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Conventional HD vs Solid State drive

Jets737

Jets737

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 9, 2014
41
3
I am contemplating my first Mac Book Pro purchase. I am trying to decide whether I can live with a smaller Solid State drive vs the larger conventional drive. Or in the alternative buy the solid state drive and pay the extra bucks.

Seems that the 128 GB solid state is in the similar price range to the 5400rpm convention device.

any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Dave
 
Jets737 said:
I am contemplating my first Mac Book Pro purchase. I am trying to decide whether I can live with a smaller Solid State drive vs the larger conventional drive. Or in the alternative buy the solid state drive and pay the extra bucks.

Seems that the 128 GB solid state is in the similar price range to the 5400rpm convention device.

any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Dave
Click to expand...

Buy the SSD. The HDD is just plain slow.

A HDD Mac takes over a minute to get into a fully useable state from a cold boot.

An SSD Mac does the same thing within 15 seconds.

Even with 16GB RAM, a HDD Mac can still feel really slow.

The SSD makes the difference.

And I wouldn't suggest buying the non-retina MBP. It's too outdated.
 
Do yourself a favor and get at least a 256GB SSD. 128 will get used up very quickly. I know it's more money, but this is first hand experience that I'm working from. I keep all music/pictures off of my SSD too (they're all on a NAS).
 
You want a rMBP with a SSD. Personally I'd go with at least a 256GB model, but if you can live with 128GB, go ahead and save the money. The old MBP just isn't worth it anymore.
 
Also you are likely comparing the old 13" MBP with the Retina model. The old one is a couple of years old and its not just the drive speed you lose on. The cpu is older and the screen is not as good. Also battery life will be shorter and from an investment point there seems to be a new/old view now ie those with retina and flash storage are new and should therefore hold there value down a fair bit better.

Personally I would go for the smaller ssd every time, you can always grab a usb3 or thunderbolt drive for very cheap now. I think I paid £80 for 2tb(probably going to be $100).

What are you going to be using it for btw as the ram is soldered and therefore final so needs to be enough upfront?, I like the look of the 8gb ram/256ssd machine.
 
Last edited:
SSD all the way. My Mid 2012 13' MBP boots and is completely ready to go in about 8 seconds. I have a 256 and for the most part am happy with the space. More is better sure.... but it gets pricey. Get some cheap external drives that you can use for extra storage and backup of everything.... you'll be set.
 
I'll echo the other thoughts. SSD is the way to go. I've upgraded both my MBP and now my Mini with SSD's. While I didn't use the Mini all that long with the spinning drive, the performance improvement is huge.

My SSDs at home have spoiled me, I have a work-issued MBP (early 2011 13" with 4 GB RAM) and it's SLOW to load applications compared to my personal MBP.
 
SSD make a very big difference in terms of noticeable performance, the computer will seem faster, because apps will launch faster, the computer will boot faster, etc. You will not be able to go back to an HDD, especially a 5400RPM drive, after using a SSD.

In terms of which size, buy the largest size you can reasonably afford, you don't want to max out the storage on the drive. I think the consensus is to leave about 10-15% of the SSD free for optimal performance.

For most people 256GB or 512GB is plenty. I cannot image using 128GB without an external drive for media. Best of luck with the decision!
 
Echoing what everybody else said - go with SSD. Like many others here, I've had machines with both types of drives. While the smaller capacity of the SSD is a bit of a bummer, I would never consider going back to a machine with a standard hard drive. The speed/performance difference between the two is worth the sacrifice of drive space.
 
Go with the SSD. The cMBP isn't really worth it imo. Get the 128GB if you have other computers to store your data on if you're both concerned about space and price. I store all my data on my desktop. Works great that way.
 
If you go with the non-Retina, you can get both. Replace the HDD with an SSD and put the HDD in the optical drive bay (unless you need the optical drive) and use it as extra storage. You'd get the large storage space of the HDD with the speed of the SSD for little additional money.
 
556fmjoe said:
If you go with the non-Retina, you can get both. Replace the HDD with an SSD and put the HDD in the optical drive bay (unless you need the optical drive) and use it as extra storage. You'd get the large storage space of the HDD with the speed of the SSD for little additional money.
Click to expand...

I agree I hate having external HDD dangling off my laptop. I do love the Retina display and the PCIE SSD they use now is pretty impressive, but so is the price tag. Also using externals having to constantly manage files etc. can get old rather quickly if you do a lot of external work.

I went with a 2tb Samsung HDD in optical bay, and a 250gb Samsung 840 Evo in the main bay. I did a DIY Fusion drive to manage everything for me and it has been a dream to use! Just my two cents. So really depending on how much you will need to put on a external should help steer you in which Macbook Pro you want. Also if you are ok with managing your SSD yourself.
 
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