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15" 2.66ghz MBP with Kingston SSDNow V+ 256gb SSD... before and after

C

coast1ja

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 13, 2009
291
0
I just installed the 256gb Kingston SSDNow V+ solid state drive in a 15" 2.66ghz 4gb uMBP. Overall speed is quite noticeably snappier. Cold boot takes 14 seconds from the tone. Please note that both Xbench readings were taken after a clean install of OSX 10.5. I would highly suggest this upgrade if you can find a drive for a good price.


Here are the benchmarks with the stock 320gb HDD:

Results 141.60
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J3032)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,3
Drive Type Hitachi HTS545032B9SA02
CPU Test 178.04
GCD Loop 309.72 16.33 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 151.61 3.60 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 122.41 4.04 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 223.56 38.93 Mops/sec
Thread Test 295.88
Computation 349.09 7.07 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 256.75 11.05 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 187.53
System 225.78
Allocate 337.43 1.24 Malloc/sec
Fill 187.16 9100.24 MB/sec
Copy 200.77 4146.77 MB/sec
Stream 160.36
Copy 154.05 3181.87 MB/sec
Scale 150.06 3100.15 MB/sec
Add 170.38 3629.47 MB/sec
Triad 168.96 3614.48 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 207.67
Line 179.32 11.94 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 252.72 75.45 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 209.72 17.09 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 203.90 5.14 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 205.32 12.84 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 165.24
Spinning Squares 165.24 209.62 frames/sec
User Interface Test 338.34
Elements 338.34 1.55 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 46.99
Sequential 85.01
Uncached Write 119.19 73.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 73.04 41.33 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 57.75 16.90 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 130.64 65.66 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 32.47
Uncached Write 11.66 1.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 73.97 23.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 65.37 0.46 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 115.88 21.50 MB/sec [256K blocks]

______________________________________________________________________


...and here are the results with the SSD:


Results 216.31
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J3032)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,3
Drive Type Kingston SSDNow 256GB
CPU Test 180.09
GCD Loop 310.11 16.35 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 150.27 3.57 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 127.51 4.21 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 222.75 38.79 Mops/sec
Thread Test 333.75
Computation 375.03 7.60 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 300.65 12.93 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 188.18
System 224.43
Allocate 326.73 1.20 Malloc/sec
Fill 186.93 9088.98 MB/sec
Copy 201.75 4167.00 MB/sec
Stream 162.00
Copy 154.62 3193.61 MB/sec
Scale 153.81 3177.73 MB/sec
Add 170.86 3639.64 MB/sec
Triad 170.38 3644.91 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 207.95
Line 178.24 11.87 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 257.98 77.02 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 210.85 17.19 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 204.38 5.15 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 203.16 12.71 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 167.43
Spinning Squares 167.43 212.40 frames/sec
User Interface Test 333.33
Elements 333.33 1.53 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 212.01
Sequential 168.18
Uncached Write 281.79 173.01 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 211.58 119.71 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 81.69 23.91 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 306.13 153.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 286.74
Uncached Write 118.75 12.57 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 330.88 105.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1329.46 9.42 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 570.08 105.78 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
Yeah, I just wasn't sure how much this drive would improve on the stock 320gb. Kingston is the 'value' brand for SSDs... but this drive has the same controller as the OCZ Vertex and Corsair SSDs.
 
I can't wait to grab a 80GB Intel SSD for my MBP.

Once they drop down towards the $200 range I'll grab one. Newegg already had them up for $220 for the first 2-3 days they put them up then after that they went out of stock and jumped up to the $280 they are now.
 
I would love to get a SSD, but 256 gigs is nowhere near enough space for me. I don't understand how you guys can put up with such a small HD. I have almost 100 gigs just in movies. And I use my cd drive on just about a daily basis.
 
thats actually my same issue i would buy a ssd were the capacity higher than what its at now 250 is nowhere near what i need also.
 
I'm waiting for the 80gig Intel to drop below $200 as well, or the 60gig OCZs to hit $150 (CDN).

SSD rules.
 
No, but I would replace the optical drive with my current 400Gb. I need only 60Gb for the OS and apps. I might even be able to make do with 32Gb. :eek:
 
rwd hero said:
You can really get away with only having an 80 gig HD? Do you cary a removable HD everywhere you go?
Click to expand...

I'm quite the opposite, I don't understand why you all need such a large HD! That is unless its your only computer. I don't need to carry my whole library of movies and music on my MBP
 
MBP with Intel SSD

Just posting my results with new SSD. My MBP is a mid 2008 17" with the OEM drive a Hitachi 200mb 7200 rpm drive. I replaced it today with an Intel x-25 160mb SSD. My system came with 10.5 and now has 10.6.2 SL loaded over it. So not a clean install.
Results:
Cold start from button push to fully loaded was 51.5, now 24.9 seconds.
Load Photoshop CS4 was 12.6, now is 4.5 seconds.
I don't know which brand is the best, but this Intel sure works well.
Installation was easy. It fit perfect. My only change that I am confused about is that iStat shows the HD temp as "0". Does anyone know if the OEM drives have a temp sensor and the SSD drives do not? I did not see any external temp sensor like they talk about in the iMac threads.
 
BobK said:
Just posting my results with new SSD. My MBP is a mid 2008 17" with the OEM drive a Hitachi 200mb 7200 rpm drive. I replaced it today with an Intel x-25 160mb SSD. My system came with 10.5 and now has 10.6.2 SL loaded over it. So not a clean install.
Results:
Cold start from button push to fully loaded was 51.5, now 24.9 seconds.
Load Photoshop CS4 was 12.6, now is 4.5 seconds.
I don't know which brand is the best, but this Intel sure works well.
Installation was easy. It fit perfect. My only change that I am confused about is that iStat shows the HD temp as "0". Does anyone know if the OEM drives have a temp sensor and the SSD drives do not? I did not see any external temp sensor like they talk about in the iMac threads.
Click to expand...

Congrats! Yes, those intel drives are very fast!

I don't think the stock drives had a temp sensor either. My SSD doesn't either. I never thought just replacing the hard drive with an SSD would improve performance that much until I actually saw one in action! Hopefully prices will fall soon and we'll never have to work with slow spinning disks ever again.
 
No more record players.

coast1ja said:
Congrats! Yes, those intel drives are very fast!

I don't think the stock drives had a temp sensor either. My SSD doesn't either. I never thought just replacing the hard drive with an SSD would improve performance that much until I actually saw one in action! Hopefully prices will fall soon and we'll never have to work with slow spinning disks ever again.
Click to expand...
Thanks for starting the thread. I sometimes use my MBP tethered to a Nikon camera. I am hoping that the SSD gives me more protection against sudden moderate accidents. Meanwhile I continue to be amazed over the speed improvement of a SSD. I agree that it is time to give up the "record players".
 
I also think 256gb is more than enough... but I don't keep music or movies on my laptop. I do all that on my home theater PC. When on my laptop I just do work (office stuff and data analysis) and browse the web.

I only did this upgrade for the resale value increase. I love my MacBook Air, and have only used about 30gb of space on that. I have found that buying and selling mac laptops can be a nice little income while in graduate school!
I thought some folks on here might enjoy the results.
 
SSDNow V+ Upgrade

Is your Kingston SSDNow V+ the one with the Samsung controller, or the Toshiba controller? I just purchased the V+ 128 GB model, only to find out afterwards that they had switched manufacturers on the V+ line. Here's my XBench results on a Aluminum Macbook 2.4. Forgot to run benchmarks before swapping the hard drives.

Results 174.13
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.2 (10C540)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBook5,1
Drive Type KINGSTON SNV325S2
CPU Test 168.76
GCD Loop 280.42 14.78 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 134.81 3.20 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 111.23 3.67 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 268.22 46.70 Mops/sec
Thread Test 233.95
Computation 312.74 6.34 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 186.86 8.04 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 180.26
System 218.28
Allocate 302.56 1.11 Malloc/sec
Fill 177.04 8608.17 MB/sec
Copy 208.77 4311.96 MB/sec
Stream 153.52
Copy 147.27 3041.83 MB/sec
Scale 146.43 3025.17 MB/sec
Add 161.15 3432.74 MB/sec
Triad 160.52 3433.97 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 186.04
Line 164.27 10.94 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 210.85 62.95 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 181.36 14.78 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 189.77 4.79 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 190.06 11.89 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 85.77
Spinning Squares 85.77 108.80 frames/sec
User Interface Test 261.10
Elements 261.10 1.20 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 278.79
Sequential 198.63
Uncached Write 268.84 165.07 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 296.07 167.52 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 96.19 28.15 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 378.19 190.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 467.40
Uncached Write 262.00 27.74 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 406.80 130.23 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1298.78 9.20 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 660.91 122.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
rwd hero said:
I would love to get a SSD, but 256 gigs is nowhere near enough space for me. I don't understand how you guys can put up with such a small HD. I have almost 100 gigs just in movies. And I use my cd drive on just about a daily basis.
Click to expand...

External drive?

Do you use those 100 GB of movies every day? If not, then you're wasting space on your internal drive. Do you use your optical drive while you're on the go? If not, then an external drive will work just fine. If you get a firewire one you can still boot from it.
 
I'd love to throw and SSD in in my uMBP. However, my Music folder alone is 175GB's of mp3/aac files...

I guess I could make 256 work, but I need the price to drop for me to justify the cost/benefit.
 
I downgraded my 250 GB hard drive to the 128GB SSD benchmarked above. I still have 57 GB free. I keep about 30 gigs of music and 20 gigs of photos on my hard drive, that's about it. All videos, old photos, etc all get stored on my Time Capsule. I use Mobile Me to access the Time Capsule from outside in case I'm missing something and away from home.
 
rwd hero said:
I would love to get a SSD, but 256 gigs is nowhere near enough space for me. I don't understand how you guys can put up with such a small HD. I have almost 100 gigs just in movies. And I use my cd drive on just about a daily basis.
Click to expand...

you can easily remove the optical drive and replace it with a hard drive.

i have a 160 GB intel G2 and a 640 scorpio blue plus my stock 320 GB hdd in an external enclosure.
 
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