Intel price drops

[IanB]

First sign of possible seismic shifts in pricing coming with the imminent release of Intel's G3 series...

Major UK retailer Scan has just dropped pricing of the Intel 80Gb x25-M by almost £20, close to 15%: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/80gb-...ite-70mb-s-oem

I'm not particularly banging a drum for the Intels (not like some are doing for OWC at any opportunity ), but everyone is aware of their proven reliability even if they aren't the fastest. And for those of us using XP or not in RAID, the free Intel SSD Toolbox is extremely handy for monitoring and keeping the thing in good shape with a proper manual TRIM.

If you can't wait for G3, this is just excellent value now, and it'll probably get better.

[Metroid]

Intel drives are great for reliability, nobody that I know had any problems with them. It's a great price reduction.

I always see somebody complaining about the Sandforce or Crucial drives.

Greater Performance + Problems = Sandforce or Crucial.

[Ao1]

Unfortunately the 160Gb drives haven't dropped in price.
I might pick one up any way to experiment with raid 0 and hIOmon.

EDIT: I think price drops might be more to do with NAND prices dropping rather than EOL clearance.

[zalbard]

When is G3 coming again?

[Ao1]

Best guess: Febuary, but possibly earlier.

[Biker]

£127.50 @ Pricelover.. going down

[Nizzen]

Intel drives are great for reliability, nobody that I know had any problems with them. It's a great price reduction.

I always see somebody complaining about the Sandforce or Crucial drives.

Greater Performance + Problems = Sandforce or Crucial.

Was it not THIS forum that failed from raid-5 with Intel ssd? 2 drives failed, and 14 days lost and no backup?

Only noobs have problems with Crucial c300

[Ao1]

As far as I can see there have been very few problems with the C300 following the firmware update. I used a C300 for my nephew's build and even he has not been able to mess it up Not yet anyways. (Touch wood, cos I will get the job of sorting it out).

[Computurd]

yea walk a big circle around SF though.....that one only gets uglier from the day you plug it in.
uh yea intel G3 FTW....lets talk steady state performance fellas.
im buying eight of them on launch day.

[chuchnit]

yea walk a big circle around SF though.....that one only gets uglier from the day you plug it in.
uh yea intel G3 FTW....lets talk steady state performance fellas.
im buying eight of them on launch day.

Eight? Making a run at PCMV I see?

[Computurd]

of course!

might throw in a mythical 990X ifn they ever come out and go for first

[mbreslin]

People who buy 8 drives the day they launch are insane.

[Computurd]

ROFL! i seem to recall this one guy and his 8 uber c300.....

[alfaunits]

Intel drives are great for reliability, nobody that I know had any problems with them.

Khm.... two of X25-E crapped on me (out of 4). One would not read a sector in the middle, the other would not read one of the first sectors.. (essentially the second one was useless, as everything that would get the data back would read the first few sectors always ).
I think a few others had similar problems. Nothing on the scale of other SSDs though.

As far as X25 prices go, I think it has more to do with the weaker USD$ than anything else (it takes time for Intel SSDs to pick up on the currency changes!)

[chuchnit]

of course!

might throw in a mythical 990X ifn they ever come out and go for first

Hmm and you still don't run with your SS yet huh? Might as well start shopping the bay for a deal on a dewar. Actually with where you live you should be able to find one cheaper off a farm locally.

[IanB]

As far as X25 prices go, I think it has more to do with the weaker USD$ than anything else (it takes time for Intel SSDs to pick up on the currency changes!)

I don't think so. There haven't been drops on the X25-V or the 160Gb M. At the old price the 80Gb M was competing with the new 80GB Corsair Force and a bunch of 120Gb older drives. Now it's priced perfectly below those. This has to be a marketing move on this drive and maybe I was wrong about this just being G3-related.

The X25-V still can't be beaten on price for a solid XP-sized boot drive, there's no benefit to Intel to cut that price yet. I'm gonna keep buying them for my school builds without a doubt, but at only 70% more for double the space (and double the write speed) the M now dominates the sweet spot for Win 7 or unusually large XP working environments where people always complain that a small boot drive isn't big enough. And if that isn't enough, we know how well these RAID and that's a lot more affordable now.

It just makes me even more curious about the G3 launch. Big price cut per GB at the low end? Or mostly just larger sized drives at a more reasonable price? Or both? February can't come soon enough...

[Metroid]

...

One problem and that is likely a bad batch, reason 2 drives had the same problem.

As for the others, take a look on OCZ, Crucial and Corsair forums and you will understand. Firmware issues, ghost drives, compromised reliability, bad sectors and the list goes on.

[Soulburner]

I don't think G3 will be dramatically faster than G2, if much at all. Look for increased capacity and lower costs.

I just purchased a 120GB OCZ Vertex 2. It had a $30 MIR and is a great drive. The Intel drives are too far off for this customer to wait and the Intel 80GB was going to be too small for them (however I use one and have no issues with its size). The 160GB G2 was simply way over budget. The Vertex 2 actually had the lowest $/GB.

In day to day use, one cannot tell the difference between them. No one could guess which drive was in which computer unless they saw the capacity.

[Movieman]

of course!

might throw in a mythical 990X ifn they ever come out and go for first

They ain't mythical..

[Gilgamesh]

My X25-M 80GB G2 died after 5 months, at july.
With 100% refund, I bought a Crucial C300 128GB at september, more fast and 45GB bigger

[Computurd]

Hmm and you still don't run with your SS yet huh?

yeah unfortunatley all of my research points to a vapochill not being able to hold a 920....very sad it was an impulse buy off ebay, but for the price i got it for it wasnt too bad. used it on a q9550 and it held that fine, but everyone says a i7 will start it on fire

dunno what to do with it. sold the q9550 now the phase looks sad...

[odditory]

Was it not THIS forum that failed from raid-5 with Intel ssd? 2 drives failed, and 14 days lost and no backup?

Only noobs have problems with Crucial c300

Seconded.