Is the 80GB Intel X25-M SSD large enough?

U

urxtream

macrumors newbie
I'm someone who's never used a Mac before and am planning on getting a 17 MBP with i7 with an SSD drive.

Seems like the Intel X25-M SSD is very much recommended by users on this forum, I thought I'd give it a shot since I like my computer to be snappy ;)

Since I've never used OSX or a Mac before, I'm planning on running Windows Vista in Parallel. I know the Intel X25-M SSD comes in 160GB but that's way too expensive for me. So my question is, would 80GB be enough to hold both operating systems and the installations of applications like MS Office, Photoshop, iTunes and a few others? and then I'll store data on either a Time Capsule or an external hard drive.

Thanks in advance.
 
It just depends on what you are using it for and what your workflow is. If you're like me, with about 12 gigs of MP3s, 8 GB of pictures, and little else, it totally works. If on the other hand you are using it for editing many large video files, you will need something bigger.
 
hypermog said:
It just depends on what you are using it for and what your workflow is. If you're like me, with about 12 gigs of MP3s, 8 GB of pictures, and little else, it totally works. If on the other hand you are using it for editing many large video files, you will need something bigger.
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It's mainly for web surfing, occasional photo editing. Nothing intensive really.
 
I am not a hard drive hog but you can fill up 80GB way too quick these days. At the moment I am using Intel 160 G2s in all my MacBooks/MacBook Pros. Plenty of room for ordinary use, and the 160 controllers are twice as quick as what the 80 is equipped with.
 
zodqyv said:
I am not a hard drive hog but you can fill up 80GB way too quick these days. At the moment I am using Intel 160 G2s in all my MacBooks/MacBook Pros. Plenty of room for ordinary use, and the 160 controllers are twice as quick as what the 80 is equipped with.
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For the price of the 160GB G2, I could actually upgrade my hard drive to the 256 SSD on the Apple Store. Which would you recommend? :confused:
 
urxtream said:
For the price of the 160GB G2, I could actually upgrade my hard drive to the 256 SSD on the Apple Store. Which would you recommend? :confused:
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At the moment the Intel G2 is the fastest and most rock solid SSD on the market. The Samsung drives Apple sells are not very impressive by comparison, but better than spinning hard discs.

Newegg.com sells the G2 for under $500, by the way.
 
You should buy an external HD and keep files that you don't need to be with you at all times on it.
 
LoganT said:
You should buy an external HD and keep files that you don't need to be with you at all times on it.
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True. I go that route myself (DROBO). But still, 80GB can get pretty tight, and that's not even talking about putting many video files on the thing. A World of Warcraft install is over 20GB, for example. But even if you don't put a modern game (or any video) on the thing 80GB can get loaded down pretty quickly. 160GB? Not nearly as bad.
 
zodqyv: Thanks very much for the info. If that's the case, I'll go for the 160GB :)

LoganT: That's what I'm going to do, gonna get either the 1TB Time Capsule or an External HD
 
Btw how difficult is it to swap out the standard HD with an SSD?? I'm worried about screwing up my new laptop as I've never opened up any laptops before.
 
urxtream said:
zodqyv: Thanks very much for the info. If that's the case, I'll go for the 160GB :)

LoganT: That's what I'm going to do, gonna get either the 1TB Time Capsule or an External HD
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You are very welcome for whatever my comments were worth. One thing you may want to consider is the fact that Intel is supposed to be shipping 25nm SSDs by the end of the year. They are going to be available at 600GB+ and they claim they will be much more competitively priced per GB than current drives. Even if the 600GB model is a bit too expensive I am sure there will be a 300-320GB drive that is much more affordable, and no doubt the price for the 160s will drop through the floor at that point.
 
urxtream said:
Btw how difficult is it to swap out the standard HD with an SSD?? I'm worried about screwing up my new laptop as I've never opened up any laptops before.
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Physically, it is extremely easy to swap out hard drives and memory in Unibody MacBooks/MacBook Pros. On the software side it can be slightly tricky, but there are many step by step guides on the Internet that make the process pretty clear.
 
zodqyv said:
You are very welcome for whatever my comments were worth. One thing you may want to consider is the fact that Intel is supposed to be shipping 25nm SSDs by the end of the year. They are going to be available at 600GB+ and they claim they will be much more competitively priced per GB than current drives. Even if the 600GB model is a bit too expensive I am sure there will be a 300-320GB drive that is much more affordable, and no doubt the price for the 160s will drop through the floor at that point.
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Oh really????? I've waited long enough for this MBP refresh, now I've gotta wait again for cheaper SSDs? LOL

If the new SSDs are gonna come in 300-320GB, that's plenty of storage for me and I probably won't need an external HD anymore.

Thanks for the info once again, I guess I'll get the MBP 17" with the standard 5400rpm first and WAIT for the new SSDs :eek:
 
urxtream said:
Oh really????? I've waited long enough for this MBP refresh, now I've gotta wait again for cheaper SSDs? LOL

If the new SSDs are gonna come in 300-320GB, that's plenty of storage for me and I probably won't need an external HD anymore.

Thanks for the info once again, I guess I'll get the MBP 17" with the standard 5400rpm first and WAIT for the new SSDs :eek:
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Personally, I would not wait around. I just wanted to let you know not to be surprised when you see the bigger/cheaper Intel drives out. The thing is, they are supposed to begin shipping near the end of the year, which usually means early into the next year (2011 in this case) before you can really find one for sale.

Remember, SSDs are a cutting edge technology right now, but it will not be long before they are the mainsteams media. If they hit 600GB within the year, then there should be TB SSDs on the market for the same price point a year after that. Then 2TB, then 4TB, etc... Technology keeps moving along. Everything you had five years ago is now hopelessly outdated, and it will not be long before the same will be true of all the great stuff we are buying this year.

Just think back how recently it was that nobody could afford an LCD display. CRTs were everywhere. LCDs were just too expensive. And now even Walmart has only LCDs in both computer monitors and HDTVs. We are in the future!

The spinning hard drive will soon be an endangered species just like the CRT and VHS!
 
Maybe you should save up and get the Intel 160 GB SSD. It's 444.99 dollars on Amazon.com.

The 80 GB is 225.99 dollars. It might be worth it to scrap up another 220 dollars.
 
LoganT said:
Maybe you should save up and get the Intel 160 GB SSD. It's 444.99 dollars on Amazon.com.

The 80 GB is 225.99 dollars. It might be worth it to scrap up another 220 dollars.
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Are the Samsung SSDs that Apple ships out really THAT bad compared to the Intel ones?? I'm thinking, maybe I could go for the 128GB SSD and then upgrade to a new Intel SSD later when they come out. It'll also save me the hassle of pulling my laptop apart and the installation of software onto the new HD.

What do you guys reckon?
 
LoganT said:
Maybe you should save up and get the Intel 160 GB SSD. It's 444.99 dollars on Amazon.com.

The 80 GB is 225.99 dollars. It might be worth it to scrap up another 220 dollars.
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I just ordered the intel 160gb from Amazon. I chose it over the 80gb just so I didn't run into problems with space.

If you are going to drop the $$$ for an SSD, get the best instead of what Apple offers.
 
If I can stuff OS X, Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, Office 2007 for Win and 2008 for Mac AND Windows 7 Pro all an 80 gb drive, you can do it. Standard rules apply. Keep all non essentials on cheaper external storage and you'll be good to go.
 
urxtream said:
Argghhh.....OK....Intel 160GB it is !!

Thanks very much for your inputs ;)
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The 160GB Intel G2 drive is only ~$400 on TigerDirect.com with Bing Cashback, or as low as $370 on eBay brand new with Bing Cashback. I ordered one on Thursday and it will be here tomorrow, thanks to free USPS priority shipping.

Bing Cashback is awesome; you just link your e-mail account with it at bing.com, search intel 160GB SSD and you'll have a link for both tigerdirect and ebay pop up in sponsored links. Buy it from either (ebay must be a buy it now purchase), and you get a percentage sent back to you via Paypal.

On the general topic, I'd also go with the 160GB, the less your drive is full the better performance you will have.
 
Lots of dudes swap out their disc drives and put in a regular hard drive to store their music, movies, images, etc.

Cool thing is that you can install OS X, or Windows 7 with a regular USB DVD drive.
 
Eddyisgreat said:
If I can stuff OS X, Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, Office 2007 for Win and 2008 for Mac AND Windows 7 Pro all an 80 gb drive, you can do it. Standard rules apply. Keep all non essentials on cheaper external storage and you'll be good to go.
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Good thread. I think I am ready to pull the trigger on the intel 160.
 
I love mine. I have the full Creative Suite CS4 installed and Office. And a few other mandatory apps. I also have a 3-4 gig iPhoto library. I have about 40 gigs to spare. Oh Warcraft 3 and torchlight too.... and some Nintendo Games.

I use the 160gb drive I yanked in an external usb enclosure for my itunes and portable storage and a 4gig jump drive for my college classes. I have a 3.5" 7200rpm 320gb hitachi at home in an USB enclosure for home storage at the desk.

As long as you use the drive you yank for storage, the 80gb is fine. Keeps my boot drive free and speedy. The 80gb is really affordable at around 200 bucks these days. Like the previous posters said though, "Get what you need."

It's worth it. Remember you will be keeping your hard drive out of your macbook for whatever reason, I use mine for storage. By the way the life an SSD and ram breathes in a 2008 Macbook, is amazing.
 
Here's a few ideas on how to save some space.

When you install Snow Leopard, customize it. Uncheck any language you don't use, as well as uncheck the printers you aren't using. If down the road you have a new printer, the Mac will automatically download the drivers through software update. This is a great way to save space.

And the next is two software programs. Xslimmer and Squeeze. Both made by LateNiteSoft.

Xslimmer: "Remove unnecessary code from fat binaries. Xslimmer determines which code your machine needs and removes the rest. This is achieved by removing the code inside the Universal Binaries that does not fit with your machine's architecture, a code that never gets executed and just wastes your disk space." It also strips out any language you don't use (you can set it in the preference). That saves a lot of space.

Squeeze: "Squeeze is a background file compressor, which uses the new HFS-compression technology in Snow Leopard to transparently compress the folders you configure it to process. Mac OS will read those files normally, they will just take less disk space."

I have both of these applications and they're both great. I don't see any performance issues either, and this is on a 3.5 inch HD in an iMac.

I'm compressing my Applications folder now and it's already saved 660 MB, and it's not done yet. The savings with both of the applications may not be that great. But when space is scarce every mb counts.

You'll probably save GB's in XSlimmer, just from removing the languages alone.

http://squeezeapp.com/
http://www.xslimmer.com/
 
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