OWC Begins Transition to 25nm Flash Memory With Big Price Drop for 400GB SSD

2011-03-18 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: memory, Other World Computing, SSD

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 400GB SSD

Looks like OWC has begun transitioning to 25nm flash, dropping the price of a 400GB solid state drive from about $1500 to about $920 for the 400GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD as I write this. However, shipping date is noted as “10 Days”.

Update! Looks like OWC will instead ship a 480GB model for the same price.

Presumably we will soon see the 60/120/240GB capacities migrate to the 25nm flash chips as well, but whether these will be 56/115/230GB capacities is unclear.

The new 25nm flash apparently requires more over provisioning, hence the 400GB instead of 480GB capacity (both with 512GB flash memory). But perhaps that will change as well— I don’t yet know.

Note that I have not yet tested the new versions based on 25nm flash, but I expect to do so in the next week or two.

Also, 6Gbps SSDs based on the 6Gbps Sandforce controller are due sometimes in the next month or two. Though the Mac Pro still has only 3Gbps SATA ports, the new 2011 MacBook Pro has one internal 6Gbps SATA port, and assuming no compatibility issues (I doubt that OWC would ship without ensuring compatibility), then of course a 6Gbps SSD would be preferable, but how much faster is an open question. Few programs can use the speed of even the current 3Gbps SSDs, so if you already have one, sleep well and no worries.