Intel's 34nm NAND SSDs launch in two weeks

[Ender17]

LOL.
I'd agree with "best consumer SSD at the launch" or "best consumer flash SSD", but you're (both) greatly exaggerating.

OK what is better?
and don't say some $100,000 RAM drive server

[m^2]

OK what is better?
and don't say some $100,000 RAM drive server

There are $100K SSDs in the world so they are enough to invalidate your statement. But they are not needed, there's many better SSDs than Intel's. Like ACARD. Or Zeus IOPS.

[Ao1]

Really the only benefit I see for this at the moment is the potential to bring prices down across the board. If the performance difference between these new disks and the old ones is proportionate to the difference between the Vertex and the current Intel lineup I'm not sure we will see a huge difference in noticeable performance. If the controller is improved there might be some real benefit as far a compatibility issues, etc. are concerned.

The new gen drives are really about more capacity, anything else is just a bonus. They will have a new controller and with a bit of guess work from what I have been able to pick up so far write performance will be much improved and the effects of degradation will also be reduced. Add to this the high likelihood that native TRIM will be supported. That said if the performance increases will be perceivable by most users is another question.

Price is going to be interesting. Intel are telling their investors that “advancements will expand the value proposition and accelerate the adoption of solid-state drive (SSD) solutions in computing platforms” “Value” with Intel does not mean cheap because they link value to performance, so they are not likely to be as cheap as HDD for some time yet.

Accelerated adoption is really linked to three issues; price, capacity and reliability. Price is the number one problem to wider adoption, but the perception of technology readiness is also a real issue for people sitting on the side lines. The new drives should address a lot of the problematic issues that have put people off (assuming 34nm does not bring its own problems.) On cost Intel are again making their own NAND via their joint venture with Micron, so they are not at the mercy of external supplier price hikes. The issue is how many of these do they plan to sell to make a return on their investment. Hopefully they are planning to sell lots at a lower price.

[Ao1]

There are $100K SSDs in the world so they are enough to invalidate your statement. But they are not needed, there's many better SSDs than Intel's. Like ACARD. Or Zeus IOPS.

A 146GB Zeus costs $22K. It’s not even remotely in the same market.

[Ender17]

There are $100K SSDs in the world so they are enough to invalidate your statement. But they are not needed, there's many better SSDs than Intel's. Like ACARD. Or Zeus IOPS.

ok smartass, best consumer SSD
who cares about $100,000 SSDs or obscure RAM drive devices that you can't even boot from?
also, I don't know what you mean by "at launch" as there still isn't a better consumer SSD

[Ender17]

The new gen drives are really about more capacity, anything else is just a bonus. They will have a new controller and with a bit of guess work from what I have been able to pick up so far write performance will be much improved and the effects of degradation will also be reduced. Add to this the high likelihood that native TRIM will be supported. That said if the performance increases will be perceivable by most users is another question.

Price is going to be interesting. Intel are telling their investors that “advancements will expand the value proposition and accelerate the adoption of solid-state drive (SSD) solutions in computing platforms” “Value” with Intel does not mean cheap because they link value to performance, so they are not likely to be as cheap as HDD for some time yet.

Accelerated adoption is really linked to three issues; price, capacity and reliability. Price is the number one problem to wider adoption, but the perception of technology readiness is also a real issue for people sitting on the side lines. The new drives should address a lot of the problematic issues that have put people off (assuming 34nm does not bring its own problems.) On cost Intel are again making their own NAND via their joint venture with Micron, so they are not at the mercy of external supplier price hikes. The issue is how many of these do they plan to sell to make a return on their investment. Hopefully they are planning to sell lots at a lower price.

any idea when they will be available to purchase?

[Ao1]

any idea when they will be available to purchase?

I’ve no idea how long it will take before the first ones hit the shelves, but I'd say wide availability by the time Windows 7 launches in October. I don't think it's coincidental that Intel has brought release forward from Q4 in line with the Windows 7 October release.

[Rhys]

ok smartass, best consumer SSD
who cares about $100,000 SSDs or obscure RAM drive devices that you can't even boot from?
also, I don't know what you mean by "at launch" as there still isn't a better consumer SSD

It's the best consumer OS SSD, but by a small margin (in my opinion).
If it had higher sequential write speed then that would currently make it allot better for the times people have to HDDerase the drive and reload the OS.

So I do see what m^2 meant, by some of you trying to give the impression it's head and shoulders above the rest.

It's kind of a 285 Vs OC'ed 4890 amount of difference.

So I'm glad this new drive deals with the current drives Achilles heel as this was really the only major shortcoming.

Don't know whether to sell my x25 and pick up the newer one, or if there isn't any performance difference other than sequential write speed, to just pick up another cheap x25-m and raid 0.

Something must be happening because some ebayer's are selling these at £229.99 free shipping.

[Rhys]

The only thing that might put me off, is if these don't support sata 6 gbs as that's just around the corner.
If they do not then I think they will be super seeded relatively quickly by the lower latency sata 6 gbs interface.

[m^2]

ok smartass, best consumer SSD
who cares about $100,000 SSDs or obscure RAM drive devices that you can't even boot from?
also, I don't know what you mean by "at launch" as there still isn't a better consumer SSD

I named it already. ACARD beats it too. Or I should rather say - "Intels don't beat ACARD" because consumer SSD market is quite large and for some uses (i.e. laptops) ACARD isn't a great choice.

To sum up: Intel SSDs are neither pos nor something godly. They are just a product that might be the best if you specify strong enough constraints, but calling it "best consumer SSD" is still too much.

[orangekiwii]

however, its basically the best SSD on newegg

all that other stuff is neither practical in its use in a STANDARD desktop/laptop and cannot be bought easily through retail channels

[Ender17]

If it had higher sequential write speed then that would currently make it allot better for the times people have to HDDerase the drive and reload the OS.

how would higher write speed help there?
HDDerase takes seconds and OS install is limited by the source media

[saint-francis]

how would higher write speed help there?
HDDerase takes seconds and OS install is limited by the source media

Not if you install from a SSD.

[XS Janus]

LOL i guess this one of those perpetual conversation arguments... aka pissing contests.

[Rhys]

how would higher write speed help there?
HDDerase takes seconds and OS install is limited by the source media

Quite simple really!
If you have saved an OS backup image to a couple of HDD's that are raided you should notice quite a large difference if your x25-m had faster sequential writes!

I know this to be true as my Raided Vertex's were allot faster when re-loading my OS than my x25-m.

Also some people like to backup their Apps/Games ect in ISO format. If the ISO's are stored on you raided storage partition, then this also saves allot of time if you ever want to do a complete fresh OS install as everything can be installed much faster.
So in this scenario installs would be quite allot faster if your x25-m write speed at least doubled.

edit: if you have a fairly new HDD then they wouldn't even need to be raided for you to see a benefit.

[Ao1]

LOL i guess this one of those perpetual conversation arguments... aka pissing contests.

yep once again heading off topic towards a vertex/ x-25 pissing match

[Rhys]

yep once again heading off topic towards a vertex/ x-25 pissing match

Actually discussing the benefits of an x25-m with faster write speed!
and using a case study to illustrate my point

[Rhys]

Perhaps I should let mis-info go unchallenged! Rather than using the dirty 'V' word!

[-n7-]

Hmm...will be interesting to see how these are.

[One_Hertz]

I am guessing this is a refresh and not really new gen. SATA3 new gen coming later...

[situman]

I am guessing this is a refresh and not really new gen. SATA3 new gen coming later...

I dont see why they need a refresh for SATA3. They can simply make it backwards compatible with SATA2 just like how SATA2 is backwards compatible with SATA1. In fact, if Intel implements SATA3 right now, they will have another advantage over its competitors.

[EniGmA1987]

yeah intel pos?

they currently have the BEST SSD drive on the market....
thats not even really a matter of opinion...

so if their a POS then what are the other drives... a really old and large pos?

I mean seriously... where have you been hiding?

Actually I think the 120GB Vertex EX is the best SSD available to the consumer market. Costs a bunch of money, but hey you said the best not the best for a cheap price

[lowfat]

Actually I think the 120GB Vertex EX is the best SSD available to the consumer market. Costs a bunch of money, but hey you said the best not the best for a cheap price

I don't know about you, but i sure wouldn't consider a $1350 drive a consumer drive.

[Rhys]

Actually I think the 120GB Vertex EX is the best SSD available to the consumer market. Costs a bunch of money, but hey you said the best not the best for a cheap price

Maybe the 60gb EX could scrape into 'consumer land', but seriously do any SSD's fall into a consumer category?
Even the J-micron's are expensive compared to a couple of fast singleplatter HDD's!

[deathman20]

Mmmm sweet. I was so tempted to nab up 1 or 2 of the drives (80 or 160's) but now that these are coming out soon, I'll just wait it out to my planned Win7 launch.