Samsung 830 256gb $225 free shipping

BuyDig.com - Samsung 830-Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 256GB 2.5" SATA III MLC Internal SSD Single Unit Versn

Log in to see the price. This is $15 lower than it was a week or two ago.

 

Damn, I bought it at $235 from BuyDig just a week ago.

 

I paid 270 and I thought THAT was a good deal but the prices keep dropping literally every week. Has it been that long since Samsung introduced the 830?

 

Great deal but i'm still a spindle user.

 

Not THAT long, started shipping October 2011. Samsung's 6Gbps SSD gets a consumer label, October release date -- Engadget

Ah, too afraid you'll be converted?

 

I'm with Rodster. I'm still not convinced of the long-term reliability of SSDs, and the price is still too high for me to want to switch (even if I had the spare cash to do so).
Funny enough, I checked Newegg last night to see if their spindle drives are still over priced. Yep, they are. The cheapest being $85. It's obvious to me that Newegg from day one has been milking the so-called hard drive shortage, but I can't help but wonder if it's a little micro conspiracy from the storage manufacturers to push adoption of SSDs.
Look at all these SSD fire sales lately, yet mechanical HDDs are still in a "shortage" after more than a year since the Thailand flood??? I mean come on, really???

 

It's not so much reliability for me. I think SSD and Flash Drives are pretty stable. I have a Flash Drive that's going strong after 4 years of plenty of writes, deletes, and more writes. No issues.

My biggest problem with SSD technology is you still have to treat them like a child so to speak. If I want to do a full erase on a spindle drive or write zeros to it, no worries. If I want to defrag the hard drive, I can do that with no problems.

When it comes to SSD's you have to approach it in a different way. Now if Windows 8 comes along and integrates SSD technology where the OS is setup to fully work with an SSD and TRIM and all that good stuff is built in the OS then that may get me to take a look at it.

 

I wasn't saying that you feel the same way as I do about SSDs, just that I'm with you in that I'm still just a spindle user.

 

Sigh...why are these misconceptions still hanging around?

1. There's no need to defrag an SSD. Even if you do, it will not harm it.
2. There's nothing wrong with "zeroing" an SSD. In fact, it literally takes a second to do versus hours for a HDD.
3. There is no extra setup needed to use an SSD. The only things you really need to do is enable TRIM and turn off defragging. And what do you know? Windows 7 does both of these automatically when it runs the WEI assessment while using an SSD.
4. Basically, you use an SSD just like an HDD except it's so much faster. There's no need to treat it like a fragile baby.

I've had my SSD for 1.5 years with 10.5 months of on time. During that time, I've written 29.44 TB of data to it. That means for every hour it's been on, I've written 4GB of data to it. This is way more than an average user yet it's still in nearly perfect health and will last years more.

 

Right. Just use the SSD. There is absolutely zero reason to defrag. None. Do a fresh install with Windows 7 and it's set up for you 100%. No need to fuss with anything. The cost is pretty high, although it's one of the few techs that I find the cost is actually justified, to a point. It's still expensive, and really think prices are a bit artificially inflated.

As far as longevity, not an issue. At least not due to SSD NAND life for most users. The controller will likely fail before anything else. But your typical user will get a solid 5 years out of an SSD no problem.

 

But when the controller fails, do you lose all of the data on it or is there still a way to retrieve it?

 

You lose it unless you can swap controllers which is a daunting task and not recommended.

But you could lose your data with any form of media even HDD due to drop, shock, water, etc. Key is to backup backup backup and backup your backup. Sync your most important documents to cloud storage if you have to, there's many free apps with decent amount of storage and automates it and makes it simple.

 

Just ordered the laptop kit for $249 w/ free shipping. Pretty excited to get my 1st SSD. Now I just hope Clevo gets the dang AMD 7970 situation sorted out so I can install it.

 

Can I just pop this right into a laptop like a regular HD or do I need some kind of conversion kit or something?

 

Yep, it's just like a regular mechanical HDD.

 

Yeah I mean I've done it with my current SSD, no problem. But I get confused by all these "kits" that SSDs ship with.

 

I believe it comes with a 3.5" kit, so you can install it in a desktop bay.

 

Laptop kit might come with a USB external enclosure to put your old drive in to transfer system over and then use as a storage backup device. Laptop kit in Samsung might even come with 2.5mm spacer to make it 9.5mm standard height, I dunno.

Desktop kits usually come with brackets to go into 3.5" bay.

 

Saw this thread update in the Deals subforum, and thought that the $225 deal was back up. Raising my hopes like that....

 

The deal is still going. You have to log in to see the price.

 

BuyDig.com says the that 256GB version is $249 as of 30 minutes ago.

EDIT: Nevermind! The $249 version is the laptop kit, while the $225 is the OEM version. Would the OEM version come with a 2.5mm spacer though?

 

If your laptop uses a metal mounting bracket like the one shown here, then you don't need a spacer.

 

I have two rubber rails, though I might have the metal bracket from the stock 500GB HDD. I'll have to check.

Suggestions for what to make a spacer out of, or where to buy one?

 

Is the drive at all bolted/screwed to these rubber rails?

 

Not necessarily true. In my laptop. I had to put a "filler" spacer below my Samsung 830 even though it has a bracket because the SATA connector forces the drive upside down, leaving a gap underneath it. You don't want to put any undue stress on that connector, either in laptop or on drive, if it's just hanging there.

 

No, they're just pieces of rubber that fit onto either side of the SSD. I did keep the metal caddy for the Seagate 500GB that came with the W520.



The drive mounts face-down, as in the top label of my current 320 faces the ground. So the SATA connector on the drive should be able to plug into the laptop, regardless of drive height?

 

I don't understand. Is the drive not securely mounted to the bracket with 4 screws? The screws are always aligned with the connector whether it's a 7mm or 9.5mm drive.

 

With a 7mm drive there's a gap below the SSD where the remaining 2.5mm of thickness would be resting, so it can be pushed down at the other end, putting stress on the connector. If the bracket were secured to the chassis then it wouldn't be a big deal.

 

I may have a spacer to spare if you really need one. Have to double check though.

 

Eh, I went ahead and bought the 330 anyway.