upgrade from old 5400rpm hdd

[warzinak]

Hey guys, im upgrading my macbook in hope of getting another year or 2 out of it..just upped it to 3GB ram which i think is the max it can handle and i want to replace the 120gb 5400rpm hdd that came with it.

first il explain how i use my macbook....

mostly sitting on firefox/chrome with a average of 10-20 tabs open...
transfering my DSLR photography (12mp) to lightroom and organizing (might external this)
making music on ableton
and downloading through torrents then transferring to external
and thats pretty much it...

now ive been looking at the momentus XT because its cheaper than the SSD and can still have room, i feel like im constantly making space with my current 120gb (1tb external is ALWAYS full)
I know there is a 2nd gen one that just came out but i dont know how to buy it in the UK and be sure its 2nd not 1st gen.

now to the SSD option...i dont know if there is any point in me having one of these but maybe some1 will tell me different. I pretty much never shut down my computer so i wont benefit from the bootup speed...and the 128gb (which is all i can afford) just seems too small...the 120gb i have currently is always a pain...always emptying it...but then again i could just buy another external and get in the habit of transferring regularly

and then i saw something about optibays (also not sure where to get them in uk) but im scared about messing up somehow..is it easy to do? i have thought about getting a 64gb for optibay and just keep the 120gb 5400rpm (or maybe upgrade to 300-500gb 7200rpm....

and then last choice is getting a 7200rpm that is NOT hybrid like the XT....
tbh i dont know anything about this and there are so many options i dont know the difference....i wouldnt mind this choice because its the cheapest but if this is not a recommended path then let me know please.

EDIT: just found out my macbook is prob limited to 1.5 Gbps SATA so would i even get the speed im paying for with the SSD and would it matter what gen XT i get?

hope someone can help please!

 

[ELMI0001]

What model is your MacBook?

You could go 750gb Momentus XT to replace your 120gb and get a 256gb SSD to replace your optical. Put your system and apps on your SSD.

the SSD I've been eyeing is $295 on Amazon right now. That's about $40 cheaper than usual.

Crucial 256gb SSD

what's your budget?

 

[warzinak]

omg sorry! completely forgot to mention the model
its a MB062LL/A mid 2007 2.16ghz white macbook

my max budget is around £150 but would prefer to spend closer to £100

what your talking about is 2 hdd using optibay? is this hard to do or you just unscrew the optical drive and screw in the ssd enclosure? if i do this i would prob only go for a 64gb ssd

but would i really get the speed im paying for with the macbook im using?

 

[ELMI0001]

omg sorry! completely forgot to mention the model
its a MB062LL/A mid 2007 2.16ghz white macbook

my max budget is around £150 but would prefer to spend closer to £100

what your talking about is 2 hdd using optibay? is this hard to do or you just unscrew the optical drive and screw in the ssd enclosure? if i do this i would prob only go for a 64gb ssd

but would i really get the speed im paying for with the macbook im using?

I'll have to defer to someone with more experience - but they'll need to know what model you have.

I've been trolling the boards for a while toying with the idea of replacing my 160gb with a 256gb SSD and keeping my optical.

 

[warzinak]

its this one
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-core-2-duo-2.16-white-13-mid-2007-specs.html

 

[ELMI0001]

I don't think you'd see the speed bump with an SSD because your max would be 1.5gb/s while the SSD technically could do 6.0gb/s. You'd be paying for features you can't utilize.

Unless someone else can chime in, I'd go Momentus XT - which I've heard good things about. I don't need that much space, so I was leaning towards an SSD.

 

[gnasher729]

I don't think you'd see the speed bump with an SSD because your max would be 1.5gb/s while the SSD technically could do 6.0gb/s. You'd be paying for features you can't utilize.

That's nonsense. Any speed advantage of SSD is due to lower access time, not due to transfer rate. You are talking about the interface speed - just because there is an interface that could transfer 6.0 Gbit/sec doesn't mean the SSD drive can do anything close to that.

That said, any SSD drive within the £100-£150 budget would be tiny.

But a 500 GB drive, especially a 7200 rpm drive, will fit easily into the budget, and it will be an awful lot faster than a three year old 120 GB drive. One effect is that with a hard drive, the first portion is a lot faster - more than twice as fast as the last portion. So on the 120 GB drive, you are using both the fast and slow parts of the hard drive; on the 500 GB drive you'd be using only the fast portions (the reason: On the outer tracks of the drive, the data density is more than twice as high).

 

[warzinak]

great thanks for the advice guys!
il def go for a 7200rpm 500gb then..
now should i get the XT 1st gen?
try looking for a XT 2nd gen? (although i dont know how il find one in uk)
or go for a different 7200rpm drive? maybe WD or something or a momentus
i mean...if the extra spent on the hybrid is only like 5-10% then id rather just save some money and get a cheaper 7200rpm

 

[ELMI0001]

That's nonsense. Any speed advantage of SSD is due to lower access time, not due to transfer rate. You are talking about the interface speed - just because there is an interface that could transfer 6.0 Gbit/sec doesn't mean the SSD drive can do anything close to that.

That said, any SSD drive within the £100-£150 budget would be tiny.

But a 500 GB drive, especially a 7200 rpm drive, will fit easily into the budget, and it will be an awful lot faster than a three year old 120 GB drive. One effect is that with a hard drive, the first portion is a lot faster - more than twice as fast as the last portion. So on the 120 GB drive, you are using both the fast and slow parts of the hard drive; on the 500 GB drive you'd be using only the fast portions (the reason: On the outer tracks of the drive, the data density is more than twice as high).

Thanks for the clarification. I'm still figuring it all out.

Could you tell me a little more about the differences between access time, transfer rate, and interface speed?

Glad you chimed in so the OP got an informed response.

 

[warzinak]

oh wait i just noticed something...
the 500gb XT is 1st gen


and the 750gb XT is 2nd gen...

so £100 vs £150
250gb more space and double the GB/s
but my macbook wont be capable of using the doubled GB/s so i would just benefit from the extra 250gb ?

btw i hope all the momentus XT with macbook issues have been fixed by now


EDIT: ahhhh maybe il just get a 128gb SSD for £100 instead!
what to do?!? what to do?!

 

[r0k]

oh wait i just noticed something...
the 500gb XT is 1st gen


and the 750gb XT is 2nd gen...

so £100 vs £150
250gb more space and double the GB/s
but my macbook wont be capable of using the doubled GB/s so i would just benefit from the extra 250gb ?

btw i hope all the momentus XT with macbook issues have been fixed by now


EDIT: ahhhh maybe il just get a 128gb SSD for £100 instead!
what to do?!? what to do?!

I have the 500 GB Momentus XT in my 2008 white MB. I'm very happy with it. If you can live with only 128 GB of space, an SSD is a good choice. But for overall performance per money spent, the Momentus XT is the best choice.

 

[warzinak]

but if you were to buy one now would you get the 2nd gen?

 

[visual]

I went with a 128Gb Crucial M4 for my 2007 Macbook, Although it can't utilise the extra bandwidth, it still breathed new life into my wife's machine, there's definitely a perceived speed increase when opening apps etc.

The thinking behind getting the SSD: I'm aware the Macbook only has a couple of years left in it and I'm far more likely to use an SSD as a boot drive in my Mac mini than anything else I were to buy. I see it as an investment that should hopefully outlive the laptop.

 

[warzinak]

went for the XT 500gb...HATE the 120gb limit i have right now so even tho i would have faster speeds with the sdd id still have the aanoying 128gb space...im sure the XT will be better than the almost 5 year old 5400rpm drive so il be happy

 

[r0k]

but if you were to buy one now would you get the 2nd gen?

I'd check and make sure. Stores may have stock of 1st gen to clear out.

went for the XT 500gb...HATE the 120gb limit i have right now so even tho i would have faster speeds with the sdd id still have the aanoying 128gb space...im sure the XT will be better than the almost 5 year old 5400rpm drive so il be happy

Glad to hear it. I did hit a "slow spot" last night when LibreOffice got "pushed out" of the SSD "cache" of my Momentus XT. I had to wait almost 30 seconds for it to launch. Still enjoying iPad-like boot times though. I've even started leaving "repoen apps" checked since a reboot for software update takes mere seconds.

 

[warzinak]

how does the ssd "cache" on the XT work?

 

[bigfatipod]

like my xt

About a year ago, I bought a 500gb XT for my 2009 mac mini. I was very happy with the increase in size and the speed was very noticeable. The on sale $99 drive has been an excellent alternative - essentially putting off a real SSD drive until they're a bit more affordable.