SSD - Buy now or wait until Black Friday

[jiffry1017]

Hey,

Looking to purchase a Samsung EVO 128 GB SSD for my mid-2009 13" MBP as a boot SSD (hence, I don't need more than 128 GB).

Here are the two scenarios:

1) Buy now for 99.99 at Amazon (5% cashback, free prime shipping, no tax, but tax gets implemented in my state starting Nov 1)

2) Wait till Black Friday (no cashback, shipping unknown, probable tax (6.25%), unless I order free pick up in store at someplace like Best Buy [I live close to border of NH])

I'm not in a huge hurry to get it. If I buy now, I'm gonna clean install Mavericks, if I wait until Black Friday, I'm gonna update ML now and then clean install later (more work).

Just not sure if the price drop will be significant enough on Black Friday to make it worth it.

Thanks!

 

[Giuly]

Hey,

Looking to purchase a Samsung EVO 128 GB SSD for my mid-2009 13" MBP as a boot SSD (hence, I don't need more than 128 GB).

Here are the two scenarios:

1) Buy now for 99.99 at Amazon (5% cashback, free prime shipping, no tax, but tax gets implemented in my state starting Nov 1)

2) Wait till Black Friday (no cashback, shipping unknown, probable tax (6.25%), unless I order free pick up in store at someplace like Best Buy [I live close to border of NH])

I'm not in a huge hurry to get it. If I buy now, I'm gonna clean install Mavericks, if I wait until Black Friday, I'm gonna update ML now and then clean install later (more work).

Just not sure if the price drop will be significant enough on Black Friday to make it worth it.

Thanks!

Given that your Mac only has SATA-II, consider a SanDisk Ultra Plus, which is as fast on older Macs but costs 5% less by default. It's also MLC and technically lasts longer as it endures more write cycles than the 840 EVO (in case you care to use it longer than 3-5 years or so).

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Given that your Mac only has SATA-II, consider a SanDisk Ultra Plus, which is as fast on older Macs but costs 5% less by default. It's also MLC and technically lasts longer as it endures more write cycles than the 840 EVO (in case you care to use it longer than 3-5 years or so).

Agreed. Given OP's SATA II hardware limitation, the cheaper - the better.
So, as long as we're talking low price, Kingston V300 120GB is now $90 on Amazon.

 

[Giuly]

Agreed. Given OP's SATA II hardware limitation, the cheaper - the better.
So, as long as we're talking low price, Kingston V300 120GB is now $90 on Amazon.

Yeah, but not the Kingston.

Read:

Write:

The SanDisk UltraPlus is factually and literally as fast as a 840 Pro over all block sizes when looking at the relevant parts for SATA-II, the Kingston is not. As great as Kingston's DDR3 RAM may be, their SSDs are a different matter.

 

[XPcentric]

I want to reopen this topic because I have a MacBook, 13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008, probably SATA 2. I analyzed my options and came to similar conclusions: Samsung versus Sandisk

- Note that Samsung is more expensive than Sandisk with only ten currency units (in UK) (rule valid for either size 120GB or 250GB), and I dont mind.
- but the price of the 250GB SDD is one and a half the price of the 120GB (rule valid for both brands), which is a significant amount of money for me right now.

I can only buy the 250GB if it will last for at least 5 years, otherwise I will buy the cheaper.
- Although I'm using my Macbook daily since I bought it, I don't know if I'm using it too much, my Activity Monitor shows: Data read: 10GB, Data written: 9GB, and Time since boot is ~2 days (this is my low usage)
- Another issue is that from 250GB of my current HDD, the free space is 50GB. I could easily get rid of 80GB of videos to have a full 120GB HDD, but how much space would I need to keep free on a 120GB SSD if I wanted it to be fast and responsive ?

 

[Jaben3421]

I want to reopen this topic because I have a MacBook, 13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008, probably SATA 2. I analyzed my options and came to similar conclusions: Samsung versus Sandisk

- Note that Samsung is more expensive than Sandisk with only ten currency units (in UK) (rule valid for either size 120GB or 250GB), and I dont mind.
- but the price of the 250GB SDD is one and a half the price of the 120GB (rule valid for both brands), which is a significant amount of money for me right now.

I can only buy the 250GB if it will last for at least 5 years, otherwise I will buy the cheaper.
- Although I'm using my Macbook daily since I bought it, I don't know if I'm using it too much, my Activity Monitor shows: Data read: 10GB, Data written: 9GB, and Time since boot is ~2 days (this is my low usage)
- Another issue is that from 250GB of my current HDD, the free space is 50GB. I could easily get rid of 80GB of videos to have a full 120GB HDD, but how much space would I need to keep free on a 120GB SSD if I wanted it to be fast and responsive ?

Honestly, any SSD you buy will outlast the remainder of your 2008 MBP. The Samsung 840 Evo is rated to last 15.83 years after writing 100 GiB per day. If you're still not convinced, the 840 Evo comes with a three year warranty from Samsung, so you only have to "risk" it for two years.

 

[XPcentric]

Thank you for answering.

But I remembered the most important thing, that I did not mention. Its the sleeping image of Macbook, when closing the lid, and that image is about 8GB. I've almost never shut down my Macbook for 5 years, wouldn't those 8GB writing to the disk every time degrade the SSD if I open and close it a couple of times per day ?

 

[saturnotaku]

Thank you for answering.

But I remembered the most important thing, that I did not mention. Its the sleeping image of Macbook, when closing the lid, and that image is about 8GB. I've almost never shut down my Macbook for 5 years, wouldn't those 8GB writing to the disk every time degrade the SSD if I open and close it a couple of times per day ?

Again, as the poster above you mentioned, writing dozens of gigabytes to the drive per day will still net you a 15-year lifespan.