Future SSD?

[nope7308]

I recently returned a defective 2.53 Ghz MBP and opted for the 2.4Ghz MB instead. Although I'm happy with my decision (for various reasons), I've noticed a significant decrease in the 'snappiness' of the computer. It takes longer with start up, shut down, and various applications.

Both computers we're equipped with 4GB of RAM, but the MBP was equipped with a 320GB 7200rpm HD. So, aside from the extra 3MB of CPU cache (negligible?), the HD seems to be the only reason why the MBP was considerably 'snappier'.

To offset this, I'm contemplating an SSD to improve 'snappiness' and prolong battery life. I'm hesitant about the 7200rpm drives because the one that came with the MBP vibrated like crazy! With that said, here is my question...

If I wait 6 months to 1 year(ish), can I expect to see a 250GB SSD? If so, how much should I expect to pay? I realize this will all be speculation (no one has a crystal ball), but I'm looking for a well-reasoned and informed opinion.

If anyone has any other recommendations, I'm all ears! Thanks for the help and sorry for being long-winded!

 

[kornyboy]

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You pretty much have faster everything in a MBP. It is not just the HD. You have a faster system bus which allows for information to pass more quickly between the processor and the RAM. The RAM itself is also faster. You have dedicated graphics memory which improves performance for graphic intensive tasks. These and various other things make the MBP a much faster machine. If I had to guess, I'd say that your MBP probably would have still been snappier with 1Gb of RAM as opposed to 4Gb. The MBP is just built to be faster no matter how you slice it.

All this to say, if you put a SSD in MB you should see a speed increase but I doubt that it will be as snappy as the MBP.

 

[nope7308]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

You pretty much have faster everything in a MBP. It is not just the HD. You have a faster system bus which allows for information to pass more quickly between the processor and the RAM. The RAM itself is also faster. You have dedicated graphics memory which improves performance for graphic intensive tasks. These and various other things make the MBP a much faster machine. If I had to guess, I'd say that your MBP probably would have still been snappier with 1Gb of RAM as opposed to 4Gb. The MBP is just built to be faster no matter how you slice it.

All this to say, if you put a SSD in MB you should see a speed increase but I doubt that it will be as snappy as the MBP.

Either you're wrong, or I'm mistaken.

The RAM is 100% the same (DDR3 1066Mhz), the graphics card is the same (I kept the MBP on the low 9400 GPU), I think system bus is equal...

The only differences that apply in this instance are the CPU (which I think is negligible) and the HD. Contrary to what most people think, the premium price tag doesn't always translate into superior computing performance (but the screen is exponentially better, IMO).

Any other thoughts (in response to my original question)?

 

[gorebeast]

SSD goodness

in 6 months to a year i also want to purchase an SSD for my MBP. i'm supposing a lot of people want the same thing.

right now the going rate is around $2.02 - $3.75 per Gigabyte.


my wishful thinking wants to see that go down closer to $1/Gigabyte


in a year you could possibly get a 250gig SSD for $300-$450 (i want to pay no more than $250, and even that is BULLS&*T)...notwithstanding some breakthrough that allows more companies to produce these drives for cheap..

but just like all technology for the past 20 years, the trend is for those bastards who sell the technology to only offer tiny, incremental upgrades to the current technology and keep the price the same

how dare those companies charge more money for these SSD drives when 1TB platter drives are going for less than $150...they are taking advantage of us and dangling the sweet new technology in our faces for too much money

and of course they can get away with it! there are idiots who paid $600 for SSD in a mac, there are idiots who have paid $1000 for SSD ...horrible

 

[silverblack]

If I wait 6 months to 1 year(ish), can I expect to see a 250GB SSD? If so, how much should I expect to pay?

256GB SSD from Samsung should be available in a year given that it's already announced. I would expect it to be selling at the price point of the current 128GB SSD. So far Samsung has dominated the SSD market, but now with Intel coming into the picture. Hopefully competition means low price in the future. Of course, this is all speculation.