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Smaller SSD - how do you store your iTunes?

L

lowonthe456

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 27, 2007
438
0
I'm getting pretty sure now I will go with the 128gb SSD option for a 13" MBP, my questions is what are those of you who run a setup like this doing with your iTunes collections?

I will need an optical drive for a while, so Optibay would have to wait....is it possible to store itunes on a time capsule? maybe another Mac with a wireless connection?

How are you doing it?? :confused::D
 
lowonthe456 said:
I'm getting pretty sure now I will go with the 128gb SSD option for a 13" MBP, my questions is what are those of you who run a setup like this doing with your iTunes collections?

I will need an optical drive for a while, so Optibay would have to wait....is it possible to store itunes on a time capsule? maybe another Mac with a wireless connection?

How are you doing it?? :confused::D
Click to expand...

to my knowledge, most replace their optical drive w/ their curent HDD for media storage and store their apps on the SSD. an alternative for you would be an external HDD. the other alternativ would be to wait till the prices for SSDs drop so that you can buy a larger size fora lower price. OR rob a bank.
 
lol i've ordered the same laptop as u btw!

honestly this is the main reason i didn't go down the SSD route. i want my music accessible and i don't want to optibay and void my applecare/have complications. i like macbook pros cos its all very simple. optibays etc. complicate it a little too much for me and my tiny brain.

videos etc. i wouldn't mind storing on an extrernal but music (and if i did photography, photos) i would want accessible most of the time.
 
The most convenient way, although not the easiest, is to install a hard disk on your Mac along with the SSD. Then move your user folder onto the hard disk, including the iTunes data. OS and apps on the SSD, user data on the disk.

I use a 80 GB SSD on my desktop with a TON of apps and only use about 50 GB or so.
 
If you want the 128GB SSD and don't want to do the optibay thing right now, you could select a small amount of your whole itunes library to keep on the SSD while the whole library would be on an ext. HDD.

I have a 2nd gen ipod that I still use. It has a 10GB HDD and my itunes music is 46GB so I just set it to sync my playlists. Kind of the same idea.
 
I have a smaller list but I keep stuff a commonly listen to on my SSD, and oddball stuff, like when I used to mix, on an external. It's amusing how much media we store on our computers but rarely to ever use. For many people, dumping that movie you watch once every other year onto an external HDD can save a lot of money on a SSD given after you pass the 115-128 GB mark you get stupid high prices. Also, given the form factor of a 2.5 inch external is small, it's not a big issue to carry around like it was years ago, which makes it all that much easier.
 
aoaaron said:
lol i've ordered the same laptop as u btw!

honestly this is the main reason i didn't go down the SSD route. i want my music accessible and i don't want to optibay and void my applecare/have complications. i like macbook pros cos its all very simple. optibays etc. complicate it a little too much for me and my tiny brain.

videos etc. i wouldn't mind storing on an external but music (and if i did photography, photos) i would want accessible most of the time.
Click to expand...

I never flame, troll or hate on anyone on threads, especially macrumors. But my man, that type of thinking right there...in my opinion, breeds failures. You just need to use a screwdriver for 10-12 screws, unplug and replug three to four items and it's done.
I understand if you're lazy but, simply by just EXISTING as a fully functional human being that can read and participate in web forums, you are FULLY capable of doing this. Do not scare others off into something that can solve clear issues and allow them to store 1.12 TB of INTERNAL storage for UNDER 200 dollars with a solid state boot drive.

Finally, hard drives and ram are USER replaceable items. It does NOT void your warranty! If you use third party products in these slots, Apple obviously will not cover them - but you save around 200% in markup and still enjoy the products own warranty. To be clear, apple will still fix anything that goes wrong with your MBP.

/rant

To address the OP: I have a 120GB drive that I'm so paranoid about keeping at 30% or less capacity (don't know if that still makes a difference but my Vertex 3 has been working perfectly (insanely fast) for over a month now so i just want to leave it alone). So I just keep part of my library on and the rest in regular mp3s on a separate driveski. I can always add individual songs. I plan on making a post regarding this debate. I only have around 70 GB of music or so I would still have around 30-40GB free. That should be fine for 120gb drive.
 
Aw I wasn't aware it didn't void warantee, I read it did around the forum so sorry about that.

And lolnoubreedfailures
 
I store all music on my MBA which is only about 30 GB. Video, podcasts, etc. I store on a portable 2.5" external HDD. iTunes allows you to separate your files to multiple drives but still allows your library to showcase all of the files in totality. So when I want to watch a movie, I pull out my HDD and watch a movie.
 
I just have a share on my OS X server that auto mounts whenever iTunes starts up.

SSDs are great but just because they are SSDs doesn't mean you cant store music on it. Space is at a premium so if you feel your music is that important then put it on there. OS X won't freak out.

Optibay is cool too.
 
Keep it on your Mac Pro, Mac Mini, iMac at home.

And use SLINK to stream all your itunes anywhere in the world to your macbook.
 
aoaaron said:
Aw I wasn't aware it didn't void warantee, I read it did around the forum so sorry about that.

And lolnoubreedfailures
Click to expand...

Replacing the main drive won't void warranty. Replacing the Superdrive technically would but if you don't cause any damage, keep the superdrive, and put it back if you ever needed servicing nobody would know.
 
My iTunes library does not fit in any available internal HDD for a laptop computer, so I store everything on my desktop and VPN to my home network to access it.
 
acedickson said:
Lossless library?
Click to expand...

Affirmative.

Also have many many albums in 24/192 formats, so I store two copies (one original, one down converted to 16/44.1—since my iPod classics do not support the higher sample rate files).

If I need to load music on to an iPod shuffle or something for a jog, I just tick the box that reads "Convert higher bitrate…"—this works great and is non-destructive. Does use a bit more CPU power, but that's not an issue for me.
 
At the moment my iTunes Library is local on my laptop.
Just purchased a Synology NAS though, which has a built in iTunes server, so Im looking to move my library across to that and access it over my wireless instead.
 
I'm storing my music on an external 250 GB hard drive for the time being. It works well enough, but I'd still like to buy a bigger SSD which would allow me to consolidate my music and photos. The Intel 320 600 GB would do the trick, but it's a bit pricey. Alternatively, a NAS might be worth looking into, but I'm not sure I want yet another always-on power-sucker on my green conscience.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

alphaod said:
acedickson said:
Lossless library?
Click to expand...

Affirmative.

Also have many many albums in 24/192 formats, so I store two copies (one original, one down converted to 16/44.1—since my iPod classics do not support the higher sample rate files).

If I need to load music on to an iPod shuffle or something for a jog, I just tick the box that reads "Convert higher bitrate…"—this works great and is non-destructive. Does use a bit more CPU power, but that's not an issue for me.
Click to expand...

Sigh ...
 
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