Do you use SSD's now or plan to buy?

[Archon Gold]

I would buy one not just for the speed and storage, but for the lifespan and quietness.

Im sorry if this has been posted here before but here is Alfred showing his friend's MBP Alu with a SSD installed, he opened PS CS4 extended edition in like 3 seconds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTKLxqefaI4

 

[GoCubsGo]

In due time most likely yes. For now my machines are ok.

 

[beasse]

When 512GB SSD Cost 300$ i'll buy... it will take a few months although this market will bloom... it will be a ignition and then a big explosion.

 

[nanofrog]

Hopefully the recent recall on the Intel SSDs is not the standard path for SSDs going forward. As SSDs grow in size and drop in price I am hoping mostly that this will ultimately drive down HDD prices as faster SSDs come down to compete.

I don't think it will be, but this wasn't that big a deal from what I've read. It seems the recall was more of an attempt to avoid the nightmare that happened over the Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11 models (others were affected, but that one made so much bad press).

The point is that there is such a thing as IDE solid-state drives, and that it is an upgrade option for people with IDE laptops; Nightfly13 made a comment that inferred solid-state drives were limited to SATA.

Perhaps the comment considered the 133MB/s limit of IDE, making it somewhat a disappointment compared to what the same technology is capable of on either SATA or a PCIe card.

Furthermore, I can understand that IDE limits the amount of data transferred, but it is an upgrade option to be considered for other reasons, such as durability.

Perhaps, but assuming the system is backed up properly, the cheaper mechanical alternatives might make more sense. Use the savings to add to a "new computer fund" that can take better advantage of SSD.

 

[Trev311]

I don't think it will be, but this wasn't that big a deal from what I've read. It seems the recall was more of an attempt to avoid the nightmare that happened over the Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11 models (others were affected, but that one made so much bad press).

Hopefully it won't be a big deal and the firmware can be fixed easily. Though I have to wonder if it was only a problem in BIOS and not in EFI then could it be that Intel is actually giving more attention to EFI (which was supposed to be the BIOS successor for how long now?)?

Perhaps, but assuming the system is backed up properly, the cheaper mechanical alternatives might make more sense. Use the savings to add to a "new computer fund" that can take better advantage of SSD.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

 

[nanofrog]

Hopefully it won't be a big deal and the firmware can be fixed easily. Though I have to wonder if it was only a problem in BIOS and not in EFI then could it be that Intel is actually giving more attention to EFI (which was supposed to be the BIOS successor for how long now?)?

Apparently, it can, as Intel's update utility includes a boot image that gets the job done without the need for other materials (DOS disk).

 

[Dr.Pants]

Well, in the sense of getting some "quasi-old" laptops running faster, I thought it was relevant. While the 133/100 transfer rate is a problem, some of the SSDs I mentioned don't break that barrier. Probably not worth it unless there was a machine or MacIntosh one REALLY wanted to hang onto.

But I agree. A 350 2.5" drive would probably be more beneficial.

 

[desenso]

When 2TB SSDs cost $17 I'll buy, but only if Steve Jobs comes over and personally installs it for me.

 

[nuckinfutz]

When 2TB SSDs cost $17 I'll buy, but only if Steve Jobs comes over and personally installs it for me.

AKA never LOL

 

[brendon2020]

When 2TB SSDs cost $17 I'll buy, but only if Steve Jobs comes over and personally installs it for me.

same but it have to be a raid setup.

 

[wpc33]

I'm down with Bill Gates
I call him "Money" for short
I call him up at home
and I make him do my tech-support
It's all about the Pentiums, what!

 

[AliensExist4]

So would the best thing to do basically be puttting the OS & intensive programs on a SSD drive in the Mac Pro & using HDD's for everything else?

 

[tezro]

So would the best thing to do basically be puttting the OS & intensive programs on a SSD drive in the Mac Pro & using HDD's for everything else?

It's what I've done.
I put my Downloads and torrents and WoW recordings (config edit) on a hard drive. Runs great. Boot till login screen in 4 seconds using a OCZ Vertex Turbo 120GB. Love it.

 

[nigameash]

the 128gb ssd from crucial costs $330 now, so by the looks of the fall in ssd pricing, another 2-3 months a 128gb ssd should cost ~$200-250, thats when i ll prolly upgrade and buy an external 500gb storage unless i find a better deal before that somewhere

 

[niuniu]

For now I'm settling with watching Youtube vids of SSD boot times.. really need the price to come down, I can't have a 128 GB drive, my apps on Mac OS X and Windows eat nearly that much (I have some 20-30 GB games on Windows alone), so the 256 is the minimum option really and that's extortionate right now.

 

[designed]

I can't have a 128 GB drive, my apps on Mac OS X and Windows eat nearly that much (I have some 20-30 GB games on Windows alone), so the 256 is the minimum option really and that's extortionate right now.

Same here, I'm currently at 160 GB of used disk space on my current boot disk, so I could probably squeeze the OS and Applications themselves to a 128/160 GB SSD while relocating and deleting downloads and such. Seems like I'll have to wait for some 256 Intel X25s.

I had forgotten about using a SSD disk in the MP until I read last night the AnandTech article about Nehalem MPs and upgrading them.

 

[gugucom]

Same here, I'm currently at 160 GB of used disk space on my current boot disk, so I could probably squeeze the OS and Applications themselves to a 128/160 GB SSD while relocating and deleting downloads and such. Seems like I'll have to wait for some 256 Intel X25s.

I had forgotten about using a SSD disk in the MP until I read last night the AnandTech article about Nehalem MPs and upgrading them.

Do not forget that striping several small SSDs makes them even faster. Mac Pros have 5-6 SATA ports which makes it praktical to go for RAID0. The software RAID is easy and free. With a bit of house keeping most people can get their boot drive under 100 GB.

 

[designed]

Do not forget that striping several small SSDs makes them even faster. Mac Pros have 5-6 SATA ports which makes it praktical to go for RAID0. The software RAID is easy and free. With a bit of house keeping most people can get their boot drive under 100 GB.

Thanks for the tip, altough I'm not in that much of a hurry to check my Facebook

The 100GB isn't that hard to achieve but then again it's nice to be able to "just use" the drive on the home computer, I have enough bother trying to slim my drive needs on the laptop.

 

[nanofrog]

Do not forget that striping several small SSDs makes them even faster.

Yep.

Mac Pros have 5-6 SATA ports which makes it practical to go for RAID0. The software RAID is easy and free. With a bit of house keeping most people can get their boot drive under 100 GB.

Unfortunately, some seem to have run into issues with the ICH10R (P45 & X58 chipsets) for throughput hitting a wall at 660MB/s. I've seen posts on this (OCZ forums), but it seemed to be limited to ASUS boards. Others (another thread here) have indicated it's more widespread. Assuming this is the case, then the parallelism will be limited due to some sort of glitch. My guess would be firmware, as the QPI/DMI communications are capable of much higher. But I can't be sure.

Just thought it might be worth mentioning, as it would be a major disappointment to get say 4x or more SSD's (Intel G2's or the Vertex lines for example), and get throttled to less than expected in a stripe config. Getting a hardware RAID card just to get the full throughput out of the drives would ge an expensive proposition, and might not be possible after the cost of the drives.

 

[nightfly13]

Just wondering about you guys with the huge boot volumes - is that after you move your iTunes and iPhoto libraries to a spinning disk? I have my OS and apps on a 80gb Intel and I've got 20GB free... now iPhoto loads in a blink and the photos load within it like 1-2 seconds later.