WD SiliconEdge Blue 128GB for $220 shipped!!

[Clint Torres]

Finally, all it takes is one manufacturer to break and the dominoes will fall! Cheap SSDs, here we come!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820250002

[bdwilcox]

$1.70 per GB. $1 per GB here we come! Come on, Kryptonite!

[morphine]

Moved to Hot Deals forum for better visibility.

[BloodSoul]

I saw this too! So excited haha, just can't wait for 256 gig SSD's to get to a reasonable price, then you won't even really NEED a storage drive haha.

[UberGerbil]

Finally, all it takes is one manufacturer to break and the dominoes will fall! Cheap SSDs, here we come!!

Uh, no. What it takes is cheaper MLC NAND. This lower price has nothing to do with one manufacturer "breaking"; it has everything to do with a drop in flash prices. Contract prices have clung stubbornly at right around $16 per 64Gb (or about $250 for 128GB, $2/GB) since Q4 last year, but just in the last few weeks they've fallen to about $12 per 64Gb (or about $200 for 128GB). So it's not surprising that we're starting to see retail SSDs following suit. It's not entirely good news, in that it probably reflects softening demand for flash more than anything (ie the spectre of the double-dip recession). Though a lot of manufacturers cut back production sharply in 2009 in the teeth of the recession and have been cautiously ramping it back up again so there may be a bit of a glut too (again, finally, though nothing like the level of oversupply we were seeing in 2008).

But to hit that magical $1/GB ($8/64Gb) requires a further 1/3 cost reduction, and (absent outright market collapse) that's almost certainly going to depend on the Samsung, IMFT, et al moving to the next smaller node (~25nm) which IFMT still has scheduled for Q4 (volume production) AFAIK and somewhat later for the others (and expect Intel and Micron to milk it until those others show up).

[morphine]

Perhaps it should be noted, for those not in the know: unlike conventional hard disks, in which each manufacturer does their own platters, SSDs need NAND flash chips, which are manufactured by only a select few companies. So as UberGerbil pointed out, it's not really up to the HDD manufacturers alone to drop the prices, they have to buy the flash chips, make the SSDs, and still make a profit.

[codedivine]

Its still at about 320 CAD for newegg.ca

[Clint Torres]

Bah, it went back up to $270.

[Kougar]

It's down to $200 shipped right now.

Somewhat interesting the 64/256 versions aren't reflecting the same price drops... the 64GB drive would be exactly $100 if using the same $1.55 per GB.

[Freon]

I just got mine today from the above $200 deal. I literally just migrated my Windows 7 over from my Vertex 30GB using the WD-branded Acronis Imaging download. It doesn't show as a support download under their SSD drives (go get it under their SATA drives download page), but it worked beautifully. I was even able to go back and turn on AHCI mode (whoopsie!) after it finished imaging. Very painless.

Killer deal for $200! Looking at TR's last value prop. article, if you look at it again as if that 256GB WD drive was only $400 ($1.56/GB) instead of $668+ that should put it easily as the best value SSD out there.

Here's hoping the newer JMicron controller works out long term.

[BloodSoul]

Hows the thing perform? I wanna wait till I can get a good deal on something from corsair (prob gonna wait till black friday). I don't know why i love corsair so much >.<

[morphine]

I don't know why i love corsair so much >.<

Because pretty much everything they do is top-notch, even if it sometimes is $$$$.

[BloodSoul]

^truth hahahaha can't wait to finish off my system with more ram and an SSD from them!

currently it is:

Core i7 930 (OC'ed 4Ghz) w/ Corsair A70 Cooler
Evga FTW 3 Mobo
6gb Corsair DDR3 1600Mhz (7-8-7-20)
1 tb Caviar Black
750gb Caviar Green
Evga GTX 460 1GB SC EE
Haf 932
Antec Neopower 650W modular
Generic DVD drive

I want to add:

2nd EVGA GTX 460 1GB SC EE (SLI heaven :-])
Blu-ray Burner
Some 128 Gb Corsair SSD
another 6gb of the same ram

[potatochobit]

i saw a post somewhere that a bluray burner was selling for 90$ on newegg special if you were thinking about that soon

[BloodSoul]

that is quite tempting, hmm maybe i'll get one of my mates to spot me some cash haha

[Sargent Duck]

Sold out : (

[BloodSoul]

Gahhhh! Oh well, blu-ray will drop further in price by christmas/blackfriday anyway