Upgrade Quandry

[Sandman1969]

I have a 2012 cMBP 15" (i7, 16GB RAM, and 500GB HDD 5400rpm).

I just bought my wife a 2013 MBA (i7, 8gb/256GB) and really like the speedy boot times and application opening with the SDD.

So, now I am debating my upgrade options. I am leaning towards #1 for the cost savings and I like the fact I still have a dedicated Ethernet port, FW800, and the SuperDrive and not to mention the 16GB RAM. I do a good bit of Parallels work, Logic Pro with MainStage, DVD ripping, etc...

#1 - Upgrade current MBP with an internal SDD (256gb - 512gb). What is a good brand option for that? I don't want to go the replace the SuperDrive with anything as I like having that capability.

#2 - Try to sell my current MBP and look into a 13" cMBP with the Haswell. It would be nice to have a longer battery life as the current MBP eats through the battery like crazy. Though, not sure how much I could even start to look to get for mine.

Would an SDD upgrade help the current battery's life with possible less fan use and drive spinning? Or would that even be noticable?

I need to see if 256GB would be ample room for myself. The 512GB SSDs are still a little pricey.

Though, seeing that the SSD upgrade would be SATA vs PCIe it wouldn't be quite as peppy as hers. Though I am sure it would be noticable coming from a 5400rpm HDD.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[-Eden]

With your machine #1, I'd just put a SSD in there and *MAYBE* upgrade the RAM up to 32gb.
In regards to SSD and battery life, I'm not sure as I am waiting for a SSD to arrive for my 2011 cMBP 13.
I ordered a Samsung 840 Pro 256gb. The Samsung 840 seems like a good choice as a lot of people are using them .

 

[Sandman1969]

With your machine #1, I'd just put a SSD in there and *MAYBE* upgrade the RAM up to 32gb.
In regards to SSD and battery life, I'm not sure as I am waiting for a SSD to arrive for my 2011 cMBP 13.
I ordered a Samsung 840 Pro 256gb. The Samsung 840 seems like a good choice as a lot of people are using them .

I think I am good with the 16gb. At least for now.

I will check on the Samsung drive. Thanks. Yeah I feel that will be what I end up doing as I love the MBP I have and that should help it's "spunkiness".
Just it is such a tank. When I started playing with her MBA the gears started moving in my head and the fact that the 13" rMBP is only a little heavier and a lot lighter than my current MBP.

Probably should just upgrade mine and wait a year or so if I decide to update. And really the FireWire is pretty important for me at the moment with my band's audio interface we currently have.

 

[Sandman1969]

Are there any good Hybrid drives out there as well that would work in the MBP?

 

[-Eden]

Are there any good Hybrid drives out there as well that would work in the MBP?

Momentus XT by Seagate is a good SSHD.

 

[Sandman1969]

Momentus XT by Seagate is a good SSHD.

Thanks for the info. I think I will just look at the 100% SSD solution and look at the Samsung 840 Pro as well. Looks to be one of the faster. Though, it seems so ironic to me with the litigation between Samsung and Apple, almost comical.

I have read some places that the 250GB and 500GB SSD perform differently. Though doubt it is really noticeable by anything other than a benchmark. The 250 would probably be all I need and if I need more space I have our other MACs and debating getting a Network NAS of some sort for all of our MACs. The old Time Capsule we had didn't last too long, and ended up going with direct attached on the wife's and my iMacs. Now that we both have MacBooks, may reinvestigate into a better network solution.

 

[clyde2801]

1 a) Replace HDD with the biggest honkin' SSD you can afford, maybe a samsung 840 or crucial m4 or m500. Big speed increase, not to mention extra battery life since they use was less power than an HDD. Unless you pay a premium for a 512 gb or larger drive, you'll lose some internal storage.

1 b) Replace HDD with momentus XT 750 gb. Kind of a half way, in between measure. Gain a little bit of storage, and get faster boot ups and app starts. Cheapest of the three, definitely the slowest option (but will still seem faster than HDD after a few boots) and no battery dividend.

1 c) Get the cheapest 128gb ssd you can obtain, put your hdd in the superdrive bay (using an optibay solution) and open up the terminal for a DIY Fusion drive.
Second fastest solution, most technically challenging of the three, and you'll either lose your superdrive or have to use it in an external enclosure. No battery savings, may be a bit of drop since you'll be using two drives. Can also put in an ssd and a bigger hdd for even more storage.

Any of the three would be money well spent and get you the most usage out of your current model. (Though 1c may void Applecare if it is still on the machine.) Haswell is also supposed to help with battery usage, even on ivy bridge or even sandy bridge machines.

If you get an ssd, and decide to get a retina or other non upgradeable model later on, you can still use it in a enclosure for a speedy external drive.

 

[Sandman1969]

I think I have deecided to replace my internal 500GB 5400rpm drive with the Samsung 840 EVO 500GB. I won't lose any space and will not have to worry about losing the superdrive. I still like throwing DVDs in there from time to to time not to mention buring audio CDs of some of our Mixed down songs.

Was torn between the Evo and the Pro, but figured my best bet is to get the biggest drive I can reasonably get. I doubt I will notice any real world differences with the Evo vs the PRO. And the lifespan on either will FAR out weigh the laptop itself.

Looking over a few benchmarks and they are pretty darn closer overall and one site showed the Pro at 4 or 5% faster overall, and the EVO was slightly faster on random reads or writes.

I know one thing it will be TONS faster than my 5400RPM HDD at the moment

Think I will pull the trigger shortly, unless another product comes up to impress me as much as these do.
Will be nice to get back a lil battery life and have a quietter system and cooler as well. Looking forward to a rebirth of a laptop I really love. I like having the connections the newer ones probably won't have, not to mention it is nice to still have a Superdrive.