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Micron boasts the fastest desktop SSD drives

SATA3 6Gbps SSD is set to outstrip competition
Thu Dec 03 2009, 13:32

MEMORY OUTFIT Micron reckons it has snatched the crown for the fastest notebook and desktop PC SSD drive with the announcement of its RealSSD C300.

The RealSSD C300 drive uses 34nm MLC NAND flash memory and also supports the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) 2.1 standard, promising faster operating system boot and hibernate times, speedier application load, data transfer and file copying than any of its competitors.

"The C300 SSD not only delivers on all the inherent advantages of SSDs - improved reliability and lower power use - but also leverages a finely tuned architecture and high-speed ONFI 2.1 NAND to provide a whole new level of performance," said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron.

Furthermore, the C300 includes native support for 6Gbps SATA3, which should boost performance even further.

"Hard drives gain little performance advantage when using SATA 6Gb/s because of mechanical limitations," added Klein.

According to Micron, on a 6Gbps SATA3 connection the C300 can reach a read throughput speed of up to 355MBps and a write throughput speed of up to 215MBps and scores 45,000 on PC Mark Vantage's HDD benchmark suite.

Pricing information is not available yet, but the drives will be available in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, both in 128GB and 256GB capacities. Micron is currently sampling the C300 SSD in limited quantities and expects to enter production in the first quarter of calendar 2010.

Micron has also stuck up a Youtube clip demonstrating the C300's performance against a mechanical 7,200RPM hard drive. µ

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Comments
@cybersaur

youre nothing short of a mug and youre making things worse for everyone else if you pay these criminal prices.

i have an old 5.25" 10gb mfm harddrive in the loft somewhere. if i rig it up to 24 volts will you give me £500 for it?

hahahahahahaha

posted by : earwax, 07 December 2009 Complain about this comment
@scott

youre missing the point.

the manufacturers dont want to sell them cheap. they want to hold consumers to ransom and inflate the base prices of storage.

we're not paying enough for drives apparently

the drive in this article probably has an RRP of £1,325 for the 74gb drive!

i am shocked that there are people who actually give in to these outrageous demands because its knackering the job up for those of us who wont give in to this extortionate money crime.

DONT BUY THEM AND THEY WILL COME DOWN TO A REASONABLE PRICE!!!

posted by : earwax, 07 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Hype

The more hype,the higher the price.
I've never had problems waiting around
for my pc to do things & for those that do,there are ways to speed things up.

My rig is already super fast,but if I want,I can use a 'ready boost' stick to
improve it,saves page filing.
That demo makes that ssd look faster than it is,only because of a lame 7200 is used in comparison.
There's so many ways to get a comp to speed up,that in the end,would make spending high sums on an SSD,look rather stupid.
My velociraptor is just right for me thank you.

posted by : Anon, 05 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Replies

@UltraSBM

I agree it's a pain that laptops have only 1 slot for HDD. I think they need to invent a 1.5" or less form factor specially for 32GB SSDs to fit in laptop for primary OS drive, where performance is critial, and a normal 2.5" HDD space for storage.

@twelvebore

Indilinx controller with SATA-III support has been delayed so I don't think this is a Indilinx controller.

posted by : Roland, 04 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Budget sector and controller

Personally I think the reason there's no real budget sector is that the flash manufacturers couldn't feed it. Reduce drives to a few hundred quid per TB and sure, they'll shift in vast numbers. Too vast. The result then would be a shortage of flash chips which would push up the price. You're seeing the "budget" sector in the Kingston drive - small capacity, small price.

As for the controller, the other place-with-a-red-banner says it's a Marvell controller, not Indilinx.

posted by : twelvebore, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
GLOBAL CLIMBING.....

This Is Good Announcement Made Late yesterday. Price was complaint way back then. However, Remember, Unit hasn't even been Run In SataIII enviorment yet.

If Micron where as cheap as Masses expect, it'll Sell & In Few Months, Still Better Unit be around & buyers become screamers, returners & BAD Mouthers. Its Best To Limit Sales to Pay Research & Developement, NOT to aturate Market, till Units Are Well Understood.

When unit goes SataIII, it is expected to be 8X Faster than Mechanical 7200 rpm sataII. Really 355 Mb/s is faster than sataII HDD will do, yet till sataIII tests, 355 Mb/s Is good, yet there are Much Faster, Expensive Systems, too in SSD Field.

drashek

posted by : Climbing, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Great SSD news!

SSD performance is well worth the price premium. I'd just like to know the small file random write performance is and what controller they're using with this model. I bet it's Indilinx...

posted by : cybersaur, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
I agree

I, too, want affordable more than I want UBER fast :(
I will buy one as soon as 1Tb is down to £300, or when 512Gb is £200 for a 200Mb+/sec R+W SSD...

SSD manufacturers are clearly not seeing the "budget" sector here (If you can call £400 per terabyte budget)...Reduce the price and they will sell! If you hold on to them and keep the prices artificially higher, you'll be stuck with old crap in 6 months time and sell it for 1/10th of the price.

Saying that, I bet they're flying out the door even at these prices...I just want high capacity SSD for my laptop, which sadly can only house one drive at a time :(

posted by : UltraSBM, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Fast good but I want CHEAP

I keep seeing all these fast ssd's but when will I see one I can afford?
I bought a Mini 9 hoping some day I could afford put a cheap ssd, that may never happen.

posted by : Scott, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
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