John Baer

Founder

SSD buying advice, backed by data — not sponsors.

Independent SSD research and price tracking from someone who's watched this industry's cycles for 30+ years — not a retailer, not an affiliate, not paid to recommend anything.

30+

Years in the computer industry

750+

SKUs tracked

Zero

Affiliate links or sponsored content

Most SSD "review" sites make money when you click their links and buy the product they recommended. That arrangement shapes what gets recommended, whether anyone admits it or not. diySSD doesn't take a cut of anything you buy — it's funded entirely by ads that don't depend on which product you choose. That means a recommendation here is just a recommendation, based on the data.

I started in this industry when storage still meant an 8" floppy spinning under a Z80A processor — CP/m OS, before "solid-state" was even a category. Thirty-plus years later, I'm still tracking the same fundamental cycles, just at a different scale, and I've learned that the patterns repeat more often than the industry likes to admit.

"I've seen this movie before, more than once — I just used to watch it from inside a business trying to survive it."

Editorial Standards

No affiliate links, ever

No sponsored content or paid placements

No review samples from manufacturers — products are evaluated on publicly available pricing and specs

Corrections are documented, not silently edited — factual errors get a visible, dated update

Three Decades in Computer Tech

Foundational Era (pre-1986)

Started in the industry when systems ran Z80A processors with 64K of memory running CP/m as the OS and 8" floppy storage. This was the terminal like baseline technology of early business micro computing.

1986 — Founder, AgriData

Founded AgriData, building Z80A CP/m microcomputer systems to bring record-keeping and farm management tools to rural America. AgriData operated until the farm crisis of the late 1980s, when collapsing land values and the broader agricultural credit crisis reshaped the market it served.

Late 1980s–early/mid 1990s — MasterTech / Great Lakes Micro

As the farm crisis reshaped AgriData's market, the business evolved into MasterTech, shifting focus to helping small businesses adopt microcomputer technology. Under the retail storefront brand Great Lakes Micro, assembled custom business computing solutions during the rise of the IBM PC clone era, and navigated small businesses through the birth of networking (Novell NetWare, early Microsoft networking).

Mid-1990s–2020s — IT Consultant, then IT Specialist, State of Michigan

Worked as an independent IT consultant, then joined the State of Michigan as an IT Specialist, helping guide adoption of successive technology waves — advanced hardware, enterprise networking, cloud infrastructure — across a large public institution. Earned certifications in Agile methodology and IT project management during this tenure.

2020s–Present — Founder, diySSD.com

Launched diySSD.com, an independent, zero-affiliate SSD comparison and price-tracking resource, applying decades of pattern recognition across NAND market cycles to help consumers navigate SSD purchasing decisions with data rather than sponsored content.