Suggestions: $1,100 budget for a SSD

[Battlefield Fan]

I've got up to $1,100 allotted in my budget for a SSD. The drive will be going into a 2011 15" MBP.

I currently have an original Vertex. I'm looking for a drive with at least 240-250GB and one that will take advantage of the SATA III 6.0 interface.

I've done some research but with spending this amount of money I'd like to get some opinions of other members. What would you buy?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mlrollin91]

I've got up to $1,100 allotted in my budget for a SSD. The drive will be going into a 2011 15" MBP.

I currently have an original Vertex. I'm looking for a drive with at least 240-250GB and one that will take advantage of the SATA III 6.0 interface.

I've done some research but with spending this amount of money I'd like to get some opinions of other members. What would you buy?

Thanks in advance!

Macsales.com (OWC) has 3 new SSD. 240GB is $579.99

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Extreme_Pro_6G/

 

[strwrsfrk]

Crucial m4

The SSDs made by and available at OWC are great (I have a 120GB SATAII drive that's perfect for a year now). The SATAIII OWC-branded SSDs are expensive, though.

Unfortunately, I cannot attest to the success of the following drive in MacBook Pros. However, since it is sold by MacMall and OWC, I would guess that it works. Plus, OWC has a 14-day (or 30-day; I can't remember) no-questions-asked return policy for SSDs.

Crucial m4 512GB SSD, 2.5", SATAIII (~$1,000)

http://www.macmall.com/p/Crucial-Technology-Internal-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~8362728~pdp.gdijcjc

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148444

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Crucial/CT512M4SSD2/

 

[Battlefield Fan]

Both interesting drives! I like the speed of the OWC drive. It's a shame that the 480GB drive is so expensive.

I like the Crucial drive but it has slow write speeds for the price but I could really use the 512GB of space!

Hmmm

 

[Queen of Spades]

Since your budge is $1100 - I'd go with this Intel drive. Intel's SSDs are generally the most reliable, and you get 600GB of storage. Spending other people's money is fun.

 

[Battlefield Fan]

Since your budge is $1100 - I'd go with this Intel drive. Intel's SSDs are generally the most reliable, and you get 600GB of storage. Spending other people's money is fun.

Haha unfortunately that drive has a rather low IOPS rating. I would really like something like the 480GB OWC drive with speed and size but it cost $1,800! Eek!

 

[Queen of Spades]

Haha unfortunately that drive has a rather low IOPS rating. I would really like something like the 480GB OWC drive with speed and size but it cost $1,800! Eek!

$1800? Okay, that's just pure insanity. For that much money, you could hire someone to write to your disk for you. Good luck in your search anyway.

 

[Capt Underpants]

You're going to have to compromise in today's SSD market. You can't have it all.

 

[strwrsfrk]

Boot Volume

Both interesting drives! I like the speed of the OWC drive. It's a shame that the 480GB drive is so expensive.

I like the Crucial drive but it has slow write speeds for the price but I could really use the 512GB of space!

Hmmm

Unless you are moving around a lot of data, the write speeds are probably less of a concern. My SSD is SATAII (rated for 260MB/s rw) and it flies for all tasks. I don't even know if I could appreciate at this time doubling the read, let alone the write (if I had the money, I'd do it anyway, of course...).

I don't know exactly what tasks you want your laptop to perform, but booting and running applications at SATAIII speeds are probably more important than writing that data. In my opinion and experience, you will find lack of storage space (especially 256GB vs 512GB) much more frustrating in the long run than slower write speeds.