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Will SSDs become cheaper per megabyte than magnetic platters at some point?

by matt2000 9y ago

Elessar 9y ago
Magnetic platters keep advancing as well. I loved this article that Ars did covering WD's latest advancements in MAMR: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11925/western-digital-stuns-storage-industry-with-mamr-breakthrough-for-nextgen-hdds https://www.anandtech.com/show/11925/western-digital-stuns-s... That said, most of the projections there are from WD, so there's automatically a grain of salt needed. Still, they predict to keep the gap for cost per GB fairly large out to 2028 (!).
- edkennedy 9y ago
  It doesn't help that the flash manufacturers seem to be colluding on price and want to keep the cost of SSDs artificially high. Gotta make those margins! See recent DDR4 pricing issues for an example.
  - rhizome 9y ago
    I've been complaining that there's no such thing as a low-capacity (32-64GB SSD) for $40 (or whatever) for a couple of years now.
    - eropple 9y ago
      Sure there is. https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Endurance-Free-download-SP060GBSS3S60S25AE/dp/B01M2UUACN https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Endurance-Free-download... https://www.amazon.com/KingDian-Internal-Solid-Desktop-Laptop/dp/B018K3AV7A/ https://www.amazon.com/KingDian-Internal-Solid-Desktop-Lapto... And, if you spend a little more, SanDisk will sell you a 120GB for $64: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY5ZZ4P/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY5ZZ4P/
    - BenjiWiebe 9y ago
      Watch Newegg deals. I'm pretty sure I've got some <$50 120GB SanDisk SSDs there.
  - astrodust 9y ago
    It's not like hard drive companies didn't do this in the past. The Thailand flood was the excuse they all used to jack up prices and enjoy some healthy profits.
loeg 9y ago
Yes, potentially quite soon if HDDs don't advance pretty quickly. As of earlier this year the guess I was hearing was 2018-2019. It seems like Western Digital had another breakthrough, so maybe that edge is pushed back another couple years.
wmf 9y ago
No, probably not. https://regmedia.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_hdd_vs_ssds.jpg https://regmedia.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_hdd_vs_ssds.jpg from https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_tech/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_tech/
- astrodust 9y ago
  In the end it won't matter. 5 1/4" storage devices were always cheaper than their 3 1/2' counterparts, but a combination of factors, like how 7.2K, 10K and 15K RPM speeds were possible on a smaller platter, and seek times were faster due to shorter head travel, made the cost savings largely irrelevant. The Quantum Bigfoot drive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Bigfoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Bigfoot) was huge, storing way more than an equivalent 3 1/2" drive with the ridiculous amount of platter area, and cheap. The downside was it was relatively slow and noisy as all hell. HDD technology won't go away overnight, but one day you'll wake up and chuckle about how things used to be. We had spinning rust in our computers! Hilarious!

Will SSDs become cheaper per megabyte than magnetic platters at some point?

Magnetic platters keep advancing as well. I loved this article that Ars did covering WD's latest advancements in MAMR: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11925/western-digital-stuns-storage-industry-with-mamr-breakthrough-for-nextgen-hdds https://www.anandtech.com/show/11925/western-digital-stuns-s... That said, most of the projections there are from WD, so there's automatically a grain of salt needed. Still, they predict to keep the gap for cost per GB fairly large out to 2028 (!).

edkennedy 9y ago
It doesn't help that the flash manufacturers seem to be colluding on price and want to keep the cost of SSDs artificially high. Gotta make those margins! See recent DDR4 pricing issues for an example.
- rhizome 9y ago
  I've been complaining that there's no such thing as a low-capacity (32-64GB SSD) for $40 (or whatever) for a couple of years now.
  - eropple 9y ago
    Sure there is. https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Endurance-Free-download-SP060GBSS3S60S25AE/dp/B01M2UUACN https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Endurance-Free-download... https://www.amazon.com/KingDian-Internal-Solid-Desktop-Laptop/dp/B018K3AV7A/ https://www.amazon.com/KingDian-Internal-Solid-Desktop-Lapto... And, if you spend a little more, SanDisk will sell you a 120GB for $64: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY5ZZ4P/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY5ZZ4P/
  - BenjiWiebe 9y ago
    Watch Newegg deals. I'm pretty sure I've got some <$50 120GB SanDisk SSDs there.
- astrodust 9y ago
  It's not like hard drive companies didn't do this in the past. The Thailand flood was the excuse they all used to jack up prices and enjoy some healthy profits.

loeg 9y ago

Yes, potentially quite soon if HDDs don't advance pretty quickly. As of earlier this year the guess I was hearing was 2018-2019. It seems like Western Digital had another breakthrough, so maybe that edge is pushed back another couple years.

wmf 9y ago

No, probably not. https://regmedia.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_hdd_vs_ssds.jpg https://regmedia.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_hdd_vs_ssds.jpg from https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_tech/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/12/wdc_mamr_tech/

astrodust 9y ago
In the end it won't matter. 5 1/4" storage devices were always cheaper than their 3 1/2' counterparts, but a combination of factors, like how 7.2K, 10K and 15K RPM speeds were possible on a smaller platter, and seek times were faster due to shorter head travel, made the cost savings largely irrelevant. The Quantum Bigfoot drive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Bigfoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Bigfoot) was huge, storing way more than an equivalent 3 1/2" drive with the ridiculous amount of platter area, and cheap. The downside was it was relatively slow and noisy as all hell. HDD technology won't go away overnight, but one day you'll wake up and chuckle about how things used to be. We had spinning rust in our computers! Hilarious!