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SSD Drives for Mac Pro Boot Drive?
- Thread starter netdog
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Big question - from the time the start-up tune plays, how many seconds for the desktop to load?
I considering one of these in October once the price drops to 50%
I count to ten on my 09 MP w 2.26, sorry I don't have a stopwatch.
The application startup times are very fast, Photoshop CS 4 starts in about 2 seconds.
Good luck!
enough space left?
Now this was the kind of post i was looking for! Thanks for sharing your experience. I want to install an SSD too but there are still some details I am not sure about: I was wondering if 80GB was enough? Of course it all depends on what apps you need to install but I can't really guess how much will be left after install. And then when time machine makes a backup and your home folder is on a seperate disk, does time machine include the home folder or does it just backup your startup disk?
Thanks in advance
Hello. Long time reader, first time poster here. I just got one of the new Mac Pros and decided to try out SSD for my startup drive. When I ordered my new Mac, I also ordered an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD and the Icydock 2.5" to 3.5" SATA adapter. Everything arrived the same day, so I left work early to set things up (hehe).
I was a bit worried at first because I read reports that you needed to clone an HDD to get the SSD working. But, I decided to give it a whirl. I took my Mac Pro out of the box, opened her up, and swapped the pre-installed HDD with my SDD in the Icydock adapter. Then, I booted up with the install DVD that came with the Mac.
When I got to the installation screens, and it was time to select my drive, there was nothing available. But then I noticed on the top menubar that I could run Disk Utility. I used that to quickly create a partition on the SSD, and when it was done, my SSD showed up as a possible destination for Mac OSX. I chose it, and OSX installed in about 15 minutes, start to finish!
Once installed, I added on a few other things. Xcode installed in 5 minutes. And I don't think I even saw the Firefox installation bar. Then, the reboot. A whopping 11 seconds.
So, let me say, from my experiences so far, the SSD is amazing.
* It was easy to set up...no HDD cloning required
* I can sleep my computer without the beach ball of death showing up as described by pprior
* Wicked fast bootup and application launching
Thus far it has been AWESOME! Very happy with my choice.
Now this was the kind of post i was looking for! Thanks for sharing your experience. I want to install an SSD too but there are still some details I am not sure about: I was wondering if 80GB was enough? Of course it all depends on what apps you need to install but I can't really guess how much will be left after install. And then when time machine makes a backup and your home folder is on a seperate disk, does time machine include the home folder or does it just backup your startup disk?
Thanks in advance
It is for me. Before I did this whole thing, I checked how much space my OS and Apps were using on my old G5. It was about 43 GB. So, 80 seemed like plenty. I may even put my photos on this drive so that iPhoto is extra responsive.
Sorry, can't answer that question. I don't use Time Machine. I'm more of a 'backup every Sunday night' kind of person.
Feel like buying 24 Samsung SSDs and RAIDing them?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs&fmt=22 
So we can see it takes no time to load anything with 24 SSDs and depending on how slow you count it could take 0:10:00 or perhaps 0:36.29 vs 1:00:3 according to this promotional video but it was done on a notebook PC, not an 8 core workstation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJMGAdpCLVg&NR=1
It would be interesting to hear from anyone, but essentially time it from the start-up tune to completion of the desktop load.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJMGAdpCLVg&NR=1
It would be interesting to hear from anyone, but essentially time it from the start-up tune to completion of the desktop load.
Same here, no stopwatch, just counting. Same configuration. The best part is starting PhotoShop CS4, etc. in 2 seconds.
On my old MacBook Pro, I would always be careful to open files with Preview unless I was absolutely sure that I needed to edit the file. It no longer makes any difference to me.
2.66ghz Octo here with Intel X25-M. Last time I counted, about 12 seconds from the Apple sound to desktop. And yes, Photoshop CS4 is about 2 seconds.
I'm not getting those kind of boot times with a 2009 2.66 quad and single X-25M as a boot drive. Does something slow the startup? I don't have any big programs starting up automaticle so I quess in my case it could Boot Camp, my non-Apple USB keyboard or my non-Apple wireless mouse.
Photoshop and Lightroom startup in a snap.
Photoshop and Lightroom startup in a snap.
12 seconds is the target, so it sounds like it can be done on at least one system with the Intel M series. Taking a brief look on YouTube last night I was seeing worse scores so this looks to be pretty decent.
I getting 26 with my spinning platters which I guess is not so bad for the technology. These would be put to good use for everything but system if I were to install a single 80 - 128GB SSD.
And yes, I am a very impatient person when it comes to things starting up and see most of the value in the SSD being purely in user experience more than anything else
No money until later in the year and this will be when I should be able to pick up an 80GB drive for a bit or considerably less depending on the NAND market. Right now its a little difficult to justify user experience against the expense!
I getting 26 with my spinning platters which I guess is not so bad for the technology. These would be put to good use for everything but system if I were to install a single 80 - 128GB SSD.
And yes, I am a very impatient person when it comes to things starting up and see most of the value in the SSD being purely in user experience more than anything else
No money until later in the year and this will be when I should be able to pick up an 80GB drive for a bit or considerably less depending on the NAND market. Right now its a little difficult to justify user experience against the expense!
I'm considering using one of these as boot/apps for my new Mac Pro. Diglloyd sure raves about his! One thing that I haven't seen anyone mention, can I set up a partition, say 20GB or so out of the total 74GB available, for Boot Camp? Could prove quite zippy for Windows games. Has anyone tried this yet?
Excellent! I mean, that's bad news, because now I'm even more tempted to make that (completely frivolous) purchase.
My only copy of Windows is XP, I guess that should do the job for now.
My only copy of Windows is XP, I guess that should do the job for now.
You should try the Windows 7 Beta - its fast. Building from an ISO took 10 minutes with VMware, just type in the password and SN and thats it! XP is really showing its age now with a ton of software updates, reboots and more updates. Unless you have some serious gaming or strictly non-Mac app, VMware really hits the mark.
I'm looking at getting the 80GB Intel X-25 M as a boot disk for a new 2009 Mac Pro. I found one online here in the UK part code: SSDSA2MH080G1
Is this the correct one? I keep seeing the same code with C1 or C5 at the end elsewhere.
I'm going to be adding a second optical drive so will have to install it in one of the hard drive bays - what simple adaptors are known to work with the 2009 models? - I'm sure I read that the adaptors for the 2008 don't fit.
Is this the correct one? I keep seeing the same code with C1 or C5 at the end elsewhere.
I'm going to be adding a second optical drive so will have to install it in one of the hard drive bays - what simple adaptors are known to work with the 2009 models? - I'm sure I read that the adaptors for the 2008 don't fit.
Mac SSD Boot Up Times Deceiving
Macs do a power-on self-test (POST) and the amount of memory installed can lengthen that. So a fair part of startup time is getting to the point of even starting to look for a boot drive. The real proof is from the moment you see the spinning gear (aha! It's found a startup disk!) to the Desktop.
My desktop is cluttered with files - and I'm just blown away how even a low-end SSD in my MacBook makes the Desktop appear: those icons snap-to and it's done. Not OOOOZE one at a time onto the screen like they used to...
Macs do a power-on self-test (POST) and the amount of memory installed can lengthen that. So a fair part of startup time is getting to the point of even starting to look for a boot drive. The real proof is from the moment you see the spinning gear (aha! It's found a startup disk!) to the Desktop.
My desktop is cluttered with files - and I'm just blown away how even a low-end SSD in my MacBook makes the Desktop appear: those icons snap-to and it's done. Not OOOOZE one at a time onto the screen like they used to...
I think this (and the current price) is the reason I don't go for SSD as well.
Here's what my Mac currently looks like:
- Users: 147 GB (and I try to keep iTunes, iPhoto, and etc data out of the user folder!)
- Library: 100 GB
- Applications: 93 GB
- System: 5 GB
That's almost 350 GB. So I figure I need at least a 250 GB drive to put the system on and that's if I skimp.
IIRC when I first set up my Mac the boot drive was ~90GB used after I got things the way I wanted and before I started to install much. So 80GB isn't going to cut it.
My own setup is somewhat similar to yours, Tesselator. I've crammed it all on a 300GB velociraptor - which is nice and snappy, but spin-up times are lame. But in response to space issues, Barefeats and other sites have tested the OCZ Vertex 120GB drives, which apparently are competitive with the intel drives. Now, a fun thought is striping two of them in a ProDrive for a boot volume. Too bad I'm not made of money.
Sleep problem caused by SSD boot disk?
I seem to have run into the same issue.
My hybernation mode is set to 0.
When I put my System to sleep, it often awakes right after it has gone to sleep. After that, I can't launch apps or do anything, not even force quit works, not the force restart or shutdown combos. The only remedy is to shut the box off via the power button.
I got a 2.26 Nehalem with a 120GB OCZ APEX SSD.
I'd never go back to ordinary disks for the boot volume, btw.
I seem to have run into the same issue.
My hybernation mode is set to 0.
When I put my System to sleep, it often awakes right after it has gone to sleep. After that, I can't launch apps or do anything, not even force quit works, not the force restart or shutdown combos. The only remedy is to shut the box off via the power button.
I got a 2.26 Nehalem with a 120GB OCZ APEX SSD.
I'd never go back to ordinary disks for the boot volume, btw.
OCZ: Game Changer?
Anybody had a chance to see the BareFeats article on this new OCZ SSD drive?
they say:
Man, that 120GB ought to be enough to get into the SSD big leagues without being TOO filthy rich!
Anybody had a chance to see the BareFeats article on this new OCZ SSD drive?
they say:
Man, that 120GB ought to be enough to get into the SSD big leagues without being TOO filthy rich!