The cheap SSDs thread

[DesiPower]

Great prices especially for the Micron 480.

One concern for me though is that none of the listed drives (aside from the Adata) are actually being sold by Newegg.

"Marketplace" sellers are scary enough with Amazon customer service backing you up ... with Newegg you're much more likely to be on your own if you have issues.

hmm... good catch, as the deals were from a promo email, I didn't even bother to check, I assumed it will be all newegg. As all companies, as they are growing, they are going down the drain. Something like SSD, from a marketplace? I would avoid...

 

[DesiPower]

Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 512GB - $110 Newegg mobile only. Sold by Newegg

 

[Cardio]

quote "If anyone is interested in Kingfast, I did find out there was an incident of a fake SSD being sent to a reviewer."

If someone is faking Kingfast's they must be making them on Gilligan's Island.

 

[Mike64]

hmm... good catch, as the deals were from a promo email, I didn't even bother to check, I assumed it will be all newegg. As all companies, as they are growing, they are going down the drain. Something like SSD, from a marketplace? I would avoid...

As always, it helps to read a seller's profile/reviews. In the case of the Micron and Adata drives, for example, why would you avoid a seller with a 5-star rating based on 3226 reviews? And while the other seller's track record isn't quite as spotless, the number of reviews is much smaller, but it doesn't look so bad when you weed out the whinier reviews (mostly about shipping speed)...

ETA: In the case of the Micron, the 3-year warranty is from the seller, not the manufacturer, so that strikes me as a bit iffy, but not the seller's overall reputation.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ebay item # 291286884657

Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg on ebay

$34.99 FS

This is a 120GB MLC SSD, for $35 shipped. Pretty good deal. (Probably the lowest this drive has ever been.)

Edit: 06/10/2016 - this is still good.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0D9-0021-00005&ignorebbr=1
Silicon Power Slim S60 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SP120GBSS3S60S25
Newegg
$34.99 + $0.99 ship

$36 for a 120GB MLC SSD, these are new lows for MLC SSDs. I'm glad to see this. Prices continue to come down.
Now, I'm waiting for a $30 120GB SSD. Preferably MLC, of course, but we'll see.

(We've seen $32.99 for 120GB TLC, and $50.99 for 240GB TLC so far, and $35 for 120GB MLC on Newegg/ebay, $36 for Newegg, this deal, and $55.99 for 240GB MLC, and $100 for 480GB MLC in a past deal.)

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313453&ignorebbr=1
Team Group DARK L3 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) T253L3240GMC101
Newegg
$54.99 $59.99 FS

240GB MLC for $55, pretty good, I think that's a new low for this drive too.

I think it's a Phison S8. Not the greatest controller, but not the worst, either.
The laptop I'm typing this on, has this exact drive.

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178939&ignorebbr=1
PNY CS1211 2.5" 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSD7CS1211-480-RB
Newegg
$102.99 FS

480GB MLC for $103.

Don't forget to register your drive to get the full warranty.

 

[Captante]

As always, it helps to read a seller's profile/reviews. In the case of the Micron and Adata drives, for example, why would you avoid a seller with a 5-star rating based on 3226 reviews? And while the other seller's track record isn't quite as spotless, the number of reviews is much smaller, but it doesn't look so bad when you weed out the whinier reviews (mostly about shipping speed)...

ETA: In the case of the Micron, the 3-year warranty is from the seller, not the manufacturer, so that strikes me as a bit iffy, but not the seller's overall reputation.

Because (much like ebay) we don't trust that the reviews are legit?

Also wiping off the fingerprints and re-packaging doesn't count as refurbishing in my book. Only the actual drive maker can do much more then that with an SSD. Manufacturer-refurbs with a manufacturer-warranty I have no issue with ... but 3rd-party refurb = used.

Can't speak for Newegg personally but I've had nothing but problems pretty much every time I made a purchase from from an Amazon marketplace seller however as I mentioned Amazon will fix things if independent sellers don't.

I love Newegg but sadly I just don't have the same confidence in their CS anymore.

 

[Mike64]

Because (much like ebay) we don't trust that the reviews are legit?

Well, it's obviously no skin off my nose if you prefer to lump all online reviews together as a class, but I disagree about the seller reviews (versus the product reviews), in particular on Newegg. I've never gotten any impression that there's a noticeable, let alone significant, number of "not legit" reviews there, whether product reviews or more importantly in this context, seller reviews. Stupid, useless ones? In droves. But "bogus? Not so much. (And I say this as a no-longer-particularly big fan of them in general, between the super-slow "free" shipping and the relative increase in prices over the years... They haven't been my "go to" PC parts/electronics supplier for a while now.)

Over the past several years, the product reviews on Newegg have become increasingly worthless thanks to an ever-growing percentage of clueless reviewers, but if anything, it seems to me that cluelessness has skewed the reviews to the negative. What with all the by-now classic rants about flash memory cards/drives not "really" being 32GB or whatever (or that write speeds are generally a fraction of read speeds), hard drive buyers who brand a drive "DOA" because it wouldn't format without being initialized, not to mention the scary number of people who apparently don't bother with trivia like reading product descriptions and then slam a product when it doesn't meet their (imagined) "expectations"... And it seems to me even more true among the "seller reviews", where people love to bitch that they "didn't notice" that a cheapo product was being sent from China and that it took 3 weeks to arrive, that it's as flimsy as anyone with half a brain would know it would be for the price, or that - gasp - it's prohibitively expensive to return defective products to mainland China and so the "warranty" isn't worth the pixels it's displayed in...

(And for that matter, even on Amazon, where the product reviews have mostly become a sick joke due to all the "verified 'purchase' ", "honest review for free/discounted product" bullshit, the seller reviews even there seem to me skewed toward the negative for reasons similar to the ones on Newegg.)

As for Ebay, those reviews have been worthless for years (almost two decades, actually, by now - how scary is that?), but that's an entirely different kettle of fish. At best, they never gave you enough space to say anything really useful and for many years there was the fear-of-retaliatory-feedback issue, and then after that, the seller feedback became, if anything, skewed to the negative for reasons similar to the ones I note above.

 

[cbn]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178939&ignorebbr=1
PNY CS1211 2.5" 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSD7CS1211-480-RB
Newegg
$102.99 FS

480GB MLC for $103.

Don't forget to register your drive to get the full warranty.

240GB version of that drive is $59.99 free shipping (which is also a good deal).

 

[PliotronX]

240GB version of that drive is $59.99 free shipping (which is also a good deal).

Agreed, I bit on the 240GB and the Hectron X1 to stuff in the Corsair dual bracket (Corsair Dual SSD Mounting Bracket 3.5" CSSD-BRKT2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016498CK0). The 60GB X1 will make a great Hyper-V host system drive that won't be doing a whole lot of writing and the CS1211 is going in a tiered storage space with an old 320GB drive. It'll be a fun little virtualization project. Thanks guys!

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://flash.newegg.com/product/20-...60716-_-EMC-060716-Latest-_-MECH-_-Intel-LB1E

Intel 320 Series 160GB SATAII MLC 2.5" SSD
Edit: Mfg recertified!

$34.99 FS

NeweggFlash

$5 cheaper than Newegg @ NeweggFlash. Generally, NeweggFlash sales are for a limited time only.

Edit: Try this link instead?
http://flash.newegg.com/Product/N82E16820167391?icid=WP_5_06062016

 

[DesiPower]

wow, that's an antique piece! haven't seen those in a while... speed specs are slow but for price/gb it wins the race!!

 

[Captante]

http://flash.newegg.com/product/20-...60716-_-EMC-060716-Latest-_-MECH-_-Intel-LB1E

Intel 320 Series 160GB SATAII MLC 2.5" SSD
Edit: Mfg recertified!

$34.99 FS

NeweggFlash

$5 cheaper than Newegg @ NeweggFlash. Generally, NeweggFlash sales are for a limited time only.

Wow I had one of these ... relatively slow but super reliable.

I shudder to think what I originally paid for it! D:

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wow I had one of these ... relatively slow but super reliable.

I shudder to think what I originally paid for it! D:

Compared to modern TLC drives (with SLC cache feature), they may be slightly slower, but if you value reliability and stability over everything else, the Intel drives (with their own controller), is the way to go.

I'm using a pair of 300GB 320 Series SSDs that I bought used off of ebay, for two of my Gigabyte Brix J1900 mini-PCs. (Since they are only SATAII, the SATAII SSDs make a nice match up.)

Edit: They were only 1% used up. Pretty good deal, I think.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0916-Latest-_-EnterpriseSSDs-_-20228158-S1A8C

OCZ SSD SB1CSK31MT560-0240 Saber 1000 Series 240GB 2.5" SATAIII MLC 7mm - Certified Refurbished

REFURBISHED

Newegg

$44.99 FS

240GB MLC *REFURB* for $45 shipped. Not bad. Not sure about the quality of OCZ refurbs, although I've purchased them in the past and had mostly good luck with them. These are supposedly one of their "enterprise" SSDs. So probably good longevity, but who knows how badly they were beaten up in some server somewhere.

 

[Bitman]

OCZ 960GB Trion 150 SSD at Fry's for $235 regular, or $200 with Saturday promo code. Not cheap in an absolute sense, but cheap per GB, even without the promo code.

 

[esquared]

For those with Fry's and use of their promo codes, there are two Corsair LE deals.

480 GB - 99.95 after 45 promo code and 5 MIR
http://www.frys.com/product/8695580?site=172premail061216

240 GB - 49.95 after 20 promo code and 5 MIR
http://www.frys.com/product/8695560?site=172premail061216

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ebay item # 381555292005

Mushkin Enhanced ECO3 2.5" 240GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) M

Newegg on ebay

$54.99 FS

240GB TLC for $55. About average "sale" price for a TLC SSD. If you don't absolutely need one, wait a little while, they'll get cheaper.

Or get a 480GB one for $100 or less when they go on sale. (A reminder, we've seen a $100 MLC 480GB SSD too, a PNY / SMI drive.)

 

[PingSpike]

For those with Fry's and use of their promo codes, there are two Corsair LE deals.

480 GB - 99.95 after 45 promo code and 5 MIR
http://www.frys.com/product/8695580?site=172premail061216

240 GB - 49.95 after 20 promo code and 5 MIR
http://www.frys.com/product/8695560?site=172premail061216

Are the corsair LE's any good? I don't know much about them.

 

[esquared]

I don't have one myself. I do like their memory and have used it over the years.

Here are Amazon reviews which give it pretty high marks.
https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Forc...TF8&qid=1465831260&sr=8-2&keywords=corsair+le

 

[DesiPower]

1tb for ~$210 is not bad!!! Reviews look good, looks like their new line of product. I have seen very few complaints about SSDs failing these days. Have all the controllers stabilized now? It's just the matter of quality control?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are the corsair LE's any good? I don't know much about them.

Yeah, I don't either. But I've been buying 120GB Corsair Force LS refurb units for under $40 ea., haven't had much issue with them. Disclaimer: The Force LS units are MLC, the Force LE units are TLC. But they're still Corsair, which counts for something. I'd probably rather have a Corsair SSD than an A-Data. But that's just me.

Edit: Newegg has five eggs for both the 240GB and 480GB models.

 

[cbn]

PNY CS1211 240GB, $54.99 free shipping:

(MLC NAND + SM2246EN)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820178938

 

[balloonshark]

$31.99 NeweggFlash. Silicon Power Slim S55 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SP120GBSS3S55S25

http://flash.newegg.com/Product/N82E16820301259

 

[VirtualLarry]

$31.99 NeweggFlash. Silicon Power Slim S55 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SP120GBSS3S55S25

http://flash.newegg.com/Product/N82E16820301259

That's not the only one on sale, try changing the capacity selector. Choosing MLC instead of TLC shows some bargains, but I don't know if it's my web browser or their page, because an oddly-stretched image eventually shows up over where the product price, selectors, and "Add to Cart" normally shows up, so you can't order any of the MLC models.