News Samsung confirms 4TB SSD 850 PRO and SSD 850 EVO

Mechanical drives are doomed

 

We knew that years ago.

The only reason they'll stay around is because they're cheaper. A 4TB SSD is going to cost a fortune compared to a 4TB HDD.

 

I assume that means that the 1TB and 2TB drives are going to fall significantly in price over that year?

Now that the capacities are at a useful level within consumer space, it's only a matter of time before SSDs completely replace HDDs in standard PCs. HDDs will still have their uses though, mass storage where speed isn't important and backups etc. would be their main market instead.

My guess is maybe £1100 starting price for the 4TB model?

 

1TB is currently sitting at ~£270, so quadruple it and add more for new tech taxes. I'd say £1300.

 

As glad as I am that the sizes are increasing, I'll be more glad when the price drops to a non-hilarious level.

 

Meanwhile you can get 8TB HDD for £180 which is a good £100 less than a 1TB SSD.

But if you are really well off it would be sweet to make a HTPC with a bunch of 4TB SSD's.

 

Fairly sson these prices are going to drop to the point where a 1-2 TB SSD is viable, maybe 24 months at most and then the age of the mechanical drive will be dead and buried.
I've already got 3 x SSD in my system but still hanging on to the 2x mechanicals, but their time is quickly drawing to a close.

 

People have been saying this already for years and as for 'viable' that is merely a matter of perspective as some will pay whatever the price is.

Personally, I believe 'viable' should refer to the masses and not the minority and I think we are a long way off from that. A large number of people don't have a clue about SSDs at all and won't think twice about sticking with HDDs for all storage needs for years to come. As for the prices, you may think the prices will be viable but I won't be paying hundreds of pounds for storage so I'll be sticking with an SSD as a system drive only and I really don't see a need for that to change, not now, not in 5 years time and certainly not at those prices.

 

Yeah, when even low-capacity SSDs are still ten times as expensive as HDDs then there's still a long way to go before SSDs replace mechanical drives, especially for mass storage.

Three years ago a 256GB SSD sold for £150 and they're now about £60, so prices have definitely come down a long way, but you can get a 2TB mechanical for that price and in contrast a 2TB SSD costs over £500.

I recently expanded my storage and initially was keen on the idea of adding a larger SSD to complement the 256GB that I already have, but I wasn't prepared to spend £125+ on a 500GB SSD when I could get a 1TB mechanical for less than £35. I don't need masses of storage, and if I'm honest I don't need an SSD for much more than Windows plus a few games, so I'm happy to stick with the 256GB for now and shuttle frequently-used games between drives if required. Hopefully these larger-capacity SSDs will drop in price and push down the price of smaller capacity drives, but it'll be a long, long time before they're a realistic alternative to mechanical drives for mass storage.

 

Although others seem to think otherwise, I think the chances of Samsung pitching the 4TB SSDs at more than a grand a piece is pretty slim. AS we all know SSD prices are coming down all the time and Samsung will want to actually sell some of the 4TB drives.

 

Well, going by Scan's current prices a 2TB 850 EVO is £572 and a 2TB 850 PRO is £731, so I'd be astounded if either 4TB model comes in at under £1,000.

 

Ebuyer have the Pro at £740 but, Amazon is already cheaper at £695. We'll see who's right next year!