SSD Performance Question

[Chaszmyr]

I'm about to buy a new Mac Pro, and I really want an SSD, but I'm not sure what the best way to go about it is. All of my digital video is going to be on a separate drive, but I want an SSD for my main. 512gb is enough for everything else I have, but I'm worried if I have all of my applications, photos, etc on the same drive as my OS that I may be compromising the performance, both because of accessing too many different things on an individual drive, and also because the drive will just have a lot more stuff on it and not a ton of free space. So my question is should I get:

1. A 512gb SSD + separate drive for video.

2. A ~128gb SSD for my OS, + an HDD for my other main stuff, + a separate drive for my video.

3. A ~128gb SSD for my OS + a drive that will hold all of my other main stuff and all of my video.

4. A ~128gb SSD for my OS, + a 256gb SSD for all of my other main stuff, + a drive for my video.

I'm looking at this from all angles, including performance, power consumption, heat, convenience, and cost. I can afford any of these solutions, but I obviously don't want to spend more than I am getting a benefit from.

Thanks!

 

[Hellhammer]

I would get #2. Why? Because big SSDs are slow, especially Apple ones. You can get e.g. 120GB Vertex 2 which is one of the fastest on the market with integrated garbage collection etc. That should be enough for OS and apps, right? You can get a slower drive for your main stuff (photos etc) like Caviar Green and then faster one for video for faster operation, e.g. Caviar Black or Barracuda XT. Or get two drives but RAID them and use it for video and the main stuff, that's even faster though you lose reliability.

 

[ValSalva]

I would get #2. Why? Because big SSDs are slow, especially Apple ones. You can get e.g. 120GB Vertex 2 which is one of the fastest on the market with integrated garbage collection etc. That should be enough for OS and apps, right? You can get a slower drive for your main stuff (photos etc) like Caviar Green and then faster one for video for faster operation, e.g. Caviar Black or Barracuda XT. Or get two drives but RAID them and use it for video and the main stuff, that's even faster though you lose reliability.

I agree. That's what I plan on doing. It's my understanding that at this point with OS 10.6 you want to be doing as little writing to an SSD as is possible. Overprovisioning and wear leveling , like on the OWC SSDs, is the only thing keeping SSDs fast until hopefully 10.7 supports some sort of TRIM like feature.

 

[xgman]

There are some faster larger models on the market now like the OCZ vertex 2, and some have self healing until trim.

 

[Chaszmyr]

There are some faster larger models on the market now like the OCZ vertex 2, and some have self healing until trim.

Will the Vertex 2 be equally fast regardless of which capacity I go with?

 

[Hellhammer]

Will the Vertex 2 be equally fast regardless of which capacity I go with?

At least they say so. The more you have free space, the better so a bigger one should be faster in the long run

 

[snouter]

128gb Ssd

I have a 127SSD in my 2010 MBP 17" and find that I have around 95GB of free space after OS X, CS5, Dreamweaver, and a few other apps. This is a workable amount of space as a boot and OS drive.

 

[VirtualRain]

A few things to consider:

As long as you leave 10-20% free space on an SSD (some drives do this for you), it will run at maximum performance. SSD's are not like HD's where the performance across the full drive varied and a full drive caused problems with fragmentation. SSD's don't have those issues.

Smaller SSD's put into a RAID0 array will perform even better than a single SSD. Buy two 256GB drives and get double the space and double the performance. As long as you have a backup strategy, the risk of data loss in the event of a drive failure is mitigated.

The more you put on solid state storage, the better. If you can afford to put everything but your video on an SSD... do it!

Hence, I would actually suggest a different option...

5. Dual 240GB SSD in software RAID 0 + separate drive for video

I would recommend the OCZ Vertex 2 as others have already suggested.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227591

 

[strausd]

The OWC SSDs use the same controller as the OCZ Vertex 2, so if you are looking at price check those two since they are pretty much the same. However, I think the OCZ Vertex 2 will come with a 2.5" to 3.5" bracket and the OWC SSD doesn't. If you are going to put it in the second optical bay then you don't need to worry about that. But my suggestion would be to go with either OWC or OCZ Vertex 2.