I hope they understand that all non-big name SSDs are an exercise in pricing. Because you can't compete with the guys who have their own NAND plants and/or controllers.
Yeah I looked at the specs and said great, does it undercut anyone? Cause otherwise it's another entry-entry-level SATA SSD in a veritable sea of offerings.
I'd guess different flash suppliers, one needing more over-provisioning to perform at what Palit considers an acceptable level. Seems silly to me; but if they're doing that better that they openly do something to differentiate between the two instead of having a device lottery.
-If you buy from them directly, you have to ship your GPU to...Hong Kong on your own expenses for an RMA. -If you bought from another retailer, you have to return the GPU back to the Retailer and they will still have to ship it to Hong Kong. This means it will take more than a month to get it back or 2 months if you are unlucky.
In addition, they only offer 2 year warranties in the EU instead of 3 years offered by premium brands (EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, KFA2 etc).
That wasn't really the point. They have the 3 year warranty and most retailers usually have a stock for RMAs since they're both a lot cheaper than graphics cards and a lot smaller.
In my country, retailers usually cover the warranty themselves and then duke it out with the distributor/manufacturer so I personally have no such worries.
I have once owned one of their video cards. It was best bang for the buck when I bought it and served me well for a few years. I have limited experience with their personnel, but they gave me the impression of people that knew what they were talking about (you know, the type that doesn't answer your question with a quote from the product manual). And they also seem to be doing their own (clever) custom designs. Maybe their logistics isn't the best, but their engineering seems to be ok. I'd buy from them again.
Thinking the same thing, you're really taking a chance by trying to sell generic SSDs in a flooded market, unless Palit expects to be competing in the bargain bin I don't see them making enough money to bother.
If you can sign a deal with a system builder to use your SSDs, you get a guaranteed revenue stream ;) Plus, there really is some value here since virtually the whole lineup is V-NAND.
True but who's going to want to source retail products for system building when there are so many OEM sources already. If they didn't want to aim for end-users there are far better ways to run this business.
The article says "Palit Microsystems is one of the world’s largest producers of graphics cards". I've never heard of this company and I read lots of GPU reviews. Not that that means anything, but I'm surprised. Are they big in Europe or something?
Why this companies don't simply sell shorter 2.5" SSD's? They could save a nice amount of money in shipping cost's/packaging. 1/3 of the horizontal area of a 2.5" SSD is unused.
Such things do exist, they are target at embedded systems where compactness is more important than standardization. Look around on EBay/Amazon/Alibaba and you will see compact SATA SSDs both in smaller enclosures and bare boards with no enclosure.
As mjetter said, this wouldn't work for consumer SSDs because laptops, desktops & SFF PCs that take 2.5" disks are designed for 2.5" disks with a very specific enclosure size & very specific mounting points. Maybe some computers would be able to take a non-standard size disk with or without some trouble, but if you are the manufacturer why risk the extra returns and bad publicity for selling a product that cannot be guaranteed to meet compatibility expectations?
Anyways, mSATA many years ago and now M.2 are the solution for compact SSDs; 2.5" SSDs were always about compatibility with existing systems & a nonstandard form factor would defeat that purpose.
Have to disagree here. I have several SSDs in my main PC (dating back from when they were pretty small) with one being an 80GB model (which yes, is now pretty useless so just has random stuff on that isn't important as it's ageing), one being 250GB and one 512GB. Bear in mind use matters so I'd personally say if you're gaming and want shorter loading times etc then yes, you need a big SSD as you say. But if you're video editing and just need a drive for the OS, office apps and your editing apps as well as some space for the videos you're working on at the time, then 250GB is likely more than enough (unless you're working with huge 4K files in which case you're probably going to have a RAID array or something pro level). Generally once you've made the videos you just dump them onto a large, cheap HDD for archiving and that's that. Also if you just want a bog standard PC for surfing the internet and productivity but want an SSD for responsiveness, 250GB is more than enough. My SSD powered Mac has a 128GB SSD and for my use it's perfectly fine - never gets even near 50% full, has two full office suites on it (the mac version and MS version), a load of software and some videos. Remember not everyone is a power user and even those who are will often have a laptop or something which they keep relatively clean so it's nice and responsive for general browsing and so on which simply doesn't need masses of high speed storage.
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Flunk - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
I hope they understand that all non-big name SSDs are an exercise in pricing. Because you can't compete with the guys who have their own NAND plants and/or controllers.Alexvrb - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Yeah I looked at the specs and said great, does it undercut anyone? Cause otherwise it's another entry-entry-level SATA SSD in a veritable sea of offerings.kpb321 - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Having both a 120gb and 128gb version of the GFS drive seems really odd.vladx - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
More overprovisioning most likely.DanNeely - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
I'd guess different flash suppliers, one needing more over-provisioning to perform at what Palit considers an acceptable level. Seems silly to me; but if they're doing that better that they openly do something to differentiate between the two instead of having a device lottery.Achaios - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
I don't like the PALIT brand.Here's why:
-If you buy from them directly, you have to ship your GPU to...Hong Kong on your own expenses for an RMA.
-If you bought from another retailer, you have to return the GPU back to the Retailer and they will still have to ship it to Hong Kong. This means it will take more than a month to get it back or 2 months if you are unlucky.
In addition, they only offer 2 year warranties in the EU instead of 3 years offered by premium brands (EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, KFA2 etc).
See http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-cards/204247-grap...
I would avoid them like the plague.
WinterCharm - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Yeah, palit. I dealt with their customer service once... never againclose - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Also this is an SSD.HomeworldFound - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Same thing, They suck.close - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
That wasn't really the point. They have the 3 year warranty and most retailers usually have a stock for RMAs since they're both a lot cheaper than graphics cards and a lot smaller.But heck, who cares about the topic...
vladx - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
In my country, retailers usually cover the warranty themselves and then duke it out with the distributor/manufacturer so I personally have no such worries.bug77 - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
I have once owned one of their video cards. It was best bang for the buck when I bought it and served me well for a few years. I have limited experience with their personnel, but they gave me the impression of people that knew what they were talking about (you know, the type that doesn't answer your question with a quote from the product manual). And they also seem to be doing their own (clever) custom designs.Maybe their logistics isn't the best, but their engineering seems to be ok. I'd buy from them again.
dave_the_nerd - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Isn't the market here already saturated enough?HomeworldFound - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Thinking the same thing, you're really taking a chance by trying to sell generic SSDs in a flooded market, unless Palit expects to be competing in the bargain bin I don't see them making enough money to bother.bug77 - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
If you can sign a deal with a system builder to use your SSDs, you get a guaranteed revenue stream ;)Plus, there really is some value here since virtually the whole lineup is V-NAND.
HomeworldFound - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
True but who's going to want to source retail products for system building when there are so many OEM sources already. If they didn't want to aim for end-users there are far better ways to run this business.vladx - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
OEM usually buy the cheapest offerings available so Palit definitely has a place in the market.vladx - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
More competition is always welcome, race to the bottom FTW!cfenton - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
The article says "Palit Microsystems is one of the world’s largest producers of graphics cards". I've never heard of this company and I read lots of GPU reviews. Not that that means anything, but I'm surprised. Are they big in Europe or something?jwcalla - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Yep. Europe and Asia.philehidiot - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
Yeh I'm in the UK and they have quite a presence here. Not a massive brand like XFX or EVGA but stocked in most places.Lolimaster - Monday, April 3, 2017 - link
Why this companies don't simply sell shorter 2.5" SSD's? They could save a nice amount of money in shipping cost's/packaging. 1/3 of the horizontal area of a 2.5" SSD is unused.Instead of rectangular just made them a square.
mjeffer - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
Which would make them incompatible with every case out there. There are reasons companies go with standard form factors.KateH - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
Such things do exist, they are target at embedded systems where compactness is more important than standardization. Look around on EBay/Amazon/Alibaba and you will see compact SATA SSDs both in smaller enclosures and bare boards with no enclosure.As mjetter said, this wouldn't work for consumer SSDs because laptops, desktops & SFF PCs that take 2.5" disks are designed for 2.5" disks with a very specific enclosure size & very specific mounting points. Maybe some computers would be able to take a non-standard size disk with or without some trouble, but if you are the manufacturer why risk the extra returns and bad publicity for selling a product that cannot be guaranteed to meet compatibility expectations?
Anyways, mSATA many years ago and now M.2 are the solution for compact SSDs; 2.5" SSDs were always about compatibility with existing systems & a nonstandard form factor would defeat that purpose.
Zingam - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
That means there is too much nand memory production... So why are prices so high yet?Anything under 500gb is useless.
philehidiot - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
Have to disagree here. I have several SSDs in my main PC (dating back from when they were pretty small) with one being an 80GB model (which yes, is now pretty useless so just has random stuff on that isn't important as it's ageing), one being 250GB and one 512GB. Bear in mind use matters so I'd personally say if you're gaming and want shorter loading times etc then yes, you need a big SSD as you say. But if you're video editing and just need a drive for the OS, office apps and your editing apps as well as some space for the videos you're working on at the time, then 250GB is likely more than enough (unless you're working with huge 4K files in which case you're probably going to have a RAID array or something pro level). Generally once you've made the videos you just dump them onto a large, cheap HDD for archiving and that's that. Also if you just want a bog standard PC for surfing the internet and productivity but want an SSD for responsiveness, 250GB is more than enough. My SSD powered Mac has a 128GB SSD and for my use it's perfectly fine - never gets even near 50% full, has two full office suites on it (the mac version and MS version), a load of software and some videos. Remember not everyone is a power user and even those who are will often have a laptop or something which they keep relatively clean so it's nice and responsive for general browsing and so on which simply doesn't need masses of high speed storage.hojnikb - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - link
Nice to see S11 getting some love.Will Anandtech review ssds with this controller anytime soon ?