SSDs will reach price and capacity parity with HDDs within two years

[midian182]

According to a new InformationWeek report, the price of solid-state drives "is in freefall", claiming that the advent of 3D NAND has increased SSD capacity while simultaneously decreasing its prices. The solid-state storage caveats of limited size and huge expense were once major factors as to why many people refused to upgrade, but thanks to the adoption of 3D NAND and excellent die yields, these issues are becoming a thing of the past.

The report states that this is the year SSDs will nearly catch up to HDDs in capacity, surpassing them in 2016 and with the first 30 TB solid-state drive coming into existence in 2018. Prices for SDDs have continued to decrease over the last year, and it's suspected that by the end of 2016 the cost difference between mechanical and solid-state storage will be negligible.

Once solid-state drives reach price and capacity parity with HDDs, will it result in the older technology's eventual demise? Perhaps, not only because SSDs can be over 100 times faster than HDDs, but the previous worry that they would wear out quickly now seems like a non issue.

Solid-state storage is quickly becoming the most recommended upgrade component for PCs. SSD owners find arduous booting speeds become a thing of the past, while their ability to reduce loading times between levels is a huge incentive for gamers. Hard disk drives will no doubt be with us for a good few years to come, but like so many various storage devices before them, they will eventually be replaced by a faster, cheaper and less power-hungry technology.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61065-ssds-reach-price-capacity-parity-hdds-within-two.html

 

[Guest]

So they are saying that: after 2 years 1TB SSD will cost me like 120 GB SSD I buy now. nice I can't wait 2 year's to pass.

 

[Tibeardius]

My 240gb SSD cost $5-10 less than my 2TB HDD. These price drops are just awesome. Crazy to think that my next PC build could have a single 4 or 5TB SSD.

 

[Seventh Reign]

30TB SSD??? Is that a typo?

 

[hojnikb]

What a load of bollocks.
Its gonna take more than 2 years to reach price parity with HDDs (basicly same cost per GB/TB).

Also, its very unlikely that we will see SSDs past 8-10TB next year. There is hardly market for 1TB drives, let alone 2TB or more.

Just a bunch of uneducated speculation for clicks.

 

[noel24]

Yeah, too beautiful to be true. Yes, HDD prices stalled since 2012, and SSDs' were crawling down, but don't think it will take 2 years, especially when You look at Samsung's problems with triple level cells, the smaller node the bigger issue. Anyway, I think the original article was concerned with corporate drives, but if we were to see price parity in two years there would have to be some breakthrough now and first deployment of some server 3D-memory drives. Nope, not gonna happen.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Anyone interested in comparisons might find this worth looking over:

http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/hdd_value.html

Looks like a lot of SSD are at top of chart.

 

[Uncle Al]

Certainly not a surprise other than the time frame. I bought one of the first hard drives, an Apple 5 MB and was amazed at the storage. Less than a year later the 10 MB model came out and we all felt duped. The continued march toward doubling capacity has continued, only the time frame becomes more and more compact due to technology and the rush for the all mighty dollar. 30TB? At this pace we'll be looking at a 300TB model by the end of the decade ...... shoot, I need to take a lot more pictures!!!!

 

[wastedkill]

When are the 60TB HDD's we were promised for 2016?

 

[trparky]

especially when you look at Samsung's problems with triple level cells, the smaller node the bigger issue.

Samsung has reversed the trend of making the node sizes smaller and gone back to a larger 40nm process with their 3D-VNAND. They expect to simply be able to add more layers to increase capacity per chip. One rumor stated that they expect to easily scale 3D-VNAND to at least 24 layers.

 

[Guest]

This isn't surprising if you look at the long-term trends.

 

[noel24]

Trends are fine until industry hits the wall of physical limitation.

 

[Guest]

HDDs have longer and better endurance than SSDs, also they don't lose their data when left unpowered for a long period of time. I think HDDs will remain strong storage solutions for the next 7 years before... uh... something else happen...

 

[Darth Shiv]

When are the 60TB HDD's we were promised for 2016?

I heard 6TB... where are you getting that from?

30TB from where we stand seems like it is at best going to be enterprise not consumer lines. Hate to think how much it costs.

 

[Squid Surprise]

What a load of bollocks.
Its gonna take more than 2 years to reach price parity with HDDs (basicly same cost per GB/TB).

Also, its very unlikely that we will see SSDs past 8-10TB next year. There is hardly market for 1TB drives, let alone 2TB or more.

Just a bunch of uneducated speculation for clicks.

This was from an actual report... where's your evidence that it's wrong?

 

[Camikazi]

What a load of bollocks.
Its gonna take more than 2 years to reach price parity with HDDs (basicly same cost per GB/TB).

Also, its very unlikely that we will see SSDs past 8-10TB next year. There is hardly market for 1TB drives, let alone 2TB or more.

Just a bunch of uneducated speculation for clicks.

This was from an actual report... where's your evidence that it's wrong?

Probably past experience where they have been saying the same thing for a few years now and it still hasn't happened.

 

[Guest]

Price perhaps, capacity I'm doubtful (hard drives are still growing too) but reliability, no way. I will never trust an SSD for long term storage.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I love your blanket statements... when you want to refute something, try posting some proof....

Why should we believe your random "no way this will happen" without any evidence?

This report had several citations - why not provide us with something?

 

[Badvok]

Price perhaps, capacity I'm doubtful (hard drives are still growing too) but reliability, no way. I will never trust an SSD for long term storage.

ROFL, you think HDDs are better for long term storage? With the bit density they use these days HDDs need to stay powered and spinning so they can refresh. Both HDDs and SSDs will lose data if left powered off for any significant length of time.

 

[User2122]

I for one can hardly wait for this new opportunity. As a 4k shooter, an hour of 4k raw video Can fill up a one terabyte drive. We need tremendous speed and huge capacity. This cannot come soon enough.

 

[Guest]

"ROFL, you think HDDs are better for long term storage? With the bit density they use these days HDDs need to stay powered and spinning so they can refresh."

Rubbish, you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Guest]

What? This is appallingly ignorant.

 

[Badvok]

"ROFL, you think HDDs are better for long term storage? With the bit density they use these days HDDs need to stay powered and spinning so they can refresh."

Rubbish, you don't know what you're talking about.

Try using a popular search engine to look up the term 'bit rot' or 'bit flux'. The biggest problem is that Hard Disk manufacturers hide all of this from most users by dealing with it automatically in the disk controller, if you ever had a look at the actual number of errors detected and corrected on your drive you'd be horrified.

But you are right, I shouldn't have said 'stay powered', that was an over-simplification. Hard drives need either regular use OR regular scans.

 

[urbanman2004]

"The report states that this is the year SSDs will nearly catch up to HDDs in capacity, surpassing them in 2016 and with the first 30 TB solid-state drive coming into existence in 2018."

Rotfl... We havent even seen the world's first single unit 30TB HDD yet. Foh

 

[Guest]

What you are failing to realize is as manufacturing spins down on HDD prices will rise. This will cause SSDs and HDD to meet in the middle. There have been some new advances that will reduce SSD prices and raise capacity at the same time. This is not in the current set of drives but will likely see in 3-5 generations from now. So the prices will change drastically and 30TB SSDs will be possible. This is corporate 101 if they can get you to pay more they will if not they will up the size to get more out of you.