SSD in the new MBP

[MightyDane]

Hello everyone, I am a long-time reader, first time writer

Well, I like the new MBP and have decided to buy the 15,4'' with:

2,8 GHz
4 GB RAM
GF 9600 with 512 MB RAM

But I want SSD in my machine. Unfortunately it's not cheap and it's only 128 GB. I've decided to order the MBP (with the cheapest HDD installed) and then order the SSD. I got some questions:

1. Can you recommend any 250 GB SSD (or 200, but not sure that's available) - It would be nice if it was cheap and fast. Btw, please make sure it's possible to ship to Europe as I'm living in Denmark.
2. I think the HDD in the late 2008 MBP is 2,5'' so the SSD got to be the same size. Can anyone confirm this?
3. When I swap the HDD with the SSD I will have to install OSX on the new SSD. Is there anything such as electronic documentation (or any other data) which is only stored on the HDD in the apple-manufactured MBP and NOT on the Leopard installation dvd's? I would lose this data when the SSD was installed in the machine. I only ask about this as apple website says:
What's in the box: Printed and electronic documentation. Look: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro (in the bottom)
4. I guess I can just sell the HDD afterwards? Or what?
5. Anything else I should know? I.E., should I do any setup before it would work?

Thanks in advance

 

[jasonrm]

Congratulations on your purchase, but right now, there is no such thing as a "fast and cheap" SSD.

Fast, you will be looking for the new X25-M SSD by Intel, but 80GB is around $600.

Cheap, well, performance will suck, read up at places like anandtech.com, notebookreview.com

I know this isn't the responce you were looking for, but you really will need to do your own research to find what fits your needs best as there isn't a "best" option right now. Only tradeoffs...

 

[NRose8989]

"250GB", "cheap", and "SSD" in the same sentence is not gonna happen.

First SSD drives are not even made in that size yet, and when they are made, they won't be cheap.

128GB is as big as they come, and they are expensive.

Sorry to burst your bubble but thats the way it is for at least a couple of years until the technology picks up.

just get a hitachi 7k320, which is faster then the SSD in some cases

 

[wonderbread57]

I'm tempted to spring for the X25-E, really. But at only 32GIG I think I may be putting a daunting premium on disk space. Now 64GIG I could deal with. Maybe for Christmas Intel will come out with a X25-E 64G that isn't 2x as much.

 

[dr. shdw]

I'm tempted to spring for the X25-E, really. But at only 32GIG I think I may be putting a daunting premium on disk space. Now 64GIG I could deal with. Maybe for Christmas Intel will come out with a X25-E 64G that isn't 2x as much.

They're coming out early next year..or was it this month, anyhow the 32gb drives are going to drop down to $500 or so.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

I'm trying to pan off my disk space so I can switch to an SLC SSD also. I think what ends up happening is that we expand to our disk space by way of not watching files accumulate or not burning large files to disks or putting on external disks. I have a about 30 or 40 gigs of music on my laptop HDD because I liked to have my entire collection with me, but I realize now that I Can put my favorites on my iphone and be done with it, leaving the rest at home.

Besides my documents, the OS, firefox , CS4 and some other apps everything else can go. Combined i'm working to get that under 64 gigs.