Solid state drives have always been the best pick for PC owners compared to regular hard drives. SSDs, which use flash memory to store data, tend to be faster, have no moving parts to replace or wear out and use less energy than regular hard drives. The one difference that hurts SSDs has always been the cost. Purchasing a 128 GB SSD could get most people several 2 TB regular hard drives.
Now MaximumPC.com has a bold prediction from Kingston, which creates some of the most popular SSDs for PC owners. According to Kingston's flash memory sales director Nathan Su, he believes that the cost for flash memory will decrease down to just $1 per GB by the end of 2012. If that indeed happens, that should allow for prices of SDDs to go down as well. Other factors such as better manufacturing of SDDs and the transition down to the transition to the 19nm process should also contribute to lower prices.
One unexpected factor for hard drive prices has been the recent floods in Thailand which have caused regular mechanical hard drive factories to shut down or curtail production. As we have reported before, this has caused a shortage in hard drive as well as a price jump for the remaining drives that are still for sale. The prices for some hard drives may not go back down to pre-flood levels until the end of 2012.
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