Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Questions that have probably been asked before

2

24usedtorock

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 26, 2009
166
0
I won't bother using the search engine, so please don't even suggest it or I will ignore your comment.

MacBook Pro 17''
  • 500GB 7200RPM vs 128 or 256 SSD
I don't plan to travel with it a lot, but I do plan to take it with me on an upcoming business trip where I'll need to carry it around through two airports.

Do you suggest a particular bag that would minimize any shock to the hard drive? Do you think it'd be "safer" to take a SSD HD out traveling? It doesn't seem much quicker from youtube videos on powering up.

Other than that, I will maybe get the 3.06ghz upgrade, and leave everything else as is. I'm just not sure if it's worth it to upgrade the hard drive for durability/performance reasons.

Intended usage: business, music, maybe even some minimal gaming like WoW, multi-tasking.

Will I be fine?
 
spinnerlys said:
Yes.

And why no bothering?
Click to expand...
I was just being facetious. I have scanned through some different topics pertaining to hard drives.

To elaborate a little further, I'd like to purchase the computer at my current location to avoid the excessive markup on Apple products where I will be staying. Naturally I am a bit nervous about lugging a $3,000 machine around a few airports, there will be no Apple stores where I am traveling to, and I don't even want to think about what shipping it for hardware support would entail.

I had always just assumed that it's not too bright traveling with old style hard drives, like exercising with a standard iPod instead of the flash drive nano.
 
24usedtorock said:
I was just being facetious. I have scanned through some different topics pertaining to hard drives.

To elaborate a little further, I'd like to purchase the computer at my current location to avoid the excessive markup on Apple products where I will be staying. Naturally I am a bit nervous about lugging a $3,000 machine around a few airports, there will be no Apple stores where I am traveling to, and I don't even want to think about what shipping it for hardware support would entail.

I had always just assumed that it's not too bright traveling with old style hard drives, like exercising with a standard iPod instead of the flash drive nano.
Click to expand...

Hard drives when powered off can withstand up to 320G's of acceleration before being damaged. You could probably drop a hard drive from 10 feet high, and if it wasn't for the denting of the casing and possibly the circuit board on it breaking, the hard drive itself would still work perfectly. Now since your hard drive is cushioned inside an aluminum casing, it's a moot point. You'll be quite fine lugging it around as much as you like.
 
An SSD will probably give you better performance than a 3.06GHz CPU. The CPU makes almost no difference for powering up or running programs, but a SSD will.
 
The SSD will give you better and faster performance, its dead quiet and you can't damage it via sharp movements. I'm going to get the 128GB on my next 15" MBP, and it would be a bonus if you were traveling with the machine on.

*It also increases the battery life a bit :D
 
24usedtorock said:
I had always just assumed that it's not too bright traveling with old style hard drives, like exercising with a standard iPod instead of the flash drive nano.
Click to expand...
Non-SSD drives park their heads when they're powered down. All Mac notebooks have the Sudden Motion Sensor, so even if they're not powered down, if there's a sudden motion (i.e. you drop your laptop while it's still turned on), the drive is supposed to have enough time to park the heads before it crashes to the floor.

There are a gazllion people that have been lugging non-SSD equipped notebooks around. For years. If you plan on having it off, or in sleep, while you're walking around, I think you have very little to worry about (when it comes to non-SSD hard drive damage). If you're ultra-worried about this, though, consider the SSD. Law of attraction being what it is and all...
 
Gabriel GR said:
Even if your hard drive fails. It's your hard drive... You replace it and life goes on (Assuming you have backed it up).
Click to expand...

I had a hard drive fail the day before a presentation to a potential client... I stayed up all night restoring, testing, etc.

I use SSDs now in my laptops.
 
SSDs are nice, but expensive.

Even if you have an SSD, you should back up. So incorporate the cost of backing up in to your computer budget. What if your computer is stolen, or if your computer meets with a warm cup of coffee?
• totally automatic Backblaze online backup: $5/month.
• external hard drive, you have to remember to plug it in: $100-150
• totally automatic Time Capsule local backup: $299

Either the HDD or the SSD will be very nice in your MacBook Pro.
 
scottness said:
I had a hard drive fail the day before a presentation to a potential client... I stayed up all night restoring, testing, etc.

I use SSDs now in my laptops.
Click to expand...

I hope you are backing up your SSD's. I am not saying that it's not a superior, more promising technology, but HDD's have been with us quite a long time. Long enough to know that anything that isn't saved in 2+ locations is prone to go extinct...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back