SSD ready for mainstream?
They first appeared in significant numbers with the sudden rise in popularity of netbooks last year. Now SSDs – or solid state drives – are looking as if they are almost ready to enter mainstream technology.
The primary problems with SSD to date have been twofold: SSDs are significantly more expensive than traditional, mechanical hard drives and most SSDs – affordable ones at least – have relatively low data capacities. Which is why the 4GB, 8GB and, more recently, 16GB drives have found a place in the netbook market but never made it onto the consumer desktop.
But that looks ready to change, with prices coming down and capacities expected to climb rapidly over the coming year.
Intel, a primary maker of SSDs, last week slashed prices on its solid state drives by close to 34%. The company’s 80GB X18-M drive, for example, was cut from around $595 (R5 700) to just $390 (R3 700). A similar 160GB version of the Intel drive now costs around $765, down from $945 in December.
Which are significant cuts but probably not yet enough to make the drives appealing to consumers. Not when a 320GB Seagate 7 200RPM hard disk costs little more than R1 000 in the South African market. And when a Samsung 64GB SSD drive can cost in the region of R11 000.
Capacity
Besides the prices of SSD drives there is also the capacity issue which is still an obstacle to consumers wanting to move in this direction. A 8GB – or preferably 16GB – SSD in a netbook is not a bad thing. It has sufficient storage to run a decent operating system, browse the web and check email. But as soon as users want more from the device, say to store music or video, the shortcomings are immediately obvious. As a result, most netbook manufacturers are opting in favour of mechanical hard disks until such time as SSD becomes more affordable.
An 8GB SSD is also woefully short on capacity for a desktop PC. Which makes the technology a non-starter in this sector.
On the upside, Intel and other makers, are starting to push the boundaries of SSD with newer, higher-capacity, drives that will, in time, shift the demand and drive down the prices of lower-capacity drives. Intel also last week announced plans for a new high-end SSD drive that will push the upper limits of its SSD capacities. The 320GB solid state drive is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2009.
By the end of 2009 SSD will very likely become a viable – if still a little pricey – option for serious users and in early 2010 become more mainstream.
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