I have to disagree with this. Putting an SSD in such an old computer makes little sense. I put an SSD in my Power Mac G5 and my real world performance gains were nothing to write home about. The money is better spent purchasing a faster system.
I am on this side, too.
I think it is nothing one really notices. Yes, booting and opening folders might be a bit faster. Also you would think that because of SSD access times small files are loaded quicker, but where would you see that in normal use? On the web? Since it is always the server at the other end that makes the same page appear in different speeds everytime, you can't really compare, if there is a difference.
I wonder, though, if people using Photoshop see an increase.
Also I always
thought you only see fast access times with big SSDs and it was said that the specs on manufacturers sides are always for the 128GB model and 32GB and 64GB models will be much slower.
With my Crucial m4 256GB, mSATA 6Gb/s (CT256M4SSD3) I also had the feeling it
got slower after the drive got filled up more and more and I had deleted stuff over and over again. I picked that exact SSD, because as we know
TRIM is not supported and some people recommend to buy an SSD with a
good Garbage collection (that would make up for the loss of TRIM). I was told this is the model with best GB. I am not sure, if it was just a feeling due to getting used to the new drive or if it really got slower and if that might have to do with how SSDs handle file deletion. (The solution for a slow SSD that has filled up, because it deletes files in another way than HDDs, is only to reformat it, I was told).
On that guy with the thinkbook. 2MB/s ??? How old (or small) was that HDD then? I would guess you even get more with the stock 4200rpm 40GB Toshiba drive of an ibook mid 2005.
I also have extreme doubts against benchmarks. They will show you a max throughput of 80-100MB/s with a SSD on a PowerMac G4, allthough the SATA-PCI card can't handle more than 35MB/s.
I manually let the Mac copy big files and then look how long it takes and devide the file size by elapsed time, but I guess it is just a thing of personal taste, wether to use benchmark tools or not.
Maybe I can find my notes I made when I compared the SSD to a 2,5" 160GB Samsung and the stock 40GB Toshiba HDD in an ibook once. It could as well be, that I threw the notes away, because there was no big difference. (also have a WD 320GB 2,5" HDD, but that is in my other ibook, that has a faster CPU and I did not have it opened at the time).
Theory says (as Intell has mentioned), though, that SSDs will use a bigger part of the theoretically usable IDE-conector's bandwidth and have a more constant throughput, than the changing HDD throuput on a IDE HDD, while e.g. copying a file.
On spending money on a faster Mac, rather than buying an SSD. I still not totally convinced myself, that a SSD does not have some sort of advantage that one can really see/feel in everyday usage, but to see it from this side: on the internet = you can't tell, because servers respond differently; for opening folders fast = is that really a big issue?; On other stuff = I guess one more sees a difference, when doing things that involve throughput, rather than in stuff that needs good access times, because the latter's difference seemed marginal to me. With throughput, you are limited to the CPU, still. A 1,33GHz ibook gets a 20min video file encoded to h.264 @ 2,5Mbit/s by 30min. faster than a 1,2GHz ibook (and we speak of 12h and 30minutes in total here), so in that case, maybe the 1,2GHz ibook is better sold and one puts 5-10EUR on top and buys a 1,33GHz model instead. The other thing is, if the slower device means something to you personally, then one can understand, that you will rather changed parts than let the Mac itself go.
I do see things like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Convert-Conve...241623&sr=8-2&keywords=IDE+to+mSATA+converter
However as you have explained to me before, they won't fit in perfectly since there is nothing there to hold them in. I may just go with your suggestion, or one like it. I always forget though, that there is a metal bracket that holds a standard hard drive in, that could possible help to hold the mSATA drive in. Also, on top of the IDE connection another plastic bracket holds the connection from falling apart (with screws on either side of the bracket).
I have this adapter and it fits perfectly (as in space). On securing it from moving, I can't answer, since I didn't use that for long and I don't carry my ibooks around a lot. (Your idea with the mounting brackets that are allready preexistant in the ibook is an idea worth considering!)
