Advice on current SSD to SSHD?!

[stevemeadpro]

Hi there,

Looking for advice:

I currently have a MacBook pro (mid 2009) with 8GB RAM and a crucial 256GB SSD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443)

My main uses are wordpress development, video creating (using Final Cut Pro X hosting files on an external firewire hard drive) and photo editing (using aperture hosting files on an external western digital passport, current size of library is 399GB)

The MacBook Pro currently works quite fast and is a speedy machine considering it's age. My only issues are Aperture - when doing large changes or big project moves my aperture freezes or sometimes completely crashes or the hard drive disconnects randomly (causing me to constantly having to repair the aperture library).

I would love to host the library on my Mac itself as I'm constantly on the move but obviously struggling with space and can't afford anything to big like a crucial 960GB SSD (£350!)

I've found this 1TB seagate SSHD on amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455344027&pf_rd_i=468294

Specifications are here - http://www.seagate.com/www-content/...top-thin-sshd-data-sheet-ds-1784-1-1302gb.pdf and would like some info on the specifications as it makes no sense to me!

My question is this - If I get the seagate HD will I be sacrificing a lot of noticeable speed for space? Or will it not be too noticeable on my current set up?

Many thanks for your help in advance,

Steve Mead

 

[Gav Mack]

You will notice the hit hugely stepping down to an SSHD. Better than a normal spinner, boot times will be much quicker but uncached stuff its a slow as per normal.

I splashed out £344 and stuck the 960 M500 in my MBP cos of a failed SSD last weekend and it's more than quick enough running SATA2 in my 2010 MBP. What about the m500 480Gb? I've seen them pop up discounted on hotukdeals.com quite often. You will have to upgrade any M500 to version 03 firmware if its earlier as it squashes Macbook Pro compatibility bugs

 

[stevemeadpro]

Thanks for your reply.

Apologies to ask but what your saying is that my speed will be dramatically affected??

I really can't justify expenditure over £100 for hardware upgrades at the moment! And the £68 for 1TB seems to good to be true!

I don't mind too much not having a fast mac as long as it doesn't slow down to the unbearable (windows style!)

Thanks again in advance.

 

[simonsi]

Apologies to ask but what your saying is that my speed will be dramatically affected??

The upgrade from HDD to SSD brings a huge comparable speed increase. Going the other way WILL bring about the reverse and you will see a huge speed decrease, there is no magic here.

Just to add - you could split your Aperture library and keep current work on the SSD, older/archive on the Passport. Best of both worlds and no spend necessary...

 

[Gav Mack]

Thanks for your reply.

Apologies to ask but what your saying is that my speed will be dramatically affected??

I really can't justify expenditure over £100 for hardware upgrades at the moment! And the £68 for 1TB seems to good to be true!

I don't mind too much not having a fast mac as long as it doesn't slow down to the unbearable (windows style!)

Thanks again in advance.

Absolutely it will, massive hit. Aperture may start quick as it is cached but everything else will go back to the slow old days.

I know what budget is like I had to lash out very reluctantly on the plastic. But it's my work laptop and I had to cos it brings home the bacon!

I'm a Lightroom bloke myself but the other posters advice seems spot on if I was in your shoes.

Best of luck either way getting nagged to do stories lol. Just make sure Yodel don't deliver it I feel very homicidal towards one of their drivers right now

 

[stevemeadpro]

Thanks guys, I'll wait out for now and keep my current setup - as annoying as it is! SSD should come down sooner or later!!

 

[Gav Mack]

Thanks guys, I'll wait out for now and keep my current setup - as annoying as it is! SSD should come down sooner or later!!

A ton for a terabyte - your 2009 won't support the current version of OSX by that time! Reckon they'll be at the 250 mark by the end of the year though!

 

[stevemeadpro]

Absolutely it will, massive hit. Aperture may start quick as it is cached but everything else will go back to the slow old days.

Sorry just had a sudden thought, currently my setup is aperture is obviously on my SSD but all my aperture files (including the aperture library) are on a western digital passport USB2, which is a spinning disk external hard drive if i'm correct? So would that make aperture respond the same with this new hard drive being a spinning disk hard drive?

Sorry I'm not experienced with anything like this! (as you can tell!)

 

[Gav Mack]

Sorry just had a sudden thought, currently my setup is aperture is obviously on my SSD but all my aperture files are on a western digital passport USB2, which is a spinning disk external hard drive if i'm correct? So would that make aperture respond the same with this new hard drive being a spinning disk hard drive?

Sorry I'm not experienced with anything like this! (as you can tell!)

It may help a bit, but I have another idea. The 2009 has a single FW800 port, do you use final cut and aperture at the same time or you have a FireWire hub?

Cos you're on a skint budget you may want to grab one of the empty seagate 2.5 goflex enclosures on eBay and also get the goflex 2.5 fw800 dock end for it there too. Last time I got the pair for a client about 3/4 months ago pair think it came to about £25 cos I bought a set myself a few years back. Stick the SSHD inside it, it's a snap fit with the SATA ports exposed on one end to fit the dock. You will see a much faster increase in speed. My normal spinner hits 55-60mb/sec with fw800 and less than half that with USB 2.0. Factor in the cache for the SSHD it should perform even better than that!

FireWire 800 hubs used are also not fetching much on eBay either, those with cash to splash are buying thunderbolt and disposing of their old kit.

Food for thought and the route I would probably take. FireWire 800 on OSX for external media I would have over usb 2.0 any day!

 

[stevemeadpro]

Yeah I host all my video editing files on a external firewire drive with use with final cut pro x - works a dream!

I'm always on the move with photos and editing them and constantly having to carry around the USB2 drive to access them as not enough memory on my 256GB SSD. Which is why I was looking into that drive just so I can have my photos on the same drive (inside the laptop) without having to plug external devices in (and them constantly cutting out!) so I could do it in the field and not have to wait until I got home (which can be days at a time sometimes!)

Can't decide if the performance for aperture will be different seeing as I'm basically running it off a USB2 device as it is currently!!

 

[Gav Mack]

Yeah I host all my video editing files on a external firewire drive with use with final cut pro x - works a dream!

I'm always on the move with photos and editing them and constantly having to carry around the USB2 drive to access them as not enough memory on my 256GB SSD. Which is why I was looking into that drive just so I can have my photos on the same drive (inside the laptop) without having to plug external devices in (and them constantly cutting out!) so I could do it in the field and not have to wait until I got home (which can be days at a time sometimes!)

Can't decide if the performance for aperture will be different seeing as I'm basically running it off a USB2 device as it is currently!!

Oh i see.

The GoFlex docks are only FW800 but USB2.0 and 3.0 types too, literally unplug one for the other. I actually use them more for plugging bare drives in as the dock plug is essentially the 2.5 inch SATA data and power plugs themselves on the drive/SSD. Using a FW800 external for aperture will more than double the access speed, it's max is about 75Mb/sec and that is more than most notebook drives can put out. The SSHD cache will saturate it to its fullest which will be about 2.5/3x faster. I also find FW 800 plugs in my case are a lot less liable to dropouts than USB also.

There is one other option - taking the optical drive out, putting in a bay which is the size of the optical drive itself and installing a spinner inside it. With the earlier macs like yours you have to pick certain spinners or at least have a utility to downgrade its sata speed to sata 2. Sata 3 drives can handshake wrong and not be detected in the Mac from the optical port otherwise. I am not sure if the Seagate can be downgraded to sata 2 though, others can. Get an enclosure for the superdrive, certain types do support OSX boot but a lot don't.

 

[stevemeadpro]

Thanks very much for the help!

I opted for removing my optical drive seeing as it's hardly ever used! I bought a 2 hard drive disk caddy and the 1TB drive to plug into it for aperture and my photos files (also purchased a usb optical drive just in case I need it)

Should arrive tomorrow and fingers crossed it all works! I did check compatibility of the gear for my mac and they said it will work for my mac according to amazon!

Cheers again.