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Ordering i7 15in Macbook Pro. Apple or Intel SSD?

K

kngelv

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 13, 2004
106
37
Detroit
I plan on ordering a new 15 inch i7 Hi-Rez Glossy Macbook Pro. With the education discount I can upgrade to the Apple 128 SSD for $180.00 or buy an Intel 160 G2 for $434.00. I have heard nothing but good things about the Intel and so-so on the Apple one. Also thinking about upgrading the RAM to 8GB for $360.00. Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially on the SSD's. Thanks.


James
 
JDDavis

JDDavis

macrumors 65816
Jan 16, 2009
1,242
109
No experience but I've read on numerous forums to skip the Apple SSD and go aftermarket. If you search I'm sure you'll find a good bit on it.
 
ReanimationLP

ReanimationLP

macrumors 68030
Jan 8, 2005
2,782
33
On the moon.
The Intel stomps all over every other SSD currently out.

Not to mention, Apple is probably using the worlds cheapest SSD inside of that for that price.

Go aftermarket on the RAM too. For cheaper than Apple, you can get faster DDR3 SODIMMs.
 
N

newmacboyoutube

macrumors member
Apr 18, 2010
44
0
Ontario, Canada
kngelv said:
I plan on ordering a new 15 inch i7 Hi-Rez Glossy Macbook Pro. With the education discount I can upgrade to the Apple 128 SSD for $180.00 or buy an Intel 160 G2 for $434.00. I have heard nothing but good things about the Intel and so-so on the Apple one. Also thinking about upgrading the RAM to 8GB for $360.00. Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially on the SSD's. Thanks.


James
Click to expand...

I heard that Apple's SSD does not have much improvement over speed but are much more reliable than their hard drive. I would go with the Intel for speed, or go with Apple if you don't want to upgrade it yourself. I would personally go with a 160GB Intel SSD with 500GB or 1TB External HDD
 
G

grahamwright1

Cancelled
Feb 10, 2008
210
202
kngelv said:
I plan on ordering a new 15 inch i7 Hi-Rez Glossy Macbook Pro. With the education discount I can upgrade to the Apple 128 SSD for $180.00 or buy an Intel 160 G2 for $434.00. I have heard nothing but good things about the Intel and so-so on the Apple one. Also thinking about upgrading the RAM to 8GB for $360.00. Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially on the SSD's. Thanks.


James
Click to expand...

I have a 17 inch i7 on it's way (Tuesday delivery!) and a Corsair Force 100Gb SSD arriving the day after. The Apple SSD in previous units didn't seem to be one of the better units, and the Intel is incredibly popular. I decided to try the Corsair Force based on some really good performance figure and reviews out there, but it is a lot smaller capacity than the Intel.
 
N

neutrino23

macrumors 68000
Feb 14, 2003
1,881
391
SF Bay area
What about keeping the internal HD and getting an SATA Expresscard device and hooking it up to an external SSD? OWC has the SATA card for just $19. I'm having a harder time getting a good handle on an external SATA SSD. There are a few ExpressCard slot SSDs, though not very large. 48GB is the largest I've seen. Though that might be good enough. Boot the system off of that and run the data off the HD.
 
S

striatedglutes

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2009
419
1
USA
If money isn't an issue: intel ssd. You will still notice a difference upgrading to the apple ssd, it will just be slower than the intel (which, never having tried it, you won't even know)

I looked on Newegg the other day and the cheapest 8GB kit I saw was $340. Might be worth it just to let apple install the ram if you really want 8GB, but double check my $ figure before you push butan.
 
K

kngelv

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 13, 2004
106
37
Detroit
Thanks everyone. My gut was to go with the Intel and I think that is what I will do. I'll order the drive tomorrow and use migration assistant or a Time machine backup to install it on my current late 2008 MBP just to see how fast it is.I'll then decide on the RAM and place my order. I can then just install the Intel when my new MBP arrives and it will be ready to go. I have a friend who is buying my current MBP. I keep almost all my media and large files on two 1TB OWC HD's that I keep at separate locations just to be safe. I currently have around 50GB in my Mac partition and 40GB in my Bootcamp partition so the Intel should be large enough.

James
 
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