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I only can afford a 40GB SSD. Is it enough?

Bifteq

Bifteq

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 20, 2010
8
0
Hello my dear internet friends!

I want your valuable opinion to make my MBP mids 2010 run faster!

Have already order an 8GB ram kit from crucial and now i want to do something with my hard drive as well!

I currently run the laptop 95% for my work (Producing Audio and live performances) and some times (5%) to watch movies and promote my stuff from bed.

My problem is that i cant afford a big SSD drive so i have 2 options

1. Buy a small 40GB SSD (vertex 2) that i can afford and put the current MBP hard disk to an external usb case

2. Just buy a 7200rpm hard drive and forget the SSD


I dont use the laptop to download/store files anyway and everything i need to be in except the OS and its default applications is:

a. my music program Ableton live (5GB)
b. my live set files (15GB)
c. 5-6 classic small apps (VLC, Firefox, Chrome, Skype, Picasa)

nothing more!!

What do you suggest me to do?

If i go for 40GB SDD there will be 20 for Snow Leopard. Is it ok?
And please... is there any possibility to make the system unstable because Snow Leopard dont have TRIM?

Thanks very much for your time!

Kind regards

Ioannis
 
I would look into putting the SSD in the main hard drive bay, and the original drive into an optibay for faster speed. No external enclosure except thunderbolt will give you good speeds. (Then if you still need it, put the Super Drive on the outside. It doesn't need the same speeds a hard drive does)
 
Dsync said:
I would look into putting the SSD in the main hard drive bay, and the original drive into an optibay for faster speed. No external enclosure except thunderbolt will give you good speeds. (Then if you still need it, put the Super Drive on the outside. It doesn't need the same speeds a hard drive does)
Click to expand...

I think using optibay with your old hd and putting the ssd as a main is a good idea. However Thunderbolt is still really expensive and for most tasks especially the ones he listed a firewire drive will be good enough.
 
Thanks for your answers!!
My model dont have Thunderbolt!


i find an ocz in offer that i can also afford (an Agility3 for +20 euros) but it is sata3 and my mac sata 2!??

is this 100% safe? to add a sata3 drive to a sata2 slot?

also should i upgrade to Lion? :-/
 
40GB is only enough for people doing very little on their Mac.

Buy a 500GB Momentus XT hybrid. This is all what most people actually need.

If you're running virtualization, then yes, get an SSD.
 
Dsync said:
I would look into putting the SSD in the main hard drive bay, and the original drive into an optibay for faster speed. No external enclosure except thunderbolt will give you good speeds. (Then if you still need it, put the Super Drive on the outside. It doesn't need the same speeds a hard drive does)
Click to expand...

Yup, but 40GB for a boot/apps drive is a little cozy. I have a 160, and it's at about 100GB with apps, well-equipped Windows XP, bare Windows 7, bare Windows 8, and Chrome OS in Parallels.
 
I'd wait until prices come down. Don't be charmed by the boot times and program launch times. It's not going to make (most) programs run any faster once they are running. Not unless they actively stream content from the disk. In most cases this is what the RAM is for.

40GB is insanely low. I'd never compromise my capacity that much, not for the benefits of SSD.

I just upgraded to a 750GB from a 500GB so I might be the wrong person to ask. I just still don't think SSD is worth is until the 512GB is priced closer to $200.
 
i don't really do anything on my mac besides office and web can i get by with a 64gb sad? and should i go with owc or crucial?
 
Personally, see if you can keep the number of files on your current HDD below 35GB and see if you can work with your laptop.

If you manage a week or so without running into problems then go for the 40GB SSD! I run a 64GB OS X partition, and an install of OSX and office, with a few documents uses up 13GB. All my larger files are on my Time Capsule.
 
Thank you so much for all the answers!!

very good points posted !

please, i need to know 2 more important things that will help me to take the decision

A. can i install a Sata3 SSD to a MBP mids 2010 that have only Sata2 ?

i know i wont be able to have the max read/write speeds of the SSD but i dont care about that. only want to be sure that i wont have any incompatibility problems

B. Can i have an SSD with trim with Snow leopard?

thank you very much!
 
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