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I feel so free! SSD in MBP!

Rhyalus

Rhyalus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
442
54
Since the beginning of 2011 I have been careful not to move my MBP around so that the little 5400 RPM HDD would not park itself.

With the new SSD and fresh OS install it is like a new system. I can sit on the couch and not worry about holding it still.

The prices on SSD right now make this a no brainer and first priority upgrade for anyone still thinking about it.

R
 
Windows&Apple said:
Still a little bit pricey... I'd probably wait another year.
Click to expand...

$314 for a 500 GB Samsung 840 SSD... and Far Cry 3 came with it (~$40).

Well worth it for me... on the performance side it went from about 55mb/s write and read to 350 and 500 mb/s...

R
 
It's also night and day how you get no noise compare to HDD . Totally worth it

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When I bought mines in 2009 $300 for only 120 gb ssd now it's 4x more storage and much better read and write times hopefully in a year or 2 we can get a 1TB ssd around that same price .
Rhyalus said:
$314 for a 500 GB Samsung 840 SSD... and Far Cry 3 came with it (~$40).

Well worth it for me... on the performance side it went from about 55mb/s write and read to 350 and 500 mb/s...

R
Click to expand...
 
Windows&Apple said:
Still a little bit pricey... I'd probably wait another year.
Click to expand...

SSDs have dropped below $1/GB for the most part. You don't have to go back too far to see when HDDs did the same thing. They may never become cheaper, but they're certainly dropping in price at a faster rate than HDDs did.
 
AlphaDogg said:
Me too. You can get a 500gb HDD for $100, so an SSD is 3x the price.
Click to expand...

And at least 3x faster. It seems to be a fair trade off to me.

You could always go with a smaller capacity drive to save some money(if you don't require 500GB).
 
Or wait for deals.

I picked up a 240Gb Intel for $135 around Black Friday.. best purchase ever!
 
I really don't treat my MBP as if it were some kind of rare jewel... it's a computer, and thanks to the sudden motion sensor there's no need to be afraid to move your computer. I've been carrying it with me every day in my laptop bag while it was sleeping... no problems whatsoever.

Only thing that made me get an SSD is because it's way faster.
 
J.Appleseed said:
I really don't treat my MBP as if it were some kind of rare jewel... it's a computer, and thanks to the sudden motion sensor there's no need to be afraid to move your computer. I've been carrying it with me every day in my laptop bag while it was sleeping... no problems whatsoever.

Only thing that made me get an SSD is because it's way faster.
Click to expand...

While it is sleeping is not a problem, of course... but if you are using the PC and moving around with it, you get constant head parking, etc.

With SSD it is not a question at all.

R
 
I have SSDs in my MBP and Desktop, could not go back to HDDs for boot drives. SSDs just make everything feel so much more responsive, extremely fast boot, loading times for apps like Photoshop and the fact it makes a VM feel like it is running natively.
 
BlaqkAudio said:
Definitely. If CPU usage isn't high (ie. fans don't go past the minimum speed), my MBP is absolutely silent :D
Click to expand...

FYI, single platter 5400rpm hard drives are barely audible as well. I can hear fan in my MBP2010 at its minimum speed (i.e. 2000rpm) OVER the hard drive in a totally silent room....
 
SSD was one of those moments where you are skeptical until you use one, and then wonder how the hell you ever got along without it.

I spent years avoiding SSDs with the standard arguments about price and size but I could never go back to a 7200 RPM drive (or a puny 5400 RPM drive Ack!).

Cast your ignorance aside and free your MBP from its ball and chain dragging HD to the world of speed and performance that SSDs offer.

Seriously. You have no idea how much the HDD is slowing down your MBP...

-P
 
Ordered my first Mac middle of last week. Previously I had been using a 4 year old Dell with 4GB of ram running a clean install of Windows 7.

As soon as I ordered my Mac (a late 2011 refurb with a 2.8GHz i7 processor) I also ordered 16GB of ram and a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD with a kit to move my 750GB HDD to the optical Bay.

**** this computer is fast! Boots in around 10 seconds, rarely am I using more the 20% of my total ram and typically the computer stays at a cool 120*F sometimes jumping up to 130*F or so. I guess I really dont have anything to compare it to, but I love my Mac and I am very happy I purchased it.

Next on the list is to get Parallels 8 and a copy of Windows 8 so I can run needed programs for school. No plans on upgrading the computer for at least 3 or 4 years but I think this one will do just fine!
 
I'm getting more tempted by the minute. Does a clean install of ML followed by a Time Machine restore still count as a "clean install," or do I have to reinstall all apps for it to be truly "clean"?
 
spartacvs said:
SSD is the best upgrade I've ever done to my MBP and Mac Mini
Click to expand...

Agree 100%, and the machine is so much more ZEN.

OTOH, when the machine is virtually silent in normal use, the fans spinning up are som much more annoying. :eek:
(I admit, I've gone as far as trying to minimize CPU use to stop the fans from running.)

RGDS,
 
I have configured my 16GB RAM MBP to hibernate every time (i.e. - persist memory onto the harddrive). This setup is really handy for me. Also, software I'm using is pretty I/O intensive.

So my concern is SSD's longevity in such case. That's probably the reason why I'm avoidiing SSD for now.

I've compensated this with lots of RAM so that OS X can use it for caching. Also, since I'm using hibernation and reboot maybe once in a couple of months, all my programs are already in memory.
 
vladster said:
I have configured my 16GB RAM MBP to hibernate every time (i.e. - persist memory onto the harddrive). This setup is really handy for me. Also, software I'm using is pretty I/O intensive.

So my concern is SSD's longevity in such case. That's probably the reason why I'm avoidiing SSD for now.

I've compensated this with lots of RAM so that OS X can use it for caching. Also, since I'm using hibernation and reboot maybe once in a couple of months, all my programs are already in memory.
Click to expand...

The Samsung 840 Pro I got for my Mac has a 5 year warranty. Just a heads up.
 
vladster said:
I have configured my 16GB RAM MBP to hibernate every time (i.e. - persist memory onto the harddrive). This setup is really handy for me. Also, software I'm using is pretty I/O intensive.

So my concern is SSD's longevity in such case. That's probably the reason why I'm avoidiing SSD for now.

I've compensated this with lots of RAM so that OS X can use it for caching. Also, since I'm using hibernation and reboot maybe once in a couple of months, all my programs are already in memory.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, not sure I get the benefit of hibernating like that? Also, it must take a long time with the HDD to wake back up. Do you sleep the unit for a long time? This is the only benefit I can think of....

Standard sleep works just fine with 1 second wake up time.

R

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windowstomac said:
I'm getting more tempted by the minute. Does a clean install of ML followed by a Time Machine restore still count as a "clean install," or do I have to reinstall all apps for it to be truly "clean"?
Click to expand...

Well, if you want to be a purist, you would re-install the apps... :)

I don't think that this is "necessary". But as I was moving from an early 2011 Snow Leopard install, I liked the idea of a fresh start. It only took me a few hours to re-install what I needed and move my documents over.

It also gave me a chance to reconsider what apps I really needed, and it assured that any previous junk left over from old uninstalls would not migrate.

R
 
first thing i did to my macbook was put an ssd in, used it without for a couple of days and the difference is amazing
 
Rhyalus said:
Hmmmm, not sure I get the benefit of hibernating like that? Also, it must take a long time with the HDD to wake back up. Do you sleep the unit for a long time? This is the only benefit I can think of....
Click to expand...

I frequently have to disconnect my MBP from the power source after I close the lid. It's not an issue for me to wait extra minute or so until it wakes up at the new location as I can turn it on in advance and do something else in the meantime. I would preffer to use battery power for something real raher than sleep support.
 
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