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SSD vs. HDD
- Thread starter markrox7
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Below is just a small sample of the search results for "SSD vs HDD".
But in short, an SSD is loads faster, but the HDD has a much bigger capacity for less money.
Solid State Drives vs. Hard Disk Drives (SSD vs HDD)
SSD vs HDD - Which is better and why?
Review: Hard disk vs. solid-state drive -- is an SSD worth the money?
And yes, it will affect Lion performance, as it will affect every performance, regardless of OS. To the positive, if speed is the deciding factor.
But in short, an SSD is loads faster, but the HDD has a much bigger capacity for less money.
Solid State Drives vs. Hard Disk Drives (SSD vs HDD)
SSD vs HDD - Which is better and why?
Review: Hard disk vs. solid-state drive -- is an SSD worth the money?
And yes, it will affect Lion performance, as it will affect every performance, regardless of OS. To the positive, if speed is the deciding factor.
Massive storage capacity vs speed essentially.
HDDs are like double decker buses, you can fit shed loads in them but they're fairly slow and cumbersome, where as an SSD is more like a premium sports car; flies like s*** off a brick and hugely expensive in comparison to HDDs.
Not used Lion yet but an SDD will have a huge effect in performance, like on any OS. When I bought my MBP last year could really feel the HDD as the bottleneck holding everything else back, and swapping over for an SSD was one of the most markable performance increases I have ever seen in an upgrade. Could not go back to a mechanical HDD in my MBP now. Takes 10-15 seconds to boot, Photoshop opens in 3-5 seconds etc.
Some say that an issue with SSD's is that the blocks have a finite number of writes, but the way I see it by the time that happens a new upgrade is probably overdue any way.
Other benefits include less heat, no noise, better battery life and far less fragile as no moving parts.
I'm quite happy with a firewire 800 external for media and such. Hope this has helped and is not to rambling lol.
HDDs are like double decker buses, you can fit shed loads in them but they're fairly slow and cumbersome, where as an SSD is more like a premium sports car; flies like s*** off a brick and hugely expensive in comparison to HDDs.
Not used Lion yet but an SDD will have a huge effect in performance, like on any OS. When I bought my MBP last year could really feel the HDD as the bottleneck holding everything else back, and swapping over for an SSD was one of the most markable performance increases I have ever seen in an upgrade. Could not go back to a mechanical HDD in my MBP now. Takes 10-15 seconds to boot, Photoshop opens in 3-5 seconds etc.
Some say that an issue with SSD's is that the blocks have a finite number of writes, but the way I see it by the time that happens a new upgrade is probably overdue any way.
Other benefits include less heat, no noise, better battery life and far less fragile as no moving parts.
I'm quite happy with a firewire 800 external for media and such. Hope this has helped and is not to rambling lol.
System boots faster, yes. But every Mac user out there uses sleep mode, so a full reboot usually happens like 1-4 times a month.
Apps launch faster. Again, how often do you open programs? As to me, I usually have a common set of most used apps running all the time. So, I open them at system start and never quit afterwards.
Applications, that are putting a considerable load on the hard drive, of course, will benefit from SSD. iPhoto, for example, and some professional applications like Logic and Final Cut Pro. If you don't use I/O heavy programs often, SSD won't make much of a difference.
Apps launch faster. Again, how often do you open programs? As to me, I usually have a common set of most used apps running all the time. So, I open them at system start and never quit afterwards.
Applications, that are putting a considerable load on the hard drive, of course, will benefit from SSD. iPhoto, for example, and some professional applications like Logic and Final Cut Pro. If you don't use I/O heavy programs often, SSD won't make much of a difference.
Since I'm moved to an SSD I'm more likely to shutdown my system when I'm away from the computer for more than three hours. The system is so fast to boot. 22 secs from the time I throw the power switch to desktop.
Glad I can save on my utility bill.
True, still use sleep most of the time, does come in handy when I do need to reboot.
Think your spot on regarding apps, for general light usage a HDD is fine. However as you said more intensive apps really do benefit from a SSD. Photoshop CS5, Aperture etc are just so much more responsive, and my Win 7 running in Parallels feels like it's running natively.
And it doesn't lag as hell when resuming the virtual machine from suspended state!
Better battery life is not the case with my SSD. It is about the same imo
But yes, it is the best upgrade anyone can do. The speed difference is striking and I cannot imagine going back to a HD.
Lion boots in about 9-10 seconds counting from pressing the power button.
Most apps launches in 1-2seconds.
About wearing:
With the latest SSD controllers it is not a big issues anymore. They will run smooth for a long time. Within that timespan you are going to upgrade again anyway.
22seconds seem to be very long for SSD ?
My SL partition takes about 10seconds and the Lion partition even less. I never see the spinning wheel on the bootscreen at all.
BTW I now use a OWC SSD 240GB which is one of the fastest SSD available.. But my previous Intel 310 SSD had the same boot times.
Again, 22seconds is kinda long for SSD imo
I have a late 2008 Macbook Alum. If I wanted to upgrade my HDD to SSD, all I'd have to do would be buy it, take out the HDD and replace it with the SSD (then obviously installing everything from scratch)?
Do you have video of that 10-second boot time? The reason I ask is because I've seen many, many people claiming the 10-second boot time but only because they have never measured it. When they actually measure it, it is usually 15-20 seconds, which is still brilliant. Here are some figures and I would say 22 seconds is still normal. Obviously, boot time is from the press of the button to the desktop, not to the login screen
Do you have video of that 10-second boot time? The reason I ask is because I've seen many, many people claiming the 10-second boot time but only because they have never measured it. When they actually measure it, it is usually 15-20 seconds, which is still brilliant. Here are some figures and I would say 22 seconds is still normal. Obviously, boot time is from the press of the button to the desktop, not to the login screen
My boot is around 12.5 after timing it on my iPhone on an Intel 320 ssd.
Any modern OS w/ SATA support is going to perform better w/ an SSD compared to a HDD. Like HDDs, not all SSDs are the same though, even w/ similar specs, and not all SSDs are Mac friendly so do your research before buying.
The reason SSDs have not totally obsoleted HDDs yet is their high cost and limited storage size. I bought a 128GB SSD for my MBP for $300 2 years ago. Similar models are still in that price range. Unlike HDDs, SSDs prices have not fallen to bargain prices yet. I adore my 128GB SSD but long for more space. I can't wrap my mind around the cost of 256GB SSDs still.
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I feel the same. I think that 10 second boot time is still a (slight) exaggeration. I've timed boot time without Resume on Lion three times, with an average of 17 seconds. That's on a 2011 high end 13" MacBook Pro with Crucial 128gb SSD. Turning on Resume adds another few seconds.Do you have video of that 10-second boot time? The reason I ask is because I've seen many, many people claiming the 10-second boot time but only because they have never measured it. When they actually measure it, it is usually 15-20 seconds, which is still brilliant. Here are some figures and I would say 22 seconds is still normal. Obviously, boot time is from the press of the button to the desktop, not to the login screen
I often see a few comments like this in discussions about whether or not to get a SSD, and I just have to smile. I can only assume that people who make these kind of comments have never upgraded their own systems to a SDD, because once you have, you would never dream of going back
Since disk IO is the single biggest bottleneck on any computer system, upgrading to a SSD will make your whole system snappier and more responsive. Now I'm sure somebody will respond that their grandmother leaves her Mac on all the time and gets on it once in a while to check her email and surf the web for a bit, so she wouldn't benefit.
There are only three reasons I can think of not to do it. You can't afford it, you have only one drive on your portable Mac and don't want to lug around an external drive and you need a lot of storage capacity or all you ever do is email and the web.
Just did the test with a chrono:
Full boot from pressing the power button (not from sleep status) is 11 seconds.
Again, I even do not see the spinner on the boot screen. It is pretty quick.
I made the change to SSDs a few years ago - and once you've had one, youll never go back. The OS boot time, loading of apps is very quick and even when i install high spec 3D CAD workstations (which i do for a living) they feel slow as they only have 10k rpm HDDs
My MBP 2.2GHz i7 2011 boots to login screen in 21s from power on - I think some people measure boot time from the chime sound, rather than pressing power button - Im sceptical of 10s boot time claims, in that respect.
just my 2 penniworth...
My MBP 2.2GHz i7 2011 boots to login screen in 21s from power on - I think some people measure boot time from the chime sound, rather than pressing power button - Im sceptical of 10s boot time claims, in that respect.
just my 2 penniworth...
Oooooook then. I'll survive with a HDD. My MDP isn't slow at all (boot time ~30 seconds) so i'll be fine.