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How fast is your SSD, and when did you buy your MacBook Air?

S

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
At what point does all of this comparison become irrelevant and silly?

I have the slower drive but it is 5 times faster than the hard drive in my Blackbook.

I think having 4GB of ram VS 2GB is going to have a much bigger impact on system performance. I guess someone could argue that having less ram actually makes the faster drive more of a necessity.

These test are peak speeds, not real life.

Most of your apps will never max the speed of the SSD and since the MacBook Airs only have USB 2, it won't be a concern when transferring data to another drive.

Someone please tell me a real app (not a speed benchmark app) that will max the disk but not the Core2Duo CPU?

The CPU cache, CPU speed and amount of ram will have a much more significant impact on performance than the difference between thses two SSDs.
 
Psilocybin

Psilocybin

macrumors 6502a
Jan 16, 2011
592
0
Ontario, Canada
spacepower7 said:
At what point does all of this comparison become irrelevant and silly?

I have the slower drive but it is 5 times faster than the hard drive in my Blackbook.

I think having 4GB of ram VS 2GB is going to have a much bigger impact on system performance. I guess someone could argue that having less ram actually makes the faster drive more of a necessity.

These test are peak speeds, not real life.

Most of your apps will never max the speed of the SSD and since the MacBook Airs only have USB 2, it won't be a concern when transferring data to another drive.

Someone please tell me a real app (not a speed benchmark app) that will max the disk but not the Core2Duo CPU?

The CPU cache, CPU speed and amount of ram will have a much more significant impact on performance than the difference between thses two SSDs.
Click to expand...

what he said ^^
 
M

milescortez

macrumors regular
May 30, 2010
117
41
spacepower7 said:
At what point does all of this comparison become irrelevant and silly?

I have the slower drive but it is 5 times faster than the hard drive in my Blackbook.

I think having 4GB of ram VS 2GB is going to have a much bigger impact on system performance. I guess someone could argue that having less ram actually makes the faster drive more of a necessity.

These test are peak speeds, not real life.

Most of your apps will never max the speed of the SSD and since the MacBook Airs only have USB 2, it won't be a concern when transferring data to another drive.

Someone please tell me a real app (not a speed benchmark app) that will max the disk but not the Core2Duo CPU?

The CPU cache, CPU speed and amount of ram will have a much more significant impact on performance than the difference between thses two SSDs.
Click to expand...

Bingo---that's why i decided to go with a new MBP or iMac. I might upgrade my MB unibody to an SSD and a separate HD in the optical drive but at the end of the day I am bottlenecking doing HB conversions at the CPU level...none of this really matters except for boot times and maybe very fractionally on app start times.
 
S

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
Just to bring more realism to the discussion:

In regards to the settings that everyone is using in the AJA benchmark app:

Uncompressed 10 bit 1080 @ 29.97fps = 13GB per minute!!!!

Uncompressed 10 bit 1080 @ 23.98fps = 10.42GB per minute!!!

Therefore the 128GB SSD could not even edit 10 minutes of video with the drive completely empty.

It's nice to see the high speeds in the benchmark app but it does not represent any real world situation.

Honestly, I'm trying to think of an app that would be an exception but
99% of people will not notice any difference.
 
D

dmelgar

macrumors 68000
Apr 29, 2005
1,587
160
Of course it makes a HUGE difference how fast the drive is. Its silly to even ask.

Its not just how long it takes to move a giant file around. Thats the easiest way to come up with a benchmark.

A faster drive is faster at everything, especially thrashing around picking up little files spread all over the disk. That's hard to reliably test but very easy to observe.

The Macbook Air is very very fast, much faster than a Macbook Pro at launching practically any program, running most compiles, switching userids, performing anything with lots of disc I/O such as checking for updates etc. In my real world speed comparisons between my 2009 13" Macbook Pro and my 2010 11" Macbook Air, there are several cases where the Macbook Air was 10 TIMES faster than the Macbook Pro. Thats not a small difference. And certainly not because its 1.6ghz processor is faster than the MBP 2.26ghz processor.

In real world, the speed makes an enormous difference. If newer machines are 25% faster, that is very interesting and worth trying to investigate.
 
Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
dmelgar said:
Of course it makes a HUGE difference how fast the drive is. Its silly to even ask.

Its not just how long it takes to move a giant file around. Thats the easiest way to come up with a benchmark.

A faster drive is faster at everything, especially thrashing around picking up little files spread all over the disk. That's hard to reliably test but very easy to observe.

The Macbook Air is very very fast, much faster than a Macbook Pro at launching practically any program, running most compiles, switching userids, performing anything with lots of disc I/O such as checking for updates etc. In my real world speed comparisons between my 2009 13" Macbook Pro and my 2010 11" Macbook Air, there are several cases where the Macbook Air was 10 TIMES faster than the Macbook Pro. Thats not a small difference. And certainly not because its 1.6ghz processor is faster than the MBP 2.26ghz processor.

In real world, the speed makes an enormous difference. If newer machines are 25% faster, that is very interesting and worth trying to investigate.
Click to expand...

Random speeds are more important in everyday usage and nobody has tested them so far...
 
S

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
Hellhammer said:
Random speeds are more important in everyday usage and nobody has tested them so far...
Click to expand...

Exactly ^^^^^

@dmelgar

I stated that I am seeing a 5x increase between my machines SSD vs HDD.

The SSD's are great, and for most users it won't matter which one they get.

The benchmarks only show peak performance (sustained not random, read and write), which is not a real world situation. How often does an app write a single 4 GB file and how many MacBook Air users will be in this situation?

I'm all for the idea of improved specs but my point is:

People are talking about spending hours driving, or on the phone with Apple, to return their current MacBook Air, in hopes of receiving a faster one. Many people will never notice the difference in their daily activities. Even the slower SSD is such an improvement that these people would be content if they had not read this thread.
 
A

adjuster

macrumors member
Nov 29, 2007
68
0
I tried the AJA System Test on two computers:

27in i7 iMac, version 2009 1TB ST31000528ASQ 3.5 in. 7200 rpm drive:
write 60.6 MB/s
read 70.3 MB/s

ancient (4-yr old) MacBook Pro 2.4 with both a OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 120gb SSD and a 460gb 2.5in WDC 5400rpm 8mb 3 Gb/s cache drive.

120gb SSD:
Write 125.6 MB/s
Read: 135.1 MB/s

460gb hard drive:
write 29.4 MB/s
Read: 49.8 MB/s

I feel like I have a new MBPro with the SSD.

Would love to get a MB Air because of the weight. However, I need 400gb minimum storage.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 23, 2010
18,070
7,943
iExpensive said:
Max speed does not matter. What does matter is that you are getting what you pay for. There should be no faster "revision".
Click to expand...

The bottom line is that we all did get what we paid for (even those of us with the "slower" drive). If Apple gets a good deal on some slightly faster Samsung drives and adds them into the mix, that's fine with me. It isn't like they shipped out a bunch of review units with faster drives and quietly snuck a slower drive into the production units.
 
jamesryanbell

jamesryanbell

macrumors 68020
Mar 17, 2009
2,171
93
iExpensive said:
Max speed does not matter. What does matter is that you are getting what you pay for. There should be no faster "revision".
Click to expand...

I agree. I guess the tech-spec-jockey inside me doesn't like the fact that they discretely offered better, faster drives that quickly without telling anyone.
 
J

Jest3r

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2010
197
108
128GB 13.3" MBA with 2GB of ram purchased 2/18/11:

Write: 210.5 MB/s
Read:260.1 MB/s
 

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C

calvol

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
Jest3r said:
128GB 13.1" MBA with 2GB of ram purchased 2/18/11:

Jest3r: Did you purchase in a store or order online? Are you U.S. or international? Seems like most of the faster drives are 128GB purchased internationally.

Thanks, Tim
Click to expand...
 
M

milescortez

macrumors regular
May 30, 2010
117
41
Macbook 2008 INtel x-25

It not an MBA but I thought I'd post anyway.

2008 2.4Ghz Macbook Unibody, 6 GB RAM with an Intel x25-M

103 Write
254 Read

I think this is the Gen 2 Intel SSD. I'm taking it back for a OCW which should give about 250 and 260. Either way it's way faster than the stock Hitachi 5400 250GB which was running about 53 and 53.
 
Flake

Flake

macrumors regular
Apr 18, 2010
213
4
my read speed was about 260mb/s but my write speed was only 139 :confused:
i have a 13" 128gb 1.86GHz
 
IngerMan

IngerMan

macrumors 68020
Feb 21, 2011
2,005
902
Michigan
Just got my 13 inch today from PowerMax. 1.86 4g 128

Test 181 write 210 read ts . I ran the test half a dozen times and was as low as 150's on the write. But seem to boost a little when I dimmed the screen, go figure....:eek: It is much faster then my 2010 macbook that I traded in for.
 
C

calvol

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
my read speed was about 260mb/s but my write speed was only 139
i have a 13" 128gb 1.86GHz

Flake, just wonder where you bought your Air, and when? Thx, Tim
 
CHSeifert

CHSeifert

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2010
499
0
Copenhagen, Denmark - Scandinavia
So is it safe to Say you have a better chance of getting the fast Samsung SSD, if you get the 128gb version as compared to the 256gb version of the MBA - or is this just yet another rubbish rumour :)


----
Vh/Regards
Claus [iPhone
 
Flake

Flake

macrumors regular
Apr 18, 2010
213
4
calvol said:
my read speed was about 260mb/s but my write speed was only 139
i have a 13" 128gb 1.86GHz

Flake, just wonder where you bought your Air, and when? Thx, Tim
Click to expand...

got it from MacMall just a week ago. SSD revision AXM09A1Q
 
O

Ojitos84

macrumors newbie
Feb 13, 2011
17
0
revision: CJAA0201, 13" Ultimate, got it yesterday :) (but it was a refurb)

Read:208.1
Write:190.1
 
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