Crucial M4 - 512 GB Solid State Drive $159.99

[Dave Allen]

51 available now - free shipping

This same drive has been the pack mule for my current build and is the best purchase i've made this year.

[GreenGoo]

I think I'm running 128 or 256 due to price. I would have picked up the 1/2 tb if it had been this price at the time. Plus I bought a crap brand. Crucial makes great memory. Not sure about their ssd's, but the brand name is good.

[Rip]

Hmmmm, I am strongly considering buying a few of these. About to upgrade some XP 64bit workstations up to Win7 and this may be just what I need to extend their life out a couple years.

[Pyperkub]

Looks like they are refurbished. For Rip's plan that should be fine, but I'd much rather spend a bit more for new.

[Dave Allen]

...and this may be just what I need to extend their life out a couple years.

along the same lines The Tech Report has been trying to run a batch of SSDs into the ground during the past year with their SSD Endurance Experiment

[Jeff V]

Over the summer, I bought a new 512 GB Crucial M100 for $220 off the shelf in a retail store, not on sale. I would think that for just a little more you can find non-refurb versions of this drive if you look around.

[Dave Allen]

Looks like they are refurbished. For Rip's plan that should be fine, but I'd much rather spend a bit more for new.

Refurbished items are guaranteed to work but new items are guaranteed to be replaced.

All my refurbished purchases always worked - can't say that about my new purchases. Besides, the worst case scenario refurbishing an SSD amounts to a casing replacment or firmware reset.

[GreenGoo]

Looks like they are refurbished. For Rip's plan that should be fine, but I'd much rather spend a bit more for new.

Refurbished items are guaranteed to work but new items are guaranteed to be replaced.

All my refurbished purchases always worked - can't say that about my new purchases. Besides, the worst case scenario refurbishing an SSD amounts to a casing replacment or firmware reset.

SSD's have a definite mean time to failure that would put me off buying a refurb of an SSD whereas I might not feel that way aobut a video card or something.

I'm sure they're getting better, but currently I only have OS's on my SSD. My games and data are on more traditional drives.

[Rip]

Looks like they are refurbished. For Rip's plan that should be fine, but I'd much rather spend a bit more for new.

Refurbished items are guaranteed to work but new items are guaranteed to be replaced.

All my refurbished purchases always worked - can't say that about my new purchases. Besides, the worst case scenario refurbishing an SSD amounts to a casing replacment or firmware reset.

SSD's have a definite mean time to failure that would put me off buying a refurb of an SSD whereas I might not feel that way aobut a video card or something.

I'm sure they're getting better, but currently I only have OS's on my SSD. My games and data are on more traditional drives.

You must not have read that article about the longevity tests. SSDs far surpass traditional HDDs in data transfer lifetimes? I would never but a refurb HDD that wasn't an SSD.

[Pyperkub]

Looks like they are refurbished. For Rip's plan that should be fine, but I'd much rather spend a bit more for new.

Refurbished items are guaranteed to work but new items are guaranteed to be replaced.

All my refurbished purchases always worked - can't say that about my new purchases. Besides, the worst case scenario refurbishing an SSD amounts to a casing replacment or firmware reset.

Yeah, but when coupled with eBay I'm a lot more skeptical.

Caveat - I avoid most "deals" on ebay for this reason. I'll take the extra hit for the assurance of dealing with amazon/newegg/dell, etc. I'm just not an eBay person.

[Rip]

Looks like they are refurbished. For Rip's plan that should be fine, but I'd much rather spend a bit more for new.

Refurbished items are guaranteed to work but new items are guaranteed to be replaced.

All my refurbished purchases always worked - can't say that about my new purchases. Besides, the worst case scenario refurbishing an SSD amounts to a casing replacment or firmware reset.

Yeah, but when coupled with eBay I'm a lot more skeptical.

Caveat - I avoid most "deals" on ebay for this reason. I'll take the extra hit for the assurance of dealing with amazon/newegg/dell, etc. I'm just not an eBay person.

I have only once ever had an issue with a transaction on eBay. Wish I could say that for online retailers. All about reading, asking, and using the rating system to temper your expectations. In general I won't buy from someone without excellent rating unless I am knowingly taking a risk for an unbelievable deal. Which pretty much never happens. Like most things, if it sounds to good to be true, it is.

That reseller has a 99.2% positive rating with over 24K transactions. That's pretty damn good.

[GreenGoo]

You must not have read that article about the longevity tests. SSDs far surpass traditional HDDs in data transfer lifetimes? I would never but a refurb HDD that wasn't an SSD.

I didn't. The last thing I read on SSD's had them failing earlier than normal HDD's, specifically from high i/o. Beats me where I read it or how long ago though.

[stessier]

...and this may be just what I need to extend their life out a couple years.

along the same lines The Tech Report has been trying to run a batch of SSDs into the ground during the past year with their SSD Endurance Experiment

That's a really cool article - thanks!