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MacBook Air on HDD: This is it's performance (Surprisingly better than expected)

Would you consider a MacBook Air without an SSD?

  • Yes, I'd definitely want that extra storage. I'm a patient person.

    Votes: 2 4.2%

  • No, I want it quick. SSD is the best.

    Votes: 46 95.8%
  • Total voters
    48
Blackberryroid said:
By "replacing", I meant "replacing" to default boot drive. I consider that replacing.

But since you really want everything literally, I changed the title and my post. So we can all be happy. :D

I didn't really think anyone would actually worry about the replacing part, this thread was meant to focus on the performance.
Click to expand...

On that note, you never even mentioned which interface you used to "replace" your boot drive. I am assuming Thunderbolt, but you could've just as easily used a USB 2.0 enclosure which would skew the results.
 
Blackberryroid said:
Yes, but it is dependent on the processor. Studies have shown that USB 2 can be faster than FW800 or 400.
Click to expand...

So, you are saying if you have the best processor available that Thunderbolt and USB2 should be about on par with each other? If you actually booted from a USB2 drive, then all of your data is pretty much worthless since USB2 will be incredibly slow when used as a boot drive. Try it again with a Thunderbolt connection (which will basically be native SATA III speed) and let us know how that goes. It will still be slow with a 5400rpm HDD vs. an SSD, but it will at least be a fair comparison.
 
Blackberryroid said:
Yes, but it is dependent on the processor. Studies have shown that USB 2 can be faster than FW800 or 400.
Click to expand...

Please point to those studies, I have never seen transfer speeds faster than 38 MB/s via USB 2.0 on iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Mac minis or Mac Pros.
Firewire 400 is around the same speed as USB 2.0, though it transfers data as a stream and not in burst as USB 2.0 does.
If the Firewire 800 chips (Mac and HDD enclosure) and the drivers are good, then I can have speeds of about 65 to 75 MB/s, but often I see them crawling at 55 MB/s.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Please point to those studies, I have never seen transfer speeds faster than 38 MB/s via USB 2.0 on iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Mac minis or Mac Pros.
Firewire 400 is around the same speed as USB 2.0, though it transfers data as a stream and not in burst as USB 2.0 does.
If the Firewire 800 chips (Mac and HDD enclosure) and the drivers are good, then I can have speeds of about 65 to 75 MB/s, but often I see them crawling at 55 MB/s.
Click to expand...

Okay, I can't find the part where processor is related to USBs (I found that before, probably deep inside the internet). But I did find this:

USB 2.0, with 480Mbps High speed, launched in April 2000
Click to expand...


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Ricanlegend said:
Very misleading OP , alot of people already does or can do that
Click to expand...

Really? I tried running the installer, it won't boot. I had to carbon copy every byte to make it bootable.
 
The sort of hard drive that was used in the original Macbook Air was a 1.8" model, the same used in the iPods. There isn't really room for a full sized laptop 2.5" drive. Those 1.8" drives were incredibly slow, slower than a standard laptop hard drive.

I'd much rather have the 128GB standard SSD in the 13" Air and use my own external for extra storage than buy a machine with a tiny slow hard drive.

Besides, the Air is already about as cheap as Apple laptops ever get.
 
Stetrain said:
The sort of hard drive that was used in the original Macbook Air was a 1.8" model, the same used in the iPods. There isn't really room for a full sized laptop 2.5" drive. Those 1.8" drives were incredibly slow, slower than a standard laptop hard drive.
Click to expand...

Still, any size of hard drive wouldn't fit on the Air because the internals are redesigned.
 
Unhyper said:
Right, 480 Mbps, which equals 60 MB/s, which is what the speed is capped at. We're talking about megabytes per second, not megabits.
Click to expand...

Transfer speed in one way from USB 2.0 is usually 30MB/s, even.

So if this was done on a 2.0 disk, well.. It's not at all representing what a harddrive in an MBA would be like.
 
Blackberryroid said:
Honestly, who would say that the good old HDD is noisy? Back in the old days, when Steve Jobs was introducing the Power Mac G4 Cube, he called it "Virtual Silence".
Click to expand...

I don't think it is about the noise either. HDD are very quiet. The benefits are having no moving parts in a mobile device and battery life.
 
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