SSD or not?

[killbot]

MBP is about 5 years old or so .. hardrive was upgraded about 2 yrs ago to 500gb but is starting to fill up .. also moving dreadfully slow sometimes..

Want to get a new laptop this Christmas, and was thinking about the SSD option .. did a search on the forum, but didn't see anything conclusive recently .. on the online store, the option is between:

750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00]
512GB Solid State Drive [ADD $1,050.00]

The SSD has a big price difference, and no real difference in size to what I have currently ..

Would the increase in speed make that much of a difference?

Is there a third party drive I can buy and install myself?

 

[deafgoose]

If you need 500GB of space, the SSD might not be the most cost effective option for you but it does increase the speed significantly.

How much ram do you have?

 

[Naimfan]

Get the 750 GB 7200 RPM drive. Faster than 5400 RPM, and needless to say larger. If your 500 GB drive is already filling up, a 500 GB SSD is not a cost-effective solution.

If you like, you can sell the 750 GB drive from the new MBP, and then go SSD, but I wouldn't bother.

You can also buy and install almost any 2.5" SATA hard drive, but do note pricing at the moment - hard drive prices have roughly doubled due to flooding in Thailand. That's why I suggest the upgraded 750 GB 7200 RPM drive - it's a very cost-effective solution at the moment.

 

[NJuul]

I would also suggest getting the 750gb hard drive, though I doubt you would notice the speed difference between 7200 and 5400 rpm.
An SSD is a tremendous speed bumb,mbut it isn't cheap. However, it is very easy to replace the hard drive later on your own with a 3rd party SSD. You can currently get a 512 gb M4 from Crucial for about $700, and that price is certain to decrease if you wait for it. And if you feel up for it, you can then replace the optical drive with an optibay, into which you can move your 750 gb hard drive, for a total of 1.25 tb of space. This will give your the speed of an SSD, combined with the storage capacity of a traditional hard drive, for much less than the $1050 you are now considering.

 

[gnasher729]

MBP is about 5 years old or so .. hardrive was upgraded about 2 yrs ago to 500gb but is starting to fill up .. also moving dreadfully slow sometimes..

Want to get a new laptop this Christmas, and was thinking about the SSD option .. did a search on the forum, but didn't see anything conclusive recently .. on the online store, the option is between:

750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00]
512GB Solid State Drive [ADD $1,050.00]

The SSD has a big price difference, and no real difference in size to what I have currently ..

Would the increase in speed make that much of a difference?

Is there a third party drive I can buy and install myself?

You should be able to find a 1 TB drive as well. If you feel 500 GB is too small then I wouldn't buy just 750, and definitely not 500 GB SSD. Replacing a hard drive on a new MacBook Pro, or on any MacBook, is easy. I recommend buying an external 2.5" drive, copying the contents of your hard drive onto the external one with Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder), booting from the external to check it works, and then you just swap the two drives.

 

[killbot]

Sounds to me like the hdd is the way to go, then maybe upgrade after a few years..

How do I buy a MBP without a drive and buy a 1TB from a different vendor?

 

[Vantage Point]

Sounds to me like the hdd is the way to go, then maybe upgrade after a few years..

How do I buy a MBP without a drive and buy a 1TB from a different vendor?

You get a base model then replace the drive yourself (I would use carbon copy cloner to simply make a clone of the old drive since that is much easier and faster then other methods). Then take the stock drive and either 1) use it as a backup or 2) sell it on ebay listing it as like new removed from new MBP.

I love my Scorpio Black 750gb 7200rpm drive. Sold my old stock drive on ebay within hours of listing it.

 

[killbot]

The stock drive bought from apple is already 750gb (but 5200 rpm) .. doesn't look like you can downgrade it to a smaller drive to save money .. so essentially I would be buying the same capacity with better RPM ...

 

[Naimfan]

The stock drive bought from apple is already 750gb (but 5200 rpm) .. doesn't look like you can downgrade it to a smaller drive to save money .. so essentially I would be buying the same capacity with better RPM ...

It should be a 5400 RPM drive, not 5200.

You can probably sell it on Craigslist or eBay for around $100, which means you're making $50 by upgrading to the 7200 RPM drive.

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

MBP is about 5 years old or so .. hardrive was upgraded about 2 yrs ago to 500gb but is starting to fill up .. also moving dreadfully slow sometimes..

Want to get a new laptop this Christmas, and was thinking about the SSD option .. did a search on the forum, but didn't see anything conclusive recently .. on the online store, the option is between:

750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00]
512GB Solid State Drive [ADD $1,050.00]

The SSD has a big price difference, and no real difference in size to what I have currently ..

Would the increase in speed make that much of a difference?

Is there a third party drive I can buy and install myself?

Personal preference.

 

[andrewlgm]

MBP is about 5 years old or so .. hardrive was upgraded about 2 yrs ago to 500gb but is starting to fill up .. also moving dreadfully slow sometimes..

Want to get a new laptop this Christmas, and was thinking about the SSD option .. did a search on the forum, but didn't see anything conclusive recently .. on the online store, the option is between:

750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00]
512GB Solid State Drive [ADD $1,050.00]

The SSD has a big price difference, and no real difference in size to what I have currently ..

Would the increase in speed make that much of a difference?

Is there a third party drive I can buy and install myself?

Or you could go with a cheaper SSD drive, maybe 128GB for $200 or so, and use your current drive as an external drive so you're also looking to buy an external drive case. Or buy an external drive and a cheaper SSD, this way you get the benefit of the speed bump and the increase in storage space via the external.

 

[ArchiMark]

+1 for SSD's.....the good ones give great performance and are quiet! which no one has mentioned so far....so nice to have a quiet laptop, other than fan if laptop has one...

Like others said, if need more storage put your other HD in an external case...unless you must have so much storage space onboard the laptop itself...

 

[Sonhascome]

Here's a little video that might help you make a decision http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odSSI_9KAkI

 

[Naimfan]

Like others said, if need more storage put your other HD in an external case...

I'm sorry, but that completely defeats the purpose of having a laptop in the first place - portability.

And again, let's not get too carried away with the "speed" advantage. SSDs boot faster and open apps faster. Most people don't reboot often, nor do they open and close apps often. So yes, SSDs offer a speed advantage in certain tasks, but at an enormous price in both dollars and in space.

 

[ArchiMark]

I'm sorry, but that completely defeats the purpose of having a laptop in the first place - portability.

Don't think you can say that it 'completely defeats...', as you still carry your laptop around regardless of drive size....however, you could say it 'partially defeats...' if you mean that you have to compromise and not tote around your entire collection of files.....

And again, let's not get too carried away with the "speed" advantage. SSDs boot faster and open apps faster. Most people don't reboot often, nor do they open and close apps often. So yes, SSDs offer a speed advantage in certain tasks, but at an enormous price in both dollars and in space.

I've replaced HD's on 4 or 5 laptops with SSD's, each time laptop feels more responsive and overall faster....of course YMMV....

The good SSD's (ie, fast...) are much better overall than HD's and avoid issue of mechanical part failure....and I've had several high quality HD's crash over the years, so, I know what that's like....and again much quieter too....but one downside is the cost...

 

[athens]

MBP is about 5 years old or so .. hardrive was upgraded about 2 yrs ago to 500gb but is starting to fill up .. also moving dreadfully slow sometimes..

Want to get a new laptop this Christmas, and was thinking about the SSD option .. did a search on the forum, but didn't see anything conclusive recently .. on the online store, the option is between:

750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00]
512GB Solid State Drive [ADD $1,050.00]

The SSD has a big price difference, and no real difference in size to what I have currently ..

Would the increase in speed make that much of a difference?

Is there a third party drive I can buy and install myself?

I just put a 128GB SSD into my 2008 Macbook Pro and its a night and day difference in speed. I use a 2TB hard drive connected via eSATA for most of my storage needs. The SSD is split 50/50 between Lion and Windows 7, then the 2TB external is split 50/50 with HFS+ and NTFS. Most of my stuff is installed on the External for space issues. But the computers general performance is much improved.