Low end storage options

[Hardcore Games]

Hard disks in laptop machines were yanked in favor of SATA SSD offerings long ago. I have lots of old hard disks in USB-C boxes and some M.2 SSD in USB-C boxes too.

I was given a pile of old HP laptops and for fun I got Windows 11 running on an i3-370m fine.

SATA SSD are cheap today. 256GB cost more per GB then 512GB which are now only $5 more at about $30-$35 in Canada.

2TB 7mm hard disks face fierce competition as 2TB SSD prices are not a big premium anymore. The WD SN350 2TB was $140 last time I bought one. I have a 2TB WD SATA SSD as well.

 

[cvaldes]

Cheap SSD prices are starting to disappear as NAND prices are going to skyrocket in 2024. This has been heavily covered by tech media over the past six months.

We had some good values the past few years but we can wave those goodbye for a while.

Meanwhile HDD prices continue to be the best value for low end storage, I dunno maybe $20 per terabyte. So that's what I use for my Steam game backups. Restoring a game from HDD doesn't take that long, way faster than my ghetto DSL "broadband" connection.

 

[Hardcore Games]

China is ramping up NAND in volume which should help at the low end. Chinese SSDb work fine but they lack DRAM etc compared to high-end models used in servers. The controller works without RAM if designers want lower BOM.

Hard disks are near $20 per TB in the 4-8TB realm. It remains to be seen of the cost per TB comes down more..

 

[bonehead123]

China is ramping up NAND in volume which should help at the low end. Chinese SSDb work fine but they lack DRAM

Like I'm gonna buy anything from over there, ssd's or otherwise...yea, right...they can put their cheap-ass garbaggio where the sun don't shine

 

[Hardcore Games]

I have tried the cheap SSD and they work as SATA is slow enough that low grand NAND has some buyers.

I see lower prices for 4TB SATA SSD are making them more attractive. Even 8TB SATA prices are lower.

New higher stacked NAND is going to make 16TB SSD a reality real soon.