just want enough for the OS and a little spare room. Anything extra can go onto the HDD. And I am not interested in hybrid drives.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

And I am not interested in hybrid drives.

I hear you on that one. I decided to try one of the new Seagate hybrids in my HTPC, as physical space in my GD05 is at a premium and I need as much storage as possible. I had been using a 50GB Vertex 2 as a boot drive.

Now with the 1TB hybrid drive, the machine is a chore to use. I had to do a clean re-install of the Catalyst drivers today, and it took me (at least) three times as long as it would have taken on one of my SSD-equipped machines. Eugh.

 

[fffblackmage]

What I would like is ~32GB SSDs again. With certain rigs I just want enough for the OS and a little spare room. Anything extra can go onto the HDD. And I am not interested in hybrid drives.

I hardly ever saw 32GB SSDs anywhere. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but when I did see them, they seemed expensive enough that I'd rather just get 64GB SSDs.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, prices on a 240/256 GB Sandforce drive are just about creeping down to where they were when I bought a Corsair Force 3 last summer. ($160-$180.) But it's stable, instead of being a one-day sale, or loss leader, or whatever.

But I guess until customers stop buying every scrap of NAND they can find at current prices, I can't blame companies for not pushing their prices down.