Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

SSD or SATA3

R

rocketjacket

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 5, 2012
72
0
Im under the impression that my early 2011 13" MacBook Pro supports 6gbit
SSD and or SATA3, that being said is it worth paying extra for SSD when the size is so much smaller?

Also, is there a particular after market brand or both SSD and SATA3 that are recommended?
 
rocketjacket said:
Im under the impression that my early 2011 13" MacBook Pro supports 6gbit
SSD and or SATA3, that being said is it worth paying extra for SSD when the size is so much smaller?

Also, is there a particular after market brand or both SSD and SATA3 that are recommended?
Click to expand...

What do you have in your Macbook Pro currently? Also if you look at system information and the find Serial-ATA that will tell you for definite.
 
daleski75 said:
You will see a huge boost with an SSD and trust me once you use one you'll never go back to a stock HDD.

Definitely worth it even with the lower capacity and you can always put your existing HDD into an external caddy so it's not gone to waste.
Click to expand...

So I guess what I am wondering then is, is there a big speed difference in SSD 6g/bit and SATA3? If they are a similar speed, wouldn't SATA3 make more sense? I mean for the price difference.
 
rocketjacket said:
So I guess what I am wondering then is, is there a big speed difference in SSD 6g/bit and SATA3? If they are a similar speed, wouldn't SATA3 make more sense? I mean for the price difference.
Click to expand...

With Sata-2 you'll get around 250mb/sec read and write and with Sata-3 this can go up to about 500mb/sec read and write but either one will be much faster than what you have now.

If the price difference is pretty big then stick with Sata-2.
 
daleski75 said:
With Sata-2 you'll get around 250mb/sec read and write and with Sata-3 this can go up to about 500mb/sec read and write but either one will be much faster than what you have now.

If the price difference is pretty big then stick with Sata-2.
Click to expand...

oh, I thought the SATA3 Speeds were the same as SSD.
So an SSD 6g/bit is 12x quicker?
 
I think your confusing terms OP? SSDs (solid state drives) are flash-based storage. They come in two flavours - SATA 2 (restricted by 3GBit speeds) and SATA 3 (6 GBit speeds).
 
rocketjacket said:
So if both are the same speeds, why go with SSD?
Click to expand...

Like Dangerous Theory said SSD is flash based storage which has much faster read and write times than a conventional mechanical hard disk.

I think you are getting confused with SATA which is just a standard for attaching SATA devices to it be it SSD, HDD etc.

Think of SATA as a highway the SATA-2 has 3 lanes of traffic and SATA-3 has 6 lanes of traffic so you can get twice as much traffic in the same time.

SSD is just like a HDD but much much faster.

SATA is NOT SSD!
 
Sata is the interface that the HDD uses to comunicate with the pc.

This has some speed values in it.

using the road analogy in sata 1 you could only go 150km/h, in sata 2 you could go for 250km/h and in sata 3 you can go for 500km/h

The HDD also has a given speed, usually its around 100-120mb/s, going back to the road analogy, 100-120km/h

A SSD for sata 2 can usually go for 220-250mb/s, going back to the road analogy, 220-250km/h

A SSD for sata 2 can usually go for 450-500mb/s, going back to the road analogy, 450-500km/h

So a SSD is worth the price difference? yes. you are going to notice the difference in responsiveness in the pc.

and yes your early 2011 mbp does have sata 3 in it, so you can buy a good samsung 830 and put it there.
 
In short, you are guaranteed at least a 5 fold increase in speeds. Perhaps as high as 7. With the latest drives (M4/830/520/Vertex 4) that is.
 
daleski75 said:
Like Dangerous Theory said SSD is flash based storage which has much faster read and write times than a conventional mechanical hard disk.

I think you are getting confused with SATA which is just a standard for attaching SATA devices to it be it SSD, HDD etc.

Think of SATA as a highway the SATA-2 has 3 lanes of traffic and SATA-3 has 6 lanes of traffic so you can get twice as much traffic in the same time.

SSD is just like a HDD but much much faster.

SATA is NOT SSD!
Click to expand...

I understand SSD and SATA3 are completely different types of machines. One spins and the other is flash, my question is if both are rated @ 6gbps......ummm why?
 
rocketjacket said:
I understand SSD and SATA3 are completely different types of machines. One spins and the other is flash, my question is if both are rated @ 6gbps......ummm why?
Click to expand...

No, you do not understand... SSD is flash storage. HDD is a mechanical drive. SATA is an INTERFACE between storage (be it a HDD or an SSD) and the motherboard. There are 3 levels of SATA, of increasing speeds. Just because your laptop has a SATA 3 interface, your HDD isn't using its potential (not even slightly).
 
rocketjacket said:
I understand SSD and SATA3 are completely different types of machines. One spins and the other is flash, my question is if both are rated @ 6gbps......ummm why?
Click to expand...

Bangs head against desk!

Basically you're not getting anywhere near the capacity of SATA speed wise using a conventional hard drive with SATA-2 or SATA-3 and SSD would give your laptop a very good boost in overall performance.
 
Dangerous Theory said:
No, you do not understand... SSD is flash storage. HDD is a mechanical drive. SATA is an INTERFACE between storage (be it a HDD or an SSD) and the motherboard. There are 3 levels of SATA, of increasing speeds. Just because your laptop has a SATA 3 interface, your HDD isn't using its potential (not even slightly).
Click to expand...

yes, as I said I know they are mechanically different devices, but what is the speed difference in a traditional HDD and a SSD, for reading and writing?? ... Thanks for clearing up the 6gbps is in relationship to the interface.
 
rocketjacket said:
yes, as I said I know they are mechanically different devices, but what is the speed difference in a traditional HDD and a SSD, for reading and writing?? ... Thanks for clearing up the 6gbps is in relationship to the interface.
Click to expand...

There is a huge difference in speed for reading and writing, they cannot even be compared.
 
rocketjacket said:
yes, as I said I know they are mechanically different devices, but what is the speed difference in a traditional HDD and a SSD, for reading and writing?? ... Thanks for clearing up the 6gbps is in relationship to the interface.
Click to expand...

As I said above, you can easily expect at least a 5 times speed increase, and very likely about 7 times faster. Read/Write speeds are usually at the mid-to-high 400MB/s region, compared to something like 70MB/s in a 5400rpm drive.
 
rocketjacket said:
What do you mean they can't be compared!
There must be some sort of comparison?
Click to expand...

What I mean is you cannot compare them together for buying either a SSD or HDD as part of your buying decision.

Buying a SSD to replace a HDD is completely different then you can read up on the advantages of SSD over HDD etc.
 
Mr MM said:
Sata is the interface that the HDD uses to comunicate with the pc.

This has some speed values in it.

using the road analogy in sata 1 you could only go 150km/h, in sata 2 you could go for 250km/h and in sata 3 you can go for 500km/h

The HDD also has a given speed, usually its around 100-120mb/s, going back to the road analogy, 100-120km/h

A SSD for sata 2 can usually go for 220-250mb/s, going back to the road analogy, 220-250km/h

A SSD for sata 2 can usually go for 450-500mb/s, going back to the road analogy, 450-500km/h

So a SSD is worth the price difference? yes. you are going to notice the difference in responsiveness in the pc.

and yes your early 2011 mbp does have sata 3 in it, so you can buy a good samsung 830 and put it there.
Click to expand...
Im just quoting myself, this should have been sorted out here
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back