Intel 330 Series 240gb SSD $139.99 + FS @ Newegg

Link

Sort of a repost, but I thought it could use a post of it's own. There is a newer 335 series here for $154.99, but that series may have questionable reliability with the new smaller chips.

A decent deal for an Intel SSD.

Awesome deal, thanks OP! Just curious where you are reading about the 335 chipset, as I thought that was "the one to get" and have been waiting on the price to fall a bit on that one...

Has Newegg just admitted they are a crappier store than TigerDirect? They consistently sale the same thing at higher price.

jaymez619 said:   I was waiting and waiting for the Samsung 830 to go lower and lower. Did I wait too long? Black Friday has come and gone and I was hoping to get a 128GB (preferably the Samsung) for under $60. Now this Intel is starting to look attractive.

Lol, that was never going to happen. You definitely waited too long.

You could try this one though if you want: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1237957/

It's sandforce, but for %60, you can't have the world.

Mulox said:   Thanks for the links brothertrav, that is very concerning indeed, and it seems too early to tell on the 335. Looks like TigerDirect not only has a better price on the 330 drive, but also has a lot more CashBack at 6%...

I have a 180gb 520 drive now... how much improvement will I see on this drive?

I'd think you'd only see improvement in the size of the drive. The drive you have is pretty much top of the line for Intel right now. And yeah Tiger direct started their deal after I posted this. It's definitely cheaper there if you don't mind the rebate hassle.

Mulox said:   I don't understand... are you saying the 330 is a step down from the 520 series?

Yes, the 520 has a better firmware and better quality chips. Speed wise, they are very similar, with the 520 being a tad faster. The 520 has a 5 year warranty, the 330 only has a 3 year warranty. In general terms, the 330 is perfectly fine for the average consumer and he/she wouldn't notice any difference between the two. But there is a difference in components. You already have the better drive.

Below is stolen from Anandtech's review...

"The 330 and 520 are very similar drives. The 330's primary differentiation comes from its use of cheaper, lower endurance MLC NAND. I'll get to the math behind why this isn't an issue at all for most users shortly. Conceptually, the 330 vs. the 520 is very similar to Kingston's HyperX 3K vs. regular HyperX drive. Just like with frequency binning for CPUs, there's endurance binning for NAND. Lower endurance parts are more plentiful (and thus cheaper) while the highest endurance parts will be sold for a premium (e.g. MLC-HET). If Intel does its job right, most of the stuff in the middle should be very good. And if it does its job really well, even the lower endurance parts should be more than good enough." - Anand

Full review linked here.

So how do you get free shipping? There are 4 options for shipping, 3 requires to pay and the only option with free shipping, you have to sign up for some kind of membership for $50.