Best Buy online has had them in stock since March at least - I almost bought one using a $200 Best Buy gift card that I had won. I haven't bothered to check brick+mortar Best Buy stores though...
Amazon isnt competitive on the 80GB, but when you factor in free shipping and no sales tax for most, it starts looking better.
However on the 160GB G2, they have the best price between NewEgg/BB/Amazon and when you factor in the Free Ship and No Sales tax there, it looks even better.
Amazon actually has been competitive on pricing for the better part of the last 4 months. For a significant period of time, it was priced at $224. It JUST went back up to $240 yesterday, I believe. It also went down as far as $214 for several days. I know, because I almost purchased it. I've been tracking it since I have a $100 gift card to Amazon. That, plus the fact that there's no shipping and tax for this California kid, make it the best choice.
Where I live they do; I got a 40GB there for 129.99 on 6/10/10. I was rather surprised. At my store it was stacked under the flash drives and near the externals rather than with all the internal drives on the other end of the isle. Was kinda an impulse buy
When are we gonna see a full review of the RealSSD C300? It seems to be in every benchmark you have but i can't seem to find the official review of it.
Read the article. Anand mentions it at the end. After all the firmware issues that drive had it makes sense that a full review was shelved until a stable release is available.
Intel may not hold the performance crown, but they are rather competative still when you take price into consideration.
Allmost all drives that are faster then the X25-M G2 are also more or a lot more expensive. This is very hard to judge easily in Anands SSD bench DB, as its only looking performance, not price.
I am waiting patently for a 160 GB Intel G3 for less than $250. I just bought a copy of Windows 7, but will probably hold off installing it until I get an SSD. Then I'll have to decide whether or not to just build a whole new computer, too....tis the woes of gadget-lust.
I did the same thing. Only, I held off buying Win7 too. I bought them both at the same time.
My feelings: Win7 isn't worth all the hype; however, I am still only running a C2D w/o hyperthreading and my XP was 32b, while this Win7 is 64b. So the only real advantage was the memory utilization. I think 7's major advantage is with multicore proc utilization, which I can't evaluate.
I never got Vista, but I know people that have it and how it looks: Vista now w/ the service packs are about equivalent to Win7.
I say it's a smart move to wait for Q4, it seem like a bunch of manufacturers are going to have some nice new lines, in addition to price competition.
Mmmmm sure... With a dual core CPU and 3+ GB RAM, Vista (after SP1) is superior to XP. 7 is vastly superior to XP even on a Pee 4 with HT. Ditch XP and be happy :-) You'll have to to get most out of an SSD.
I've got a C2D running XP-64 with 4 GB of RAM. I ran Win7-RC1 for 8-9 months, but it expired back in March, so I went back to XP. I found a short-term deal on Windows 7, which is why I picked it up now. I liked 7, it is nicer than XP, but not significantly enough for me to reinstall twice in six months. Can anyone think of something useful to do with the old hardware?
Aside from the storage, the rest of my system still feels relatively perky. I do a moderate amount of video encoding, so I've been eyeing these fancy new quad cores awhile. I'll probably hold off and see what's Intel's next tock is like, though. Worst that happens is I buy a cheaper tick.
I'm waiting for the 160 GB SSD because I really want to image my work laptop on the thing and run a few benchmarks of my actual work load. I couldn't convince them to put in a SSD when they got the things a year ago. I want to show them how worthwhile $200 can be. I'm over 80 GB in size, hence the need for something more. The Dell M6400 chassis has two 2.5" HDD bays, only one in use, so this could really be a nice add-on.
I really like the fact that these are showing up in retail shelves. That can only mean more volume, which can only mean cheaper prices in the long run.
Performance is a huge factor, but if Intel really wants to increase revenue, I think the major consumer market is wanting to be able to buy drives that aren't only affordable for a new machine, but also affordable enough that if something happens (eg. not enough space, drive failure, etc), that a new additional drive can be purchased.
As for the performance measures, I do like that part of competition, but I feel like Intel has a product that has surpassed traditional HDDs, to the point that pricing is the pivotal factor. - this isn't new information, just restating the obvious.
I'm not sure if you live in Canada. "every pc shop in town" is some dingy hole in the wall adorned with ten year old sun faded posters that never has anything in stock.
We consistently get the shaft with later product releases, poorer selection and higher prices than the US, even after modest allowance for currency fluctuations. Virtually every part I've ever read about being at Newegg does not exist at their Canadian site.
Sure, we could order products online, if we find vendors willing to accept Paypal.. Then comes the matter of dropping our pants for UPS and Canada Customs to run a train on us to get our packages.
Has anyone bought a drive through a retail outlet recently? I would like to know if the instructions which go out with this drive include instructions on how to install firmware and TRIM tools on the drives? The one I have is accompanied by a paper note that says "this drive should be installed by a professional" and a mini disc that (fortunately) has a couple of web links attached. I am concerned the information going out with these drives is appropriate to the average consumer who might tackle this upgrade without "professional" installation. So could someone who has bought a RECENT drive (say through Best Buy) advise on whether it gives adequated guidance (more than just an indirect web link).
1. Best Buy (among other B&M retailers) wants you to buy their professional support services. If you need proof of this check out the Asus laptop manufacturer warranties that are DENIED you if you buy at BB or Micro Center.
2. Sit in a Micro Center or Frys return/exchange line. It's already the case that novices have far too much access to tech without appropriate prerequisite knowledge.
Perhaps WD and Seagate are waiting for more competitive product before taking it direct to consumers like that.
Best Buy customers could care less about the performance differences between Intel, Sandforce, Indillinx, etc. SSD controllers. The problem is that at this price, this is not a profitable product to take up shelf space at Best Buy. External WD hard drives on the other hand (at BB retail price) have a very tasty profit margin.
I used to spend alot of cash as Best Buy 5 years ago(getting married and having kids changes things) and generally had good shopping experiinces there lately my store visits have been followed by a "why the hell did i go there" anyway frankly speaking Best buy is that last place i would buy computer components i would rather pay a few dollars more to buy from newegg.
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23 Comments
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therealnickdanger - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Best Buy online has had them in stock since March at least - I almost bought one using a $200 Best Buy gift card that I had won. I haven't bothered to check brick+mortar Best Buy stores though...therealnickdanger - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Oops, I should RTFA.Casper42 - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Amazon isnt competitive on the 80GB, but when you factor in free shipping and no sales tax for most, it starts looking better.However on the 160GB G2, they have the best price between NewEgg/BB/Amazon and when you factor in the Free Ship and No Sales tax there, it looks even better.
bplewis24 - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Amazon actually has been competitive on pricing for the better part of the last 4 months. For a significant period of time, it was priced at $224. It JUST went back up to $240 yesterday, I believe. It also went down as far as $214 for several days. I know, because I almost purchased it. I've been tracking it since I have a $100 gift card to Amazon. That, plus the fact that there's no shipping and tax for this California kid, make it the best choice.Brandon
Lemonjellow - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Does not have them... That is unless someone from my team stocked them in the wrong place thinking they were flower vases or some such...ogreslayer - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Where I live they do; I got a 40GB there for 129.99 on 6/10/10. I was rather surprised. At my store it was stacked under the flash drives and near the externals rather than with all the internal drives on the other end of the isle. Was kinda an impulse buykevinqian - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
When are we gonna see a full review of the RealSSD C300? It seems to be in every benchmark you have but i can't seem to find the official review of it.7Enigma - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
Read the article. Anand mentions it at the end. After all the firmware issues that drive had it makes sense that a full review was shelved until a stable release is available.Ronald Hummelink - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Intel may not hold the performance crown, but they are rather competative still when you take price into consideration.Allmost all drives that are faster then the X25-M G2 are also more or a lot more expensive. This is very hard to judge easily in Anands SSD bench DB, as its only looking performance, not price.
icrf - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
I am waiting patently for a 160 GB Intel G3 for less than $250. I just bought a copy of Windows 7, but will probably hold off installing it until I get an SSD. Then I'll have to decide whether or not to just build a whole new computer, too....tis the woes of gadget-lust.vol7ron - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
I did the same thing. Only, I held off buying Win7 too. I bought them both at the same time.My feelings: Win7 isn't worth all the hype; however, I am still only running a C2D w/o hyperthreading and my XP was 32b, while this Win7 is 64b. So the only real advantage was the memory utilization. I think 7's major advantage is with multicore proc utilization, which I can't evaluate.
I never got Vista, but I know people that have it and how it looks: Vista now w/ the service packs are about equivalent to Win7.
I say it's a smart move to wait for Q4, it seem like a bunch of manufacturers are going to have some nice new lines, in addition to price competition.
vol7ron
HMTK - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Mmmmm sure... With a dual core CPU and 3+ GB RAM, Vista (after SP1) is superior to XP. 7 is vastly superior to XP even on a Pee 4 with HT. Ditch XP and be happy :-) You'll have to to get most out of an SSD.icrf - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
I've got a C2D running XP-64 with 4 GB of RAM. I ran Win7-RC1 for 8-9 months, but it expired back in March, so I went back to XP. I found a short-term deal on Windows 7, which is why I picked it up now. I liked 7, it is nicer than XP, but not significantly enough for me to reinstall twice in six months. Can anyone think of something useful to do with the old hardware?Aside from the storage, the rest of my system still feels relatively perky. I do a moderate amount of video encoding, so I've been eyeing these fancy new quad cores awhile. I'll probably hold off and see what's Intel's next tock is like, though. Worst that happens is I buy a cheaper tick.
I'm waiting for the 160 GB SSD because I really want to image my work laptop on the thing and run a few benchmarks of my actual work load. I couldn't convince them to put in a SSD when they got the things a year ago. I want to show them how worthwhile $200 can be. I'm over 80 GB in size, hence the need for something more. The Dell M6400 chassis has two 2.5" HDD bays, only one in use, so this could really be a nice add-on.
I really like the fact that these are showing up in retail shelves. That can only mean more volume, which can only mean cheaper prices in the long run.
vol7ron - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
"It's not all about pricing though."At this point, for Intel, it is :)
Performance is a huge factor, but if Intel really wants to increase revenue, I think the major consumer market is wanting to be able to buy drives that aren't only affordable for a new machine, but also affordable enough that if something happens (eg. not enough space, drive failure, etc), that a new additional drive can be purchased.
As for the performance measures, I do like that part of competition, but I feel like Intel has a product that has surpassed traditional HDDs, to the point that pricing is the pivotal factor. - this isn't new information, just restating the obvious.
vol7ron
iamkyle - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Not applicable to Canadian BBY stores. Was hoping someone besides NCIX or CC would be carrying them here...Taft12 - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
Newegg Canada and every PC shop in town?Pessimism - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
I'm not sure if you live in Canada. "every pc shop in town" is some dingy hole in the wall adorned with ten year old sun faded posters that never has anything in stock.We consistently get the shaft with later product releases, poorer selection and higher prices than the US, even after modest allowance for currency fluctuations. Virtually every part I've ever read about being at Newegg does not exist at their Canadian site.
Sure, we could order products online, if we find vendors willing to accept Paypal.. Then comes the matter of dropping our pants for UPS and Canada Customs to run a train on us to get our packages.
badkat7 - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Has anyone bought a drive through a retail outlet recently? I would like to know if the instructions which go out with this drive include instructions on how to install firmware and TRIM tools on the drives? The one I have is accompanied by a paper note that says "this drive should be installed by a professional" and a mini disc that (fortunately) has a couple of web links attached. I am concerned the information going out with these drives is appropriate to the average consumer who might tackle this upgrade without "professional" installation. So could someone who has bought a RECENT drive (say through Best Buy) advise on whether it gives adequated guidance (more than just an indirect web link).TGressus - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
1. Best Buy (among other B&M retailers) wants you to buy their professional support services. If you need proof of this check out the Asus laptop manufacturer warranties that are DENIED you if you buy at BB or Micro Center.2. Sit in a Micro Center or Frys return/exchange line. It's already the case that novices have far too much access to tech without appropriate prerequisite knowledge.
People need to skill up. Fuck a warning label.
JohnMD1022 - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
$229.99 + tax = 243.79 in Maryland...Newegg... 199.99 or 214.99 (OEM/Retail) ... No tax, free shipping.
Pretty obvious where I'd be shopping :)
Taft12 - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
Perhaps WD and Seagate are waiting for more competitive product before taking it direct to consumers like that.Best Buy customers could care less about the performance differences between Intel, Sandforce, Indillinx, etc. SSD controllers. The problem is that at this price, this is not a profitable product to take up shelf space at Best Buy. External WD hard drives on the other hand (at BB retail price) have a very tasty profit margin.
Ammohunt - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
I used to spend alot of cash as Best Buy 5 years ago(getting married and having kids changes things) and generally had good shopping experiinces there lately my store visits have been followed by a "why the hell did i go there" anyway frankly speaking Best buy is that last place i would buy computer components i would rather pay a few dollars more to buy from newegg.buyaofeichu - Friday, June 25, 2010 - link
(nike-alliance).(com),Inc. We are the best online dealer,about all kinds of nike.run retailing and wholesale trade wordwidely for years. Free Shipping And Customs,Super Sale Off Retailing,With 1Week Delivery to your door.kl