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Holy #$%, this thing is a rocket!

Dunno Jozu - what I do know is that I had an i7 iMac for a couple of weeks, ostensibly a faster machine, and it was definitely noticeably slower than this thing is to wake from sleep, as well as seeming a bit slower to load web pages & documents, etc. if memory serves. (I'd have to use them back to back to be sure, but I don't remember the iMac feeling nearly as snappy as this - when I got it, I thought the speed was not that big a deal given how much I'd paid and the fact that it had so much RAM, and for whatever reason, the MBP/SSD gives a distinctly different impression.)

And Macgeek, if my experience is any indicator, definitely.
 
Here is the simple truth... Once you experience using you MacBook Pro with a boot drive that is an SSD, you are permanently spoiled. It's crap your pants fast and you will never again own a MacBook Pro running from a regular platter drive.

Mark
 
i really like SSDs in theory, I'll be happy when the technology becomes the mainstream standard. until then, the price/storage tradeoff just isn't worth it to me. maybe i just have too much pr0n
 
Trying to hold off from getting an ssd and I'll use it as an upgrade option when I feel the computer's getting slow. Then I'll decide if I'd like to lose the DVD drive or just get a big ssd, which'll hopefully be cheaper by then!
 
Yeah, this thing was horrifyingly expensive, so holding off certainly makes sense for some if not most. My "buy a new primary machine every 4-5 years or so" routine results in me becoming increasingly impatient with the machine toward the end of that cycle, reinforcing the desire to have the absolute fastest out there when upgrade time finally arrives. (Of course, I could have opened the thing up and swapped in an even faster SSD, but didn't want to void my warranty, etc.) I remember reading in PC Magazine a decade or two ago that the machine you want always costs $5000. Still true, and still pushing up Apple's margins. :eek:
 
Dumb question, but does OS X support TRIM? The problem with buying the SSD from Apple is it's almost certainly a Samsung, and almost certainly has poor random write speeds, and at least out of the box and without a flash (in Windows), no TRIM support.
 
Just got mine yesterday

2.66GHz 256GB SSD i7 wow it is really fast blew my expectations away the display is fantastic too HD anti-glare glossy screen.
 
Wolfpup said:
Dumb question, but does OS X support TRIM? The problem with buying the SSD from Apple is it's almost certainly a Samsung, and almost certainly has poor random write speeds, and at least out of the box and without a flash (in Windows), no TRIM support.
Click to expand...

No, Apple has not implemented TRIM in OS X yet.
 
Wolfpup said:
Dumb question, but does OS X support TRIM? The problem with buying the SSD from Apple is it's almost certainly a Samsung, and almost certainly has poor random write speeds, and at least out of the box and without a flash (in Windows), no TRIM support.
Click to expand...

The new Apple SSD's seem to be Toshibas which have quite decent performance. Also, most recent SSD's have Garbage Collection algorithms which mean that they do not really need TRIM as they do a similar job on their own.
 
fuzzielitlpanda said:
Just goes to show that SSD is probably the best upgrade you can make in any laptop. I wouldn't buy the Apple one though because there are better 3rd party SSDs (Intel in particular).
Click to expand...

The Intel X25-Es are excellent indeed, have one of those in a server for the sql database. The new Crucial C300s are also insanely amazing. I think they might even top the Intels. Installed one in my old 17" macbook unibody, and couldn't be more wowed.

However, what happens when you need to use AppleCare and you have a third party drive installed? I've yet to find out, and I sort of don't want to.

The particular thing about the 512gb option this time around is this: You may have tons of options for 256gb and under drives, but you have nearly none for for the new 512gb drives Apple is offering. There's no X25 or C300 in 512gb yet, unfortunately. If you went with one of the few 3rd party options (the likeliest of which seems to be from Toshiba), it's likely *exactly* the same brand and type what Apple is using.

Furthermore, I've yet to really see 512gb drives I can order myself for under $1500, whereas the Apple drives comes to something like $1196 after the corp discount (and anyone can get such a discount, btw, just by joining something like photoshopuser.com).

In this -- admittedly rare -- case, getting the 512gb directly from Apple seems to make too much sense.

It's cheaper than going 3rd party, it's already installed (saving you time and/or installation fee$), it's likely the same model you'd buy for $300 more, you get the warranty from a single source, and no potential AppleCare conflicts. Quite a few pros, without any substantial con in site except the initial buy-in price itself.
 
JimAtLaw said:
Dunno Jozu - what I do know is that I had an i7 iMac for a couple of weeks, ostensibly a faster machine, and it was definitely noticeably slower than this thing is to wake from sleep, as well as seeming a bit slower to load web pages & documents, etc. if memory serves. (I'd have to use them back to back to be sure, but I don't remember the iMac feeling nearly as snappy as this - when I got it, I thought the speed was not that big a deal given how much I'd paid and the fact that it had so much RAM, and for whatever reason, the MBP/SSD gives a distinctly different impression.)

And Macgeek, if my experience is any indicator, definitely.
Click to expand...

Jim, thanks for posting this! Very helpful.

This is pretty much the exat machine I was considering (which is about $4k after corp discount), although I was waiting for some feedback about the battery life of the i7 vs. the i5 (I'll give up some speed if it means 1 to 2 hours more battery), as well as making sure the SSDs were of suitable quality. You confirmed the latter! Sounds like the 512gb SSD works just fine.

Have you had much of a chance to use this on battery yet? If so, what sort of life are you seeing?
 
macinside said:
Jim, thanks for posting this! Very helpful.

This is pretty much the exat machine I was considering (which is about $4k after corp discount), although I was waiting for some feedback about the battery life of the i7 vs. the i5 (I'll give up some speed if it means 1 to 2 hours more battery), as well as making sure the SSDs were of suitable quality. You confirmed the latter! Sounds like the 512gb SSD works just fine.

Have you had much of a chance to use this on battery yet? If so, what sort of life are you seeing?
Click to expand...
Nope, haven't removed it from the cord yet - will try this later this week and post.
 
GeeLuv said:
2.66GHz 256GB SSD i7 wow it is really fast blew my expectations away the display is fantastic too HD anti-glare glossy screen.
Click to expand...

I just got the same system 30 minutes ago. I made all the right decisions. :D The weight and size of the laptop is not a problem for having the full screen resolution that I wanted.

It shuts down in under 1 second, and starts up/restarts in about ~20.

There is no waiting for any app that comes with it to load.

I'll see how it handles thousands of RAW pictures tonight...
 
Not bad performance numbers, still pricey though!

Would like to see how the 512GB SSD compares to the 256GB SSD.
 
macinside said:
However, what happens when you need to use AppleCare and you have a third party drive installed? I've yet to find out, and I sort of don't want to.
Click to expand...

I always keep my stock drives for this reason. If I ever need to send it in for service, I'll just swap the stock drive back in. No way am I going to risk losing the SSD during the repair.
 
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