SSD for MBP - pros and cons?

[stuarthatto]

I am thinking of replacing the 160Gb HD in my 07 MBP with a SSD, but before I stump up the money I wondered if you all had any thoughts good or bad about this, and SSDs in general?

Stu

 

[kasakka]

Pros: much faster read speeds, much faster random reads/writes (depending on the SSD drive make and model tho) which translates to system booting faster and programs opening faster. Noiseless, uses less power, doesn't give a damn about moving the laptop.

Cons: Expensive, may somewhat slow down when getting full (tho still faster than the stock HDD) at least until OSX and SSDs gets TRIM support.

So if you can afford it it should be much faster than the stock 5400 rpm drive. I recommend you find out whether your 07 MBP has SATA-II though because SATA-I will limit the speed a bit.

Me, I'm still waiting for the Intel X25-M G2 160 GB SSD to arrive. When it does, it's going into my 13" MBP.

 

[stridemat]

I have the 60gb OCZ Vertex, it was the best upgrade I have ever done!

Pros: fast, quiet, conserve battery life and fast

Cons: cost per gb is very high when compared to standard drives

 

[vant]

The main cons is price and size limitation.

The pros are countless.

 

[groove-agent]

As soon as they come up with a 512GB card for under $300 I'm in. I'm sure I'll be waiting for a while 'tho.

 

[maflynn]

I think the main issues with SSDs right now is the cost per gigabyte. You're paying a lot of money for small drive. Also OSX has no TRIM feature so performance will degrade over time. Yes there's work arounds but overall the main issues against using SSDs are cost/size and OSX support.

I picked up a 500gig drive for 80 bucks. An intel 160gb SSD is going for $650. There's no way I can afford to put a decently sized SSD drive into my laptop at the moment.

 

[mrrippey]

The main cons is price and size limitation.

The pros are countless.

IF you really want to get speed and a lower cost, you can get a 60-80GB SSD for under $250 and either:

1. lose the superdrive and put your HDD there
2. have an external HDD

Personally, I am doing #1 as I rarely use the superdrive (and I will put it in an external case and in my bag)

My Intel X25m G2 cost $240 shipped and I will boot and run apps off of that, the largest file on there will be my Parallels windows image. The SSD with 4GB RAM is going to make my computer fly.

SSD are all about compromise at the moment. Fast and Cheap, pick one, right now you cant get both.

 

[stuarthatto]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

According to SysProf my MBP has SATA-1 - 1.5Gb/s so I probably won't be investing.

Stu