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tim100

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 25, 2009
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What are the advantages of putting a ssd in a 2011 macbook pro? is it worth it, or better to leave it to the macbook air? it is not worth turning a macbook pro in to a macbook air.
 
Totally worth it.. I love turning on my machine and in 10 seconds or less being fully booted. :) Need to get into bootcamp, restart 10 seconds and I'm in Windows..

I couldn't go back to normal drive now if I tried.. it's so slow working on other computers now.. :D
 
Once you go SSD you can't go back, it is *SO* much faster. You have to be able to experience it yourself to understand.
 
how does it compare to macbook air start up/performace?
 
I don't have a MBA but when I bootup my MBP 13 2011 with SSD, the apple logo comes up and the little wheel underneath spins maybe 1 time before I'm in.
 
It depends how much drive capacity you require. Even with an SSD, your drive will require some free space for system caching and overall performance, so this must be factored in to the capacity you choose. I mention this because SSDs tend to be lower in capacity.

They boot very quickly, reboot quickly, wake from sleep quickly, launch applications faster, have lower seek times, and if you're low on ram, an SSD will bog down the system less when memory paging is involved.

The thing I try to explain, is they only hasten disk bottlenecks. They can speed up applications at times in machines that don't have sufficient ram. If you have sufficient ram, it makes an insignificant difference there. I suggest an SSD to "anyone" using Adobe products on a laptop. The reason for this is that they generate a huge amount of cached data via scratch disks which are basically proprietary page files, and up until recently going to even 16GB of ram in a macbook pro was cost prohibitive for most people. Anyone not on CS5 wouldn't benefit much from the extra ram anyway.

I hope that helps. If you are using that thing for applications that go beyond your typical office applications and web browsing, you should have at least 8GB of ram installed. It's so cheap to get to 8GB these days (it costs around $45), and it will most likely extend the useful life of your machine if you haven't done this already.
 
startup maybe 14sec thats with all my apps opening back up. app opens as soon as i click it, maybe 1 bounce if its a big app. writing files is quick. everything that the hard drive does is faster. you will be happy and never look back
 
startup maybe 14sec thats with all my apps opening back up. app opens as soon as i click it, maybe 1 bounce if its a big app. writing files is quick. everything that the hard drive does is faster. you will be happy and never look back

I see you have 8 gigs of ram and sad in 2011 13 mbp, did you consider 13 mba? Did the 13 mbp lower screen res bother you? what was your reason? I am considering a 13 mbp for my wife.
 
I feel opposite as most people.

SSD is a very, very nice to have. Not a necessity.
Unless you can afford a 512GB drive, I would wait until the prices fall to a more reasonable price/GB.

The first thing I did to my MBP 15" was pull out the 750GB disk and install my Samsung 256GB 470SSD (and upgrade to 8GB RAM). Things definitely fly. However, I am a lossless audio snob and like to have my audio with me. So back, I went to the spinning platter drive.

Quite honestly, yes it's a slight bit slower opening some programs -- but it's not like pulling teeth (one or two dock bounces slower). If you spend a few bucks and install 8GB RAM, once you open a common program (safari), it will be cached in RAM and will open more quickly subsiquently.

I could think of much better things to spend SSD money on...
 
I remove the superdrive for 2 hard drive, one being the SSD, it's worth every penny of it.

boot is about 10 sec and the loading of the login take about 5 secs, and I have a tons of application to load.

it's the best upgrade ever.
 
SSD is much more stable and energy efficient than the HDD, oh...and it's SUPER STUPID FAST TOO!!
As of comparing to the MBA?
1. The res is no problem at all since the quality of the screen on MBP is so much richer than the MBA, compare real life use not with specs.
2. With MBP you can upgrade when u need to like RAM, SSD if you feel like you need more space you could remove the Super Drive and install the HDD on the Optical Bay. You can still use your Super Drive with an enclosure. With MBA? No upgrades. You have to live with what you have.
3. Better speakers on MBP, MBA speakers suck.
4. Battery on MBPs are better too.
5. You'd save more money with MBP. Sure, you'll have to spend an extra $200 atleast for an SSD drive but you still have your HDD you can still use. With MBA if you needed more memory you'll have to get an external HDD.

So i think you should get the MBP and buy an SSD.
 
SSD is much more stable and energy efficient than the HDD, oh...and it's SUPER STUPID FAST TOO!!
As of comparing to the MBA?
1. The res is no problem at all since the quality of the screen on MBP is so much richer than the MBA, compare real life use not with specs.
2. With MBP you can upgrade when u need to like RAM, SSD if you feel like you need more space you could remove the Super Drive and install the HDD on the Optical Bay. You can still use your Super Drive with an enclosure. With MBA? No upgrades. You have to live with what you have.
3. Better speakers on MBP, MBA speakers suck.
4. Battery on MBPs are better too.
5. You'd save more money with MBP. Sure, you'll have to spend an extra $200 atleast for an SSD drive but you still have your HDD you can still use. With MBA if you needed more memory you'll have to get an external HDD.

So i think you should get the MBP and buy an SSD.

SSD much more stable? I think many will not agree with you on that one, including me.
 
SSD is much more stable and energy efficient than the HDD, oh...and it's SUPER STUPID FAST TOO!!
As of comparing to the MBA?

This is true since I upgrade to SSD, I notice that I can make about 5 hours on battery where as before I can barely get to 3-3.5 hours.
 
I see it like this: If you plan on upgrading to a new computer, and you don't put a SSD in that machine, you might as well not upgrade.

For most of my day to day work, the SSD enhances my experience more than the upgrade from a 2008 C2D to a quad core Sandy Bridge. Of course, if you frequently run very hardware demanding applications, the CPU upgrade is also very important. But for everyone else, I think a SSD upgrade is better at making the computer feel "faster."

Of course the price/storage is still an issue, and for some people it might be a good enough reason to stick with HDDs.
 
I see you have 8 gigs of ram and sad in 2011 13 mbp, did you consider 13 mba? Did the 13 mbp lower screen res bother you? what was your reason? I am considering a 13 mbp for my wife.

Screen resolution is not the only nor most important indicator of the quality of the display..

Generally people interested in MBP's are not interested in MBA's they cannot be upgraded and the display is just not as good despite the higher resolution.
 
I see you have 8 gigs of ram and sad in 2011 13 mbp, did you consider 13 mba? Did the 13 mbp lower screen res bother you? what was your reason? I am considering a 13 mbp for my wife.

i did look at the air. i really don't like the thin design. the screen res not a big deal. in jan I'm getting tbd so thats why it wasn't a big deal. plus the screen res is better on the air but i believe the quality view is on the mbp. nice solid glass, good color. i use mine mostly for my business, so lots of iWork and internet on the go. a lot of my clients do have discs they backup their info on so the air wouldn't have been a good choice. i think you just have to look at the use of the machine. depending on what you wife does the air might be a good choice because of the weight and slimness. either way both are excellent machines.

also like one stated above you can upgrade the pro, with the air not so much
 
Once you use an SSD, you'll never go back.
My MbP booted up in less than 10 seconds (from pressing the power button).
If you want an SSD, here's my advice: Buy an MbP from Apple, select the cheapest RPM drive available and then get an SSD from somewhere else. Apple sells the SSD at an outrageous price. I saved $50 getting a 512GB SSD from my local computer repair shop.
SSD saves battery as there are no moving parts.
If you jerk a laptop that has a HDD while it's running, you risk damaging it.
You won't have to worry jerking it around if it has an SSD as there are no moving parts.
Hope it helps.
 
SSD much more stable? I think many will not agree with you on that one, including me.

I'd second that. SSD's have come a long way but they are still bleeding edge technology, IMO.

+1 Just look at the Macbook Pro forum on any given day and there are almost always threads about people with SSDs that will not work properly. When did you last see a thread about a HDD not working properly?

I have an SSD and love it, but I would not say it is more reliable than a HDD.
 
+1 Just look at the Macbook Pro forum on any given day and there are almost always threads about people with SSDs that will not work properly. When did you last see a thread about a HDD not working properly?

I have an SSD and love it, but I would not say it is more reliable than a HDD.

true but its not the ssd itself it is the compatibility to the hard/software. i think there has only been a few where the ssd itself was bad. and also i have replaced many external hard drives over the years. so when ssd has been around in the general population for 30 or more years then you can compare the two

also i have an ssd that was bto from apple and have had no problems with anything on my computer
 
true but its not the ssd itself it is the compatibility to the hard/software.

I agree that is a large part of the problem, but forum posts seem to be about both reliability and compatibility. Like I said, I have one and like it, but I don't think we are quite where we are with HDD yet where you can just grab any brand and pop it in and have it work for a couple years.
 
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