Mac OS X Snow Leopard Experience on a 64GB SSD

[Aboo]

Hi Everyone,

I have an older Samsung SLC RBX series 64GB SSD lying around. This was one of the very first generation SSDs to come out on the market. I was interested in installing this in my early 2009 15" MBP, and I wanted to ask how the experience of a limited hard drive (i.e. only 64GB) will be in Mac OS X. I am currently on a 500GB WD Scorpio Blue, and have about 50% used with various documents, music, etc. Obviously, I realize that I won't have the same functionality with a more limited hard drive. However, the speed improvement I think will be far worth the decrease in capacity, and I was hoping that someone with experience running Mac OS X on lower capacities drive could chime and let me know of some of the pros and cons.

Thanks!

 

[sn0warmy]

So you are talking about eliminating about 200gb of stuff just to put an SSD in?


What good is a super fast harddrive if you can't even fit enough on it to utilize it?

I say wait it out till the 256gb SSD's drop in price.


Unless you only use your laptop as a desktop, then that's a different story. Because then you can use your scorpio blue as an external.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Uhh..well..the methodology is already as you describe. Keep your installation lean; no unneeded printer drivers or language packs...keep your most important applications on the drive itself and a scant amount of popular media for on the go (unless you have an iPhone/iPod). Everything else can go on a small external drive.

I've stuffed Leopard, Windows 7, Creative Suite MASTER Collection (which comes in at about 12 gb all by itself) , Office 2008, iWork, some documents and a couple of small video files and i've still got around 8 gigs left (more once I clear off the media). Anyone who can't make it work isn't trying, and leaving large video files or things that won't benefit from the quick access would be like buying a Ferrari to go get the groceries.

This is on an 80 gig x25-m.

 

[Aboo]

So you are talking about eliminating about 200gb of stuff just to put an SSD in?


What good is a super fast harddrive if you can't even fit enough on it to utilize it?

I say wait it out till the 256gb SSD's drop in price.


Unless you only use your laptop as a desktop, then that's a different story. Because then you can use your scorpio blue as an external.

Well not necessarily eliminating 200 GB worth of stuff. A lot of the stuff that is currently on my hard drive are videos and movies, etc. that I don't utilize on a daily basis. My daily uses are mainly power point, excel, word, and mail. I may also need to have a windows 7 install on board (vmware fusion is fine). But overall, nothing too fancy. I just feel that since I have a great SLC SSD laying around, I could utilize it in my current computer.

I would like to put the WD Scorpio Blue drive in an external firewire 800 enclosure and use it to store all my media files, etc. I am just wondering if this is a wise thing to do.

 

[Aboo]

Uhh..well..the methodology is already as you describe. Keep your installation lean; no unneeded printer drivers or language packs...keep your most important applications on the drive itself and a scant amount of popular media for on the go (unless you have an iPhone/iPod). Everything else can go on a small external drive.

I've stuffed Leopard, Windows 7, Creative Suite MASTER Collection (which comes in at about 12 gb all by itself) , Office 2008, iWork, some documents and a couple of small video files and i've still got around 8 gigs left (more once I clear off the media). Anyone who can't make it work isn't trying, and leaving large video files or things that won't benefit from the quick access would be like buying a Ferrari to go get the groceries.

This is on an 80 gig x25-m.

Thanks for the encouragement! I guess I will attempt this and see how it goes. Project for the weekend!

 

[steve31]

I have a 80GB Intel SSD in my MBP and moved most of the big stuff to a portable hard drive. It is a small price to pay for blistering speed IMO.

 

[Aboo]

I have a 80GB Intel SSD in my MBP and moved most of the big stuff to a portable hard drive. It is a small price to pay for blistering speed IMO.

Steve,

Have you been able to keep your iTunes library, etc. on the external drive without any problems?

 

[RKpro]

SL takes up like 7GB or something. But Windows 7 takes up around 15GB (at least that what the beta version is taking up on my disk). If you have like 10GB of software, and a few GBs of files it should be ok. You don't want it to be near full though, because OSs tend to slow down when there is little free space.

 

[segers909]

I used the optibay alternative on my uMBP with a 64 gb ssd. OS X is on my SSD, as is my program folder, but i moved my home folder to my regular hdd. This way, i only use about 40 GB of my 64 GB SSD, do i not have to worry about my downloads folder getting to big, and do my programs and os x still boot faster since their on my SSD. I spend 100 euro on the SSD, 20 euro on the optibay alternative on ebay and 20 euro for a case to put my optical drive in, so it's external. Total = 140 euro, result = 1 fast as hell macbook.

 

[HellDiverUK]

I'm only using 37GB of my drive, that's with Snow, Adobe Master Suite CS4, Office 2008 all installed.

 

[tofagerl]

I used the optibay alternative on my uMBP with a 64 gb ssd. OS X is on my SSD, as is my program folder, but i moved my home folder to my regular hdd. This way, i only use about 40 GB of my 64 GB SSD, do i not have to worry about my downloads folder getting to big, and do my programs and os x still boot faster since their on my SSD. I spend 100 euro on the SSD, 20 euro on the optibay alternative on ebay and 20 euro for a case to put my optical drive in, so it's external. Total = 140 euro, result = 1 fast as hell macbook.

You should consider putting your ~/Library folder on the SSD (through an alias or symlink) as it's full of small files that are used often - the very thing an SSD is good at.