I was looking at buying the entry level 13" MBP with a 128GB SSD. Does anyone have one of these? Is it worth the money to upgrade to SSD? Or would I be better of with a 15" MBP? Also, is Apple's website the only place to buy one with the SSD included?
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13" MBP with SSD
- Thread starter hbomb168
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You could also buy a normal MBP (13" or 15") and buy an SSD afterwards at MacSales or Newegg and put it in yourself and save a 100 USD or even more and also have a nice backup HDD.
www.ifixit.com has some guides on how to do that.
www.ifixit.com has some guides on how to do that.
Buy the basline MBP with regular HDD. Then buy a SSD at macsales. Itll save you a couple hundred plus the SSD will be much better. Also buy the RAM aftermarket.
First of all, a 13" with ssd will be a lot better than the 15" without. SSD improve performance so much it's really a question why it's not a standard in computers yet.
Second, as others mentioned, buying and putting it yourself will save you a lot of money than letting apple do it (and they'll keep the original HDD too...)
I have the base MBP with an intel X25-M SSD. Dont spend the $200 or so getting the 128gb version from apple, you can go get one third party with more space at a lower price! HUGE performance upgrade by the way. 
As someone with a 13 inch MBP... 2.4ghz and all... and a 11.6inch MBA... I can tell you that the 1.6Ghz macbook air feels much faster than the macbook pro.
I also have installed an intel SSD in a intel CULV, and my desktop... when I boot back to the old hard drive... it feels like it's crawling. So if you ask me, an entry level 13 inch with an SSD will feel and act much faster than a 15inch mbp with a HD
As for getting it from apple, If you're absolutely not technically inclined in any way shape or form, and know no one who is, then by all means.
Otherwise you can buy a drive to suit your needs. ie if you don't carry alot of stuff, a sandforce SSD can be had for 99$ for 60GB which specwise faster than an intel, in my experience is slower (ie 7.4 WEI score vs 7.7 for an intel drive) If you need more space 200$ is where the 120gb starts, and most drives you can buy with a sandforce controller will be faster than the mac standard 128gb that costs 350$. For that kind of money you can buy an 180gb drive.
Also do yourself 1 more favor. If you live at a place near a Microcenter... buy the 13 inch macbook pro there.... the price is 999$ out the door, and a 200$ instant savings.
If you order the laptop from apple with the SSD in it, it's 1199 +350$ = 1550$
If you buy from microcenter, you can get the same laptop and buy a crucial 256gb SSD for 499$ +999$ = 1500
Also ram would cost 100$ to upgrade to 8gb yourself.
999 pre-tax , m8. i don't know what the taxes are there but i guess it will come as much as the apple price.
Keep in mind, though, that 64 or even 128 GB drives fill up very quickly, and that macbook pro 13 with HDD are not that slow. Personally, I would constantly worry about memory space if I had not at least a 256 GB drive. Right now, my photo folder alone uses 38 GB.
The bottom line is that you might want to wait a little until SSDs get more affordable, and buy one with a larger capacity for a reasonable price.
The bottom line is that you might want to wait a little until SSDs get more affordable, and buy one with a larger capacity for a reasonable price.
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Or you could have 2 hard drives in your MBP: A 500GB 7200RPM and a SSD 100GB. Thats what I might do, as I already have a 500GB XT.
I think I am going to buy an SSD and install it myself. It looks pretty easy. Does it void your warranty if you DIY? Also, should I do this before I use the computer for the first time? What is the best drive for the money for a 256 or 160 GB SSD?
MRoogle:
No to voiding the warranty.
No. MacBook, MacBook Pro: Replacing the Hard Disk Drive, transferring data to the new HDD
Vertex 2 series or any Sandforce SSD.
Been thinking about doing this on my 13" Pro, for the SSD users did it noticeably improve battery life? Wondering as sometimes I can travel a lot and watch movies on the plane (it's already good as is), and was thinking movies off an ssd wouldn't drain as much power as reading from the regular drive.
I had good experience with the OCZ vertex series. my 15 in MBP has had one in it for over a year now and its awesome.
next time I think ill go with the OWC drives. (www.macsales.com)