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Is it worth getting the SSD?

J

Jakedono

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 27, 2010
36
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I am thinking about getting the SSD when I order my MBP. Is it really worth the extra money?
 
Jakedono said:
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I am thinking about getting the SSD when I order my MBP. Is it really worth the extra money?
Click to expand...

I speak from loads of experience with many SSD's, over the last few years.

1) Yes, they're very fast

2) Yet they rank even higher on the buzz word list.

3) They remain a very young technology that is getting better quickly and obsoleting the drive you may buy today faster than you can imagine.

4) Prices are about to plumment (they have already, just not as fast as they will in the coming few months)

5) Why not wait? Do you _really_ need one now?

That's my take on it. Hopefully I've saved you some money and headaches.

Cheers... :)
 
I wouldn't get one now because 25nm is just around the corner and it should bring nice price cuts. Buy the MBP with HD for now and add SSD later on
 
wirelessmacuser said:
4) Prices are about to plumment (they have already, just not as fast as they will in the coming few months)
Click to expand...
Why is that??
Flash is potentially getting cheaper and cheaper in gernal but mostly the really cheap stuff for SD cards and stuff. The faster NAND still is quite expensive. 3, 4bit cells are nice but they apperantly don't work for speedy SSD.
 
dusk007 said:
Why is that??
Flash is potentially getting cheaper and cheaper in gernal but mostly the really cheap stuff for SD cards and stuff. The faster NAND still is quite expensive. 3, 4bit cells are nice but they apperantly don't work for speedy SSD.
Click to expand...

Because 25nm NANDs will be out in Q1 2011. That means more GB/area so cheaper prices. The current word is that 80GB Intel will be replaced with 160GB for the same price and 300GB for the price of current 160GB.
 
Hellhammer said:
I wouldn't get one now because 25nm is just around the corner and it should bring nice price cuts. Buy the MBP with HD for now and add SSD later on
Click to expand...

Plus, how will you truly appreciate the benefits of the SSD if you don't spend a while with an HDD on your new Mac first? :D

I contemplated the same question when I bought my MBP13 in November. I decided to hold off on the SSD until sometime in 2011 after the 25nm process drives come out. Glad I did; although I'm sure I'll enjoy an SSD when I make the move, I'm happy enough as is for now until prices come down eventually for the capacity I need.
 
Hellhammer said:
Because 25nm NANDs will be out in Q1 2011. That means more GB/area so cheaper prices. The current word is that 80GB Intel will be replaced with 160GB for the same price and 300GB for the price of current 160GB.
Click to expand...

3 sizes will be available, 160gb, 300gb and a 600gb (want that badly). No official word on pricing but they are expected to be cheap and they should be easy to get as Intel has been stockpiling 25nm Nand since at least q1 2010 when a bunch of journalist where shown the fab that makes 25nm Nand.
 
DELTAsnake said:
3 sizes will be available, 160gb, 300gb and a 600gb (want that badly). No official word on pricing but they are expected to be cheap and they should be easy to get as Intel has been stockpiling 25nm Nand since at least q1 2010 when a bunch of journalist where shown the fab that makes 25nm Nand.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what Intel has to offer. Other brands will likely offer different sizes, such as 60GB, 120GB, 240GB etc.
 
wirelessmacuser said:
I speak from loads of experience with many SSD's, over the last few years.

1) Yes, they're very fast

2) Yet they rank even higher on the buzz word list.

3) They remain a very young technology that is getting better quickly and obsoleting the drive you may buy today faster than you can imagine.

4) Prices are about to plumment (they have already, just not as fast as they will in the coming few months)

5) Why not wait? Do you _really_ need one now?

That's my take on it. Hopefully I've saved you some money and headaches.

Cheers... :)
Click to expand...

yeah - i agree prices should drop, aspecailly since the word on the street is that with the sandy bridge update there should be SSD standard in MBP 2011 upgrade
 
Jakedono said:
I am thinking about getting the SSD when I order my MBP. Is it really worth the extra money?
Click to expand...

Depends on your budget and needs. I picked one up, partly because I wanted the speed but more so, that I wanted the durability. I have kids who pick up a laptop while running and I didn't want them to crash drive.

Yeah the next generation is coming out, but I'm sure like any new generation you'll be paying a premium.
 
I don't know if my opinion counts, since I still didn't get my MBP neither the SSD.

But after doing lots of research, I decided to get a small SSD (60 or 80 gigs) for OS and apps, and keep the stock 320gigs for storage (knowing that I have 2.5 TB of external storage)

Now after reading the posts here, I decided to hold on. I'll get the MBP first (in a few days), use it for a month and so, then get the SSD when the prices drop after the new models come out.

I think, that unless you have 2000 dollars to spare, SSD is a bad idea for storing large files. SSD for me seems like a great solution as a boot drive, which is your main usage.
 
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Yeh. Thx 4 yr imput fellas. Think I will now wait till the expected price drop.
 
you guys are making it seem like the prices are gonna drop low enough for the masses to adopt..i highly doubt
 
bahiaeternal said:
you guys are making it seem like the prices are gonna drop low enough for the masses to adopt..i highly doubt
Click to expand...

No of course not, but the price will continue to decrease as 2011 wears on. Just look at how much SSDs were last year, compared to today.

Whether that price drop is sufficient to entice many buyers to embrace SSDs is anyone's guess. The allure of speed, and lack of mechanical parts is tempting and many people are willing to spend $$
 
bahiaeternal said:
you guys are making it seem like the prices are gonna drop low enough for the masses to adopt..i highly doubt
Click to expand...

Speaking only for myself, I don't see that such is being conveyed here, only that there's an expectation that with the 25nm process prices may drop a solid notch and start gaining the second tier adopters.

It wasn't all THAT long ago that HDD's broke the $1/GB barrier (2004?). I also remember when they broke the $1/MB barrier in the early/mid 1990's.

It's not inconceivable that SSD's will replace HDD is default configurations when they get into the sub-$100 for 240GB territory. At that point it will depend on what system builders choose to focus on; high capacity or high system responsiveness.
 
deeddawg said:
It's not inconceivable that SSD's will replace HDD is default configurations when they get into the sub-$100 for 240GB territory. At that point it will depend on what system builders choose to focus on; high capacity or high system responsiveness.
Click to expand...

Or a hybrid of both :D I'm urgently awaiting 4TB drives to upgrade my file server, and starting to consider some new methods of data storage like high-capacity USB flash drives or portable hard drives so that I can stick with small-capacity SSD for my Macbook. So many people at work just use the 40GB or 80GB Intel drives and load a bunch of stuff on external sources so it basically keeps the $/GB a nonissue.
 
Neolithium said:
Or a hybrid of both :D I'm urgently awaiting 4TB drives to upgrade my file server, and starting to consider some new methods of data storage like high-capacity USB flash drives or portable hard drives so that I can stick with small-capacity SSD for my Macbook. So many people at work just use the 40GB or 80GB Intel drives and load a bunch of stuff on external sources so it basically keeps the $/GB a nonissue.
Click to expand...

You can easily increase the storage with two of these, just keep them plugged in 24/7. Them seem to be about as small as the USB drive included with MBA so they won't even stick out too much. Easy and not that expensive way to gain extra 64GB
 
But the real question in regards to the performance of SSDs is:

Is it worth getting one when OS X still doesn't support TRIM or anything similar, so either way we are looking at performance degradation unless this is a fixed issue in the newer drives?
 
RichardBeer said:
But the real question in regards to the performance of SSDs is:

Is it worth getting one when OS X still doesn't support TRIM or anything similar, so either way we are looking at performance degradation unless this is a fixed issue in the newer drives?
Click to expand...

Performance degradation is way overrated unless you're a benchmark commando. We have some drives at work that have been running 24/7/365 for going on 2 years now, constant reads/writes and as you can imagine they're worked like sled dogs. They still "feel" fast, performance dropped a bit running the numbers but physically you won't notice it. It actually takes quite a bit of work to make a quality SSD turn into a hunk of crap.
 
Neolithium said:
Performance degradation is way overrated unless you're a benchmark commando. We have some drives at work that have been running 24/7/365 for going on 2 years now, constant reads/writes and as you can imagine they're worked like sled dogs. They still "feel" fast, performance dropped a bit running the numbers but physically you won't notice it. It actually takes quite a bit of work to make a quality SSD turn into a hunk of crap.
Click to expand...

Plus newer drives such as SandForce based drives have "built-in" TRIM, so they are fine. Some older SSDs like the Samsungs that Apple used suffered from heavy degradation but today's drives are much better. What I've heard, good firmware is more important than TRIM and there are plenty of SSDs with very decent FWs
 
you can do what i did, get a current-gen drive then plan to get a newer one when the 25nm ones come out then move the old one to a secondary system
 
Think twice about putting a sand force based ssd in your machine if use hibernate a lot. Yu will likely lose that functionality.
 
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