Real world SSD performance difference Vertex2 vs Vertex3

[imorton]

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro, 13", 2.3 ghz, with a Vertex2 180g SataII SSD installed. The main drive bay is SataIII, so I could install a Vertex3 SSD.

I am curious as to the REAL WORLD day-to-day performance difference that I would see by installing a Vertex3 SSD?

My daily use is Safari, Email, Parallels XP, iPhoto, aMSN, etc.... nothing really heavy duty, and my present Vertex2 SSD made the system very snappy.

Is it worthwhile spending $500 USD for a 240g Vertex3, as the benchmark specs etc.. the SataIII Vertex3 SSD's are very impressive, but is it twice as fast in day-to-day operations?

Thanks for anyone sharing their views and opinions, IAN

 

[clickclickw00t]

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro, 13", 2.3 ghz, with a Vertex2 180g SataII SSD installed. The main drive bay is SataIII, so I could install a Vertex3 SSD.

I am curious as to the REAL WORLD day-to-day performance difference that I would see by installing a Vertex3 SSD?

My daily use is Safari, Email, Parallels XP, iPhoto, aMSN, etc.... nothing really heavy duty, and my present Vertex2 SSD made the system very snappy.

Is it worthwhile spending $500 USD for a 240g Vertex3, as the benchmark specs etc.. the SataIII Vertex3 SSD's are very impressive, but is it twice as fast in day-to-day operations?

Thanks for anyone sharing their views and opinions, IAN

Honestly, I really don't think you need it. Wait till they drop in price. Real world performance won't be as much as you think, unless you're transferring large files and doing audio/video productions.... Save the $500 and get yourself an iPad

 

[kobyh15]

Honestly, I really don't think you need it. Wait till they drop in price. Real world performance won't be as much as you think, unless you're transferring large files and doing audio/video productions.... Save the $500 and get yourself an iPad

...or just save the $500 for a rainy day. Haha, I agree though. Real world performance difference won't be much if anything at all. The exception would be if you were to be moving large files around (RAW images, HD video, etc.) very often. Then you would notice the difference.

 

[Furrybeagle]

I suppose if your virtual machine in Parallels uses a lot of memory, forcing OS X to page to disk, then you might see some improvement in performance. But in that case you would be far better served by adding more memory (assuming you aren’t already at 8 gigs).

But let’s be honest, when most stuff opens in a fraction of a second, there’s no point in dropping $500 so it opens in a fraction of a fraction of a second.

 

[imorton]

Honestly, I really don't think you need it. Wait till they drop in price. Real world performance won't be as much as you think, unless you're transferring large files and doing audio/video productions.... Save the $500 and get yourself an iPad

It's true, the Vertex3 specs are great, but the real world difference from a Vertex2 vs Vertex3 may not he astronomical or worth the money. I may get better value from a ram upgrade.

 

[imorton]

...or just save the $500 for a rainy day. Haha, I agree though. Real world performance difference won't be much if anything at all. The exception would be if you were to be moving large files around (RAW images, HD video, etc.) very often. Then you would notice the difference.

And since I don't do any large file transfers etc... the speed difference may be just slightly improved. Would Time Machine or Super Duper clones be quicker with a SataIII SSD?

 

[imorton]

I suppose if your virtual machine in Parallels uses a lot of memory, forcing OS X to page to disk, then you might see some improvement in performance. But in that case you would be far better served by adding more memory (assuming you aren’t already at 8 gigs).

But let’s be honest, when most stuff opens in a fraction of a second, there’s no point in dropping $500 so it opens in a fraction of a fraction of a second.

What you say is true, as my Parallels XP VM only uses 1 gig of ram, maybe an upgrade to 8g of ram maybe a better value...

As my virtual XP sessions takes @ 16 seconds to open, and 12 seconds to shutdown, is it worth $500 to shave a few seconds off it... not really.

The MB Pro already boot from power button to desktop in @ 18 seconds, and shutdown in @ 4 seconds, how much quicker can it actually get.

Now an upgrade to 8gigs of ram, and some Thunderbolt external HD cases/accessories, now those would be likely better value.

 

[Furrybeagle]

And since I don't do any large file transfers etc... the speed difference may be just slightly improved. Would Time Machine or Super Duper clones be quicker with a SataIII SSD?

No, unless you’re backup drive is also an SSD. Even if you used your Vertex2 as a backup drive you still wouldn't have enough space for everything on your Vertex3, and you’d need a Thunderbolt enclosure.

EDIT: unless you’re doing something like cloning between two separate partitions on your Vertex3. I imagine that would be significantly faster.

 

[mac jones]

Save the money. No difference.

The only people who really need to do this are the power users who need to squeeze out every last bit of headroom. Even then i'm not so sure.

(and also rich people)

 

[Koning]

I actually replaced my Vertex II for a Intel 510 and I feel like I threw my money down the drain. Wouldn't recommend it, I don't notice ANY difference.

 

[imorton]

I actually replaced my Vertex II for a Intel 510 and I feel like I threw my money down the drain. Wouldn't recommend it, I don't notice ANY difference.

Any reason you went with Intel 510 instead of Vertex3?

So if understand correctly, the average user will not really see a "night and day" difference between the two SSD's (Vertex2 vs Vertex3)

I understood that average users tend to be using the "small random read/write" numbers which is very similar between the SataII / SataIII ?

 

[imorton]

Save the money. No difference.

The only people who really need to do this are the power users who need to squeeze out every last bit of headroom. Even then i'm not so sure.

(and also rich people)

I would probably be better off to wait till the SataIII SSD's drop in price (@ 6months, or when the Sata IV come out) and use my current SataII Vertex2 in an external Thunderbolt hard drive enclosure...