Install SSD OR Buy Macbook Air OR Wait?

[Stephen Dowling]

Hey OP,

I got that exact model as a graduation gift as well! I can tell you from first hand experience that replacing that dog slow 500 GB HDD with a new SSD will make it feel like a completely different machine.

Personally, I used a 250 GB Samsung 840. The space was enough for me, as I stored most of my large media files on a 1TB external drive. Later on, I ended up removing the optical drive and replacing it with an Optibay with the original 500 GB drive in it for storage.

Replacing the current HDD with a SSD is very easy to do, and if you haven't already, I would go ahead and buy an 8 GB RAM kit to install while you've got the bottom cover off. Two birds with one stone.

Depending on your budget, I highly recommend the 250 GB or 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO drives. They are VERY fast drives, and they come with a nice warranty as well. My original 250 GB 840 (not EVO) died, and Samsung had a new drive on my doorstep within 2 days. They even paid for all of the shipping!

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM! That's a very good machine you've got there.

Good Luck!

 

[Cubytus]

As the OP stated no budget or special constraint, I guess it's pretty much limitless. True is that original Apple drives are often slow, 5400rpm drives. 7200rpm alleviate it, but if you can afford 500GB-class SSD, then go for it.

Don't forget to factor taxes and shipping in prices listed.

 

[themumu]

As the OP stated no budget or special constraint, I guess it's pretty much limitless. True is that original Apple drives are often slow, 5400rpm drives. 7200rpm alleviate it, but if you can afford 500GB-class SSD, then go for it.

Don't forget to factor taxes and shipping in prices listed.

My understanding is that 5400rpm drives consume less power than 7200rpm ones. The speed difference between them may not be noticeable to a casual user, but changing even the fastest hard drive to the slowest possible SSD is something that even the most unpretentious user would notice. That is to say, if anyone is going to upgrade at all, get an SSD, not a "faster" hard drive.

 

[nazedayo]

Hey OP,

I got that exact model as a graduation gift as well! I can tell you from first hand experience that replacing that dog slow 500 GB HDD with a new SSD will make it feel like a completely different machine.

Personally, I used a 250 GB Samsung 840. The space was enough for me, as I stored most of my large media files on a 1TB external drive. Later on, I ended up removing the optical drive and replacing it with an Optibay with the original 500 GB drive in it for storage.

Replacing the current HDD with a SSD is very easy to do, and if you haven't already, I would go ahead and buy an 8 GB RAM kit to install while you've got the bottom cover off. Two birds with one stone.

Depending on your budget, I highly recommend the 250 GB or 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO drives. They are VERY fast drives, and they come with a nice warranty as well. My original 250 GB 840 (not EVO) died, and Samsung had a new drive on my doorstep within 2 days. They even paid for all of the shipping!

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM! That's a very good machine you've got there.

Good Luck!

Great thanks! Any guides in particular you recommend using for the unscrewing process? Also which SSD enclosure did you use? Did you use CCC to copy over the data?

 

[pastrychef]

Great thanks! Any guides in particular you recommend using for the unscrewing process?

www.ifixit.com has guides.

 

[Cubytus]

My understanding is that 5400rpm drives consume less power than 7200rpm ones. The speed difference between them may not be noticeable to a casual user, but changing even the fastest hard drive to the slowest possible SSD is something that even the most unpretentious user would notice. That is to say, if anyone is going to upgrade at all, get an SSD, not a "faster" hard drive.

5400rpms don't use so little power compared to 7200rpm ones. They however vibrate less and create less noise, and the difference is actually noticeable, though obviously not as blatant as with a SSD. Upgrading depends on b u d g e t, a word that many Americans seem to ignore completely when they go all out for the best, whatever the cost. There's a difference between a $110 good spinner and a $440 equivalent-sized SSD (which follows the speed increase almost 1:1, ironically enough). Since nowhere the OP stated a limited budget, I'll cast my vote as SSD, especially if the drive doesn't see too much use since sold-state technology will wear out faster when the drive is used to transfer multi-gigs files frequently.

 

[themumu]

5400rpms don't use so little power compared to 7200rpm ones. They however vibrate less and create less noise, and the difference is actually noticeable, though obviously not as blatant as with a SSD. Upgrading depends on b u d g e t, a word that many Americans seem to ignore completely when they go all out for the best, whatever the cost. There's a difference between a $110 good spinner and a $440 equivalent-sized SSD (which follows the speed increase almost 1:1, ironically enough). Since nowhere the OP stated a limited budget, I'll cast my vote as SSD, especially if the drive doesn't see too much use since sold-state technology will wear out faster when the drive is used to transfer multi-gigs files frequently.

The budget is always there, it's just never been said what it is . My reasoning with 7200rpm drives boils down simply to the idea that if you cannot afford the SSD, you may want to save your money and not bother wasting it on a faster hard disk, as the value (imho) is simply not there for many people.

 

[Stephen Dowling]

Great thanks! Any guides in particular you recommend using for the unscrewing process? Also which SSD enclosure did you use? Did you use CCC to copy over the data?

I didn't use a guide; but ifixit has great guides for pretty much anything. You shouldn't need an enclosure for the SSD. Simply remove the hard drive and put the SSD in the original hard drive bracket, and button it back up!

I did use CCC to backup the HDD and restore it to the SSD, and it worked without a hitch!

 

[tblrsa]

Originally Posted by nazedayo View Post
Great thanks! Any guides in particular you recommend using for the unscrewing process? Also which SSD enclosure did you use? Did you use CCC to copy over the data?

After unsuccessfully trying to clone the HDD using Super Duper, CCC did the trick and also covered the recovery partition of Mavericks.

Is anyone using Filevault 2 on an Samsung 840 EVO SSD without issues?

 

[Cubytus]

The budget is always there, it's just never been said what it is . My reasoning with 7200rpm drives boils down simply to the idea that if you cannot afford the SSD, you may want to save your money and not bother wasting it on a faster hard disk, as the value (imho) is simply not there for many people.

if the value weren't here, why would apple still provide 7200 rpm spinners as a BTO option? They are a valid and affordable performance improvement over a basic 5400. No reason not to take them for the small premium over 5400rpm, knowing that SSD is still 3-4 times more expensive for the same capacity.

After unsuccessfully trying to clone the HDD using Super Duper, CCC did the trick and also covered the recovery partition of Mavericks.

Is anyone using Filevault 2 on an Samsung 840 EVO SSD without issues?

id say there shouldn't be any issues, but definitely a significant decrease in battery life.

 

[awair]

Choices

I was in a similar situation to the OP. Hope some of this may help.

I had the MBP i7 (17", not that it makes a difference in this case). The 2010 model was maxed out at 8GB and I installed a (SATA 3G) SSD. I still felt that I wasn't getting the performance that I should have been.

I recently 'upgraded' to a 2013 MBA, and I must say that the difference is phenomenal. Boot & resume are infinitely faster, and cannot be adequately explained by SSD & Ram alone.

Still craving the larger screen, I acquired a refurb 2011 MBP and fitted 16GB and a 6G SATA SSD. The benchmarks show that this is a marginally faster combo than the MBA. However, it doen't seem as fast with boot & resume.

In summary, if you want to get real work done then update your MBP. It still has better performance and a larger screen. If you need portability, battery-life and a continual on/off, stop/start computing experience, then the MBA is superior.

I second the suggestion for an OWC "Data Doubler", but note that you probably cannot use a SATA-III (6G) device in the optical bay. This was one reason I wanted to upgrade the MBP to the 2011 model. The bus supports 6G, but apparently the cable dies not! With hindsight I probably should have kept the 2010 model with the MBA. Different tools, with different advantages.

 

[awair]

Another point, supporting the advice of others above:

My original 2010 MBP had a 7200-rpm drive, the new 2011 MBP had a 5400-rpm. Prior to fitting the SSD, I used a 7200-rpm drive temporarily. The performance, especially boot time, was quite noticeable.

If you cannot afford an SSD of the required size, consider a 7200-rpm drive or even a hybrid SSHDD. If you can fit two drives (original MBP), then consider a smaller SSD, with a 2nd 7200-rpm drive. How often do you use an optical drive?