HDD or SSD upgrade advice please?

[tipman2000]

Well, let me get straight to the point.
i have a late-2008 macbook aluminum and it has a 5400 rpm 160 gb hdd.
im thinking about upgrading to either a faster hdd or an ssd. my options would be a 7200 rpm 250 gb hd or a 128 gb ssd. capacity doesnt really matter, as i still have about 100 gb left on my current 160 gb hd. i am wondering if it would provide a substantial speed boost to go 7200 rpm or wait until ssd's get cheaper and get one of those. i dont need to get an upgrade right NOW because if i wait for the ssd i'll just get more ram in the meantime. so, experts, what do you think? is a 7200 rpm gonna make my computer any faster? or should i just wait for ssd's to go down in price? thanks in advance.

 

[FieryFurnace]

I would recommend to get an SSD, it's night and day compared to HDDs.

 

[tipman2000]

I would recommend to get an SSD, it's night and day compared to HDDs.

yes, i know that but what im saying is that i dont have all the cash in the world, and if i could save $300 by not getting an ssd then that would be great. does anyone have any benchmarks for 5400rpm vs 7200rpm?

 

[J&JPolangin]

...you can get internal 5400 - 7200 RPM HDD's very cheap these days, I got a WD Scorpio Blue for my whitebook for $52 shipped until the SSD's come down in price just a bit more (and increase their capacities)...

Get the RAM and a larger/faster HDD until you can afford the SSD you want... then you'll have a great back up HDD when you install the SSD.

 

[Techhie]

...you can get internal 5400 - 7200 RPM HDD's very cheap these days, I got a WD Scorpio Blue for my whitebook for $52 shipped until the SSD's come down in price just a bit more (and increase their capacities)...

Get the RAM and a larger/faster HDD until you can afford the SSD you want... then you'll have a great back up HDD when you install the SSD.

by that time they will have come down in price as well

 

[FieryFurnace]

yes, i know that but what im saying is that i dont have all the cash in the world, and if i could save $300 by not getting an ssd then that would be great. does anyone have any benchmarks for 5400rpm vs 7200rpm?

I wouldn't want to have a laptop with an HDD anymore - to much worry I might kill the HDD by being a little rough with it.
You can get a good 60GB SSD (Vertex/Agility) now for ~$160 or get the 80GB Intel.
In a year or so, the next generation of SSDs with SATAIII will be released (I guess) and then later something faster and better again.

I wouldn't wait anymore to buy a SSD, they are mature enough already today.

 

[Hellhammer]

SSDs' prices are coming down all the time and performance and capacity is increasing every day too. If capacity isn't an issue, get a SSD because it'll hammer down the poor 7200rpm drive easily.

 

[cluthz]

Most 5400 RPM 500GB or 640GB are faster than the 7200RPM 250GB, btw..

 

[mmille24]

I want to wait for a TB drive for my 13 inch 2009 MBP? Anyone know when they will be available?

 

[Hellhammer]

I want to wait for a TB drive for my 13 inch 2009 MBP? Anyone know when they will be available?

HD or SSD? There's 1TB 2.5" HD but it's 12.5mm which is too big because MBP uses 9.5mm drives. I haven't heard any news about 9.5mm 1TB HD yet but I think we'll see one soon.

 

[tipman2000]

Most 5400 RPM 500GB or 640GB are faster than the 7200RPM 250GB, btw..

how is that?i wouldn't use the extra capacity but i am correct in saying that the speed would be higher because of more vm and disc cache right? by this would you imply that a 320 gb 7200 would be faster than a 250 gb 7200?
also does anyone know any cheap 120 or 128 gb ssd's? i really dont care much if its a bit slower than the expensive ones. thanks for all your help so far, all.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

I really think that almost every user could get away with a 7200 HDD, with that being said, once you got SSD - going back seems to be a nightmare.

 

[revboden]

hdd vs ssd specs

Going from a 5400rpm to 7200rpm is approximately 25% faster depending on the seek time specs. Moving from a 5400 rpm to a ssd is currently approx. 1400% faster with 4k file write times. Read times are just stupid fast. I'm using a ocz vertex as my baseline ssd.

 

[revboden]

how is that?i wouldn't use the extra capacity but i am correct in saying that the speed would be higher because of more vm and disc cache right? by this would you imply that a 320 gb 7200 would be faster than a 250 gb 7200?
also does anyone know any cheap 120 or 128 gb ssd's? i really dont care much if its a bit slower than the expensive ones. thanks for all your help so far, all.

It has nothing to do with vm or disk cache. the larger the drive the more of your data is on the fastest part of the spinning disk. The further away from the center of a spinning disk the faster the material moves in space to make the same rpm. Also larger disks use multiple platters (disks) which reduces seek times and keeps the data on the outside of the disks longer. Computers write data from the outside of the disk to the inside, so as your disk fills up you will see approx. 40% decrease in speed of data read/write when accessing data on the inner parts of the disk compared to the outside parts of the disk.

sorry if this is worded strangely, It's difficult to go from physics speak to English.
There is a good guide to explain all this here: http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-WhyYouNeedMoreThanYouNeed.html
I am not affiliated with the above site.

 

[revboden]

One other thing. If your mac has enough ram, after you load a application the first time it keeps the app. stored in ram. (until you restart the computer) So after the first time you load a app., the disk speed is irrelevant to app. start-up speed.

 

[cluthz]

how is that?i wouldn't use the extra capacity but i am correct in saying that the speed would be higher because of more vm and disc cache right? by this would you imply that a 320 gb 7200 would be faster than a 250 gb 7200?
also does anyone know any cheap 120 or 128 gb ssd's? i really dont care much if its a bit slower than the expensive ones. thanks for all your help so far, all.

Platter density is higher on higher capacity HDs, thus they perform better at same rotational speed.
Also full HDs are much slower than a half full HD.

A 500GB HD @ 5400 RPM is likely to be twice as fast as a 250GB 7200RPM HD if you have 220GB data on both.

20% free is the absolute minimum you'll need of free space to have alteast decent speed on you HD.

On my 320GB HD i have aprox 85GB free, and I consider this HD full now, else i'd have to sacrifice speed

 

[Corrode]

Platter density is higher on higher capacity HDs, thus they perform better at same rotational speed.
Also full HDs are much slower than a half full HD.

A 500GB HD @ 5400 RPM is likely to be twice as fast as a 250GB 7200RPM HD if you have 220GB data on both.

20% free is the absolute minimum you'll need of free space to have alteast decent speed on you HD.

On my 320GB HD i have aprox 85GB free, and I consider this HD full now, else i'd have to sacrifice speed

I was unaware of this. Thanks for the tip.

 

[ncbill]

You want the $70, 500GB WD from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JSSDGU/

Well, let me get straight to the point.
i have a late-2008 macbook aluminum and it has a 5400 rpm 160 gb hdd.
im thinking about upgrading to either a faster hdd or an ssd. my options would be a 7200 rpm 250 gb hd or a 128 gb ssd. capacity doesnt really matter, as i still have about 100 gb left on my current 160 gb hd. i am wondering if it would provide a substantial speed boost to go 7200 rpm or wait until ssd's get cheaper and get one of those. i dont need to get an upgrade right NOW because if i wait for the ssd i'll just get more ram in the meantime. so, experts, what do you think? is a 7200 rpm gonna make my computer any faster? or should i just wait for ssd's to go down in price? thanks in advance.

 

[ttran88]

You should grab the Hitachi 500 gb 7200 rpm travelstar HD. I upgraded from a WD scorpio blue 500 gb 5400 rpm and the speed upgrade is very noticeable. Starting up and opening programs are way faster, not as fast as SSD though. And its only 79.99 at newegg.com.

 

[ebepipermaru]

How about WD Scorpio Blue 640gb vs Hitachi 500gb ...

at 5400rpm vs 7200rpm? Anyone have a comparison point of view?

Thanks.

 

[BlizzardBomb]

HD or SSD? There's 1TB 2.5" HD but it's 12.5mm which is too big because MBP uses 9.5mm drives. I haven't heard any news about 9.5mm 1TB HD yet but I think we'll see one soon.

They've levelled off as of late however and aren't dropping anywhere near as fast as before. If you need capacity Hard Disk Drives are the only way to go right now

 

[DIESEL-X]

1TB SSD 2.5" 9.5mm in your MacBook Pro

HD or SSD? There's 1TB 2.5" HD but it's 12.5mm which is too big because MBP uses 9.5mm drives. I haven't heard any news about 9.5mm 1TB HD yet but I think we'll see one soon.

Good news, the Puresilicon 1TB SSD 2.5" is 9.5mm form factor thickness therefore you could stuff one inside your MacBook Pro unibody.. If you can buy one from them as they're stubbornly only supplying them to limited customers. That will be their downfall.

Anyway checkout Specs (checkout the 'Physical Dimensions>Height' at the bottom of the page from the web link below):-

http://www.puresi.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=4&Itemid=9

You could have the 1TB SSD capacity version in MLC memory type form, or if you prefer the more superior SLC memory type form then you could still have a very impressive and respectable 512GB capacity, wow! which to choose?