SSD Drive = WOW!!!!

[GotPro]

Ok... so at work today I had to prepare a new MacBook Air for one of the professors of Biology.

It had the SSD drive.

You know how when you boot, and at the grey screen with the Apple Logo and the little rotating "wheel".... on my Mac Pro 2.8 it takes about 6-8 revolutions to get through the boot process.

On this laptop... with only a 1.8Ghz CPU and 2 Gigs of Ram... it blasted through it in about 2 1/2 revolutions.


Got me thinking.... about... a...

6xSATA 128GB SSD Drive RAID 0 Configuration: 768 Gigabytes... on a RAID 0 STRIPE... can you IMAGINE how INSANELY FAST THAT WOULD BE?

I've seen the benchmarks, I've read the reviews... let me tell you guys something... until you've played with one in person... it just doesn't do it justice.

This slow, underclocked, POS laptop loads the OS in about 1/2 the time my Mac Pro does... and boots most apps as fast if not faster!!!!!

DANGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

I sure hope the price of these SSD drives come down

 

[mkrishnan]

You'll probably be able to buy options like the Sandisk Vaulter within the year... you could for instance purchase an SSD and just install OS X itself on it, or set it up so that it's in a spanning system with a magnetic HD but gets filled first... it should provide you some of the snappy you seem to desire.

 

[TheThirdMan]

I did it for the LULZ

Had a MBA for a couple of days, was quick to load, but too slow for my liking on most other apps.

 

[Tracer]

SSDs are more for laptops.

Let's face it, I hardly ever did anything other than sleep my Power Mac. I really only rebooted it for system updates.

SSDs save some power and are more shock resistant, but can't compare when it comes to big data transfers.

Tracer

 

[GotPro]

Smaller hard drives tend to load quicker too. In fact, in all comparisons i've seen, drive size is almost directly proportional to startup times- the default 320gb on the MP takes about 40 secs to load, whilst a 1TB takes just over 60 secs.

Had a MBA for a couple of days, was quick to load, but too slow for my liking on most other apps.

Really? What hard drive did you go with? My boot times with my stock 320GB WD were 45ish... and I shaved 12-15 seconds off when I replaced it with the Hitachi 1TB!

 

[GotPro]

SSDs are more for laptops.

Let's face it, I hardly ever did anything other than sleep my Power Mac. I really only rebooted it for system updates.

SSDs save some power and are more shock resistant, but can't compare when it comes to big data transfers.

Tracer

Right...

I think what I see in the REAL WORLD in the next 24 months is maybe a couple 64GB or 128GB drives in RAID 0 just for Booting... and say another OPTIONAL 64GB drive (if you want to be INSANE) for moving the SWAP FILE to... then 1 to 2TB drives for all your data, etc.

 

[TheThirdMan]

Ignore everything i said, it was BS.


Boot times for hard drives:

Hard Drive Boot Times Comparison

Quick boot times are not a strong suit of the Caviar [1TB Western Digital] GP. The GreenPower finds itself at the back of the class here, saved from complete humiliation by the Deskstar 7K1000. It's interesting to note that the terabyte drives turn in the slowest boot times, though.

I guess it's pretty variable though- 750gb drives seem to be best...

 

[Luis]

SSDs are more for laptops.

Let's face it, I hardly ever did anything other than sleep my Power Mac. I really only rebooted it for system updates.

Tracer

I hardly ever did anything than sleep my MBP. Applies the same way.