Buying a new MBP within the week. (SSD question)

[nsilva]

Going with an SSD here somehow. Question is, should I buy the MBP with a 128gb SSD and replace the ODD with a 750gb hard drive from Newegg, or should I buy it with the 750gb hard drive, get an SSD from Newegg, put it where the stock HDD came from and move the HDD to where the ODD is.

Don't know if anyone has any pros/cons for either. Considering buying the MBP with the 750gb, but I know I'll go and drop $300 on a 256gb SSD. That would come out to $450 including buying the 750gb from Apple. If I just got the 128 from Apple and got a 750gb from Newegg it would come out to about $330, but I would have less space on the SSD.

I only really need the SSD for OS X and Logic. Anyone here good with Logic know if I can just leave the core of logic (about 10gb) on the SSD and put everything else (About 50GB) on the HDD?

 

[SDAVE]

get the 750GB.

The SSD prices are coming down very quickly and you should be able to get at least a 256GB SSD in the next few months for cheap and just use your 750GB as an external.

You can put your logic audio data on the external. No problem.

 

[nsilva]

get the 750GB.

The SSD prices are coming down very quickly and you should be able to get at least a 256GB SSD in the next few months for cheap and just use your 750GB as an external.

You can put your logic audio data on the external. No problem.

I do not want to wait a few months for prices to come down. My SSD is going to be my boot drive, so I want one right from the start.

Edit: Just read the SSD sticky thread in this section. It appears that 3rd party drives are having trouble with TRIM and what not to begin with. Seems like my best option Would be to stick with the Apple SSD and get the 3rd party 750gb HDD, work with what I have, and then when the 128gb SSD fills up buy a new 256gb or bigger SSD and transfer all the files from the 128gb SSD. (Will that work like a HDD? Would I be able to copy over everything, including the OS, from the 128gb to a new SSD and everything would work flawlessly like before?)

 

[SDAVE]

I d not want to wait a few months for prices to come down. My SSD is going to be my boot drive, so I want one right from the start.

Then get it???

I would recommend getting the 750GB and moving that to the ODD and getting a 128GB SSD off the web somewhere (slickdeals.net, check for daily deals) and putting that in the main bay. You already answered your question here.

The best SSD's are:

Samsung 830
Intel 520
Crucial M4

All of these will be fine.

You will save money if you get the SSD off the web. Plus it's fun to take things apart. Just be careful and it shouldn't take you too long. Plenty of guides out there.

 

[Barna Biro]

My vote is for the Crucial m4 256 GB SSD

 

[user418]

I do not want to wait a few months for prices to come down. My SSD is going to be my boot drive, so I want one right from the start.

Samsung drives are very reliable. I have the Samsung 470 256gb and am saving up for the Samsung 830 512gb. Plan to move the Sata II 470 to optibay and put the sata III 830 in the main bay.

I say get the biggest SSD you can afford and install it yourself. Put the 750gb HDD in the optibay.

 

[Boe11]

My vote is for the Crucial m4 256 GB SSD

Pretty much the gold standard, in my experience. I've had 3 of them - all rock solid.

 

[TheRdungeon]

I use the Optibay for my logic stuff, you'll find there are some apple loops etc. that demand to be on the boot drive but everything else works great in the optibay. When installing it from the DVDs you can specify where you want the data to be stored

 

[randy98mtu]

If you buy a combo from B&H Photo, you can get a 128 GB m4 for $130 (Ack, I paid $165 less than a month ago!), or a 256 for $265. Plus you can get AC for $122! Can't order from them this week though because of Passover.

 

[The Mercurian]

Get the 7200rpm 750GB drive.

I got one in a new MBP and surprised how fast it is.

Here are the Blackmagic benchmarks between my old 2009 MBP with a SATA II OCZ Vertex 250GB drive installed versus the new MBP with 7200rpm 750Gb drive.

OCZ Vertex II - write speed 72.5 MB/s, read speed 169.9 MB/s
7200rpm - write speed 121.3 MB/s, read speed 119.7 Mb/s

As you can see the write speed of the 7200rpm drive is a lot faster than the SATA II - this actually makes quite a difference - depending on what you are doing (sorry I don't know anything about logic.)

Yes its not going to be as fast as a SATA III drive - but its a hell of alot cheaper. A HELL of alot cheaper.

My plan is to use as is until SATA III's halve in price before I think of sticking in a SATA III 500Gb drive and using the 7200rpm one as an external drive.

 

[lamboman]

Get the 7200rpm 750GB drive.

I got one in a new MBP and surprised how fast it is.

Here are the Blackmagic benchmarks between my old 2009 MBP with a SATA II OCZ Vertex 250GB drive installed versus the new MBP with 7200rpm 750Gb drive.

OCZ Vertex II - write speed 72.5 MB/s, read speed 169.9 MB/s
7200rpm - write speed 121.3 MB/s, read speed 119.7 Mb/s

As you can see the write speed of the 7200rpm drive is a lot faster than the SATA II - this actually makes quite a difference - depending on what you are doing (sorry I don't know anything about logic.)

Yes its not going to be as fast as a SATA III drive - but its a hell of alot cheaper. A HELL of alot cheaper.

My plan is to use as is until SATA III's halve in price before I think of sticking in a SATA III 500Gb drive and using the 7200rpm one as an external drive.

Whether a drive is SATA II or III doesn't make a difference to the performance of the drive; while it means that theoretically its interface can handle the full SATA III speeds, the drive itself is not capable of doing so. There isn't a single mechanical hard drive on the market today that can fully saturate a SATA 1.5Gbps (SATA I) channel, let alone II or III.

As for those speeds, they're roughly what you'd expect from a mechanical drive; my iMac's drive is only slightly faster (a few MB/s). However, the biggest advantage that an SSD has over a mechanical drive is its access times, which are typically under 0.3ms, coupled with the increased speeds, and the fact that it's all chips and no moving parts, meaning that it doesn't matter how physically fragmented data is on the drive, speeds will be completely unaffected.

To the OP, I'd not bother with the Intel 520, it's not a bad drive but it really isn't worth the extra spend. It's either the m4 or the Samsung 830, really depending on which is cheaper. The real-world performance will be roughly the same.

The Vertex 4 should be another option, but not really worth the extra spend (though I don't have any idea how much more expensive it is than the m4).

Finally, TRIM. Most of the drives out on the market now have good garbage collection, rendering TRIM unnecessary in most scenarios. TRIM isn't natively enabled with third party drives, but that doesn't mean that it isn't supported; all you need is TRIM Enabler. That said, as above, the likelihood is that you will not need TRIM.