SSD Questions

Make sure you get one with a Sandforce controller. The new OCZ's have them, but I don't know about the previous gen.

 

Does the MBP new gen have enough space for the existing hdd AND a second drive? or are you replacing your existing drive?

 

You can put 2 drives in if you swap out the SuperDrive. This is a pretty common procedure.

 

The Sandforce controller dramatically reduces SSD degradation. I have the OWC Mercury, which also has the Sandforce controller.

 

The Vertex 2 is superior by far, Check out tomshardware.com

but note that the newer MBPs apparent have a 1.5Gb/s bandwidth limitation on the SATA 3Gb/s interface (check system profiler) - Kinda wish Apple had changed this for the 2010 generation...

the macbook white doesn't, it gets a full 3Gb/s out of its SATA connections..

I have 2 SSDs that I don't use in my mac (their older, but read at more then 300MB/s), one day, I'll get around to empirically testing this..

 

My 17" 2010 i7 disagrees with this assertion.

 

^^

Here's what my System Profiler shows.

Full 3GB/s ?

Yeah that

 

My 15" i5 has both my SSD and my HD (in an optibay) showing as 3Gbps as well. Where are you getting that they sync at 1.5Gbps x0r-lord?

 

I'm sorry, you'r right, it enables it when theres a SSD connected.
I had't gotten a chance to test it yet, I look forward to seeing the bandwidth difference (if any) between a 5400, 7200, and SSD.

its odd that it doesn't support TRIM, such a crucial feature of deleting/writing files on a SSD.

and, btw this is what my current system profiler says about my SATA

Code:

Intel 5 Series Chipset:

  Vendor:	Intel
  Product:	5 Series Chipset
  Link Speed:	3 Gigabit
  Negotiated Link Speed:	1.5 Gigabit
  Description:	AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

 

Get the Vertex 2 80GB or the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 80GB. Will set you back only about $199 at the max, you could probably find the Vertex 2 on eBay for around $150. Good luck!

 

Only the stock drives shipped from Apple use 1.5gbps for some reason. Any 3rd party drive installed (HDD or SSD) will boot up at the native 3.0 (not that it matters really, you'll never notice the speed difference).