Using Micro SD card with Nifty Mini Drive for OS and apps

[theteeth]

Thinking of doing this, tell me why it's a bad idea. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding what I'm reading, it seems like the SD card slot transfers data faster than SATA, is that wrong?

 

[Centsy]

The slot is fast, but SD cards themselves are pretty slow. The fastest one on the market is about the same speed as a regular HDD though.

 

[Astroboy907]

Thinking of doing this, tell me why it's a bad idea. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding what I'm reading, it seems like the SD card slot transfers data faster than SATA, is that wrong?

What are you reading?? Only a few SD cards in the world can transfer near SATA speeds.. Usually UHS-1 Speed cards (and micro-sd has just barely hit class 10, which is still slower that UHS-1)

Unless you are talking about hdds, which transfer nominally between 30 and 60 MB/s (5400 rpm), in which case you can get SD cards that can read at around 60 mb/s.

SSDs can transfer MUCH (10x) faster than hard drives.

So yes, you can ut os and apps on an sd card, but I doubt you will get much faster speeds, unless you have some crazy fast card not available to the public yet.

 

[Fatt]

Is the SD slot on the 2012 MBPs even capable of running at the speeds of the currently fastest SD cards? I had read somewhere the SD slot on the 2011/2012 MBP wasn't even capable of maxing out current SD cards, is this true?

 

[jcpb]

Thinking of doing this, tell me why it's a bad idea. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding what I'm reading, it seems like the SD card slot transfers data faster than SATA, is that wrong?

The higher a microSD card's speed rating is, the worse its random performance goes.

Don't. Unless you like your Mac to stutter every time you click on something.

 

[eagandale4114]

Thinking of doing this, tell me why it's a bad idea. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding what I'm reading, it seems like the SD card slot transfers data faster than SATA, is that wrong?

Use it for iTunes stuff like music, videos, podcasts, iOS apps etc. They don't need the very fast speed of an internal SSD. Keep apps on your internal.

 

[hugothomsen]

SSD Data Drive

Hi,

Nice thread, good answers guys !

I am an avid user of Together, a sort of file cataloguer for those who don't know it. I have a library of docs, pics, code and all sorts totalling around 33Gb which I keep on a 64GB SSD that I alternate between my Mini when at my desk, and take with me on my Air when on the road.

Works a treat, albeit Together is coughing a bit, but I find that being more due to the somewhat ineffective coding of Together than to the data transfer speed to the SSD.

I am using a bog standard low range SSD I got cheap - I am looking for a faster one, just to see whether transfer rates will improve overall performance, so any ideas to products, reliability and prices would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers