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Cancelled my order on a 15" w/ 7200rpm drive

E

Eshyn

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 14, 2009
61
0
Since my card had yet to be charged I canceled my order on my 15" MBP w/the 7200rpm 500GB drive due to fears of receiving a unit with the dreaded 'click + beep'.

I'm now in a sort of limbo. I don't want a 5400rpm drive; I desire the performance of the 7200. I entertained the idea of going with the 128GB SSD but many friends have advised me against it. I do plan to eventually upgrade the drive but it's not something I want to do immediately - I really want pure, out of the box performance.

So what would you all advise I do? Should I just bite the bullet and go ahead with the 7200rpm drive and hope I get a good one? I hate to spend the money and be in suspense!

Thanks for any and all input! :)
 
Get a stock unit and upgrade it using the components you choose.

By going the stock route, if you have a problem, you'll be able to get apple to swap it out. CTO has a more restrictive return/exchange policy.
 
I highly recommend you consider an SSD. They are far faster, more reliable, and have no problems/clicks/dreaded beach balls of death!

It's a costly investment but a 7200rpm HDD is a huge bottleneck in a MBP. The SSD will offer near instant bootups, shutdowns, app openings, and overall speed for general tasks. The SSD will make the MBP faster than ANY other upgrade. You're far better off upgrading the drive to SSD, than CPU or RAM upgrades.

Good luck.
 
Scottsdale said:
I highly recommend you consider an SSD. They are far faster, more reliable, and have no problems/clicks/dreaded beach balls of death!

It's a costly investment but a 7200rpm HDD is a huge bottleneck in a MBP. The SSD will offer near instant bootups, shutdowns, app openings, and overall speed for general tasks. The SSD will make the MBP faster than ANY other upgrade. You're far better off upgrading the drive to SSD, than CPU or RAM upgrades.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Generally I will be using the computer for general tasks/gaming/video editing. But I don't want to be restricted by a slower HDD - I want a powerful machine as I do plan on using this computer for 3-5 years.

My instinct is to go with the SSD but I have so many people telling me negative things about them.

How does the 7200 HDD act as a bottleneck? And will an SSD 'feel' like an HDD when doing the things I mentioned? If I'm seeing increased boot/shut down/app opening times, will I see slow down anywhere else?

Thanks!
 
entatlrg said:
What negative things have you heard about SSD's other than the price?
Click to expand...

Yeah I second this theory because price is the only downside I see to SSD, well that and capacity but everything changes as time goes on. I'd plop $450 on an SSD for a stock MBP 13" today if I could.
 
entatlrg said:
What negative things have you heard about SSD's other than the price?
Click to expand...

Mostly it's seemingly uninformed, 'They suck; Get a HDD; Apple's HDD are terrible' etc.

My instinct is to go with Apple's SSD; I want to be told they are really the route to take. :rolleyes:
 
Eshyn said:
Mostly it's seemingly uninformed, 'They suck; Get a HDD; Apple's HDD are terrible' etc.

My instinct is to go with Apple's SSD; I want to be told they are really the route to take. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I would get the stock config HDD model and buy the Intel G1 or G2 (when released) SSD. Your friends are uninformed goons. Apple doesn't make hard drives or SSDs.
 
Eshyn said:
Mostly it's seemingly uninformed, 'They suck; Get a HDD; Apple's HDD are terrible' etc.

My instinct is to go with Apple's SSD; I want to be told they are really the route to take. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I don't think Apple make the drives...
 
bartelby said:
I don't think Apple make the drives...
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I meant Apple's SSD's. And I think what they meant was the one's that come with the MBP's.

I'm really leaning towards the SSD right now. I'm aware that the one's that come with the computer's are not the absolute best option but until I do upgrade it's seeming like that may be the best route for me.

I'm sure this has been asked countless times but will I void my warranty if I swap out an HDD myself?

Thanks all for the great input. :D
 
jessica. said:
I would get the stock config HDD model and buy the Intel G1 or G2 (when released) SSD. Your friends are uninformed goons. Apple doesn't make hard drives or SSDs.
Click to expand...

Oh, and you are right about my friends. :D
 
Eshyn said:
This article may have nudged me back into HDD territory:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=1
Click to expand...

That article is a few months old.

Most new SSD's that use indillinix controllers utilize "garbage collection" - which puts the SSD close to stock performance when it is idle.

However, the new Intel X-25m SSD's are the way to go; best performance, and currently best dollar per gigabyte. The new G2 X-25M drives utilize TRIM - which is essentially the same as the garbage collection that the other SSD's use.

Personally, I am waiting for the Intel X-25M G2 drives to be back in stock at newegg so that I can purchase one.

If you can not wait, the Intel G1 drive is still a great drive;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167015
 
Gen said:
That article is a few months old.

Most new SSD's that use indillinix controllers utilize "garbage collection" - which puts the SSD close to stock performance when it is idle.

However, the new Intel X-25m SSD's are the way to go; best performance, and currently best dollar per gigabyte. The new G2 X-25M drives utilize TRIM - which is essentially the same as the garbage collection that the other SSD's use.

Personally, I am waiting for the Intel X-25M G2 drives to be back in stock at newegg so that I can purchase one.

If you can not wait, the Intel G1 drive is still a great drive;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167015
Click to expand...

Oh no kidding? Good to know.

Do we know what brand of SSD Apple are putting in their computers?

I would really just get a HDD for my MBP but I'm so paranoid about receiving one with problems (click + beep). I know the simple solution would be to immediately swap out the drive for an Intel SSD but I won't be doing that for some time.
 
Scottsdale said:
I highly recommend you consider an SSD. They are far faster, more reliable, and have no problems/clicks/dreaded beach balls of death!

It's a costly investment but a 7200rpm HDD is a huge bottleneck in a MBP. The SSD will offer near instant bootups, shutdowns, app openings, and overall speed for general tasks. The SSD will make the MBP faster than ANY other upgrade. You're far better off upgrading the drive to SSD, than CPU or RAM upgrades.

Good luck.
Click to expand...


SSD's are still overpriced and not worth the Money IMHO
 
Sorry

Sorry guys, im a newbie.
But what you guys are saying is that its better to order the MBP with 5400 rpm instead of 7200 rpm (of course the SSD is the best but if the choice was between the two others?)
Why? I don't really get all your "fine" words...

Hope you will answer soon because i'm just about to order a new MBP 15"
 
sugarray3000 said:
Sorry guys, im a newbie.
But what you guys are saying is that its better to order the MBP with 5400 rpm instead of 7200 rpm (of course the SSD is the best but if the choice was between the two others?)
Why? I don't really get all your "fine" words...

Hope you will answer soon because i'm just about to order a new MBP 15"
Click to expand...

For the sake of the price tag :apple: stick on to upgrade it to 7200RPM... It definitely ain't worth it. You'd never see any real difference between them, even in boot speeds the differences would be minimal.
 
Well now that Apple has released a fix for the 'click + beep' I just have to decide between the two..

7200 HDD?

or

128GB SSD?

(I'd like to reiterate that I don't plan to upgrade the drive right away so I want something nice from the factory)

I can't make a decision!!! :eek:
 
I originally had the 7200 RPM drive, and switched to the 5400 RPM drive after I returned the 7200 due to the clickbeep problem.

I don't really notice any performance difference in daily performance (mail, web browsing, start-up, shut-down, VMware Fusion, ichat, etc.etc.)

The only thing I noticed was that if you set the applications folder in the dock to grid view, and you click on it, it opens maybe 1-3 ms slower. That is about it. If anything, overall performance has increased without the 7200 rpm slowdowns.
 
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