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Samsung Manufacturing 256GB SSDs, Just Like They Promised
Posted by John Herrman at 9:07 PM on November 20, 2008
It was nearly six months ago when Samsung laid out their plan to manufacture an affordable, super-fast 256GB SSD by the end of the year. It sounded a little bit optimistic at the time, but as of today, they're here. Sort of. Samsung says that manufacturing has begun, but still hasn't let loose on the most important nugget: price. They have, however, elaborated a little bit on their claims of "disruptive" performance: the news SSDs will offer speed "analogous to having a 15,000rpm drive, without all of its size, noise, power and heating drawbacks." They also claim to have decreased the read/write speed gap to about 10% and dropped power consumption to a slight 1.1w. This all sounds great, it's cost that'll win the SSD war. [Akihabara]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
yungjerry703
Posted 11:48 PM 20/11/08
damn that thing is bigger than the hd i have in here now, its gonna be a year before i consider such an indulgence tho. maybe when the 512gig one comes out i'll be able to afford it.
yungjerry703
Herman
Posted 11:26 PM 20/11/08
Looks like we'll have a complete desktop PC in a box the size of a pack of cigarettes by the end of 2009 as well.
Herman
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 11:20 PM 20/11/08
Just in time to not be in the MacBook Air
OMG! Ponies!
Herman
Posted 12:19 AM 21/11/08
Slow? "analogous to having a 15,000rpm drive"
Hello, 7200rpm is standard at the moment, in desktops. Most normal laptops still have 5400rpm.
In the normal mid-end market that is.
Herman
RW-1
Posted 12:18 AM 21/11/08
I think while speed is an issue, if it is within 10% then the big advantage is low temps. Anything to produce less heat within a cse crammed with 3 GPU's a burnin ...
RW-1
stryder100
Posted 12:13 AM 21/11/08
Sweet, but slow. I was all hyped up about SSDs and was going to hold out for a laptop 'til they had affordable ones. Guess maybe the next one.
stryder100
mangochutney
Posted 12:44 AM 21/11/08
If this thing is decently priced, and gives me a speed advantage over my current 250GB HDD, I will consider buying it.
I have to say that lower power consumption and less heat alone are already tempting specs.
My MBP would love it.
mangochutney
mangochutney
Posted 12:42 AM 21/11/08
@reddingofish: Let's hope so, by goodness!
mangochutney
mangochutney
Posted 12:40 AM 21/11/08
@OMG! Ponies!: Don't weep, it's ok.
Steve'll make a BTO-option.
Here, take a piece of chocolate, it helps.
;)
mangochutney
reddingofish
Posted 12:32 AM 21/11/08
The price will probably stick to the 1$ a GB for a while. That's better than the old days when it was 1$ a MB. Give it another 20 years and it will be 1$ a TB.
reddingofish
atheos
Posted 12:25 AM 21/11/08
@Herman: RPM has little to do with the actual performance. Modern 5400rpm drives are faster than older 7200rpm ones. The RPM doesn't really tell anything. I want to see such details as seek time and read/write speed, the kind of things that really matter. And compared to equal size (250GB) Samsung HDD, both 5400rpm and 7200rpm. Then I'll believe.
atheos
Joseph
Posted 1:23 AM 21/11/08
You really think so? If you go read reviews on NewEgg about the cheaper SSD's, they all have horrible reviews with claims of freezing (Primarily Vista users) and slow downs when heavy multi-tasking begins. I would think that the marriage of a good price point as well as speed will be the deciding factor. If you buy an SSD for 1/3rd the price of the Samsung but it runs like a 4200RPM platter drive, what are you really gaining?
Joseph
mangochutney
Posted 1:23 AM 21/11/08
@The Comedian: Yeah, I expect that, too.
I won't give up hope though.
@Samsung:
Surprise me, baby!
mangochutney
Optimus-Prime
Posted 12:58 AM 21/11/08
@atheos: Actually seek time is a function of RPM speed and is important. The three components of hard drive speed are seek time, rotational delay, and transfer time.
Statistically the hard drive will have to spin one half rotation to find most instruction sets (seek) when they are not hit in the RAM. Considering hit times in cache and ram are in the nanoseconds, and we measure rpm in 10ths of seconds, having to fetch back to the hard drive is very expensive (time). I think when mention speeds of "modern 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm" you are referring to spacial locality advances maybe?
Sorry for sounding like a dick
Optimus-Prime
The Comedian
Posted 12:57 AM 21/11/08
@mangochutney:
An 80 GB SSD is costing more than a 1TB normal HDD.. I guess the price will touch the stars amigo.. (:-O)
The Comedian
elvisml2
Posted 12:53 AM 21/11/08
@elvisml2: "Furthermore, the 256GB SSD launches applications ten times faster than the fastest 7200rpm notebook HDD." -read link
elvisml2
elvisml2
Posted 12:51 AM 21/11/08
@atheos: "Samsung just started the mass production of their 256GB SSD, apparently with better performance than their previous SSDs, with a sequential read rate of 220MB/s (megabytes per second) and sequential write rate of 200MB/s." -From the read link.
elvisml2
Herman
Posted 2:21 AM 21/11/08
@mangochutney: "I have to say that lower power consumption and less heat alone are already tempting specs."
Same here, the fact it has no moving parts and will make laptops last longer is the cool part.
Honestly speed doesn't matter much to me.
Herman
wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!
Posted 1:45 AM 21/11/08
@OMG! Ponies!: No way. There's still plenty of time to not put things in the MacBook Air. Like Duke Nukem Forever-- 3D Realms are taking their sweet time working hard to not put that in the MacBook Air. Don't give these Samsung guys so much credit for punctuality.
wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!
mangochutney
Posted 1:39 AM 21/11/08
@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: Thanks. But tell me, why do reports like this affect me so much?
Oh, and can I have some of the dark one?
mangochutney
The Comedian
Posted 1:37 AM 21/11/08
@Joseph:
Touche..
The Comedian
wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!
Posted 1:34 AM 21/11/08
@mangochutney: Your worry for the MacBook Air-- it suggests what you fear is fear itself. This is very wise. Have some more chocolate.
wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!
DisposableInterloper
Posted 1:26 AM 21/11/08
@Joseph:
I would imagine the bit about cost winning the war assumes that any given SSD would be one of good quality.
DisposableInterloper
Nintenboy01
Posted 3:13 AM 21/11/08
@Herman: I agree, extra speed is a nice little bonus, but what I'm really after is the greater reliability and shock-resistance. No more stupid head crashes or grinding noises!
Nintenboy01
Nintenboy01
Posted 3:10 AM 21/11/08
Oh goody, when SSDs of this capacity hit the under-$200 mark in a couple years or so I'll get one for the PS3. Mechanical 2.5" drives make me paranoid nowadays.
Nintenboy01
Gokuhouse
Posted 3:41 AM 21/11/08
@yungjerry703: Yeah, me too. Maybe I'll wait for the TB drive then I might be able to afford the 256GB drive.
Gokuhouse
iomatic
Posted 3:24 AM 21/11/08
@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: Hmm. Plenty of room in my 128 SSD still.
iomatic
ALT
Posted 3:46 AM 21/11/08
@Optimus-Prime: For real man. My genitals wont stop talking about hardrives seek and write speeds.
ALT
RyaninCalgary
Posted 6:12 AM 21/11/08
SSD with an i7 chip and board, 9GB's of DDR3 ..... drool.
RyaninCalgary
m4ximusprim3
Posted 5:59 AM 21/11/08
@ALT: Mine mostly seek things.
m4ximusprim3
ichi1
Posted 7:48 AM 21/11/08
can i have some chocolate please I am a star! , is it me is that drive to pretty to buried in a laptop?
ichi1
JEmlay
Posted 10:59 AM 21/11/08
I want REAL read/write data. Hurry up damn it!
JEmlay
twylight
Posted 10:58 AM 21/11/08
This thing will have to be cheap and outperform a standard 7200 rpm drive...unlike their previous claims.
I have tossed all SSD drives in favor of plain old 7200 rpm 2.5s in laptops - they are crap.
twylight