After spending some time researching and contemplating an SSD, I took the plunge late in December. I've had just over 30 days experience with it and wanted to post some impressions and data, as I've noticed there seem to be threads every so often where people have the same debate.
Overall, the install experience was incredibly easy. After flashing the firmware for this particular drive (OCZ Summit - 120GB - 19C1 FW w/ GC and TRIM), the installation was incredibly easy. After a quick 40 minute install/restore from my Time Capsule, it booted up with no issues.
Boot time has significantly decreased. Anywhere from 10 - 15 seconds to the desktop. Programs launch must faster now. Firefox doesn't "bounce" as many times as it used to. In fact, it's almost instantaneous opening (although I find myself using Chrome more and more - which has always opened faster than FF). Photoshop Elements also fires up in 2-3 seconds. iPhoto '09 runs much better. Once bounce and it opens to right where I left it off, and my photo database is roughly 10 GB. Word, Excel, Entourage, etc... same thing - quick to open, quick to respond.
Boot Camp works great with Windows 7 and SSD. Boot time significantly decreased, only takes about 20-25 seconds to get to the desktop.
I've also been logging some data from Xbench to track the drives performance. I was really happy to learn that OCZ was releasing a flash to include garbage collection for this drive (as well as TRIM support for Windows). The drive should maintain performance now without reducing speed, but I plan to track that over the coming months just to make sure it's working! I'm also tracking battery life as well, which seems to have improved slightly with the drive. I'll attribute this to no moving parts, no spinning platters.
Anyone looking to get an SSD will not be disappointed if they do a little homework and get a decent drive. The MBP no long heats up under my left hand as well. It's whisper quiet, I can't even tell when this thing is on! And sleep / hibernate works flawlessly.
The 1TB Time Capsule is ample storage for my media, so the 120 GB SSD is a perfect option for me. I even have 20 GB dedicated to my Boot Camp partition (which I rarely use, but have setup for a couple games and other software I can't get a replacement for on the Mac).
Anyways, just thought I'd post some results in case there were other forum members contemplating the SSD plunge. I can honestly say its one of the best investment / upgrades I've put in a machine and actually noticed the performance gain.
Overall, the install experience was incredibly easy. After flashing the firmware for this particular drive (OCZ Summit - 120GB - 19C1 FW w/ GC and TRIM), the installation was incredibly easy. After a quick 40 minute install/restore from my Time Capsule, it booted up with no issues.
Boot time has significantly decreased. Anywhere from 10 - 15 seconds to the desktop. Programs launch must faster now. Firefox doesn't "bounce" as many times as it used to. In fact, it's almost instantaneous opening (although I find myself using Chrome more and more - which has always opened faster than FF). Photoshop Elements also fires up in 2-3 seconds. iPhoto '09 runs much better. Once bounce and it opens to right where I left it off, and my photo database is roughly 10 GB. Word, Excel, Entourage, etc... same thing - quick to open, quick to respond.
Boot Camp works great with Windows 7 and SSD. Boot time significantly decreased, only takes about 20-25 seconds to get to the desktop.
I've also been logging some data from Xbench to track the drives performance. I was really happy to learn that OCZ was releasing a flash to include garbage collection for this drive (as well as TRIM support for Windows). The drive should maintain performance now without reducing speed, but I plan to track that over the coming months just to make sure it's working! I'm also tracking battery life as well, which seems to have improved slightly with the drive. I'll attribute this to no moving parts, no spinning platters.
Anyone looking to get an SSD will not be disappointed if they do a little homework and get a decent drive. The MBP no long heats up under my left hand as well. It's whisper quiet, I can't even tell when this thing is on! And sleep / hibernate works flawlessly.
The 1TB Time Capsule is ample storage for my media, so the 120 GB SSD is a perfect option for me. I even have 20 GB dedicated to my Boot Camp partition (which I rarely use, but have setup for a couple games and other software I can't get a replacement for on the Mac).
Anyways, just thought I'd post some results in case there were other forum members contemplating the SSD plunge. I can honestly say its one of the best investment / upgrades I've put in a machine and actually noticed the performance gain.
