The
1TB 7200RPM HGST Travelstar as well as all 2.5" WD Black drives support NCQ, but the question is whether they're faster than SATA-I in Real-World Applications regardless.
Files load faster and applications open instantly. A 256GB SSD is not $400, even the
high-end drives are < $250.
Also, you could replace your optical drive with an SSD using the
OWC DataDoubler and replace your hard drive with the 1TB HGST Travelstar, and create a 1.25TB Fusion Drive that caches the most used blocks on the SSD, and thus speeding up the load and save times of your VMs while maintaining enough capacity to actually hold them.
I can't tell for the Hitachi drive. I assume it is the one present in this G-Drive FW800, but spends a lot of time seeking when running multiple virtual machines.
The 256GB Thunderbolt SSD described by
Ifti is $400. The one you linked to is unavailable. Here, it costs upwards of $300 and yes, I do account for taxes and shipping. (
link) (
link)
I don't want to replace a drive I am regularly using for to create bootable discs, and will only consider replacing the optical as the last option. Plus, it would consume more power overall with that upgrade.
Indeed the Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000 would be a very interesting upgrade since it is more performant, but then again, is it really the best platter-based HDD in 2.5" form?
It wasn't available when the MBP was bought, however, and I am still somewhat reluctant to Hitachi or other Asian-designed HDD since I have a history of premature breaks with almost all of those I used.
Would it really be more performant in a Fusion setup as VMs are not exactly frequently used, so caching often-used blocks may not improve things in that regard?
Even given that, it would make a pretty expensive upgrade:
256 GB SSD: 300$
1TB HDD: 100$
Data doubler: $50
External enclosure for the optical drive: $20
Of course, I can cut on these if I can sell the used drives, but nobody seems to be willing to buy such drives. I have been selling rarely-used drives for the past half year, not a single interested buyer.