Solid state drive worth the money?

[palpatine]

I guess we'll have to agree to agree guys

As I have said, if anyone actually reads previous posts, I have used SSD (but not owned it). Before buying my MBP I spent obscene amounts of time playing around with the Mac Airs. The staff even started saying "welcome home" to me every day

WE AGREE!!!!

The SSD is great. We would all get one if we could. If I can bring in an analogy, this is sort of like debating whether it's better to fly coach or first class. OBVIOUSLY, first class is better, but is it a better use of your money / upgrade to get coach seat in an exit row on an international flight or first class? If you are going to spend the whole flight reading a book, don't drink, and are a vegetarian like me, then first class (yes, I have ridden there) is wasted on me. I am NOT saying that first class sucks.

Getting back to our little debate, from what I can tell the SSD offers no particular benefits for the stuff I do (Office type stuff). Once everything is open it all runs approximately the same speed. My experience trying this out before I bought my computer, comments from friends with SSD, comments from people in these forums with SSD (!), etc. confirm this.

My point is simple: in terms of performance and durability SSD are better than HDD in every respect (we agree here guys), BUT the benefits are better in some areas than others. The OP hasn't come back, but I would say the decision to buy ought to be based on his needs, not a simple prescription of "buy it." In some cases, isn't it possible that RAM will have a far bigger impact per dollar spent?

 

[EJ123]

SSD much faster with Word, XL, PPT

No change:
2. MS Office

Don't agree with that. I have seen spectacular changes in WORD, XL, PPT. PPT files tend to be big but my WORD
and XL files are not large.
There is before and after SSD. I could not go back to a standard drive after SSD, and I only have the plain vanilla Apple 256GB SSD on a 2009 MBP 17". I am getting the new MBP in a few weeks and it will be an SSD. If I need storage space, I can get a cheap external.

EJ

 

[NickZac]

My point is simple: in terms of performance and durability SSD are better than HDD in every respect (we agree here guys), BUT the benefits are better in some areas than others. The OP hasn't come back, but I would say the decision to buy ought to be based on his needs, not a simple prescription of "buy it." In some cases, isn't it possible that RAM will have a far bigger impact per dollar spent?

Yes and no. If you are using programs that are resource intensive, then a RAM upgrade will speed up the system. However, if you are using resource intensive programs, you may very well be moving large amounts of data, in which a SSD will have more of an impact on the speed. The current 'base' MBP comes with 4GB, which for most users is plenty. Furthermore, going from 4GB to 8GB on the MBP is about $200, where as the 500GB HDD to the 120GB SSD is $100. RAM will not make the system turn on in 15 seconds or load database/WP programs or web browsers instantaneously. Statistical speeds on paper is great and all, but for most users, actual speed increases to seen with normal tasks favors the SSD over most everything else. Furthermore, the tougher design of the SSD is peace of mind given accidents do happen, and falls are known to destroy HDDs.

 

[phpmaven]

I would bet that the number is larger than you think. I would bet the number is somewhere north of the 65% range. Read most of the technical discussions and they are all populated by the same people. Just search for the overheating, batteries aren't sufficient, anti-virus, and which screen threads and you will see the same things stated: All I had open were (insert preferred browser and number of tabs and pages open here), mail, skype , and (insert preferred chat program here). Why is my computer having (insert thread problem here)? You will occassionally see the iphoto or editing program inserted

There are large numbers of technical threads on here, but don't kid yourself and think we are a cutting edge think tank of users. The average users will do nothing more than word processing, chat, email, and surfing, all of these will see little marked improvement from an SSD. In these cases,itis pure bragging rights.

I freely admit about the uses of my wife and kids. She could have sufficed with an old Thinkpad (which she was doing fine), but I wanted her to have a new Mac. I consider myself a power user (On the average day, as I am now, I have 2 VM images running in the background executing QA automation ( one Windows 7 and one Windows XP), 2 mail clients open, 2 IM clients, Skype (idling atm), and am surfing the net. I could see a benefit from and SSD and see its need and value, but for my wife and kids executing Webkinz over the Airport, how would I justify the added cost???

65%? I have a hard time believing that. I might just have to start a survey. Goog grief, if that's all you are going to do, then just get a super cheap Windows laptop at Costco and your good to go.

 

[johnnj]

Don't agree with that. I have seen spectacular changes in WORD, XL, PPT. PPT files tend to be big but my WORD
and XL files are not large.
There is before and after SSD. I could not go back to a standard drive after SSD, and I only have the plain vanilla Apple 256GB SSD on a 2009 MBP 17". I am getting the new MBP in a few weeks and it will be an SSD. If I need storage space, I can get a cheap external.

EJ

Maybe what you do with Office is different than what I do. I almost never run PPT, except to view a deck and other than the launch times of the apps themselves, I never noticed my writing getting any faster in Word. I don't deal with hugely complex spreadsheets, so I may not be seeing any improvement because I'm not pushing it that hard.

However, as I stated, Outlook does perform much better when I'm doing searches and sorting of my gigantic inbox.

I do agree that once you go SSD you'll never want to go back.

 

[johnnj]

65%? I have a hard time believing that. I might just have to start a survey. Goog grief, if that's all you are going to do, then just get a super cheap Windows laptop at Costco and your good to go.

Actually I got mine at Target with a couple of t-shirts and some beef jerky. I don't really even have a Mac. The stuff in my sig is BS.

Seriously, though... when you got into an Apple store and you see so many people being taught how to work iTunes, what do you think they're going to do with their high end iMacs when they get them home?

It would be interesting to somehow view the metrics of thread topics when categorized as: buying advice, I broke my toy how to fix, this vs that, customer service complaint, complaints on design decisions that Apple has made, speculation on upcoming product releases, will part A fit into laptop B, off forum topic, and technical discussions on why something works a certain way and if there's a way to make it work better.

 

[Suanmiao]

yes it's going to speed up your work flow like mad

 

[xamievilx]

yes it's going to speed up your work flow like mad

lol @ reviving this thread to answer in one sentence a year old question...