SSD prices affected by the situation in Thailand?

[Hakane]

Hey folks,

I was about to buy a WD Caviar few weeks ago but then i discovered that the prices where extreamly higher than usual. The prices was (and still is i guess) afftected by the flood in Thailand. Now im considering to buy an SSD but i have no idea if the SSD prices also are affected?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

SSD prices have not been affected by the floods in Thailand. Curiously, only one third of all ssd's are manufactured in Thailand. What may have made things critical was production of the motorized spindles found inside a hard drive. One particular company with 8 factories in Thailand makes 80% of all the motorized spindles. Seven of the eight factories were flooded.

SSD prices have been dropping slowly. Sometimes during recent special sales we've seen ssd's as low as $1.00 per GB.

 

[cadder]

My theory is that it is possible for there to be more demand for SSD now that hard drives are so much higher, but pricing hasn't really shown this. SSD prices that I have been watching over the past 2 years have not come down very fast but they have steadily come down in price. In particular if you shop at newegg some prices fluctuate up and down every day, and occasionally some drives will go on sale for a day or a few days.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

This past weekend I was checking on new ssd brands and models. I was surprised at the numbers. Compared to this time last year it looks like there is a huge surge. I spent the better part of yesterday morning updating the SSD Database.

There are quite a few brands that are never mentioned in the forums. Galaxy, Monster Digital, Verbatim, and Zalman all want a piece of the action. Orico, a Chinese manufacturer of pc components, decided to jump into the fray. On top of that Fusion-io which is very very big over on the enterprise side of the market is going to give it a go. That's the company that acquired SandForce. No telling how it will play out.

Intel has publically stated that it is not so sure the hard disk drive shortage will speed up the migration to ssd's. Intel believes there is a good size inventory of hard drives on hand. Lower ssd prices are more likely to be the key factor.

BTW - Monster Digital is the company that makes those ridiculously expensive Monster cables. Do you think they will offer ridiculously expensive ssd's?

 

[popatim]

OWC is rarely mentioned here also, perhaps because newegg doesnt sell their products, but they make decent stuff to even though its gears towards mac. I beleive they use the sandforce controllers.

 

[Hakane]

Thanks, I appreciate the answers.

PS.: Whats the difference between Corsair SSD Force GT and Force 3? According to the specs there is no difference?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Les Tokar over at The SSD Review published a comparision of the Force GT and Force 3. Here is the link to the review:

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/corsair-force-series-gt-120gb-sata-3-ssd-review-force-series-gt-vs-force-series-3-ssd-compared/

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I'm pretty sure the floods in Thailand have not affected ssd prices. What might lead to lower prices is more competition.

During the past two days there have been more announcements and press releases for new ssd models. I'm guessing this is all part of ramping up for the International Consumer Electronic Show. The CES runs from January 10th through the 13th in Las Vegas. There should be a lot of reports with information about new products.

BTW - Strange things are happening over at OCZ. OCZ had been using SandForce controllers in almost all of their ssd's. Then OCZ acquired Indilinx and a few OCZ ssd's with Indilinx controllers were announced. Now OCZ has announced a PCI-e based ssd with a Marvell controller.