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80GB SSD + 500GB external or 160GB SSD?

M

Mr.Sanchez

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 18, 2009
8
0
I just got the great news that my mom is going to buy me a Macbook Pro for college :D. With the money I was going to spend on the Macbook, I want to buy a SSD. I don't want to spend more than $500 on one and I think I've got my mind set on an Intel X25-M.

I want to get the 80GB one but, it would be too small for my iTunes collection so I would have to buy an external drive which would bring the total to around $330 with a 500GB external. On the other hand, I don't really want to carry around an external drive every where I go so, I was thinking of the 160GB model, which cost around $450. It's less space than the 80GB and the 500GB but I'd have the convenience of not having to lug around an external drive.

The main reason I want to get a SSD is because I don't want to worry about failures, noise, vibration or heat. I'll probably buy a larger Intel SSD next year anyway, if they make one. I originally wanted to get a WD Scorpio Blue but I've been reading about people having problems with noise and clicking since the firmware update. This is my first laptop and my first Mac so I want everything to be perfect :D. So which one do you all think would be the better option? 80GB SSD + 500GB external HDD or 160GB SSD?:confused:
 
Of course it would be nice to get the 160GB SSD but they expensive, about 500 bucks after taxes and all that.

I would get the 80GB SSD and get a 320 or 500 ext. hard drive for your media.
 
First of all, great choice for a SSD!

Honestly, my recommendation is to wait a little untill SSDs drop in price. 500 for 120GB is redic, and you're probs gonna need more space than that in not too long, esp with your music taking up most of the space anyway.

Mr.Sanchez said:
I'll probably buy a larger Intel SSD next year anyway, if they make one.
Click to expand...

Whats gonna happen to the hundreds of dollars SSD u bought only 1 year ago?

Lugging around an external HDD is really a hassle, and if it can be avoided, avoid it. In all fairness, it has pros and cons, but its always a another thing to carry, and something else to plug in when you want to listen to your music or whatever (and personally, i'd be paranoid about failure on that drive because you're always carrying it around w/ you).

Idk what hdd the MBPs have, but i know its at least 120GB probs, which would be enough for u now. Wait a little and get a 120GBSSD for cheaper, or drop the whole $500 for an even larger SSD, which would end up being a better investment.

Or just get a cheap SUPERTALENT drive or something now lol
 
rgarjr said:
Of course it would be nice to get the 160GB SSD but they expensive, about 500 bucks after taxes and all that.

I would get the 80GB SSD and get a 320 or 500 ext. hard drive for your media.
Click to expand...

Won't carrying around an external become irritating after a while? What about iTunes? Would I have to add the library again every time I unplug the external hard drive? Sorry if the question is dumb. I've never owned a Mac or a laptop? :p
 
BoogieTrain said:
Whats gonna happen to the hundreds of dollars SSD u bought only 1 year ago?

and personally, i'd be paranoid about failure on that drive because you're always carrying it around w/ you
Click to expand...

I would just throw the old one in my 40GB PS3 :p.

Thats a great point about carrying around the external. I'm thinking that I may just leave it at my desk because I have an iPod for listening to music anyway. I'm kind of leery about constantly unplugging it when I take the laptop to class or the library.
 
Mr.Sanchez said:
Won't carrying around an external become irritating after a while?:p
Click to expand...

Well that's why there's IPODs. The thing is how often do you listen to your itunes media?

All this hype about SSD's, makes me wanna get one for my MB

Intel%20SSD%20X25-%20E%2000001.jpg
 
You first should look at what you are going to be using the computer for. If you are going to be carrying your itunes and your photos and such, 80Gb isn't going to cut it. 160 does offer more cushion but still compared to media these days (500GB) it's quite less.

You can carry around a slim portable drive, but yes it can be a hassle. Especially having to plug it in and such. Why would you buy a drive, install it, and then next year have to repeat the whole process? Just buy something that would last you longer in the future.

I've heard both positive and negative reviews regarding SSD and HDD's.
personally it comes down to preference. For me, since I am a photographer, SSD's space limitation and price won't cut it for me. but if you are a casual user, then it should be fine.

iTunes if it doesn't recognize the hard drive before you start itunes up will add exclamation marks to your libary and give errors.... you'll have to change the watch folder settings in preferences and point it to your external (if you go that way)
 
hangtyte said:
You first should look at what you are going to be using the computer for. If you are going to be carrying your itunes and your photos and such, 80Gb isn't going to cut it. 160 does offer more cushion but still compared to media these days (500GB) it's quite less.

You can carry around a slim portable drive, but yes it can be a hassle. Especially having to plug it in and such. Why would you buy a drive, install it, and then next year have to repeat the whole process? Just buy something that would last you longer in the future.

I've heard both positive and negative reviews regarding SSD and HDD's.
personally it comes down to preference. For me, since I am a photographer, SSD's space limitation and price won't cut it for me. but if you are a casual user, then it should be fine.

iTunes if it doesn't recognize the hard drive before you start itunes up will add exclamation marks to your libary and give errors.... you'll have to change the watch folder settings in preferences and point it to your external (if you go that way)
Click to expand...
I'm mostly a casual user. I'd be using it for class for notes, web browsing and very light photoshopping every so often. I probably wouldn't need to take the external everywhere I go since I've got an iPod. My iTunes library is about 150GB but I only listen to about 60GB of that regularly (I'm a pack rat:D). I plan to transfer the 60GB I actually listen to the Mac (if I get the 160GB) and leave the rest on my Windows PC.

Originally, the plan was for me to get a 500GB HDD. Since my mom decided to be so generous and buy it for me, I've got the $1200 for the Macbook in my pocket burning a hole:D

I would get a 500GB HDD but I can't find a one that people aren't complaining about. I want to get a Scorpio Blue but it seems people are having problems with them in the June 2009 MBPs. I was also looking at the Hitachi 500GB HDD, but I read that they're slow and have failure issues. I figure that I might as well get a SSD and have a little peace of mind.
 
I was pretty set on getting a ssd for my macbook for the same reason, peace of mind. I had my hdd replaced twice last year, and almost lost many many hours of work and my final portfolio for my english class, but i was lucky.

I ended up getting a netbook with a ssd to take to class for notes and all. But a SSD IS a good investment. And an INVESTMENT it should be, don't be hasty and buy a SSD that will be insufficient and need to be replaced in only a year. Get a good one now, one that will have enough storage. And external hdds are excellent also, I currently have a 1TB and a 500GB that i couldn't live w/o (pack rat here as well), though they never leave my desk. My music is on my ipod and i have random media on my laptop hdd, which is usually enough to keep me occupied if i am ever w/o an ipod or gameboy.


Also keep in mind that you might want space for a bootcamp partition, which takes a nice chunk out of your avail hdd space for osx.

So yeah, i reccomend getting a external hdd (Buffalo has never let me down) but not carrying it around. Have the best of both worlds, don't be an elite-ist, and you can have both. (You don't really need the highest performance ssd out there, get a "slower" one with more storage for the same $$ and have the external for home, never hurts to have a backup).
 
Wow if you have $1200 to spend I would get a SSD but I'm sure the prices will drop next year and you'll wanna buy a new one.

I really want a SSD for my uMB but I've decided to wait for the increase in space and cheaper prices. If you really wanna spend some money on your mbp why don't you upgrade your RAM to 8gb and buy an external display :D LOL that's what I did instead of buying the SSD. It came to about the same price as well.

If anything buy the 80gb SSD now for a test run and use portable hard drive for your music. The price you pay for a 160gb SSD now could prob get you a 250gb SSD next year.
 
BoogieTrain said:
Also keep in mind that you might want space for a bootcamp partition, which takes a nice chunk out of your avail hdd space for osx.

So yeah, i reccomend getting a external hdd (Buffalo has never let me down) but not carrying it around. Have the best of both worlds, don't be an elite-ist, and you can have both. (You don't really need the highest performance ssd out there, get a "slower" one with more storage for the same $$ and have the external for home, never hurts to have a backup).
Click to expand...
I won't need bootcamp because I plan to keep my Windows desktop. So having space for that isn't really necessary.

I want to get the SSD mostly for reliabilty not speed so much. From what I've read Intel is the most reliable. If there is another drive out there as reliable and cheaper, I would gladly buy it.

I think I'm going to go with the 80GB Intel, unless I can find a reliable and cheaper alternative. Thanks all for answering my stupid questions :p
 
Optibay is cool but its so overpriced, probably because they dont have a way to mass make them. I'm waiting for a much cheaper option to show up.
 
I say get a 500GB internal drive, and use it until SSD's go down in price. No matter what kind of drive you use, you need to backup. Thus, take that extra money you have and buy a 500GB or 1TB external, and use it for time machine backups. Then, when prices of SSD's do go down, buy one. Heat and vibration isn't really an issue in my personal experiences. And for $500, I would *much* rather get a new 2009 Mac Mini for a home desktop/iTunes system than a small SSD for in my laptop. But thats just me.

Oh and 80GB on a Macbook Pro? No. I have 80GB on my Macbook Air, and thank god its a portable word processing, email, web browsing, and programming machine because 80GB is hardly anything. 72 after formatting.
 
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