Why are SSDs so Expensive?

by Paul | Last Updated: July 5, 2022

Analyzing the Cost-Benefit of Solid State Drives. There is a saying “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten”. When a good or service adds tremendous value, there is usually a heavy price tag because the producers know what it took to create it and the importance it has to its users, let’s find out if SSDs are in this category.

SSDs are fast, they are durable, provide the user with a better experience as it improves the overall performance. They are popular but the HDD is still widely in use so that means manufacturers have not fully embraced its production.

When there is not mass production of a good or service, the ones available with be treated as premium. It is important to point out that SSD are gradually becoming more affordable because the cost of an SSD five years ago is not the same right now.

Cost of using an SSD

Lifespan: The lifespan of an SSD is not certain, but it has been said to have a life span ranging from 5 to 10 years.

Price: As the title of this article suggests, to purchase an SSD costs more than HDD, sometimes it is twice the amount, this varies according to brand.

Finite cycles and TBW: Every SSD has a writing, erasing, and overwriting cycle. This occurs every time an SSD is used so it can have anywhere from 500 to 100,000 cycles and after this, it is no longer useful. There is also the issue of terabytes written, for every SSD, there is an amount of terabyte written allocated and once that is done, it needs to be replaced.

Benefits of using an SSD

Speed: SSD has no moving parts and because it uses a flash cell memory it is fast; this extended speed is designed to deliver more than twice the speed of HDD. This is great for gamers and people who engage in activities that rely on the speed of the PC’s drive. This eliminates glitching or freezing in the game Starting up your system can take a little time but with SSD starting up is fast.

Performance: SSDs have a better overall performance than HDDs. It does not need to be powered up to run and it serves as a self sufficient hardware that improves your PC’s output.

Insulation: Since the SSD does not have moving parts, it does not generate as much heat.

Durable: its design makes ithard for shocks, magnetic fields, and accidental drops to damage it.

Reasons why SSDs are more expensive than HDDs

Different Manufacturers

As many manufacturers have different manufacturers produce SSDs, the “brand effect” finds a way of slipping into the price tag. This results in well-known brands making SSDs available to the market at a more expensive price in comparison to generic brands.

Size

Reducing the size of anything without compromising the quality is a tough task and most times is not even successful but with the SSD you get a better quality, this is a great bargain. Let us look at a popular SSD; the SanDisk 1TB extreme portable with an IP55 and a transfer rate of 550mb/s weighs just 1.44 ounces which is less than 0.05kg.

NAND Technology

This flash memory storage has the highest quality, the components used to make up this tech is expensive. This is different from the DRAM flash found in RAMs as it does not need to be powered for use.

The introduction of this new technology is superior to the old ones, there really is no doubt that SSDs has improved the capacity of storage devices. The flash technology is essentially faster than the conventional mechanical design in a hard drive.

Complicated Assembly

SSDs require a lot of testing as it has a volatile nature makes releasing a stable one difficult.

Also, SSDs are not yet in high demand when compared to HDDs. The fact that it is typically unused by most of the population has no doubt contributed to its price tag.

As technology advances, there has been a major acceptance of multitasking, this had led to the “no time” issue so almost everybody feels impatience with any process or product that seems slow. People want things to be done immediately, manufacturers are aware of this need and have designed the SSD to achieve this purpose.

Usually, when your PC is fast, it means that the battery will be drained. The faster the processing speed, the faster the battery drains. This is an issue with PCs that people have been used to for a while but with SSD, the battery is not easily drained as it does not require much power to run.

The flash memory means that it moves fast, but they don’t deplete power. This makes them preferable to HDDs since the SSDs are much more efficient. SSDs have no moving parts and work at a better rate of speed which clears out less wear and tear on the battery. This can cause the cost of the SSD to go up.

Although the SSD is considered expensive, if you look at it from the angle that it saves your battery and it prevents the battery damage that would have been caused by HDD in the long run, it is worth it.

It is also possible that your computer is old, and they tend to lose battery life. It can be difficult to tell if it is your HDD causing your battery to deplete gradually or if the drain is a result of your computer being old. Getting an SSD can help with detecting this problem.

Is SSD the same as m.2?

No, it is not, the m.2 is a form factor that provides a platform to run different interface e.g., Wi-Fi, NVMe, USB and so on. SSD has a lower capacity in comparison to m.2.

With everything we have pointed out, can we really say the SSD is so expensive? Well, it is more like its cost reflects its value.

Why are SSDs so Expensive?