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New MBP 256GB SSD or 500GB 7200 HDD?

G

grapii

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 27, 2009
63
0
Now that the MBPs have been refreshed, looking to order one in the next few hours. Question is which options should I take??

I'm definitely going for the :
17" i7 processor
4GB RAM
Hi Res Glossy Screen

However, bit stuck on the HD version. The 512 SSD is out of my budget, so have a choice between the 256GB SSD and the 500GB 7200rpm HDD. The machine will mainly be used for photo organisation (iPhoto) and ameture home video editing (iMovie) and possible making them into DVDs (iDVD).

Apart from that, the machine will be used for general surfing, emailing, and some other apps such as Photoshop CS4/5 (but limited use), DreamWeaver, Office/iWork and maybe iPhone development.

idea is to use an external USB drive to hold the converted AIC formatted videos, edit them in iMovie, then output to best res onto same external HD. The converted vids will be deleted along with the iMovie projects and the final edited vid will be stored on Win 7 PC for use with Media Center.

Do you think the external USB drive would be good enough? or would external fireWire be better? or should both converted and final version vids reside on internal HD whilst being worked on.

If external is good I'd probably then go for the SSD as I wouldn't need the large capacity, else I go for the largest standard HD.

Also, 4GB ok or would I need 8GB. I'm thinking 4GB should be adequate.

Thanks for your help people!
 
I would not buy Apple's SSD. I would buy anything BUT Apple's SSD.
I'd look into buying an OCZ or Intel SSD and maybe do the optibay thing.
 
Throughput/Reliability?

How does throughput compare between 7200 rpm and SSD? I don't care that much about capacity on the internal drive, I'd mainly be using it for low latency audio recording and playback. So my top priorities are:

1) Reading and writing large files as fast as possible.
2) Reliability, don't want my disk being corrupted
3) Portability, won't be doing studio recording/playback off the laptop. Just live performance.

I know Apple's SSDs have a bad reputation, but wondering if they've perhaps switched vendors or improved them in this generation of MBP.

Any (informed) advice is much appreciated!
 
pmentonelli said:
How does throughput compare between 7200 rpm and SSD?
Click to expand...

500GB 7200RPM 2.5" drive max read: 80MB/s
SSD 2.5" (e.g OCZ Vertex Turbo or Intel G2) max read: 260MB/s.

Random read/write speeds of an SSD is even more impressive! Absolutely no comparison to a magnetic drive.

Tough decision! :rolleyes:
 
If space isn't too important, you could get an Intel X25-M 160GB for the price Apple is selling their 256 (education store pricing that is). The Intel drive will be much faster than Apple's SSD. The other option (which I recommend) is getting the standard hard drive and waiting for prices of better SSDs to come down a bit. Apple's SSDs are far weaker than the competition out there and though they've dropped the prices on them quite a bit, they are still not really worth it in my opinion.
 
How about power consumption?

Hello. Which one consumes less energy (HD 7200/5400rpm or SSD)?
 
hajime said:
Hello. Which one consumes less energy (HD 7200/5400rpm or SSD)?
Click to expand...

SSDs consume roughly the same power than a 5400RPM 2.5" drive.
7200RPM drives need a little more power, but considering the current battery life of 8+ hours, power consumption of hard drives is totally negligible.
 
What about warranty and apple care if I open it up?

Thanks for your feedback.

If I were to go for the non-Apple SSD as some of the posts suggest, and buy the stock HDD then install the Intel SSD myself, will my warranty be void? I will be taking out the 3year apple care is this affected?

Will I still be able to go back to Apple, with the apple care protection, if anything goes wrong with the hardware even though I opened it up and changed the HD?

Thanks
 
grapii said:
Will I still be able to go back to Apple, with the apple care protection, if anything goes wrong with the hardware even though I opened it up and changed the HD?
Click to expand...

Yes sir. Swapping the hard drive and RAM does not affect the warranty by any means.
 
arachn1d said:
Do you have any sources? I'm curious please.
Click to expand...

No sources required. Intel uses Samsung SSDs which are good for what they are, but you could get them for half the price Apple charges for the upgrades.

For what Apple charges, you can get much better drives like the previously mentioned Intel G2 or OCZ Vertex Turbo.
 
Transporteur said:
No sources required. Intel uses Samsung SSDs which are good for what they are, but you could get them for half the price Apple charges for the upgrades.

For what Apple charges, you can get much better drives like the previously mentioned Intel G2 or OCZ Vertex Turbo.
Click to expand...

in australia, it is only $250 extra, but to buy a ssd off ebay it is at least $400??? for 128Gb i don't see how that makes apple expensive?
 
What about this 256 gb Corsair for 700 from amazon.
Any problems with MBPs--one egghead review said his 2009 mbp would not reocginize it. other than that it looks good.
 
Transporteur said:
No sources required. Intel uses Samsung SSDs which are good for what they are, but you could get them for half the price Apple charges for the upgrades.

For what Apple charges, you can get much better drives like the previously mentioned Intel G2 or OCZ Vertex Turbo.
Click to expand...

Where would you buy these Samsung SSD's?

Are the Intel G2 and OCZ Vertex Turbo compatible with the new MBP'?
 
offwidafairies said:
in australia, it is only $250 extra, but to buy a ssd off ebay it is at least $400??? for 128Gb i don't see how that makes apple expensive?
Click to expand...

In australia the 128GB SSD is $490 more! You have to go from the stock drive (250GB), not the 500GB drive, since you're already buying the extremely high price Apple charges for the 500GB drive.

I don't know australian prices, but in Europe you can get the drive for less than Apple charges.

arachn1d said:
Where would you buy these Samsung SSD's?

Are the Intel G2 and OCZ Vertex Turbo compatible with the new MBP'?
Click to expand...

Yes they are compatible. They are standard SATAII drives.
Where to buy them depends on where you live.
Out of those two, I recommend the Intel drive. I've got the 160GB G2 in my Mac Pro and a 120GB Vertex Turbo in a MBP and the Intel definitely is superior as a system drive.

Bought them more than half a year ago, if I'd have to buy a new SATAII SSD today, I'd definitely buy the 200GB Sandforce drive. OWC and OCZ sell them (Vertex Turbo LE). They are the fastest drives you can get for SATAII, so the fastest you can get for a MBP.
 
Thanks everyone.

I've ordered the Intel X25-M 160GB SSD.

Can't wait to fit this bad boy in....once I get the MBP that is ;)
 
grapii said:
Thanks everyone.

I've ordered the Intel X25-M 160GB SSD.

Can't wait to fit this bad boy in....once I get the MBP that is ;)
Click to expand...

Today's a good day - first I got the tracking information as my new MBP 17' leaves China and I ordered a Corsair Force 100Gb for $409 last night.

Without more information from Apple on the SSD they include, and assuming it was still the older Samsung unit I decided to keep the 7200rpm drive I ordered in the MBP and supplement it with the Corsair Force. I think this should be a good combination based on the early feedback on the Corsair Force.

Getting excited about thsi!
 
Transporteur said:
Yes they are compatible. They are standard SATAII drives.
Where to buy them depends on where you live.
Out of those two, I recommend the Intel drive. I've got the 160GB G2 in my Mac Pro and a 120GB Vertex Turbo in a MBP and the Intel definitely is superior as a system drive.
Click to expand...

Saying SATAII is wrong. Saying that can be misleading. It should be either SAT revision 2 OR SATA 3GBits/s (which is 3 gigabits per second). Regular SATA is 1.5 GBits/s and the latest SATA (SATA Revision 3) is 6GBits/s.
 
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