VIDEO: Launching EVERY App using two Intel SSDs

[LeeTom]

I launched (nearly) every application on my MacBook Pro using two Intel X-25M SSDs in a striped RAID (second one in place of the optical drive - thanks OptiBay!) Obviously, I didn't launch DVD Player, Front Row, etc...

Here's what happened!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t28Mv2FKP4I

oh yes - it's a non-unibody MacBook Pro 2.5GHz with 6GB of RAM.

spoiler: SSDs rule.

 

[winninganthem]

Holy...!

 

[enVisionGTR]

Dual Intels definitely rock. Got both of them inside my Mac Pro and I'm loving it. Numbers are mind blowing. Considering doing the same for my 13" MBP.

Sequential 215.78
Uncached Write 238.17 146.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 161.75 91.52 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 143.32 41.94 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 848.16 426.28 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 840.78
Uncached Write 984.59 104.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 368.21 117.88 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2285.57 16.20 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 1699.18 315.29 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

[donga]

haha, very impressive. i liked to cookie monster google

 

[Transporteur]

Your MacBook definitely limits the speed of the drives.
If I open all the programs (including development SDKs, parts of CS4 ME and Final Cut Studio) it takes about 20 seconds with just ONE Intel X25 on the MacPro.

 

[rockstarjoe]

That was pretty freaking mind blowing!! Thanks for sharing it with us

 

[dan5.5]

That's really amazing. I really want to get an ssd

 

[LeeTom]

Your MacBook definitely limits the speed of the drives.
If I open all the programs (including development SDKs, parts of CS4 ME and Final Cut Studio) it takes about 20 seconds with just ONE Intel X25 on the MacPro.

Yeah, I think it's mostly due to the 6GB RAM limit - after the initial mass loading of apps it seems to hit a Styrofoam wall and starts swapping to disk, and the last third of the apps take a bit longer to load. Luckily, since it's swapping to double-SSDs, it's not all that noticeable, but still.

The new MacBook Pros with 8GB of RAM could eek out a bit better in this test, but I can't stand glossy screens and no-friction trackpads.

 

[MacModMachine]

i ran 2 160gb x25's for almost 4 months,

the difference between 2 and 1 are not substantial , on average i seen a 20% speed increase.

your notebook is non unibody and the stripe will be dragging you down due to the connection being utilized from the cdrom is slower then sata 1.

even though the intel drive's random access is its strength the older non unibody OBHD connector slows things down in striped and mirror config's.


using a unibody you can see a bit better of a result, still a very powerfull machine with striped volumes & dual channel memory config.


i would be interested to see you xbench on a single and dual config.

good luck

 

[41qser]

you should've invoked Exposé at the end...

 

[tenderidol]

you should've invoked Exposé at the end...

That would have been fun indeed

I am not doing this to my SSD. Poor thing(s). (j/k)

 

[jlpoore89]

Holy s$#t!!! I really want this setup now...maybe with 2 500GB SSD's. I mean they're only $1700 each lol. 2 250's would do fine in reality. But I am absolutely blown away by that.

 

[lewis82]

That would have been fun indeed

I am not doing this to my SSD. Poor thing(s). (j/k)

I have a regular HDD so I sacrificed myself for the sake of having a cool screenshot.

The worst was when Power Fractal kicked in... super slow. But it was CPU's fault...

I had 1.3 GB of RAM used and I had to log out/log in because the Dock was gone...

But it was interesting.