6 votes

Why are these external SSDs so different in price?

Posted by ntngps
Tags: ask.advice, prices, solid state drives, storage.data

I'm talking about this 2 TB LaCie Portable SSD and this Samsung T7 2 TB SSD. They both have the same ~1 GB/s read-write speed, the same 3-year limited warranty, and the same USB 3.2 Gen2 connector. But the LaCie drive is $369, while the Samsung drive is $130.
Am I missing something? Or is it just luxury tax?

3 comments

  1. stu2b50
    Link
    That's more just a wildly out of date MSRP from LaCie's website that they probably haven't updated in years. If you look at the Amazon price for it, it's $179. That's still more expensive than...

    That's more just a wildly out of date MSRP from LaCie's website that they probably haven't updated in years. If you look at the Amazon price for it, it's $179. That's still more expensive than Samsung's, but in the ballpark anyway. The SSD market is a competitive commodity market in the end, since most people don't care about specs.

    All that said, there are many more things to consider about SSDs. The flash memory controller for instance has a huge impact on performance, or how large the cache is on the drive, and how the flash controller uses the cache, how the nand flash chips are laid out. All that only comes in comprehensive benchmarking.

    16 votes
  2. spit-evil-olive-tips
    Link
    on Bez-Mart, the LaCie drive is $189 (almost half off MSRP) while the Samsung drive is $115. so part of it is just different MSRP vs. real-world pricing strategies. another component of it is...

    on Bez-Mart, the LaCie drive is $189 (almost half off MSRP) while the Samsung drive is $115. so part of it is just different MSRP vs. real-world pricing strategies.

    another component of it is probably volume & vertical integration. Samsung ships a lot of SSDs, as well as using a lot of other flash storage in devices like phones. they probably have some level of in-house flash memory manufacturing, or if not, they would have very close relationships with their suppliers, and the ability to negotiate lower costs due to that volume.

    I wasn't able to find details on the exact Lacie drive you linked, but their "rugged" SSD, for example, is a repackaged Seagate SSD:

    Filmmakers and DITs—give your workflow a substantial boost with Rugged SSD. With speeds 2× faster than traditional SATA SSDs, this encrypted USB drive uses Seagate FireCuda NVMe SSD performance to maximize USB 3.1 Gen 2 throughput while delivering IP67 waterproof strength.

    so Lacie is probably less vertically integrated and not in the same negotiating position with respect to cost as Samsung.

    4 votes
  3. skybrian
    Link
    I don't know, but I bought the Samsung recently and it seems fine for my purposes. (Backups.) I've read that portable SSD's tend to throttle back after a while to prevent overheating. Possibly a...

    I don't know, but I bought the Samsung recently and it seems fine for my purposes. (Backups.)

    I've read that portable SSD's tend to throttle back after a while to prevent overheating. Possibly a bigger drive would have better cooling? There may be other performance concerns.

    2 votes