Is the 768GB SSD price dropping any further?

[GLXMAN]

Hi Guys,
Been saving for a new 27" iMac since my windose laptop was failing,
The laptop has now "gone to heaven, may have gone somewhere else the way it was behaving )
I'm now down to just the iPad until funds accumulate a little more

I have noticed that the price of the 768GB SSD has dropped a little, do you think it will go any further?

I now have a hat full of CF cards, all with raw files that have yet to be processed, the workload is mounting

Our financial year ends 30 June, was hoping to get a maxed out 27" under $4000?
What are my chances?

Regards,
Gary

 

[Lifeisabeach]

If you are talking about the one that Apple offers as an upgrade when you buy an iMac, then it likely won't see a price drop until the next time they update that line. And that may be a year away, perhaps less, for all we know. A Fusion Drive would be a much better value.

 

[GLXMAN]

If you are talking about the one that Apple offers as an upgrade when you buy an iMac, then it likely won't see a price drop until the next time they update that line. And that may be a year away, perhaps less, for all we know. A Fusion Drive would be a much better value.

Yes I am talking about the one offered with the upgrade,
My local store did mention the best time was to buy around the end of the financial year as they usually have discounts, may be just a local option I guess,
Fusion drive maybe a good option If I run short of dollars
Regards,
Gary

 

[pigoo3]

I have noticed that the price of the 768GB SSD has dropped a little, do you think it will go any further?

Absolutely. The price of storage is ALWAYS dropping. How much do you think I paid for a 10 megabyte hard drive back in 1988 ($500 bucks).

The price of that 768SSD will be:

- less 6 months from now
- even less 12 months from now
- even less in 24 months from now.

As I said...the price of storage is always dropping. The problem is...we cannot always wait for the price of storage to get where we want it to be...when we need the computer.

If you need a computer now...then buy the computer now with the size SSD you can afford now. If you can wait...then wait.

- Nick

 

[GLXMAN]

Thankyou for the heads-up Nick,
I can most probably wait until the end of June so there is always hope
Your post is encouraging,
Regards,
Gary

 

[pigoo3]

Thankyou for the heads-up Nick,
I can most probably wait until the end of June so there is always hope
Your post is encouraging,

Just remember...my answer was mostly from a "philosophical" point of view. In the computer industry since approx. 1980ish (when personal computers got much more mainstream):

- cpu's have always been getting faster
- storage is always been getting cheaper
- the price of ram is always getting cheaper

The problem is knowing when it will happen & how quickly. That 768gig SSD is currently a $900 upgrade on the top-end 27" iMac.

- In 6 months it may cost $800
- In 12 months is may cost $750
- in 24 months it may cost $3000...due to a fire, or a labor strike, or a shortage of a key component at the factory that makes the SSD's (it has happened before)
- In 30 months it may cost $400

So if you pay $900 for a 768gig SSD today...in 30 months time when the price could potentially be $400...how does that make you feel? This is the "nature of the beast"...the price of storage in computers is almost always dropping.

- Nick

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Absolutely. The price of storage is ALWAYS dropping. How much do you think I paid for a 10 megabyte hard drive back in 1988 ($500 bucks).

Sucker. I paid $400 for a 40 meg Hardcard (hard drive on an ISA board) a couple years later. ;P

The price of that 768SSD will be:

- less 6 months from now
- even less 12 months from now
- even less in 24 months from now.

But will Apple drop those prices in that period? AFAIK, they rarely adjust component prices until a refresh of the product line.

 

[pigoo3]

Sucker. I paid $400 for a 40 meg Hardcard (hard drive on an ISA board) a couple years later. ;P

Yes...but 12 months after you paid $400 for that 40meg HD...I think I got a 120 meg for like $350! We could go on like this forever!

But will Apple drop those prices in that period? AFAIK, they rarely adjust component prices until a refresh of the product line.

You're probably right! Apple is usually pretty slow to adjust their prices versus the open Market (ram, HD's, SSD's). And now that the newer iMac's are virtually non-user upgradeable (at least in terms of internal storage)...Apple has even less incentive to lower prices on SSD's...or at least quickly.

- Nick

 

[bobtomay]

Can't even remember what I paid for storage back then.
I do remember my first x86 had a 80 MB drive. A friend that sold hard drives for a living went with me to the store. He told me I would "never" fill up a drive that size.

 

[pigoo3]

He told me I would "never" fill up a drive that size.

I always LOVE these statements! But somehow...we or the computer industry always finds a way to fill them!

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

I always LOVE these statements! But somehow...we or the computer industry always finds a way to fill them!

- Nick

It wasn't all that long ago we had a Sony Mavica (digital camera) that used 3 1/2 floppies as the internal storage media; we could get 60+ shots on a 720K disk.

 

[pigoo3]

It wasn't all that long ago we had a Sony Mavica (digital camera) that used 3 1/2 floppies as the internal storage media; we could get 60+ shots on a 720K disk.

Yes I remember those! It always seemed very "efficient" to have a camera that used 3.5" floppies...AND have a computer with a 3.5" floppy drive. Then you could just eject & insert...no adapters or cables required!

Wow...60+ shots...that's really not all that bad. Could that camera take/read the HD 3.5" floppy's (the 1.44meg type)? That would have basically doubled the shots you could take.

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

Yes I remember those! It always seemed very "efficient" to have a camera that used 3.5" floppies...AND have a computer with a 3.5" floppy drive. Then you could just eject & insert...no adapters or cables required!

Wow...60+ shots...that's really not all that bad. Could that camera take/read the HD 3.5" floppy's (the 1.44meg type)? That would have basically doubled the shots you could take.

- Nick

Can't remember if it would handle the HD floppies. But, yes, beling able to directly download to a PC was a major plus.

 

[GLXMAN]

Just remember...my answer was mostly from a "philosophical" point of view. In the computer industry since approx. 1980ish (when personal computers got much more mainstream):

- cpu's have always been getting faster
- storage is always been getting cheaper
- the price of ram is always getting cheaper

The problem is knowing when it will happen & how quickly. That 768gig SSD is currently a $900 upgrade on the top-end 27" iMac.

- In 6 months it may cost $800
- In 12 months is may cost $750
- in 24 months it may cost $3000...due to a fire, or a labor strike, or a shortage of a key component at the factory that makes the SSD's (it has happened before)
- In 30 months it may cost $400

So if you pay $900 for a 768gig SSD today...in 30 months time when the price could potentially be $400...how does that make you feel? This is the "nature of the beast"...the price of storage in computers is almost always dropping.

- Nick

Hi Nick,
I guess the reason I asked as in my country, the 768 was around $1300 on the online store and is now showing $1080, thought there was a "trend" happening,
Come end of June, either way, I will go the 768 SSD
Regards,
Gary

 

[pigoo3]

Hi Nick,
I guess the reason I asked as in my country, the 768 was around $1300 on the online store and is now showing $1080, thought there was a "trend" happening,
Come end of June, either way, I will go the 768 SSD
Regards,
Gary

I see. The price decrease in storage devices is almost always downward...but this downward price trend may not always be as fast as we would like.

Usually the upper end (larger capacity) drives see the slowest price decrease trends...since they are more cutting edge. For example...128 or 256gig SSD's are getting fairly common...and so the prices for these are decreasing quickly.

512gig and 768gig SSD's are higher end units...with more demand...so the price remains higher. If there were 1 terabyte SSD's and larger...then the price of the 512's and 768 SSD's would probably decrease more quickly.

Good luck...hopefully the price of the 768gig SSD upgrade does drop again before you purchase your computer in June!

- Nick

 

[cwa107]

Hi Nick,
I guess the reason I asked as in my country, the 768 was around $1300 on the online store and is now showing $1080, thought there was a "trend" happening,
Come end of June, either way, I will go the 768 SSD
Regards,
Gary

For what it's worth, I doubt you'll see a significant price decrease between now and June - if any at all. 768GB is kind of the "top dog" in terms of SSD drives and the prices on the higher capacity units have been relatively flat. For example, I've had my eye on a Crucial M4 512GB and it has stood pat around $380 for about the last 6 months, while the 256GB of the very same model has drifted below $200 (the very same drive I paid $350 for in December of 2011). To add insult to injury, Apple charges a premium price for its SSDs and they haven't kept up with third party pricing.

Your best bet, in my opinion, is the Fusion drive if you need a new machine now. Or, you could just as easily go with a smaller SSD for your system drive and buy an external Thunderbolt drive at a significant discount.

 

[GLXMAN]

Thanks Nick,
All my computers in the past have not coped too well with image editing programs, admittedly, they were 32 bit systems,
I'm thinking the iMac, 32GB ram, 768GB SSD, and maxed out graphics should be a whole lot better

I'm OK running image editing programs but am "techno challenged" when it comes to computers,

Some have suggested getting a smaller portable SSD and run the programs with that and get a cheaper fusion drive, this is way out of my skill level so thats why I'm opting for the "off the shelf" upgrade

Regards,
Gary

 

[GLXMAN]

For what it's worth, I doubt you'll see a significant price decrease between now and June - if any at all. 768GB is kind of the "top dog" in terms of SSD drives and the prices on the higher capacity units have been relatively flat. For example, I've had my eye on a Crucial M4 512GB and it has stood pat around $380 for about the last 6 months, while the 256GB of the very same model has drifted below $200 (the very same drive I paid $350 for in December of 2011). To add insult to injury, Apple charges a premium price for its SSDs and they haven't kept up with third party pricing.

Your best bet, in my opinion, is the Fusion drive if you need a new machine now. Or, you could just as easily go with a smaller SSD for your system drive and buy an external Thunderbolt drive at a significant discount.

30 June still looking like the purchase date,
Will check cash flow then,
I have a bunch of CF cards for my cameras so should be able to last 3 months,

Its going to be a laborious change over as it is, all my drives are Fat32 so I guess lots of 4GB transfers, going to be a slow process
Regards,
Gary

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Some have suggested getting a smaller portable SSD and run the programs with that and get a cheaper fusion drive, this is way out of my skill level so thats why I'm opting for the "off the shelf" upgrade

Those people have no idea what they are talking about. The Fusion Drive isn't a single drive. It's two drives: a small SSD and a larger HDD. They are not physically the same drive, but OS X treats them as one. In doing so, it tries to keep the SSD full of the most frequently accessed files, with everything else "spilling" over to the HDD. The end result is that your system performance is maximized without wasting a lot of very valuable SSD space on files that aren't accessed that often. Adding a portable SSD doesn't make a whole lot of sense here.
AnandTech | A Month with Apple's Fusion Drive

 

[GLXMAN]

Those people have no idea what they are talking about. The Fusion Drive isn't a single drive. It's two drives: a small SSD and a larger HDD. They are not physically the same drive, but OS X treats them as one. In doing so, it tries to keep the SSD full of the most frequently accessed files, with everything else "spilling" over to the HDD. The end result is that your system performance is maximized without wasting a lot of very valuable SSD space on files that aren't accessed that often. Adding a portable SSD doesn't make a whole lot of sense here.
AnandTech | A Month with Apple's Fusion Drive

Thank you for the info,
Appreciate the heads-up, learning a little at a time,
Also read the link at the bottom of your post,
Extremely informative actually,
Most of it went straight over my head but was written well enough to guide me in the right direction for my needs,
Much appreciated,
Definitely going 768GB after reading your link

Regards,
Gary