People with 128GB SSDs, how do you do it?

[dagamer34]

Well, I am in narrowing down my choice of laptops for college (between 2011 MBP or the new Lenovo T420s, but this thread isn't about my decision between then two) and I might be getting a 128GB SSD upgrade..

For the people who have this amount of space, do you find it annoying and that you are almost always running out of space? What do you guys normally use your laptop for? Do you guys have an external HD that you constantly use or online backup? I was thinking of signing up for 50GB of dropbox cloud storage, so that sorta expands my horizon. I'm wondering if as an engineering student, will 128GB be too little for me...

Backing up 50GB into the cloud takes quite a bit of time. I hope you have a very good broadband connection, as most of the good ISPs with nice download speeds bottleneck upload speeds. At 2Mbit/sec, it would take about 2 weeks to upload (so hopefully the data doesn't change that often).

 

[max pl]

what brand are the 128gig ssds apple uses in the mbp?

also, does this new mbp support sata 3?

 

[e5volcano]

I mentioned in another thread that I was contemplating this very idea. How do you find performance to be when loading media or games from these cards compared to, say, a 5400rpm or 7200rpm HDD?

I too would like toknow the performance ofthis method

 

[jsilas]

So when taking out the optical bay, can you put it in an enclosure and turn it into an external cd drive?

Yep. When I bought my OptiBay, they gave me a free enclosure for the SuperDrive.

 

[snaky69]

I probably will use AutoCAD, and Solidworks and make 3D/2D models/blueprints...don't know how big those files take but I think those programs take up a lot of space in installation

I won't be gaming, but I will be listening to music and my current collection is abotu 10GB

Solidworks is windows only, autocad now has a mac version. The do take up some space as far as installation go, but the files they produce aren't all that big, and honestly, you want GPU and CPU power for CAD work, the hard drive really isn't a bottleneck in this situation.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Backing up 50GB into the cloud takes quite a bit of time. I hope you have a very good broadband connection, as most of the good ISPs with nice download speeds bottleneck upload speeds. At 2Mbit/sec, it would take about 2 weeks to upload (so hopefully the data doesn't change that often).

It is around 3 days not 2 weeks.

Also I find that for most people data does not change that often.
Also remember 50 gigs of drop box space still means you have 50 gigs of data on your hard drive that you have to give up.

 

[rmitchell248]

I don't have my MBP yet so my opinions might change when I actually get my machine (I doubt they will change though).

I plan on getting a 128GB SSD from OWC and adding an OptiBay mod with the 750GB 5400rpm stock HDD from Apple. I'll keep my application, system, and home folder on the SSD and the rest (iTunes Music, videos, Torrents, documents) on the 750GB.

As it stands, my application folder is 35.5GB (I'll be deleting a lot of apps in my transition, mainly my Adobe programs), my system folder is 5GB, and my library folder is 6GB, so I think 128GB is good enough for me. And I'm a student who does video editing from time to time on FCE, edit pictures in LightRoom, watch a lot of movies in digital format, and mainly reside in Word/Powerpoint/Excel. Not exactly sure what programs an engineering major might use.

You guys gotta stop reading these forums and thinking this type of thing is a good system just because everyone is raving about an SSD boot. What will the SSD Boot do for you while you have all of your data sitting on a 5400 rpm drive?

Also if you want all of your data on your second drive you should move your home folder there. That is were all of your data sits naturally (iTunes Music, videos, Torrents, documents) trying to separate your data from home folder would just be a nightmare.



Dont get me wrong. Your idea has a great base to it but is missing the key components to make it 'right'. With out a fast HDD for data your SSD will just allow you to open your mail program or video editing program fast after that it will be just as slow as if you did not have an SSD. To be simple. The SSD will not help the performance of your applications noticeably once the program is open and running, you will now be on RAM, Scratch disc and your Data drive.

To make it right:
1 Put all of your apps and OSX on the SSD
2 Put your home folder(which contains all of your data) on a 7200RPM HDD so that you have quick access to it.

Otherwise its not worth it.

 

[ender land]

I plan on getting a 128GB SSD from OWC and adding an OptiBay mod with the 750GB 5400rpm stock HDD from Apple. I'll keep my application, system, and home folder on the SSD and the rest (iTunes Music, videos, Torrents, documents) on the 750GB.

As it stands, my application folder is 35.5GB (I'll be deleting a lot of apps in my transition, mainly my Adobe programs), my system folder is 5GB, and my library folder is 6GB, so I think 128GB is good enough for me. And I'm a student who does video editing from time to time on FCE, edit pictures in LightRoom, watch a lot of movies in digital format, and mainly reside in Word/Powerpoint/Excel. Not exactly sure what programs an engineering major might use.

This is my plan too for my 2010 13".

 

[kettlecorn]

I found 128gb to be perfect. When I had 256gb SSD on my MBA ultimate, I only filled up 148gb and that's ALL of my files. I felt uncomfortable doing that because a lot of the stuff i don't need everyday, i just need once in a while, or for record, etc. And it would be real ****** to have it in the wrong hands of a stranger cause it has all my personal data on it AND if i lost or broke the computer, i'd be **** out of luck.

128gb allows me to have everything i use on a daily basis: OS, Apps (30 gigs?), Music 35gigs, and just documents, and stuff I study. Everything else I have a small external drive I can access or transfer things over when I need it.