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Should I get a SSD?(Work + Play)

S

SyncFx

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 27, 2011
53
0
Vancouver, BC
So I've been reading about SSD now, but a bit confused. I know this.

SSD are faster, weight less, and are cooler(read about 12 degrees which is awesome) but I'm reading and seem to not be able to understand what Trim is.

So, what is TRIM? I'll be using my Macbook Pro for the following:

College(New Media Design + Web Development, so basically PS, AAE, and all that)
Hopefully the Job I get after college
And of course games, because I game.(Steam + Source Games and CoD4)

So should I get a SSD? I already have a 7200RPM HDD but since SSD are faster I'm interested, but just confused on TRIM and people saying have the OS on the SSD and other stuff on a regular HDD, why?(Is it due to small capacity?)

Thanks, Sync.
 
TRIM allows your OS to inform the SSD what data is not in use anymore. It keeps your SSD fast as otherwise the write speed may degrade. This article does pretty good job at explaining the whole thing.

No need to worry about TRIM though since most SSDs have pretty good garbage collection and you can enable TRIM with TRIM Enabler.

SSDs are still expensive compared to HDs in terms of GB per $ so people prefer to get a relatively small SSD for OS and apps and then put other data in a regular mechanical HD. Data like music or videos don't benefit from the SSD anyway.
 
Hellhammer said:
No need to worry about TRIM though since most SSDs have pretty good garbage collection and you can enable TRIM with TRIM Enabler.
Click to expand...

Well thats good to hear, so I'm assuming if I were to an SSD I will still need TRIM Enabler after I get 10.6.7? Its strange that users have to worry if the speed is degrading over time.

Data like music or videos don't benefit from the SSD
Click to expand...

Just to clarify that we are on the same page here, Application or programs will open faster based on the RPM of a HDD and SSD right, once the application is open such as After Effects, the rest will rely on the rest of your Hardware(RAM, CPU, GPU). Does an HDD or SSD have any effect on Rendering times, I'm assuming no.

Anyways. I currently have a 5400RPM External Harddrive(USB), I suppose I can put music on there, but thats seems silly to plug that in just to listen to some tunes.

So far my right now I 500GB HDD and currently have 409GB available, even with Steam and games installed as well as applications such as PS and AAE + my Music. So I think I'll be good with a 200+GB SSD right, even though the price is up there. I'm pretty content with the current programs I have right now.
 
SyncFx said:
So far my right now I 500GB HDD and currently have 409GB available, even with Steam and games installed as well as applications such as PS and AAE + my Music. So I think I'll be good with a 200+GB SSD right, even though the price is up there. I'm pretty content with the current programs I have right now.
Click to expand...

I would say definitely get a SSD. Once you do, you'll never be able to go back to a standard HDD. Everything on your computer will just run so much more quickly; you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

As for space, I removed my 250GB HDD and replaced it with a 120GB SSD. I have just been cautious about removing movies, etc. and I've never had less than 50GB available. You can definitely manage with a smaller SSD.
 
SyncFx said:
Well thats good to hear, so I'm assuming if I were to an SSD I will still need TRIM Enabler after I get 10.6.7? Its strange that users have to worry if the speed is degrading over time.
Click to expand...

Yes. Currently, 10.6.7 offers TRIM only for 2011 MBPs with Apple SSDs. Lion, however, offers TRIM for all Apple SSDs. It is possible that the final version of Lion or even future version of SL would enable TRIM for all SSDs but currently, the only way to do it is via that app.

Just to clarify that we are on the same page here, Application or programs will open faster based on the RPM of a HDD and SSD right, once the application is open such as After Effects, the rest will rely on the rest of your Hardware(RAM, CPU, GPU).
Click to expand...

Pretty much yeah. If you run out of RAM, then your OS will start to page out to the SSD so in this case, having the SSD helps too.

Does an HDD or SSD have any effect on Rendering times, I'm assuming no.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't have.

Anyways. I currently have a 5400RPM External Harddrive(USB), I suppose I can put music on there, but thats seems silly to plug that in just to listen to some tunes.

So far my right now I 500GB HDD and currently have 409GB available, even with Steam and games installed as well as applications such as PS and AAE + my Music. So I think I'll be good with a 200+GB SSD right, even though the price is up there. I'm pretty content with the current programs I have right now.
Click to expand...

If you don't use your SuperDrive much, you could replace it with HD/SSD to have both, SSD and HD inside your MBP. That way you can get a smallish SSD (120GB?) to save $ and put other data in the HD.
 
Wait a chicken, how does one get an SSD and a HD =0.

Also I've googled around and apparently HDD or SSD does impact rendering speeds of video. People were asking if they should get an SSD or an HDD with 15k RPM with RAID 0, whatever RAID is lolz. So now I'm even more interesting and upgrading if indeed, the HD impacts rendering time.
 
Hellhammer said:
TRIM allows your OS to inform the SSD what data is not in use anymore. It keeps your SSD fast as otherwise the write speed may degrade. This article does pretty good job at explaining the whole thing.

No need to worry about TRIM though since most SSDs have pretty good garbage collection and you can enable TRIM with TRIM Enabler.

SSDs are still expensive compared to HDs in terms of GB per $ so people prefer to get a relatively small SSD for OS and apps and then put other data in a regular mechanical HD. Data like music or videos don't benefit from the SSD anyway.
Click to expand...

not to jack the OP's thread, but would YOU deem it beneficial to use a SSD in a MBP and use a Time Capsule to hold iTunes and iPhoto Libraries?

I asl becuase its what Ive been contemplating but don't know the in's and out's...plus you are the most knowledgeable poster around these parts.
 
SyncFx said:
College(New Media Design + Web Development, so basically PS, AAE, and all that)

And of course games, because I game.(Steam + Source Games and CoD4)
Click to expand...

You are looking at the wrong piece of hardware to supplement the applications you use. Other than the initial application load, the SSD won't help with most of these. Most notably, AAE. (Have you even tried AAE?)

I hope you have the right MBP because nowhere do you mention which one it is. You need processor muscle more than a speedy drive.
 
Al Coholic said:
You are looking at the wrong piece of hardware to supplement the applications you use. Other than the initial application load, the SSD won't help with most of these. Most notably, AAE. (Have you even tried AAE?)

I hope you have the right MBP because nowhere do you mention which one it is. You need processor muscle more than a speedy drive.
Click to expand...

2.66Ghz Dual Core i7
Nvidia Gefore 330 GT (512MB)
8GB RAM
500GB 7200RPM HDD(Seagate)
OS X 10.6.7

Yes I have tried AAE, and I already like the current speed, I just want the extra umph. Considering I can only upgrade basically HDD and RAM, in which I already done RAM, I'm on to the HDD. So any extra muscle I can obtain would help.

Anyways. I already like that fact that boot time and application load time would be increased, however I don't like the the care needed(TRIMM) in order to MAINTAIN speed, I see that as a huge con and I could simply be looking too much at that. A simple clarification would be nice.

I've already did some App zapping and I'm down to a total of 53GB used on the HDD. I have yet to uninstall apps that Apple shipped with the OS X, or maybe stuff like garage band is part of OS X, I dunno lolz.

Now that I've read from various sites of people curious on the HDD or SDD to increase rendering time, I'm interested too.

Is it worth getting.
 
i dont want to hijack this thread but i didnt think this question warranted a new thread.

but does a ssd in the hdd slot and a hdd in the optibay slot affect temps at all?
or will the temps be a bit higher?

i want to get a sata3 ssd and use the stock hdd in the optibay slot for storage and scratch disk for stuff like photoshop
 
lowonthe456 said:
not to jack the OP's thread, but would YOU deem it beneficial to use a SSD in a MBP and use a Time Capsule to hold iTunes and iPhoto Libraries?

I asl becuase its what Ive been contemplating but don't know the in's and out's...plus you are the most knowledgeable poster around these parts.
Click to expand...

That works but since it is done wirelessly, the speeds are much lower and the latencies are higher so you could notice some lag. E.g. if I play a song using Home Sharing on my MBA (the actual file is in my iMac), it takes a second or so to start. Okay, the lag isn't that huge but when it comes to photos, it can be worse (lots of pictures to load at the same time). I haven't tried that personally and of course, it depends on your router but I'm just warning that it can be annoying.
 
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