Buying new Macbook Pro, hard drive questions.

[fins831]

I want to get a 2012 MBP non-retina because as much as I love the retina screens, I can't let go of the fact that I'd have to make all my future proofing purchases now instead of upgrading later since everything is on board.

I think I might get a barebones MBP, latest, i5, and just upgrade to 16 gig of ram. That much is easy.

However, I want to upgrade to SSD, more specifically 256gig, because I am finishing my 2nd degree in computer science, and they specifically require Visual Studio. Going to VM via parallels, so I am hoping 256 gig is enough, especially if I enclosure kit the old 500 gig HD as a backup/external.

I am leaning Samsung 830 over the crucial m4, but now I am worried if I get 256, it won't be enough if I will be splitting it with windows? Am I over thinking this? I was thinking 75gig for windows, to include win 8 (I hate it but school gave me 2 free keys), MS Office 2010, Visual Studio, and SQL. I could always expand it, but then I am only left with about 150 on my mac partition...but I will have a few 16 gig flash drives, and the 500 gig external?

Do you think I should just upgrade my mac with SSD, or stick with the slower 5400rpm hard drive for a few months and see how I like it stock. If I do upgrade to SSD, is 256 enough for what I want to do?

Is using the cd drive bay as a secondary HD a good option, even if its SSD, I have an old 830 128 gig SSD from my previous laptop, but was going to sell it because I need more than that now by a mile (previous MBP was 2008, needed upgrade). I've heard the performance of that secondary drive isn't up to par....but if I dedicated the 128gig to windows VM would it be fast enough to run parallels, win 8, and office/visual studio? How does the 2nd HD utilizing the bay affect battery life? Just questions running through my mind.

Just trying to take the correct upgrade route, only want to upgrade once and be done with it for a good 3-5 years. Thanks

 

[mpayne2k]

I want to get a 2012 MBP non-retina because as much as I love the retina screens, I can't let go of the fact that I'd have to make all my future proofing purchases now instead of upgrading later since everything is on board.

I think I might get a barebones MBP, latest, i5, and just upgrade to 16 gig of ram. That much is easy.

However, I want to upgrade to SSD, more specifically 256gig, because I am finishing my 2nd degree in computer science, and they specifically require Visual Studio. Going to VM via parallels, so I am hoping 256 gig is enough, especially if I enclosure kit the old 500 gig HD as a backup/external.

I am leaning Samsung 830 over the crucial m4, but now I am worried if I get 256, it won't be enough if I will be splitting it with windows? Am I over thinking this? I was thinking 75gig for windows, to include win 8 (I hate it but school gave me 2 free keys), MS Office 2010, Visual Studio, and SQL. I could always expand it, but then I am only left with about 150 on my mac partition...but I will have a few 16 gig flash drives, and the 500 gig external?

Do you think I should just upgrade my mac with SSD, or stick with the slower 5400rpm hard drive for a few months and see how I like it stock. If I do upgrade to SSD, is 256 enough for what I want to do?

Is using the cd drive bay as a secondary HD a good option, even if its SSD, I have an old 830 128 gig SSD from my previous laptop, but was going to sell it because I need more than that now by a mile (previous MBP was 2008, needed upgrade). I've heard the performance of that secondary drive isn't up to par....but if I dedicated the 128gig to windows VM would it be fast enough to run parallels, win 8, and office/visual studio? How does the 2nd HD utilizing the bay affect battery life? Just questions running through my mind.

Just trying to take the correct upgrade route, only want to upgrade once and be done with it for a good 3-5 years. Thanks

SSD all the way. I just sold my cMBP 15" and it came with a 500gb 5400 rpm drive, the computer took nearly 30 seconds to boot and about 15 to 20 seconds to shut down. Then I upgraded to a Sandisk 240gb SSD and boot time was under 10 seconds and shut down about the same. Plus opening files and other operational things were much more zippy than waiting for a spinning hard drive ever was.

The 16gb of Ram may be overkill depending on your use, but if you are doing any Virtual version of Windows then you'll definitly be set with the 16gb as you can split 8gb to Mac and 8gb to the virtual machine which will be nice!

For your storage, do you need the DVD drive? If not, look into OWC's option of putting your 500gb hdd in an enclosure that fits where the super drive goes. Then you can have two internal hard drives and manage your space better without having to tether a usb drive to your computer all the time. Just a thought!

 

[fins831]

SSD all the way. I just sold my cMBP 15" and it came with a 500gb 5400 rpm drive, the computer took nearly 30 seconds to boot and about 15 to 20 seconds to shut down. Then I upgraded to a Sandisk 240gb SSD and boot time was under 10 seconds and shut down about the same. Plus opening files and other operational things were much more zippy than waiting for a spinning hard drive ever was.

The 16gb of Ram may be overkill depending on your use, but if you are doing any Virtual version of Windows then you'll definitly be set with the 16gb as you can split 8gb to Mac and 8gb to the virtual machine which will be nice!

For your storage, do you need the DVD drive? If not, look into OWC's option of putting your 500gb hdd in an enclosure that fits where the super drive goes. Then you can have two internal hard drives and manage your space better without having to tether a usb drive to your computer all the time. Just a thought!

16 gig would be overkill, but honestly newegg had a sale other day on 8x2 gig sticks for under 70 bucks, so I figured why not. I am def leaning SSD, just deciding if 256 is enough, I guess I could buy it, and then always upgrade in 2 years when they are cheaper (heres hoping)

 

[hallux]

For the cost difference, it doesn't pay to only get 8 GB now then find in 2 years that you want or need 16 GB and have to do the entire upgrade again. That was my thinking when I upgraded my 15" to 16 GB.

As for the drive, why not put the SSD in the SuperDrive location (make an ISO or DMG of any CDs or DVDs you may need first) and keep the spinner for your VM or overflow storage? With the 2012 there's no issues with the Superdrive location not being SATA-III compatible but it will NOT have the motion sensor capability for the spinner.