Is the toshiba SSD really that bad?

[macguy360]

I just bought an 11" macbook air from best buy yesterday and I came home to set it up and found out I got the toshiba ssd.

I was wondering if it is really worth it to go ahead and return it or if I won't really notice a huge difference.

I will be using the macbook for college work like typing, making power points and some small video editing using iMovie.

Thanks for your response.

 

[Hellhammer]

The difference between the two is negligible in real world. People are way too concerned about this whole SSD thing.

 

[macguy360]

Thanks hellhammer. So far it seems like it is really fast and I don't notice any issues with it.

 

[glen e]

Ridiculous....this board is ripe with two new viruses:

SSD mfr hypochondria
Display mfr hypochondria

oh yeah a new one:

"My batt is only at 96% hypochondria"


for god sakes people, go play outside for while, it's summer...

 

[ZBoater]

I was wondering if it is really worth it to go ahead and return it...

No, it isn't.

 

[zzz99]

Yes I care about this, because I am a customer.

What about this, next time, Apple will put a random i5 cpu in the air, 1.4Ghz and 1.6Ghz for the same price. What do you think?

I just bought an 11" macbook air from best buy yesterday and I came home to set it up and found out I got the toshiba ssd.

I was wondering if it is really worth it to go ahead and return it or if I won't really notice a huge difference.

I will be using the macbook for college work like typing, making power points and some small video editing using iMovie.

Thanks for your response.

 

[ZBoater]

Ridiculous....this board is ripe with two new viruses:

SSD mfr hypochondria
Display mfr hypochondria

oh yeah a new one:

"My batt is only at 96% hypochondria"


for god sakes people, go play outside for while, it's summer...

LOL! This made me laugh...

----------

Yes I care about this, because I am a customer.

What about this, next time, Apple will put a random i5 cpu in the air, 1.4Ghz and 1.6Ghz for the same price. What do you think?

If they made the specs of the SSD a part of their product advertising (like they do with the CPUs) you would have a point....

 

[zzz99]

You are right.

Well, I am just glad that I got the Samsung SSD this time, my 2010 mba was Toshiba.

LOL! This made me laugh...

----------



If they made the specs of the SSD a part of their product advertising (like they do with the CPUs) you would have a point....

 

[JSalig]

Not. At. All.

I have a 13" with a Toshiba SSD and a 11" with a Samsung SSD. I really can't discern a difference between the two in my everyday use as far as performance is concerned. They're both incredibly speedy.

I envy those who are going to get flawless open box MBA's on the cheap.

 

[Pipper99]

Ridiculous....this board is ripe with two new viruses:

SSD mfr hypochondria
Display mfr hypochondria

oh yeah a new one:

"My batt is only at 96% hypochondria"


for god sakes people, go play outside for while, it's summer...

I wish I could: it's death to step outside in this furnace.

 

[ZBoater]

I envy those who are going to get flawless open box MBA's on the cheap.

There is always a bright side to be found amidst this madness!

 

[KPOM]

If they made the specs of the SSD a part of their product advertising (like they do with the CPUs) you would have a point....

The silly thing is that midway through the Rev C lifecycle (July 2009 - October 2010), Apple quietly replaced the relatively slow Samsung SSD (about 1/3 of the speed of the 2010 SSD) with a faster Toshiba SSD that supports TRIM in 10.6.8 and 10.7. Yet there was virtually no outcry about that.

That move almost tripled the SSD speed. The difference between the Toshiba and Samsung SSDs now is measured in small percentages, and isn't noticeable at all in real-world usage. I had the Toshiba drive in my 2010 model and it was fine.

 

[deeddawg]

Yes I care about this, because I am a customer.

What about this, next time, Apple will put a random i5 cpu in the air, 1.4Ghz and 1.6Ghz for the same price. What do you think?

Question -- how does the difference between the two SSD's affect you in real world usage? Please cite specific examples of actual differences in the time it takes to do common tasks. I'm fine with "back of the envelope" calculations.

I'm trying to understand in what situations the SSD is the bottleneck and actually creates a perceptible delay from one model to the other.

The CPU example is a straw-man and is not comparable.

 

[jsolares]

The silly thing is that midway through the Rev C lifecycle (July 2009 - October 2010), Apple quietly replaced the relatively slow Samsung SSD (about 1/3 of the speed of the 2010 SSD) with a faster Toshiba SSD that supports TRIM in 10.6.8 and 10.7. Yet there was virtually no outcry about that.

That move almost tripled the SSD speed. The difference between the Toshiba and Samsung SSDs now is measured in small percentages, and isn't noticeable at all in real-world usage. I had the Toshiba drive in my 2010 model and it was fine.

50% is not small percentages, the samsung is faster by as much in some test.

Question -- how does the difference between the two SSD's affect you in real world usage? Please cite specific examples of actual differences in the time it takes to do common tasks. I'm fine with "back of the envelope" calculations.

I'm trying to understand in what situations the SSD is the bottleneck and actually creates a perceptible delay from one model to the other.

The CPU example is a straw-man and is not comparable.

I can only think of one, if you use a pegasus R6, it'll take longer to copy from/to the air with the toshiba.

 

[tom vilsack]

i would prefer samsung ssd and screen...but if mba was perfect (no issues) i would probably just keep it.

 

[ZBoater]

50% is not small percentages, the samsung is faster by as much in some test.

I ran Xbench on both (I own both) and the difference is less than 10%. And I can only tell reading the results, because nothing else I do on either machine reveals to me which is which.

 

[KPOM]

50% is not small percentages, the samsung is faster by as much in some test.

It's closer to 25% or less in most of the tests I've seen.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/04/16/apple...r-samsung-ssds-for-new-macbook-air-shipments/

The next big leap will come with SATA 3.0 SSDs capable of 6GB/s. I think the ASUS UX21 and UX31 may ship with those drives. Those would be noticeably faster than either the Toshiba or Samsung drives. I've heard that the MacBook Air controller is capable of accepting SATA 3.0, so it's entirely possible we'll see these drives added mid-stream, just as we saw the Samsung drives added mid-stream into the 2010 MacBook Air, and the Toshiba SSD added mid-stream into the 2009 MacBook Air.

 

[Hellhammer]

It's closer to 25% or less in most of the tests I've seen.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/04/16/apple...r-samsung-ssds-for-new-macbook-air-shipments/

The next big leap will come with SATA 3.0 SSDs capable of 6GB/s. I think the ASUS UX21 and UX31 may ship with those drives. Those would be noticeably faster than either the Toshiba or Samsung drives. I've heard that the MacBook Air controller is capable of accepting SATA 3.0, so it's entirely possible we'll see these drives added mid-stream, just as we saw the Samsung drives added mid-stream into the 2010 MacBook Air, and the Toshiba SSD added mid-stream into the 2009 MacBook Air.

Samsung even has a new SATA 6Gb/s controller which is good for up to 500MB/s.

 

[jsolares]

I ran Xbench on both (I own both) and the difference is less than 10%. And I can only tell reading the results, because nothing else I do on either machine reveals to me which is which.

Sequential Write 4k:
277MB/s vs 198MB/s = 39.9% samsung advantage

Sequential Write 256k:
185.22MB/s vs 173.21MB/s = 7% samsung advantage

Sequential Read 4k:
29.50MB/s vs 34.51MB/s = 17% toshiba advantage

Sequential Read 256k:
209.65MB/s vs 210.91MB/s = 0.6% toshiba advantage

Random (same order as above)
84.58 vs 52.51 = 61% samsung advantage
193.31 vs 215.02 = 11% toshiba advantage
12.39 vs 15.59 = 25.8% toshiba advantage
160.80 vs 112.09 = 43% samsung advantage

Unless you're plugging in something to the thunderbolt port that can take advantage of the speed the difference becomes moot, usb and wifi will be the bottleneck and both are slower than what either drive is capable of.

----------

It's closer to 25% or less in most of the tests I've seen.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/04/16/apple...r-samsung-ssds-for-new-macbook-air-shipments/

The next big leap will come with SATA 3.0 SSDs capable of 6GB/s. I think the ASUS UX21 and UX31 may ship with those drives. Those would be noticeably faster than either the Toshiba or Samsung drives. I've heard that the MacBook Air controller is capable of accepting SATA 3.0, so it's entirely possible we'll see these drives added mid-stream, just as we saw the Samsung drives added mid-stream into the 2010 MacBook Air, and the Toshiba SSD added mid-stream into the 2009 MacBook Air.

I wonder when those drives will come to the Air, probably silent upgrade, hopefully my ssd dies within applecare and after those are the norm XD

In the mean time i'm pretty happy with the performance of the toshiba ssd and the lg screen

 

[macfly4]

Nice thread. thanks for the info. Before i got my 11" ultimate I had been reading these and getting worried about which ssd i would get. of course when i checked i had the toshiba. in the end i decided to just keep it. after 3 hours of migration assistant why the hell bother with trading it in for another in the hopes of some mythical real world advantage. For what i use mine for i don't see that it would be worth it. maybe for someone out there but not for me.
if i even keep this laptop for more than 2 years i can always upgrade to the newest SSD that will be available

 

[ZBoater]

Sequential Write 4k:
277MB/s vs 198MB/s = 39.9% samsung advantage

Sequential Write 256k:
185.22MB/s vs 173.21MB/s = 7% samsung advantage

Sequential Read 4k:
29.50MB/s vs 34.51MB/s = 17% toshiba advantage

Sequential Read 256k:
209.65MB/s vs 210.91MB/s = 0.6% toshiba advantage

Random (same order as above)
84.58 vs 52.51 = 61% samsung advantage
193.31 vs 215.02 = 11% toshiba advantage
12.39 vs 15.59 = 25.8% toshiba advantage
160.80 vs 112.09 = 43% samsung advantage

So what do these results mean? From the bleachers it looks like give or take the same thing. One is faster here, the other is faster there. Nothing that any user would notice unless they were timing it with a very good stopwatch....

 

[mikethebigo]

So what do these results mean? From the bleachers it looks like give or take the same thing. One is faster here, the other is faster there. Nothing that any user would notice unless they were timing it with a very good stopwatch....

That's the point.

 

[jsolares]

So what do these results mean? From the bleachers it looks like give or take the same thing. One is faster here, the other is faster there. Nothing that any user would notice unless they were timing it with a very good stopwatch....

It probably only matters if you're editing video or something like that, for most users the difference will be 0.5s or less and who's going to notice that?

 

[mikethebigo]

It probably only matters if you're editing video or something like that, for most users the difference will be 0.5s or less and who's going to notice that?

Not only that, but for certain tasks, the Toshiba drive is faster.

 

[ZBoater]

That's the point.

Don't mind me then...