I was planning on getting a MBA but am now rethinking it and considering getting a MBP. I really liked the idea of having a SSD, thus part of the reason for considering the MBA. Now when configuring the MBP I see how much $ a SSD is going to bump up the price. What do you people here think.....is the increase in price from a HDD to a SSD worth it? What are the biggest advantages? If I were to go with the HDD can I upgrade to a SSD in the future? This will be my first Mac.....thanks so much for any feedback.
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Is the Solid State Drive worth it?
- Thread starter Mojer
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I would order the MBP with the stock hard drive and then replace it by buying a third party SSD (Vertex 3, Intel 510, Corsair Force 3 etc) from somewhere else. So yes, you can upgrade the HDD later on the MBPs.
The hard drive in the MBP is rather slow so a SSD will be a huge upgrade, worth every cent! Boot-time will be alot faster, app launching alot faster, loading (e.g. games) alot faster and they are more durable (since no moving parts).
SSDs are awesome!
The hard drive in the MBP is rather slow so a SSD will be a huge upgrade, worth every cent! Boot-time will be alot faster, app launching alot faster, loading (e.g. games) alot faster and they are more durable (since no moving parts).
SSDs are awesome!
Personally, I think it's not worth, the difference is that SSD is a little faster and more durable than HDD. I think the money they're asking is too much for a MBA. MBP is heavier but also better, faster...
But also depends what you want it for!
Both are pretty good
You'd be better off with a MBP as you can upgrade it. If you don't think you'll ever run out of RAM, run with it.
For your uses, a SSD is a waste of money.
i could never go back to using a HDD...dont be scared off by all the bad ssd threads there are many more that have never had an issue.
An SSD is a lot faster than an HDD. Just saying. You will immediately notice the difference.
I just pulled the trigger on a 120GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD and a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Hybrid for my new MBP, I will be using the SSD as the boot drive and the Seagate as the storage drive and turning my stock 750GB into a portable Firewire 800 external drive for various finished projects and backups.
I'm starting school again for IT Service and Support as well as minoring in A/V Editing so I need something that's fast for rendering and also fast for transfers hence the new MBP upgrade from an Early 2008 Black MB.
I will report back on how my upgrades improve my performance and give you my honest opinion if it was worth spending $450 on the setup.
TRB
I'm starting school again for IT Service and Support as well as minoring in A/V Editing so I need something that's fast for rendering and also fast for transfers hence the new MBP upgrade from an Early 2008 Black MB.
I will report back on how my upgrades improve my performance and give you my honest opinion if it was worth spending $450 on the setup.
TRB
yes SSD is very much worth it. Infact I'm never going to have a laptop without one from now on.
I have a Macbook Air 11" ultimate and an ultimate 15" MPB. For day to day work, email, web, spreadsheets, powerpoint the macbook air is a joy to use with the SSD. The MBP with its HDD just sucks with beach balls all the time. I bought crucial M4 SSD and the MBP is like a new machine.
I have a Macbook Air 11" ultimate and an ultimate 15" MPB. For day to day work, email, web, spreadsheets, powerpoint the macbook air is a joy to use with the SSD. The MBP with its HDD just sucks with beach balls all the time. I bought crucial M4 SSD and the MBP is like a new machine.
Durability, no moving parts.
Speed, reading from SSD is quicker than a hard drive.
Power, my Crucial M4 256GB is providing me with 7 hours battery life on my 2009 MBP.
Noise, as there are no moving parts it is silent in operation.
A SSD is 50 times more expensive for only 2 times more speed. ( comparing a 1 TB SDD to a 1 TB HDD ).
Not worth it.
When the price / speed ratio comes down, then we start talking.
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1TB SSD and 1TB HDD comparison is harsh
SSD aren't really the off the shelve part to store huge amounts of data.
a 60GB SSD does most of everyday job.
a clean Lion is just over 5GB. plus whatever apps u have. 60GB is more than enough for a few emails and internet use. 60GB is too little i hear u say, 120GB doesn't cost an arm or a leg if you buy a non apple OEM part
and that is a cost of only twice of what a normal size 250GB or 500GB HDD would cost. for 2 - 4 folds the speed and performance gain.
SSD aren't really the off the shelve part to store huge amounts of data.
a 60GB SSD does most of everyday job.
a clean Lion is just over 5GB. plus whatever apps u have. 60GB is more than enough for a few emails and internet use. 60GB is too little i hear u say, 120GB doesn't cost an arm or a leg if you buy a non apple OEM part
and that is a cost of only twice of what a normal size 250GB or 500GB HDD would cost. for 2 - 4 folds the speed and performance gain.
i have to admit that i rarely feel the difference. i had a Scorpio Black 750GB RAID0 Setup before and "upgraded" to a Crucial m4 + WD 1TB Drive. Unless i reboot my computer 1 billion times just to see how fast it does or running benchmarks all the time i do feel literally NO difference.
SSD will speed up boot time (and really, how often do you reboot? Rarely) and application launching time (ditto). You will also see increases in speed working with VERY large files.
For your uses, OP, you will be wasting money, as Labaguette points out. But hey, if that's what you want to do . . .
For your uses, OP, you will be wasting money, as Labaguette points out. But hey, if that's what you want to do . . .
To me it'll be worth it when the 512GB is about $250. Yeah, I know I'll be waiting a long time. But there's no way I'm compromising storage capacity, and there's no way I'm dropping over a grand on a hard drive just so Finder can feel "snappier" and I can have a boot time that 10 seconds shorter than my already fast boot time.
It is worth it because it's faster and durable, but, at the same time, it's not worth it because of the price (at least to me). OP, for your usage type, it is DEFINITELY NOT worth it!
Couldn't have said it better.
In all honesty, if you can comfortably afford an SSD then congrats. But for me, I will pass until they are cheaper.
I rarely shut down so that fast boot time doesn't do much for me.
I find 7200rpm fast enough for opening applications, I can bear the time difference.
lol are you really looking at sequential speeds? You don't know what you're talking about.
Anyway, SSDs main "performance" gain are fast random 4k/8k reads/writes, and much lower latency. How much faster? The fastest HDDs today are just below 1 MB/s read/write speeds, with 10-15ms access times. SSDs on average are pushing 40-80 MB/s read/write speeds, with <0.1ms access times.
So how much faster? 100x.
And lol 1 tb SSD. What is that, 5 grand?
Initial impressions are largely what you are reading about here. Of course users will be impressed with how fast it boots and shuts down. How much faster it is doing real world work is far less.
In the Apple world implementation of SSD's is quite new, therefore not many have a lot of run time on them. After the first year, that's when the slow downs begin if TRIM or garbage collection is not optimized. I know, I've used nearly a dozen SSD's on my PC's for few years, and just started installing them in my Mac's this year. Snow Leopard was not designed specifically for an SSD. Lion is.
Yet even so, only time will reveal how well Lion truly supports this relatively new tech. That, plus the fact that prices are still coming down at a pretty good rate, in another six months or so, they're going to be a far more sensible choice. In addition they will be greatly improved as well.
Waiting will save you handsomely.
In the Apple world implementation of SSD's is quite new, therefore not many have a lot of run time on them. After the first year, that's when the slow downs begin if TRIM or garbage collection is not optimized. I know, I've used nearly a dozen SSD's on my PC's for few years, and just started installing them in my Mac's this year. Snow Leopard was not designed specifically for an SSD. Lion is.
Yet even so, only time will reveal how well Lion truly supports this relatively new tech. That, plus the fact that prices are still coming down at a pretty good rate, in another six months or so, they're going to be a far more sensible choice. In addition they will be greatly improved as well.
Waiting will save you handsomely.