Help: Which Hardrive for 15'' Pro??

[mimadavi]

Hello all,

I'm sure there must have been a number of these kinds of threads; I'm not trying to get a feel for the options, but rather choose between two specific ones:

256 GB Solid State

or

500 ATA 7200rpm

Money is not the issue, I'm just trying to decide if I should spend the extra dough. I'd be using the computer for standard stuff, recording music with garage band (possibly ableton or protools), photo editing with photoshop and aperture, and a little bit of dreamweaver.

I also want the laptop to last for at least 5 years, my last 15'' pro crapped out after 5 or so.

HELP!

 

[Hellhammer]

Well, SSD is the biggest upgrade you can make but it is up to you whether you think it is worth it or not.

 

[ibebyi]

personally I'd go for the SSD for better boot times and application loading.

Plus 256 ssd is pretty big!

From my experience, having had a scorpio black 7200 and a momentus xt (hybrid ssd which caches frequently used files on nand) I would say that a proper ssd would be the best bet

I think I've seen documented somewhere that only larger files (I know this is a relative and vague term but I don't know the #s) really utilize the 7200RPM, not to mention the off-chance you get a faulty drive or your enclosure is more prone to letting through the acoustics of the drive (which could even include vibrations w/the faster rpm)

edit: the link is http://www.barefeats.com/5472.html. Take note that this article is like 5 years old, so technology in 7200RPM HDs probable have improved.

 

[lavrishevo]

Hello all,

I'm sure there must have been a number of these kinds of threads; I'm not trying to get a feel for the options, but rather choose between two specific ones:

256 GB Solid State

or

500 ATA 7200rpm

Money is not the issue, I'm just trying to decide if I should spend the extra dough. I'd be using the computer for standard stuff, recording music with garage band (possibly ableton or protools), photo editing with photoshop and aperture, and a little bit of dreamweaver.

I also want the laptop to last for at least 5 years, my last 15'' pro crapped out after 5 or so.

HELP!

Personally, I need at least 500gb on my internal. I was back and forth with the optibay thing with an SSD but the power draw on two hard drives with the inability of the optibay drive to spin down is kind of deal breaker for me.

I know others are reporting problems with the Momentus XT but this is the drive I went with and I could not be happier. All I did not clone my internal to the XT and install it, reset my PRAM, and it has been significantly faster. Cut my boot time from about 35 seconds to 18. Plus programs start much faster on the new drive.

 

[NickZac]

The SSD is worth every penny, especially if you want to keep the system long term. The speed of a SSD is ridiculously fast, but it is also more durable to shock, far less affected by magnetic mediums, can safely operate in more extreme conditions, cannot suffer a head crash, has virtually no degration over a period of years, and last far longer than the comparable HDD in question. From what I have seen, the earlier SSDs are still running today and are just as good, if not better, than the enterprise grade HDDs, that both have been run side-by-side...and keep in mind these were SSDs from 2 generations ago so they are primitive.

 

[mimadavi]

Awesome, thanks for your help guys.

Sounds like the SSD is the way to go for me. I don't need 500GB internal, so the 256 GB sounds just right.

I appreciate it!

 

[dh2005]

The SSD is worth every penny, especially if you want to keep the system long term. The speed of a SSD is ridiculously fast, but it is also more durable to shock, far less affected by magnetic mediums, can safely operate in more extreme conditions, cannot suffer a head crash, has virtually no degration over a period of years, and last far longer than the comparable HDD in question. From what I have seen, the earlier SSDs are still running today and are just as good, if not better, than the enterprise grade HDDs, that both have been run side-by-side...and keep in mind these were SSDs from 2 generations ago so they are primitive.

Pretty comprehensive case, there!

Yeah, I think I'm gonna succumb to the lure of the SSD, myself... is the stock SSD supplied by Apple a decent one?

 

[NickZac]

Pretty comprehensive case, there!

Yeah, I think I'm gonna succumb to the lure of the SSD, myself... is the stock SSD supplied by Apple a decent one?

Yes, it is Toshiba's performance model and is built off of platform that has been tested and proven over the past few years to be very reliable. It is not as fast as some other drives, but given that no one has had any issues with the factory drive, I think it is worth the minor speed loss. Furthermore, numbers on paper will make you think the drive is much slower compared to the latest ones. In real world use, this is rarely the case. My 15 inch boots in about 15 seconds, give or take, and programs such as Office, Email, Internet Browsers, iTunes, and others boot virtually instantaneously. I don't need faster than instantaneously, so unless you are moving gigabytes and gigabytes around every day, SSD speed is almost a mute point. Furthermore, there aren't any external devices that will currently benefit from the fastest SSDs anymore than the 'slower' ones. 'Slower' is misleading considering the slowest of slow SSDs are still running circles around even the fastest of the fast enterprise level HDDs, and the Toshiba used in the MBP is by no means the slowest.

 

[c1phr]

The SSD is worth every penny, especially if you want to keep the system long term. The speed of a SSD is ridiculously fast, but it is also more durable to shock, far less affected by magnetic mediums, can safely operate in more extreme conditions, cannot suffer a head crash, has virtually no degration over a period of years, and last far longer than the comparable HDD in question. From what I have seen, the earlier SSDs are still running today and are just as good, if not better, than the enterprise grade HDDs, that both have been run side-by-side...and keep in mind these were SSDs from 2 generations ago so they are primitive.

Not all SSDs are perfect though, and you have to be prepared when something does go wrong, from different articles I've read, they seem to be a bit of a mixed bag on some working forever and some dying flat out.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/05/the-hot-crazy-solid-state-drive-scale.html

 

[dh2005]

Well, the MBP will have a three-year warranty. I'm okay with that. And nothing lasts forever - I've had two magnetic hard drives fail within a year, in the past eighteen months. Never had an SSD before, but I reckon I'm gonna give it a chance.

 

[NickZac]

Not all SSDs are perfect though, and you have to be prepared when something does go wrong, from different articles I've read, they seem to be a bit of a mixed bag on some working forever and some dying flat out.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/05/the-hot-crazy-solid-state-drive-scale.html

Obviously, any storage system can be problematic with poor manufacturing and occasionally by some flukes, but SSD failure rates are relatively low. With that said, OCZ SSDs have had plenty of reports of "dead on arrival" and "failed after a month", so I wouldn't give that site much credit given he is praising the Vertex 3 as the best.