News 512GB SSDs and Performance Laptop HDDs Hit Price Parity

[Admin]

With the slowdown in demand for client computers and components, 512GB SSD pricing is now on par with a 256GB SSD six months ago.

512GB SSDs and Performance Laptop HDDs Hit Price Parity : Read more

 

[bit_user]

Except nobody is buying 500 GB laptop hard drives, unless it's a replacement part. So, this is pretty irrelevant.

We've been through this before: the cost-curve of HDDs flattens out at the low end, while it remains fairly linear for SSDs. In a HDD, you need a sturdy enclosure, actuator, spindle motor, bearings, and at least a couple read/write heads + platters, no matter how low-end it is. That puts a price floor under HDDs, where as SSDs are as cheap as a PCB and the chips on them can get. So, it's essentially meaningless to look at price-parity of bottom-tier HDDs, because nobody is buying those on a $/GB basis, anyhow.

Please focus on HDD capacities people are still buying. Also, HDDs can retain data in a powered-off state much longer than most modern SSDs. So, there are further reasons someone might prefer a HDD (e.g. for backups), even if GB/$ were the same or lower.

 

[InvalidError]

Except nobody is buying 500 GB laptop hard drives, unless it's a replacement part. So, this is pretty irrelevant.

Even as a replacement part, you'd be better off with a SATA SSD.

 

[peachpuff]

Lol @ wd trying to cling to profits on those junk drives.

 

[countmackula]

Bout time

These jerks have been milking the old business model for way too long trying to jack up laptop price points to $800-$1000 just to include an SSD

No excuse now. $400 should come with a cheap SSD

 

[bit_user]

No excuse now. $400 should come with a cheap SSD

$400 laptops have come with soldered-down eMMC storage for years, already.

For instance:

• https://www.newegg.com/p/19S-006Z-000K0?Item=9SIA17PHY51566
• https://www.newegg.com/asus-chromebook-flip-c434ta-q1-cb/p/N82E16834235270?Item=9SIAMRPJPF3006
• https://www.newegg.com/p/2S3-0002-002T9?Item=9SIAMRPC6M6461
• https://www.newegg.com/p/2S3-0008-002S1?Item=9SIAMRPCSP8114

HDDs are bulky, expensive (compared to the eMMC they use), heavy, fragile, and power-hungry. No reason you'd put one in such a low-end laptop. In fact, only the mobile-workstation or desktop-replacement class laptops should've even offered them as an option, for probably at least 3 years now.

 

[targetdrone]

TrendForce says Windows liscencing is a major stumbling block that will prevent the average capacity of a pre-built PC from hitting 1TB or greater. It explains that PC Windows licensing costs scale up with device specifications, such as SSD storage capacity. Thus, it will be some time before 1TB+ SSDs come down in cost enough to justify being rolled out in economy or value-series devices, where every penny counts.

There needs to be some follow up reporting on that. I had always thought the price of a Windows License was fixed, based on volume of PCs sold by an OEM, not based on PC spec.

 

[pug_s]

Even as a replacement part, you'd be better off with a SATA SSD.

Most replacement part is like for like. Also, many older computers has compatibility issues with ssd's, I'm talking about the pre-sata drive days.

 

[bit_user]

I had always thought the price of a Windows License was fixed, based on volume of PCs sold by an OEM, not based on PC spec.

I'm not surprised by this. Microsoft is competing against Chrome OS, so I'm sure they're desperate to find methods of market segmentation that allow them to play in the Chromebook segment without cannibalizing their margins on higher-spec devices.

 

[USAFRet]

There needs to be some follow up reporting on that. I had always thought the price of a Windows License was fixed, based on volume of PCs sold by an OEM, not based on PC spec.

What the OEM pays Microsoft is changeable and unknown to us out here.

Joe's PC Shop that sells 500 systems a year pays much more per license than Dell who may sell 50,000 per month.
And I expect the cost to Dell varies for different systems.
10,000 of Spec A may be different than 5,000 of Spec B.

But to you and I, the end user, that is pretty invisible.

 

[neblogai]

Almost bought a HDD (desktop) for €39.99 this Black Friday, as the old one is serving for almost 9 years already. Only, this €39.99 was the price for a 3TB model.