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New 17 inch MBP - HDD or SSD? Can I swap later?

A

aplmcintosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 14, 2009
12
0
Hello world :),

that's my very first thread here. Already red a lot here about the new 17 inch unibody but I still have a question concerning the hard drive.

I basically would like to order a MBP with 2.93 Ghz, 4GB RAM and a 320GB harddrive. Can I swap this harddrive later to a SSD drive? Right now the SSD is to expensive for me.

Would be great if you could help me. Does the connectors are the same for HDD and SSD? :confused:

And by the way, it's a great forum.

Greatings from snowy Germany...
 
yes you can, but if you are spending (almost) $3000 already in the computer why dont spend the other $500 it worth the update and avoid opening your computer in the future. SSD prices more or less halves every year, therefore if you wait a whole year the most you would be saving is $250 for that matter, just get the MBP with the standard 2GB and upgrade (EASILY) for an extra $50 (and if you sell your 1GB sticks on ebay the total price comes to be near the $30).
 
nusynergy said:
does the SSD use the same Sata connections and Bus as the normal HDD?
Click to expand...

yeah, only diff is less noise, less energy consumption and hopefully faster (I say hopefully because there are some scams out there in which the SSD is not more that regular flash (and old/slow) memories in some kind of raid arrangement in an hdd case.
 
xoggyux said:
yeah, only diff is less noise, less energy consumption and hopefully faster (I say hopefully because there are some scams out there in which the SSD is not more that regular flash (and old/slow) memories in some kind of raid arrangement in an hdd case.
Click to expand...

If thats the case id buy from Apple, at least ya know ya kinda getting ya moneys worth
 
nusynergy said:
If thats the case id buy from Apple, at least ya know ya kinda getting ya moneys worth
Click to expand...

There are better drives then what Apple offers. Intel's SSD drives, for example, are extremely good in terms of speed. But they are very pricey. I personally have used a G-Skill brand SSD before and found the performance to be very good and it is a lot cheaper.
 
Actually let me correct myself, the 17" comes with 4gb standard, sorry i thought it was 2gb :D
however you getting the 2.93, in my opinion there wont be substantial difference to the 2.66ghz, ($300 diff) and the 128gb SSD is $300 (rather than 500 i though), if you dont need processor intensive applications, or a lot of HDD space, the SSD will be way faster and better on battery (also 2.66Ghz will be better on battery.
 
xoggyux said:
Actually let me correct myself, the 17" comes with 4gb standard, sorry i thought it was 2gb :D
however you getting the 2.93, in my opinion there wont be substantial difference to the 2.66ghz, ($300 diff) and the 128gb SSD is $300 (rather than 500 i though), if you dont need processor intensive applications, or a lot of HDD space, the SSD will be way faster and better on battery (also 2.66Ghz will be better on battery.
Click to expand...

True for the SSD for battery life, but not the 2.66GHz vs 2.93GHz. Both processors are 35watts. Due to that fact, the battery life would be marginal at best between the two. However, you might get slightly better battery life on the 2.93GHz due to faster processing of whatever you're doing.
 
xoggyux said:
yes you can, but if you are spending (almost) $3000 already in the computer why dont spend the other $500 it worth the update and avoid opening your computer in the future. SSD prices more or less halves every year, therefore if you wait a whole year the most you would be saving is $250 for that matter, just get the MBP with the standard 2GB and upgrade (EASILY) for an extra $50 (and if you sell your 1GB sticks on ebay the total price comes to be near the $30).
Click to expand...

Sounds good but actually here in Germany the price difference between the standard 320 GB HDD and the 256 GB SSD is approximately $950 (€ 750) :mad:
I'd rather spend the money for a ACD LED 24 inch display than on the hard drive. I could also wait another 6 month to have the money for the full specs MBP with 8GB but...I want my new Macbook Pro 17 inch as soon as possible. I'm still using a Powerbook G4 1.67 Ghz with 2 GB of RAM. And looking at the current delivery times I think the wait is not to be over soon :(

Thanxs again for your thoughts...
 
aplmcintosh said:
Sounds good but actually here in Germany the price difference between the standard 320 GB HDD and the 256 GB SSD is approximately $950 (€ 750) :mad:
I'd rather spend the money for a ACD LED 24 inch display than on the hard drive. I could also wait another 6 month to have the money for the full specs MBP with 8GB but...I want my new Macbook Pro 17 inch as soon as possible. I'm still using a Powerbook G4 1.67 Ghz with 2 GB of RAM. And looking at the current delivery times I think the wait is not to be over soon :(

Thanxs again for your thoughts...
Click to expand...

In terms of price/benefit ratio you may as well stick with the 320GB 7200RPM drive for now, and then upgrade later when you have money to throw away. The SSD is nice, very nice actually but they're currently overpriced due to lack of competition and an industry standard hasn't really been set for them yet.
 
i wont use a ssd.
it's simply too expensive.
but
i will use a MCE bay
and have a raid-0 setup
this is wayyy better and a little cheaper
and please don't tell me raid-0 increases my chance of losing data blah blah blah
because i have time machine on external drobo
 
phuong said:
and please don't tell me raid-0 increases my chance of losing data blah blah blah
Click to expand...

it actually depends if your using a hardware or software raid, and yeah anyway if you dont backup your data is your fault if you loose data raid or not because all hard drives fail eventually.
 
aplmcintosh said:
Sounds good but actually here in Germany the price difference between the standard 320 GB HDD and the 256 GB SSD is approximately $950 (€ 750) :mad:
I'd rather spend the money for a ACD LED 24 inch display than on the hard drive. I could also wait another 6 month to have the money for the full specs MBP with 8GB but...I want my new Macbook Pro 17 inch as soon as possible. I'm still using a Powerbook G4 1.67 Ghz with 2 GB of RAM. And looking at the current delivery times I think the wait is not to be over soon :(

Thanxs again for your thoughts...
Click to expand...

Don't get the 250 one obviously, get the 128gb, that will be plenty of space for system and apps and a small MP3 collection and a few videos (at least enough for whatever you will want to carry with you)
If you planning in getting external monitor and you wont be likely to use your computer on the run (away from home) then just get a 15" (huge $1000++ savings) and just get a 25-30" display (something that will support 2560x1600.)

i wont use a ssd.
it's simply too expensive.
but
i will use a MCE bay
and have a raid-0 setup
this is wayyy better and a little cheaper
and please don't tell me raid-0 increases my chance of losing data blah blah blah
because i have time machine on external drobo
Click to expand...

Come on spend $3,000+++ to have a mutilated mac which will be drain your battery and produce awful ammount of noise (not just 1x7200rpm hdd but two?)

Really if you want performance (which after spending $3,000 I am assuming you want) then get an SSD even if its an small one, then get an external HDD with firewire such that you dont waste the few USB you've got (also FW800 should be slightly faster.) Use the SSD for system + apps and external HDD for storing your data. Battery will last you substantially more, speed will be greatly increased, and the best of all no HDDs noises.
 
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