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

SSD upgrade, worth it?

F

Feodor

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 11, 2011
5
0
I have an early 2011 MBP, and after a year of heavy use it's getting slow. E.g. it takes a minute to boot up and Chrome takes 30 seconds to launch after that, along with general lag. Almost replaced it with the rMBP this year, but had to return the rMBP because of blurriness in MS Office/etc.

I'm considering getting a 128GB Crucial M4 to speed up the computer. Is it worth the hassle to reinstall everything? I have a 500 GB 5200RPM HD now. Thanks.
 
Worth it. No one should tell you any different. They would be lying or a strange HDD fan-boy.
 
SSDs are great. They give one of the most noticeable improvements when it comes to just using your computer.
 
If your only doubt is the time it'll take to reinstall everything, you can always use a cloning software like Superduper (I used it) or Carbon Copy Clone. Everything went smoothly for me except that the recovery partition wasn't copied. I believe Carbon Copy Clone does copy it though. Not a big factor for me since if I ever do need to reinstall, the online recovery will just take extra time.

Upgraded to a 256Gb Samsung 830 and everything is much much better. When I upgraded my ram it was noticeable since I use Virtual Machines daily and heavily use Photoshop/Lightroom, but the SSD upgrade just made everything more 'snappy'. Loading photos and programs in general is done in a flash. Bootup is quick and there's no waiting for startup programs to load as they're done instantly.
 
I don't want to get lynched here, but I tend to favor capacity over speed. I have a 256 GB SSD in my iMac, and I sure wish it was a 1 TB HDD.
 
You have a stationary computer... why are you concerned about capacity on it when you can store everything on NAS's or External Drives?
 
Lampmeister said:
I don't want to get lynched here, but I tend to favor capacity over speed. I have a 256 GB SSD in my iMac, and I sure wish it was a 1 TB HDD.
Click to expand...

It's still a trade-off between capacity and cost on one hand vs. speed on the other. A SSD is faster at a lot of things, as others noted. But it's a LOT more expensive per GB than a HDD. If you don't need a lot of storage space, a SSD can make a lot of sense. But it gets mighty expensive mighty fast if you need 500 GB of space.

You can also sort of split the difference and get a hybrid drive. Faster than a normal HDD, but cheaper and slower than a SSD.
 
sorry for unrelated post.

But why use a cloning software when you can just use time machine? (obvious n00b here)
 
Hybrid drives are nothing compared to an SSD. They're really just slightly faster 7200 RPM drives. You might noticed a slight difference from your stock 5600RPM drive, but it won't compare to an SSD.

What I did was use the 500GB drive I pulled out as an external drive. I store movies and videos on there that I don't need fast access to.
 
Cloning software

tracid said:
sorry for unrelated post.

But why use a cloning software when you can just use time machine? (obvious n00b here)
Click to expand...

Cloning makes for a much simpler life. You can boot from the clone and restore much more quickly. I would recommend Carbon Copy Cloner over Time Machine every time. The latter has failed in my experience, but not CCC.
 
tracid said:
sorry for unrelated post.

But why use a cloning software when you can just use time machine? (obvious n00b here)
Click to expand...

You don't have to use cloning software. If the Time Machine backup was made on a USB or Firewire directly attached disk with 10.7.2 or later, you can actually option key boot to it and restore the OS along with your data.
 
Also, is there a standard/best SSD that people use for early 2011 MBPs? I'm more concerned about freezes/stability than speed.
 
Namtaro said:
Hybrid drives are nothing compared to an SSD. They're really just slightly faster 7200 RPM drives. You might noticed a slight difference from your stock 5600RPM drive, but it won't compare to an SSD.

What I did was use the 500GB drive I pulled out as an external drive. I store movies and videos on there that I don't need fast access to.
Click to expand...

Having tried one, I agree. They are faster, but not like a SSD. That's why I wrote "sort of." That said, SSD isn't a magic bullet - it opens apps, starts up, etc., a lot faster, but it doesn't let you type faster, reach the web faster, etc.

Personally, I can't stand using an external drive - it defeats the point of an all-in-one laptop. Once SSD prices drop by about half (so a 500 GB is about $150-175), I'll go for one. But I need a lot of storage in my laptop, and so SSD isn't quite there yet for me.

Feodor said:
Also, is there a standard/best SSD that people use for early 2011 MBPs? I'm more concerned about freezes/stability than speed.
Click to expand...

The Samsung 830 seems to get the most positive reviews here . . .
 
Naimfan said:
Personally, I can't stand using an external drive - it defeats the point of an all-in-one laptop.

The Samsung 830 seems to get the most positive reviews here . . .
Click to expand...

True, I just keep one in my bag with movies and such if I end up staying at school late.

Been using a Samsung 830 for a few months now without a hitch.
 
Namtaro said:
True, I just keep one in my bag with movies and such if I end up staying at school late.

Been using a Samsung 830 for a few months now without a hitch.
Click to expand...

Now THAT'S a good use of an external! I travel a lot with work and try to travel with as few things as possible - hence my aversion to external drives, dongles/adapters, etc.
 
Feodor said:
I have an early 2011 MBP, and after a year of heavy use it's getting slow. E.g. it takes a minute to boot up and Chrome takes 30 seconds to launch after that, along with general lag. Almost replaced it with the rMBP this year, but had to return the rMBP because of blurriness in MS Office/etc.

I'm considering getting a 128GB Crucial M4 to speed up the computer. Is it worth the hassle to reinstall everything? I have a 500 GB 5200RPM HD now. Thanks.
Click to expand...

While I agree with EVERY response for upgrading to an SSD, if your machine is getting really slow, there's possibly something else at play there... You should sort that issue out.
 
Feodor said:
I have an early 2011 MBP, and after a year of heavy use it's getting slow. E.g. it takes a minute to boot up and Chrome takes 30 seconds to launch after that, along with general lag. Almost replaced it with the rMBP this year, but had to return the rMBP because of blurriness in MS Office/etc.

I'm considering getting a 128GB Crucial M4 to speed up the computer. Is it worth the hassle to reinstall everything? I have a 500 GB 5200RPM HD now. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Office has now received a Retina Update so it should be fine now.
 
Feodor said:
I have an early 2011 MBP, and after a year of heavy use it's getting slow. E.g. it takes a minute to boot up and Chrome takes 30 seconds to launch after that, along with general lag. Almost replaced it with the rMBP this year, but had to return the rMBP because of blurriness in MS Office/etc.

I'm considering getting a 128GB Crucial M4 to speed up the computer. Is it worth the hassle to reinstall everything? I have a 500 GB 5200RPM HD now. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Samsung 830s are rock solid and getting cheap.

Don't bother with hybrid. Either dual hd in optical or external, but to be honest 256 is tons to run a system on - only media files take you outside that.

I'm concerned that an early 2011 MBP is getting that laggy and slow already. Either that drive is going wonky, or there's something else up. Try a clean install of your OS maybe.

I'm running an Early 2011 MBP 17", which is now SSD/HDD, but even before I upgraded it was a pretty smooth and snappy machine. It shouldn't feel that crummy yet.
 
ssmed said:
Cloning makes for a much simpler life. You can boot from the clone and restore much more quickly. I would recommend Carbon Copy Cloner over Time Machine every time. The latter has failed in my experience, but not CCC.
Click to expand...

I've never used CCC, but I've also never had an issue restoring from my time machine backup on my USB HDD attached to my AirPort Extreme. Admittedly, my setup is kind of slow, but that is due to the AirPort Extreme USB interface.
 
SSD's are fast and silent. Really no con, except that storage capacity isn't up to par with mechanical drives yet. That being said, SSD prices have decreased over the past year and will likely continue to fall. I expect to see capacity increases along with that.
 
Capacity isn't really an issue for me. I keep a couple 500GB FW800 externals in my bag for iTunes library and movies, Installers, whatever. 50% of my HD contents anyway and they don't need even half of the 80MB/s I get off them. Alternately once media is officially dead I have the shipped 5400 750GB Toshiba to use in the DVD tray and symlink the Home directory. I lucked out as that 5400 HDD gets over 120MB/s. The response sucks but as a home dir it does not matter. And it eats very little battery (almost best in class). Besides all that storage on a portable creates a single point of failure. and a VERY long recovery. To each their own needs obviously. This is just how I make up for the SSD capacity issues. The biggest downside is the irritation that hits you when you have to work on anything else. You just can't go back very easily.
 
Definitely worth it. OSX takes loads of time to boot it but its a completely different story with an ssd
 
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