What is happening with mSATA stock in the US?

Hello All,

it seems that it is impossible to find the latest mSATA (Crucial, Samsung, Mushkin, MyDigitalDrive etc) in the US... Everywhere these are listed out of stock.

At the same time, Crucial, Mushkin and Samsung mSATA are available everywhere in Europe. What the heck is happening? Can someone shed a light?

 

I guess NA customers are simply starving for these - while European customers, not so much.

I'd also guess that the selling price in Europe is significantly higher than NA - so, no incentive to 'balance' this situation out by the manufacturers (until they're forced by the competition - when it arrives)...

 

What Tiller said. And so many computers now have the mSata slot that more users are using them for either small SSD (OS) or cache.

Here you can now get a 256GB mSata for about $50 more than I paid for my 80GB Intel after it first came out.

 

I would love some insight on this too. Looking for an mSata for my new Envy 17.

 

You can get Crucial mSATA M4 128GB for EUR104 from Germany - see this

the problem is most of German online shops ton't ship overseas... At least i couldn't find any

 

In fact, EUR189 for Crucial M4 mSATA 256GB is about US$192 after you deduct German VAT. I would say it is a real bargain.

 

Unless you have any insider information, I would say while it 'seems' like a bargain - it isn't (effectively) as it can't be shipped outside Germany.

 

It is not the point as you have stated that "the selling price in Europe is significantly higher than NA". I only wanted to show you that it is not the case anymore. A lot of things are much cheaper in Europe nowadays.

I have contacted a few shops in Germany and will post an update if someone ships overseas.

 

Guys we have 57pcs 256GB Smart Series in route. We sold 35pcs on July 4th. I never thought that would happen. I think demand is just very high for these products and many companies are still in the feeler stage. If I had more cash I could support all of you guys. Anyone want to make an investment in MyDigitalSSD ? Not Joking

MyDigitalSSD

 

Hmm I paid (well work did) $140 for a 120GB mSata drive. Good deal? I think so. As for demand I still think msata is an enthusiast segment now and the near future. Just my $.02

 

Sorry Sphinx, not a good deal:

Small capacity, no enclosure and nothing 'extra' (I'm guessing) with the drive.

I would not be paying (much) more than about $100 for such an item.

At 256GB and higher, I can see myself spending more money (proportionally) - but that is because at that capacity the SSD becomes a real tool (to me). At smaller than 160/180GB (depending on the specific model we're talking about): nice toys, but wouldn't want to put it to work (and have to depend on it...).

 

Find me an mSata of that capacity for that price. 120GB msata for $140 is a pretty good deal, and despite all the dev software, IT software, games and other misc software I can EASILY use it for an OS drive. I am and still have ~50GB left over.

For a traditional 2.5 SSD Id agree that its a bad price, but for an msata its a very nice price and more then enough space.

 

To me, a 'good deal' is not a little lower than what is generally available: it is what I think is a good deal. At around $100 I might consider one (not for myself, but to recommend to a client with a 'very' light work load).

The reason I don't think the capacity is enough is because I partition almost all my SSD's to around 100GB (this is my Win7x64 install...). The rest is used by the SSD to keep the performance as high as when I first bought it.

Yes: that is around 150GB used as 'spare area'.

Wasted $$$ and Capacity (to some)? Maybe - but I refuse to use products in ways that actually become slower than HDD's over time.

With 120GB SSD's I can't even begin to make that kind of over-provisioning happen (I tried, but the end result was always a slower system, eventually).

This is not even considering how slow the smaller capacity SSD's are: the nand channels are not fully populated and the nand chips are not (properly/fully) interleaved - this leaves me with a HUH! moment when the price of the SSD is considered for the small (shutdown/startup) performance increase it offers - at a disproportionate price point (vs. HDD's like the Seagate Hybrid 750GB and 500GB models).

Yeah: not enough space - not enough (sustained, over time) performance and not cheap enough for the performance/capacity offered.

 

Well my system is blazing fast with the drive and I now have the space I need...for now. Which is all Im concerned about. I have 500GB at my disposal (now ~75-100GB) for data and I have plenty of space for my OS and apps to update as well as install a few more apps if need be. But for now everything is loaded and updated and running like a champ.

 

'Blazing fast' is subjective - I had that with my VRaptors until a few months ago (that's how long it took SSD's to get 'fast enough' for me...).

But I'm glad it is working for you.

I want to see 17" notebooks get to the point of having around 4-6 mSATA connectors and at least 2 2.5" drive bays so that I can have a real 'mobile workstation' - to match (a little) my desktop setups.

 

IMHO 2 hard drives + an optical drive is workstation enough.

As for 17in with more drive options I agree, but until they raise the resolutions of 17in laptops above FHD+ they are a dead segment to me. 15.6 is the perfect workstation currently IMHO. I am currently to the point where I almost could get rid of my optical drive. Other then initial installation and setup I never use it.

 

I kinda agree with tiller, anything under 256 GB really these days aren't enough for applications, OS, updates, and all the stuff we have these days. Even my 320 GB RAID 0 array I find isn't enough space, I want to get 2 x 256 GB Samsung SSDs and put them in RAID 0.

 

For me 120GB works. All my data, VMs and such are on the 500GB mechanical drive.

 

More mSATA SSDs on the way:

Unigen to Introduce Family of High-Performance 6Gb/s mSATA SSD Modules

 

what a joke. almost everything is much more expensive in europe. specially eletronics. specially SSD's.
I always buy in US and bring them back to Europe.

 

Thank you for confirming what I know...

Price without VAT is not the real cost/selling price...

 

how do you buy without VAT then?

 

Don't live in Europe?

 

The one place I've been eyeing is
Crucial Technology CT128M4SSD3 128gb M4 Ssd Sata Internal - BLT Catalog!

Cheapest price I've found for m4's, and they predict to have stock by August. I've guessing that other places will start having stock by August/Sept also.

The m4's are numbered ct###m4ssd3 where ### is the capacity, so if you google that you can see a few smaller etailers are starting to get stock. So it looks like stock is slowly trickling in.

 

I live in Australia and we buy almost everything in the US. I wish we could import groceries as well. However, with the current EUR rate, quite many things are cheaper in Europe and in the UK. Still the majority of things are cheaper in the US.

I was referring to the cheapest price for Crucial mSATA 256GB (see that German link in my previous post) of about $192. it is the cheapest price I ever seen. I am not sure you can find the same in the US.

Also, you can buy without VAT. Some shops can sell VAT zero, if they ship overseas. Alternatively, you can claim VAT back at the border or airport, if you don't love in EU. Obviously, it doesn't apply to online shopping.

 

actually it does apply in some cases. there are some workarounds to avoid VAT...
I'm on the hunt for a 512gb SSD but they are still very expensive compared to cost per gb of 256gb ones. and in USA they are much cheapper.

 

You can get Crucial 512GB for about $389-399, the cheapest I have seen in the US. Samsung 830 is $649 at B&H... still quite expensive. I saw it somewhere for $589, cannot recall the site.

 

the problem is to get it without VAT and shipping from usa I've to go there and that will just be some months from now. I've seen some sweet deals that would make it $345 but they are over.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...sd2-344-99-shipped-newegg-thru-6-24-12-a.html
in europe the cheapest I could find is $426 + shipping.

 

Still expensive (for Canada):

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/8700901-post10492.html

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/8700854-post10490.html

 

I'm having an hard time finding a good deal on the crucial m4 512gb. 256 is really not enough for me. I could live with at least 320gb 380 ideally. and 2 drives is also a no go for me.
There's no good SSD's between 256 and 512. and since samsung is so expensive, I have to choose the m4. to add more difficulty I need it to be 7.5mm instead of 9.5mm, but maybe I'll just do some modding.

I can buy without VAT from another european country if I buy through a company. I just need a VAT Registration Certificate. I often buy dslr material like that. problem is the cheapest stores selling the m4 don't sell it without VAT.

 

Can you order from Canada?

See:
Crucial CT512M4SSD2 m4 2.5 Solid State Drive | Crucial CT512M4SSD2 | Computer Storage & Hard Drives | Solid State Drives | Sale Discount Deal - Canada Post Comparison Shopper

Good luck.

 

I can order from canada or somewhere else outside european union but then I've to pay like +24% in taxes + shipping. in order to avoid those I've to go there personally and buy one.

in europe I can sometimes avoid paying VAT (about 19%) depending on the store. but then I only could find 512gb drives for 400€ in those stores. that's expensive even with -19%.
My budget is 300€ max. I've seen drives for sale for 350€ whitout VAT it would be 283.5€ + shipping which would be acceptable but then in those stores I can avoid VAT.

 

Our shipment got held up won't land at MyDigitalDiscount till Thursday now but parts are still available. Backorders are mounting. Call them if you want to insure you will get one.

Organizing parts for 300pcs 256GB, 150pcs 128GB, and 70pcs 64GB right now. May be ready to ship as soon as Thursday next week.

MyDigitalSSD

 

really nice prices. the cheapest 256gb is $270. the cheapest 512gb is $420. and those are from mydigitalSSD brand. not even samsung or crucial.
total ripoff.

 

Just noticed that Crucial mSATA drives are now available directly from crucial.com in the US. They are listed under Solid State Cache:

128GB
CT128M4SSD3 - 128GB, mSATA Solid State Drive , from Crucial.com

and

256GB
CT256M4SSD3 - 256GB, mSATA Solid State Drive , from Crucial.com

My next purchase is going to be the 256GB once prices drop a little more.

 

TBH that 256 GB price is phenomenal, mSATA is still an expensive category. I'm waiting for Intel or Samsung to release much higher capacity drives. I wonder if you could RAID 0 with mSATA and 2.5" SSD..

 

yes, the price for the 256 mSata is already good considering that I paid 170 for an Intel 310 series 80GB mSata in late April last year. But, can't afford one right now...maybe in two months or so.

 

Agreed. Anandtech predicted cheaper pricing when they reviewed it and hopefully this will help push mSata prices down.

Electrically mSata is Sata, so your motherboard should just see is as another Sata device; no reason you can't RAID it. Even better, also replace your DVD with an SSD and stripe three SSDs together.

 

Assuming the mSATA port is SATA 3 like one of the other 2.5" HDD bays, then yes, you could RAID it together and it should work without issue.

Since the HM76 and HM77 chipsets support 6 SATA ports with two of them SATA 3, you might not be able to stripe 3 drives together optimally.

 

Our Smart Series drives are 2 times faster in some major points of interest like random 4K speeds the than the Crucial Drives while our BP3 with the latest FW on it is nearly 2 times faster as well and have a lower defect rate than Intel.

I think a higher price is justified.

That being said

Looking to do something on pricing including an NBR exclusive coupon on this next round.

MyDigitalSSD

 

Crucial has just started selling M4 mSATA 256GB for $225, directly from their site.

 

I'm waiting for a 512gb msata ssd from crucial to pair up with my 2.5" to create a raid 0 again. Just hope as the demand increase, the pricing would be put reasonably.

 

Really!! I just tried one of your 128GB Smart series drives in my machine, which normally has the Intel 310 80GB and it so much faster that I did not notice any perceptible difference in real world use. In both case, the system performed every task at the same speed. so it must be a kind of speed that require a special state of mind. Oh, and, one more thing...I had never experienced a BSOD on that system. I did with the Sandforce driven 128GB mSATA smart series after three hours of use. Returned it to the vendor it was purchased from for a full refund.


Claiming that you have a lower defect rate than Intel? On what grounds? Do you have specific stats? If so, then put them up here. Since its a user forum for sharing tips and guiding other end users, such information would be useful even from sources that might have their own interest in spinning things one way only.

PS: I should clarify here. The smart series was ordered by one of my colleagues who wanted to put it in his T420 with the same specs as mine (except no mSATA installed) delivered on the same day from the same batch of bulk ordered machines. After he experienced a BSOD, he asked if he could put the drive in my machine to make sure that it was the drive and not his machine. We did a clean install of Win 7 and loaded the standard software and got the same BSOD in my machine also.

 

Did any anyone announce a 512GB mSATA SSD ??

 

Crucial is expected to.

 

I was referring to the BP3 and BP series for the low defect rate. It is around .03 at this time while I have seen reports putting the Intel defect rate at .08 up to .59 reported at the Intel community site. The Smart Series is new and I don't have a lot of history on it. Regarding your error: you would be our 1st return on that product and you also have the 1st error reported.

I don't want to get into any arguments on here about it and would love to find out more about the BSOD error. It may be related to your RAID Setting in your bios but not sure. Please PM me and let me know what you were doing at the time of the error.

Sincerely,

MyDigitalSSD