good size portable ssd as backup advice?

[iamrawr]

my first post! =D been lurking in these forums ever since i heard of the quad macs =] pretty excited during those long months of waiting!

so i'm thinking of buying an external hard drive to back up my files.
im thinking of getting a portable one because i travel alot. just a good size and light enough to be able to carry in a laptop bag.

i'm really curious of buying a ssd drive because i heard it's more stable than a hdd, which is a good plus. it's just the price that keeps we away from it... especially since i plan to buy a new mac in the summer (hoping for the student promo)

so... for the real question...

should i buy a ssd drive that's about 50gb? or is that size too small for a backup unit?

cuz i've been a windows user for a few years and i've never owned my own mac (yet), plus i've never used system restore, nor did it work for me. so i'm unfamiliar with the system back up process, especially with time machine.

thank you =D

 

[Hellhammer]

First of all, the new MBPs are NOT quad cores, they are all dual cores. Using SSD as backup drive is useless as USB or FW will be limiting their speed A LOT. Normal HD is enough as backup drive, 500GB is less than 100$

 

[spinnerlys]

Also have a look at the following links, as the information presented there might be helpful in your future endeavours into Mac OS X and could clear up initial confusion and may even prevent harm to your system or your files.

MacOSX keyboard shortcuts

MacBeginner'sGuide

FindingMacSoftware

ListofMac Software

http://mroogle.*************/MRoogle.gif​

 

[nanofrog]

Stick with mechanical for backup purposes, and there's several reasons behind it:

1. USB & FW are too slow to utilize SSD's performance

2. Cost/GB, which you're quite aware of

3. Write cycle lifespan issues (data published by SSD makers is a statistical juggling act - they take the worst 10% of cells, and toss that data out thus only generating data off of the best 90%). Nor do their test methods work with real world scenarios, such as a drive's having data that remains (testing is done by rotating writes to ALL cells, which doesn't happen IRL, as you will have data that remains on the disk = less available capacity for wear leveling techniques). It's very misleading IMO. Ultimately, there's no long term data to truly indicate how well SSD's will hold up, especially under high write conditions.

Hope this helps.

 

[iamrawr]

Thanks everyone for the help =) I will stick to hdd since it's way better value. I guess I'll just wait till they make SSD cheaper and more versatile.