SSD confusion

[Pressure]

I find it somehow funny that people who do not have an Solid State Disk in their computer replies here...

It would literally change your computer experience. It is like night and day. I would NEVER go back to a mechanical hard drive for my boot drive.

Even suggesting that the fastest mechanical hard drive is a good alternative to an Solid State Disk is laughable. The Intel Solid State Disk is an order of magnitudes faster than the fastest mechanical hard drive available in day to day basis. Everything will faster and feel smoother.

In the end, it is probably the best upgrade you can make to your computer.

 

[mac8867]

I find it somehow funny that people who do not have an Solid State Disk in their computer replies here...

It would literally change your computer experience. It is like night and day. I would NEVER go back to a mechanical hard drive for my boot drive.

Even suggesting that the fastest mechanical hard drive is a good alternative to an Solid State Disk is laughably. The Intel Solid State Disk is an order of magnitudes faster than the fastest mechanical hard drive available in day to day basis. Everything will faster and feel smoother.

In the end, it is probably the best upgrade you can make to your computer.

I have and SSD, and completely agree with you.. but to tell you the truth, I personally am tired of the same old questions and responses. There are a dozen threads on SSD's, and in the end, the folks who are trying to decide whether to get one either need to commit or need not to commit.

No bashing intended here, so please take it as a constructive statement: The OP in the is thread is looking for the "Silver bullet" statement that will make them feel good about spending the $$ for an SSD. That will not happen. You either do it or you don't. There isn't much more to be said.

 

[gazwas]

No bashing intended here, so please take it as a constructive statement: The OP in the is thread is looking for the "Silver bullet" statement that will make them feel good about spending the $$ for an SSD. That will not happen. You either do it or you don't. There isn't much more to be said.

You could be right there. I want someone to hold my hand and say its OK to spend all the dosh on one of these things because...........? Not just he usual comment on my system will be like night and day and I'll never go back to traditional drives.

Some background info and my reason for asking is, Photoshop was the reason why I still run Leopard on my Mac Pro and I made the decision not to upgrade to Snow Leopard until CS5. That day is nearly here which also means new system drive to go along with the fresh install of 10.6.

I''m not trying to be a argumentative toll or a SSD basher! Just after some info straight from the horses mouth.

 

[Transporteur]

I really thought that this was clear by now.

As I already mentioned, for YOUR workload, I don't see much difference between a SSD and a magnetic drive.
You said you mainly run PS, and process a single file for several hours before saving it and opening a new one.
The processing itself is done by the processors and the memory of your machine. The hard drive is not affected until you save or open.

So why are people saying that the upgrade to a decent SSD is the best upgrade they've ever bought?
Because their workload is probably considerably different form yours.

I can speak for myself on this point. As a software developer I'm dealing with large amounts of small files, that are constantly being opened and closed, which really profits form a SSD. In addition to that my work is heavily based on multitasking with a bunch of programs and partly virtual machines. These applications really fly with a SSD. Waiting times I've experiences with magnetic drives, no matter if they were raided together or not, are almost completely gone.
So for me, the upgrade to a SSD really was worth it.

For the workload you've described, I don't see much improvements from a SSD.

 

[Loa]

Hello Gaswaz,

I'll try to sum up what's been said here, as I was asking the same exact questions 6 months ago, before buying my SSD. The only app that I use that makes my Mac Pro work hard is photoshop.

Like you I couldn't give a damn about boot and app launch times. You're right: since we leave our apps opened all day long, they don't matter at all.

Think about when we replace our (3-4 years old) computers with current models. The Finder and overall system feels a lot faster and snappier. Well, a SSD will do that to your current computer, right now. Nothing more, but definitely nothing less.

Basically:

1) As far as "work & efficiency" with PS4 (even PS5), a SSD will make absolutely no difference. With 16GB files, you probably don't need a scratch disk, even now.

2) As far as general / overall usage, a SSD as boot volume will make a world of difference.

If you're asking about a ROI on your SSD, forget about it. If you want to make your overall Mac experience feel like you have a computer that's 3-4 years younger, then go!

Loa

 

[gazwas]

If you're asking about a ROI on your SSD, forget about it. If you want to make your overall Mac experience feel like you have a computer that's 3-4 years younger, then go!

Loa

Thanks everyone for your input I really appreciate your comments!

 

[Pressure]

I have and SSD, and completely agree with you.. but to tell you the truth, I personally am tired of the same old questions and responses. There are a dozen threads on SSD's, and in the end, the folks who are trying to decide whether to get one either need to commit or need not to commit.

No bashing intended here, so please take it as a constructive statement: The OP in the is thread is looking for the "Silver bullet" statement that will make them feel good about spending the $$ for an SSD. That will not happen. You either do it or you don't. There isn't much more to be said.

I concur.

There should be Sticky Thread which explains the benefits and drawbacks of having a Solid State Disk compared to a mechanical drive in the different sub categories.

• Performance (depending on usage patters)
• Memory controllers
• Etc. etc.

Could save us from quite a few threads around here...

 

[ValSalva]

I will NEVER go back to a magnetic drive for a boot drive. All my machines (except for my storage servers) have an SSD for boot and I never regretted to spend the money for them.

I have had the same experience. My boot times are cut in half. Apps load either instantaneously or in half or less the time of a 7200 RPM HDD. This makes the system seem extremely fast and snappy.

But you get the most bang for your buck on things that are disk intensive. For CPU intensive tasks there obviously won't be any advantage. Most tasks are helped by the much faster speed of the SSD though because most tasks rely on both the disk and CPU/GPU. Once you've had one you'll be loathe to go back.