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Buying my first ever Mac

O

Off1c3r

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 30, 2011
25
0
This is a huge milestone for me considering I was a die hard PC fan. That will never change (My Gaming Desktop) but Apple is like a disease that just spreads on you. I never got rid of my zen players until I got an ipod... ipod touch... then ipad.. and now I want a MBP.

I've been all over this forum, and I have to say this has been the best resource for MBP info. I am a video editor, script writer, audio editor, so I defeinitely was eyeing the pro. I'm aiming to order:

15" Macbook pro 2.2ghz
Added: 128 SSD , and Hi-Res Glossy
(I hate that you can't get these options in the Apple Retail stores. Only the screen on the 17". It added an extra week almost to the ship time).

Now the SSD was a +$90 option compared to the 500gb 7200rpm / 750gb 5000rpm. If I compare it to most SSD's (That I would have paid for to replace the stock drive) its not a bad deal so I jumped on it. Anyone know what the current 128 SSD is that the mac ship with? I saw some reviews for it and it seemed to be a house brand. That leads me to wonder, should I Just get the 128 SSD from apple for +$90, or actually buy a Crucial M4 for $150 and swap out the stock drive?

Memory I was going to update. I already ordered the Crucial 8gb pack for the MBP for $55 vs. +$180 on Apple Site.

Thanks
 
I can't say what brand the SSD from Apple is. But if you're comfortable replacing the drive on your own, it would make more sense to get the MBP with the HDD and then either swap it with an SSD that you purchase (you can then put the HDD in an enclosure and use it for backup) or you can get an optibay or something similar, take out the optical drive, and put an SSD in there. If you get the SSD from Apple, you end up paying for the SSD but you don't get the HDD at all.
 
sweetbrat said:
I can't say what brand the SSD from Apple is. But if you're comfortable replacing the drive on your own, it would make more sense to get the MBP with the HDD and then either swap it with an SSD that you purchase (you can then put the HDD in an enclosure and use it for backup) or you can get an optibay or something similar, take out the optical drive, and put an SSD in there. If you get the SSD from Apple, you end up paying for the SSD but you don't get the HDD at all.
Click to expand...

Good point. I can reinstall the recovery partition on the new harddrive via DVD media (that I assume comes with the MBP?) or do I need to do a full time machine backup and then recopy that to the drive?
 
Off1c3r said:
Good point. I can reinstall the recovery partition on the new harddrive via DVD media (that I assume comes with the MBP?) or do I need to do a full time machine backup and then recopy that to the drive?
Click to expand...

I think that new MBPs have been upgraded to support Lion Internet Recovery on the firmware. So no DVDs. You'd boot from the Internet and download lion.
 
blevins321 said:
I think that new MBPs have been upgraded to support Lion Internet Recovery on the firmware. So no DVDs. You'd boot from the Internet and download lion.
Click to expand...

Now that is just pretty cool. Haha thanks I didn't know they had that :]
 
Freddy1765 said:
About the SSDs that ship with Apple's laptops.. Their MBAs apparently use two different ones. It's either a Toshiba (which as apparently slow) or a Samsung (which is a huge improvement over the Toshiba), and there's no way to distinguish between the two. I don't know if the same goes for MBP, but I suspect so. Check out this link from AnandTech:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4527/...eatures-the-same-controller-as-in-samsung-470
Click to expand...

that sucks, the same thing seems to be happening with the MBA, where you may either get the slower toshiba or the faster Samsung. I didn't know the same thing was happening with the pros.

I know Apple probably does not include SSD's with sandforce controllers. so if you really want performance it would probably be better for you to get your own SSD, the only nice thing about the Apple SSD is that it is covered by apple care as a whole.
 
accessoriesguy said:
that sucks, the same thing seems to be happening with the MBA, where you may either get the slower toshiba or the faster Samsung. I didn't know the same thing was happening with the pros.

I know Apple probably does not include SSD's with sandforce controllers. so if you really want performance it would probably be better for you to get your own SSD, the only nice thing about the Apple SSD is that it is covered by apple care as a whole.
Click to expand...

Apple's SSDs support TRIM out of the box though.

Food for thought.
 
THe first few days of owning a MBP will be semi-irritating, at least for me it was. Then I realized how easy everything was compared to Windows and I was also a hardcore Windows user until I jumped ship. :)
 
Freddy1765 said:
About the SSDs that ship with Apple's laptops.. Their MBAs apparently use two different ones. It's either a Toshiba (which as apparently slow) or a Samsung (which is a huge improvement over the Toshiba), and there's no way to distinguish between the two. I don't know if the same goes for MBP, but I suspect so. Check out this link from AnandTech:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4527/...eatures-the-same-controller-as-in-samsung-470
Click to expand...


Oh I thought it was just Toshiba. I'm going to check out the link. Thanks.

accessoriesguy said:
that sucks, the same thing seems to be happening with the MBA, where you may either get the slower toshiba or the faster Samsung. I didn't know the same thing was happening with the pros.

I know Apple probably does not include SSD's with sandforce controllers. so if you really want performance it would probably be better for you to get your own SSD, the only nice thing about the Apple SSD is that it is covered by apple care as a whole.
Click to expand...


That is a good point too, but I don't mind not being covered by them for a drive if I get an SSD with a 3-5 year manufac warranty.

snaky69 said:
Apple's SSDs support TRIM out of the box though.

Food for thought.
Click to expand...

That is definitely a plus. I heard that the OS supported the Trim feature but I didn't know they were being shipped now with it enabled.

SO now I am curious. If I get the stock drive in the macbook, and I take it out without backing it up, put in the new drive, and reinstall from the supplied DVDs: Would that reinstall everything as it was factory and rebuild the recovery partition onto the new drive so I won't need to use the DVDs again? I don't have to clone the drive and copy the clone to the computer?
 
Off1c3r said:
That is definitely a plus. I heard that the OS supported the Trim feature but I didn't know they were being shipped now with it enabled.
Click to expand...
You shouldn't worry too much about SSD performance, really. Unless you do heavy database work with a focus on writes, you won't notice much difference in everyday use. All SSDs sold today are MUCH faster than almost any harddrive money can buy (the slowest SSDs may not have much of an edge against the very fastest 15k RPM server disks, but you won't be able to plug one of those into a Macbook anyway. Plus they're stupidly expensive.) And any SSD today will put the smackdab on a laptop 2.5" HDD by a ridiculous margin.

So you may find it advantageous to you to just go with the standard Apple drive even though it's not ideal from a performance standpoint if you value the ease and comfort the full Applecare warranty lends you.

That said, Samsung is releasing a new drive series right around the corner, if you can afford to wait and see, it just might happen that these drives end up in Macs, as the Toshiba drive they've been using so far is getting mighty long in the tooth by now. Plus it's pretty slow as mentioned (relatively speaking anyway.)
 
Lennyvalentin said:
You shouldn't worry too much about SSD performance, really. Unless you do heavy database work with a focus on writes, you won't notice much difference in everyday use. All SSDs sold today are MUCH faster than almost any harddrive money can buy (the slowest SSDs may not have much of an edge against the very fastest 15k RPM server disks, but you won't be able to plug one of those into a Macbook anyway. Plus they're stupidly expensive.) And any SSD today will put the smackdab on a laptop 2.5" HDD by a ridiculous margin.

So you may find it advantageous to you to just go with the standard Apple drive even though it's not ideal from a performance standpoint if you value the ease and comfort the full Applecare warranty lends you.

That said, Samsung is releasing a new drive series right around the corner, if you can afford to wait and see, it just might happen that these drives end up in Macs, as the Toshiba drive they've been using so far is getting mighty long in the tooth by now. Plus it's pretty slow as mentioned (relatively speaking anyway.)
Click to expand...

Yeah that set my mind at ease. You know I know this information too. SSDs even if you slow them 50% are still in general faster than regular 7200rpm drives. I guess its just when you're investing in something so new and expensive, it makes you worry about every little decision. I ordered the MBP not too long ago. I ended up getting it with the 128GB SSD and High res screen. Everything else default for the 2.2 15". I ordered corsair memory seperately. I'll wait to see how it is and I'll upgrade later.
 
i have apple ssd and it is the toshiba and i think its fast enough. boots in 12 sec and app opens in less than 1 sec. the price of ssds are dropping slowly so i will upgrade when i see the time is right. i have external hd for big files and media. i have 90gb available still had 80 with cs5 master on
 
snaky69 said:
Apple's SSDs support TRIM out of the box though.

Food for thought.
Click to expand...

Yes, but modern SSDs don't really need TRIM nowadays as they have their own in-built garbage management systems. Essentially it renders TRIM useless.
 
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