If you haven't heard by now, we think Solid State Drives (SSDs) are fantastic. They are more than twice as fast as the fastest spinning drives. With the production problems of spinning drives in Thailand last year, the price differential between spinning drives and SSDs has narrowed significantly.
Spinning drive manufacturers also have significantly reduced their warranties. Most of the 5 year server drive warranties are down to 3 years, while 3 and 2 year warranties are mostly now one year. Intel SSDs still have 5 year warranties, while most other SSD manufacturers have 3 year. We took the reduction of warranties in spinning drives to suggest that manufacturers weren't comfortable with the quality of the drives as they ramp production back up. The longer waranties on SSDs made us more comfortable.
As we are an Intel Gold Partner, we naturally began using Intel SSD drives. But prices on Intel drives haven't come down nearly as much as other manufacturers'. In order to be competitive we decided to start using a more inexpensive SSD when price was a major factor.
We read industry publications and online sources to determine who has the best drives and settled on a manufacturer based upon reviews. We ordered 6 drives to start. Of the 6, two didn't work and have been sent in for replacement. One of them installed correctly, but the notebook kept blue-screening. When we replaced the non-Intel SSD with an Intel 520 SSD, the problems went away. On the second drive, we started a Windows 7 install, but when the computer rebooted the drive no longer responded to the system. It was dead.
It took 4 emails and two phone calls to get a quick replacement drive with the non-Intel SSDs. As an Intel Gold Partner, we can do it in one phone call and automatically receive next-day delivery.
We have installed dozens upon dozens of Intel SSDs with nary an error. If you come into our shop to purchase an SSD drive, we are going to give you a very small selection. Saving a few bucks on the device you save your life's work on, simply isn't worth the effort.
Don't get us wrong. SSDs are the wave of the future. In a relatively short amount of time, most of the manufacturers will get their teething problems solved. The sudden demand caused by flooding in Thailand has had the manufacturers spitting out the drives too fast. When the dust settles, almost any SSD will be more reliable than any spinning drive, because they have no moving parts.
But in the meantime, please excuse us if we sell only Intel SSD drives.
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Ventura, CA 93003
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