first, i know this has been asked already, but not in the way im wanting to know. i just purchased my first mac, its a used 2009 15.4 with 2.53GHz and upgraded 8gb ram upgrade, and its awesome, so glad i made the purchase! now my question is this... the prior owner put in a new 5400rpm seagate hdd when i bought it, and i want something a little faster. however im not a power user and i dont really do any cpu intensive stuff yet. i do plan on putting windows on here sometime in the future. im looking at either the seagate momentus xt 750 gb or either samsung 830 250gb or crucial m4 250gb, now between the sad and hhd, what are gonna be the major differences??? on one hand im sure ill never need 750gb of space, but i like having in case i keep this computer a few years nd end up putting HD movies and photos and what not, on the other hand i like having the most up to date kind of stuff, ive seen some videos on youtube of the seagate booting faster than ssd and vice versa, so im hoping someone who has both or one or any first hand experience with either can give me some insight. and i think from what i have read a new ssd with sata 3 in overkill for my mbp, but i can swap in the future to new mbp. thanks for looking and sorry if this is in the wrong spot, im just going nuts trying to decide, i dont want to get one and then regret and wish i got the other.
ssd or hdd?
- Thread starter josh843
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One thing's for sure: you won't regret buying an SSD.
The speed increase compared to a regular hard drive is incredible.
As for storage, you can always store your movies and whatnot on an external disk.
I just installed a Samsung 830 256 GB a couple of days ago in my MacBook Pro. All my applications start practically before I can move the mouse cursor from the dock and to the application window!
The speed increase compared to a regular hard drive is incredible.
As for storage, you can always store your movies and whatnot on an external disk.
I just installed a Samsung 830 256 GB a couple of days ago in my MacBook Pro. All my applications start practically before I can move the mouse cursor from the dock and to the application window!
yea i thought about that but i dint really like the idea of having to keep up and lug along an external disk, i know theyre small but id rather have everything on here, and call me old fashioned but i dont really want to give up my optical drive either, not yet anyways. also will a notice a difference between a sata 3 or sata 2 even though my mbp isnt sata 3? (if that makes sense) or would it be a waste of money
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austinguy23
macrumors 6502a
Not much of a difference if the interface lacks support for SATA 3. Waste of money.
so what would be a good option, i know the crucial m4 is backwards compatible to sata 2, is the samsung? also is there another drive that would be better?
austinguy23
macrumors 6502a
Definitely go SSD. I can recommend the Samsung but I know nothing about Crucial's M4.
Also, I don't know if the Samsung is backward compatible but I bet Google knows...
i guess thats kinda what im leaning towards too, i just needed to be reassured, also would it be beneficial to upgrade the ram to 16gb or is that overkill since i dont do any major video editing or anything like that?
austinguy23
macrumors 6502a
Overkill for the time being but you mentioned you'll keep the laptop for a few years so I'd go 16. It'll come in handy in the last year or so of ownership.
Note that Apple is embracing their trend of soldering their RAM so don't expect to be able to transfer your RAM to your next laptop a few years from now.
Also, your next laptop in a few years from now will likely use proprietary SSD modules like the new rMBP and the MBAs, so don't expect to transfer your Samsung SSD to your future new laptop...
Not a waste of money at all. SATA 3 is backwards compatible, and most likely any SATA 2 SSD you can still find will cost more.
You can not upgrade your RAM beyond 8GB.
good point, never really thought about that
clyde2801
macrumors 601
Because it's the most the hardware on that model can take, period. Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge (2011 and 2012) MBP's can take up to 16gb.
