Dell first: 256GB solid-state drive on laptops

Updated at 11 p.m. PST with information about Apple.

Dell is doing its part to usher in the age of the super-sized solid-state drive. For the first time, Dell laptops can be configured with the newest large-capacity SSDs from Samsung.

Back in the day (last January), laptop buyers were stuck with a Henry Fordesque choice: order any solid-state drive you want with your laptop as long as it's 64GB.

What a difference a year makes. On Friday, Dell quadrupled this to 256GB. The Samsung SSD is now available as an option on Dell's XPS M1330 and M1730 laptop lines. Apple announced a 256GB SSD option on its MacBook Pro on January 6.

Dell added a 256GB solid-state drive option to its XPS M1330 and XPS M1730 laptops

(Credit: Dell)

Upgrading from the base XPS configuration with the 256GB SSD will add $400, Dell said Friday. And Dell said the SSD will "be available on additional laptops in the coming weeks."

Dell has also added a 500GB hard disk drive option that will add $150 to the base configuration price.

Solid-state drives are generally faster at getting data than hard-disk drives (and in some cases, much faster), but pricing is a hurdle for consumers. SSDs still command a premium, but that premium is shrinking. SanDisk said last week that it will begin offering a 240GB SSD for $499. SSDs with this kind of capacity had been priced well over $1,000.

[Mr. Dee]

Still too expensive. Just not worth it, I prefer to take my chances and go with the traditional more proven, larger capacity 500 GB mechanical drive.

[BigGuns149]

At least for the time being I would agree, albeit SSDs are falling in price 50-75% a year so I don't know how much longer I will stay on the sidelines of adopting SSDs. I saw a 512GB and 1TB SSD at CES in a 2.5" form factor so the size argument is pretty much obsolete. The "more proven" argument I find a bit of a red herring insofar as SSDs have been around in excess of a decade. They aren't really as new as some of their critics portray them as. The only thing I see stopping SSDs now is *price*. The only question is how long will it take for the price gap to get to the point that people are wiling to pay more for lower latency(ie. more responsive drives)? Due to the fact that SSDs are falling in price faster than HDDs and most people's needs aren't growing as quickly as HDDs are growing I think it will be sooner than some people think.

I predict that in about 2 years that SSDs will have largely made the 1.8" HDD market largely obsolete and the SSDs will make up a significant percentage of the 2.5" market. SSDs have already killed the market for micro HDDs(eg. 0.85"/1"). 1.8" used to be popular in MP3 players, but as the price on solid state drives have fallen their use has declined. Due to the much higher prices on 1.8" HDDs compared to 2.5" HDDs and because SSDs scale down better than HDDs I think you will see the 1.8" HDDs rather before people even seriously talk about SSDs dominating the 2.5" form factor.

Precluding some unforeseen obstacle to SSDs becoming cheaper or some dramatic need for additional storage I see SSDs to become popular for mainstream use in 3-4 years and the dominant form of storage technology in 5-7 years. Mechanical HDDs will linger for some time, but I don't think SSDs are going to take as long as some of the cynics think.

[PhaseDMA]

People buying the XPS are not the type of consumers worried about cost. This is a top of the line machine before you get anywhere near the HD.

[another_cissp]

Its worth every penny. I have been running SSD drive for over 2 years and can say there is no way I would ever go back to a mechanical hard drives. My laptop boots up windows server 2008 in 10 seconds with almost no heat and a battery that last forever. I would not recommend Samsung though, I have replaced all my Samsung SSD because they are too slow.

[mgriffin34]

This is a joke, right? Apple has been offering a 256GM SSD for 2 weeks now. Alienware has also been offering one since December 17th. How is this news? Dell caught up offerings from other manufacturers?

[sharmajunior]

FYI....Alienware is owned by Dell.

[ckh1272]

Apple's 256GB SSD is an extra $900 on the 17" only!! Pretty steep in my book, and I'm an avid Apple user. They are on the high side of the upgrade fence though (esp. RAM upgrades). Probably cheaper to purchase the 256GGB SSD separately!!

[sharmajunior]

AHHHhhhh!!!!!..... Why didn't I wait. I just got my new Dell XPS m1330 today with a 128 GB SSD. I should have waited for the 256GB SSD to come. Only if I knew..... :(

[doobiedoos]

Is Dell really first?
At the Apple sight, Today, you can order the Flash drive on the 18 inch Macbook Pro.

[mcavjame]

Not that Dell is first but read as "A first for Dell". It's also a break on price point in consumer laptops.

I'm also sure you meant that the Apple site has 17", not 18" Macbook Pros with this option. The article does point out this fact.

[catbutt5]

I think the price decline will accelerate considering the lower barrier to entry for manufacturers.
As someone who used to work in a Fujistu clean room repairing hard drives, I can tell you there's a lot of equipment and experience necessary to do hard drives right.
Picking out a controller, some ram chips and making some circuit boards, some soldering - that could be done in your garage - not that you'd want to. Not very R&D intensive either unless you're one of the big guys doing the actual research.
SSD's are long overdue but I think technologies like attaching storage directly to the PCI-Express bus like Fusion I/O and others do is the way to go. (Not that I can't afford it.) Why wait for the 3-4 year wait between upgrades to SATA speed when we can have it now?
How much longer will we be needing a separate 'Hard Drive' storage bus considering the amazing results to be had simply by using those same chips in a design that takes advantage of the existing PCI-E bus?

[3rdalbum]

$499 - too expensive for the average person. But for the person who has the money and craves speed, it's a worthwhile investment.

In the meanwhile, with the higher capacities being available and coming down in price, the smaller SSDs get cheaper too. 64 gigabytes is more than enough to hold your operating system and applications, so now even the person who craves speed but doesn't have a huge amount of money can access this technology.

My next build: /home on HDD, / on SSD. It's the way to go.

[janko3959]

I do not care what kind of chip dell puts into its computers. I was a Dell lover I have purchased 7 laptops the top of the line fully loaded and the extra warrenty 1 year ago. I now have 2 laptops that dell can't and will not fix I spent 7 hrs on the phone with tech support and then asked to have it sent back to have them look at it and they insist I stay on the phone I don't have the time and with the best warrenty and the good customer i am they should of taken them back and had them fixed. I just bought a apple mac pro love it

[ywkhgqo]

With the way you type, i call BS on this comment

[janko3959]

don't worry about my writing worry the next time your dell breaks and you will see BS

[janko3959]

don't worry about my writing worry the next time your dell breaks and you will see BS sorry I did not realize we have a english teacher correcting the blogs you must work for Dell

[PKADavid]

Is your keyboard missing the period key, or are you being edgy by writing in stream of consciousness?

He was only making an observation, and I have to back up the likelihood that someone who can afford seven, fully loaded laptops at once would likely have at least passable grammar. I also believe the post is questionable.

[jgoemat]

Is this the new drive that is supposed to have 220mb read and 200mb write speeds? As soon as someone gets one of these, can you gun a performance test and let us know how fast it is?

[janko3959]

I am edgy in my stream of writing. I f you had 4 children in college, and 2 called about problems with their computers, I believe you might be upset yourself. It is a fact that Dell will not fix the computers as per the customer service agreement. I do own 7 laptops and 1 outdated desktop, and I quess I was hoping that someone on this blog might have some knowledge as to whom to reach other then phone tech. Sorry for the run on sentence's.

[Jaayd]

Give the children in college the help desk phone number. They need to learn how to deal with this now.