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What will change with SSD?

A

AndrewCjDuong

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2010
99
2
I've been reading on this forum for a bit and everyone is saying to upgrade to an SSD instead of ram or getting the higher version of 13" and whatnot. So, my question is. What is the big difference between SSD and the HDD and what part will it be noticeably different?

I'm not really into upgrading yet since I already fill up 500GB but just in the future I'd like to know.
 
mrsir2009

mrsir2009

macrumors 604
Sep 17, 2009
7,505
156
Melbourne, Australia
1. SSDs are over 50% FASTER than normal HDDs. Much faster booting time too.

2. SSDs use much less POWER than normal HDDs, due to the fact that they have no spinning parts.

3. SSDs are durable. So you can shake your laptop around and whatnot, and the SSD won't get damaged or affected.

4. SSDs are much quieter than normal HDDs. Again, because they have no moving parts.

5. SSDs are a bit cooler than normal HDDs.

But, SSDs are expensive:rolleyes:
 
T

tigress666

macrumors 68040
Apr 14, 2010
3,288
17
Washington State
Dang, you are making me wish I could afford an SSD. The speed and the battery life is what is most intrigueing to me (but I don't trust reliability. I've had SD cards fail and they don't have moving parts as well.. though I will admit I'm ignorant as to if an SSD works differently than SD or compact flash).

Then again, hopefully eventually the price will come down as hopefully the technology replaces the current (though I've seen it where it does not but just remains the expensive option. I think mostly cause they can make more money that way when that happens).
 
mrsir2009

mrsir2009

macrumors 604
Sep 17, 2009
7,505
156
Melbourne, Australia
tigress666 said:
Dang, you are making me wish I could afford an SSD. The speed and the battery life is what is most intrigueing to me (but I don't trust reliability. I've had SD cards fail and they don't have moving parts as well.. though I will admit I'm ignorant as to if an SSD works differently than SD or compact flash).

Then again, hopefully eventually the price will come down as hopefully the technology replaces the current (though I've seen it where it does not but just remains the expensive option. I think mostly cause they can make more money that way when that happens).
Click to expand...

I'm going ta save up for a 128GB SSD for my 13" MBP:D
 
ayeying

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
mrsir2009 said:
1. SSDs are over 50% FASTER than normal HDDs. Much faster booting time too.

2. SSDs use much less POWER than normal HDDs, due to the fact that they have no spinning parts.

3. SSDs are durable. So you can shake your laptop around and whatnot, and the SSD won't get damaged or affected.

4. SSDs are much quieter than normal HDDs. Again, because they have no moving parts.

5. SSDs are a bit cooler than normal HDDs.

But, SSDs are expensive:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

1. Depends on the brand of SSD, but usually are faster due to lack of latency compared to Hard Drives.

2. Not true, it's opposite.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955.html

3. True

4. Unless you're sensitive to electric noises, then it can be quite annoying at a high pitch.

5. Somewhat true. I had a G-Skill 256GB (2x128GB in RAID-0 on a single 2.5" Drive, EXTREMELY fast) and it reached temperatures of 60 deg C compared to a hard drive only hitting 40 deg C. Again, it depends on the brand/model, but majority will run cooler.
 
G

GeeLuv

macrumors newbie
Nov 21, 2009
19
0
256 GB SSD i7 8GB RAM 17"

I do heavy photoshop work, graphics and video work on my laptop and this is the first SSD drive experience I've had. It's been extremely positive I get on average 7hrs of battery life and tracked my productivity over a 2 week period and it proved to be 30% more productive. There just isn't any spinning beach balls boot time is ridiculous app loading time is in some cases instant. I have no complaints I would recommend it.
 
S

Sanderr

macrumors regular
Jun 14, 2007
127
8
ayeying said:
1. Depends on the brand of SSD, but usually are faster due to lack of latency compared to Hard Drives.

2. Not true, it's opposite.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955.html

3. True

4. Unless you're sensitive to electric noises, then it can be quite annoying at a high pitch.

5. Somewhat true. I had a G-Skill 256GB (2x128GB in RAID-0 on a single 2.5" Drive, EXTREMELY fast) and it reached temperatures of 60 deg C compared to a hard drive only hitting 40 deg C. Again, it depends on the brand/model, but majority will run cooler.
Click to expand...

The article you are referring to was written almost two years ago. Hasn't that improved by now?
 
Gorilla Power

Gorilla Power

macrumors 6502
Mar 19, 2010
478
0
Flash SSDs have a low power consumption and generate little heat when in use.

DRAM-based SSDs (but not flash-based SSDs) require more power than hard disks, when operating; they still use power when the computer is turned off, while hard disks do not.
 
D

Demthios

macrumors member
Jul 27, 2008
52
0
if you read the article there, there is an update where they said the test looped which corrupted the data for the battery comparison. So that isn't the best article to reference.
 
A

AndrewCjDuong

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2010
99
2
Well at this point. I don't think I would be able to jump to the SSD. I mean I would need atleast 256gb and that ranges around $700... Maybe next year.
 
dsprimal

dsprimal

macrumors 6502a
Mar 27, 2010
628
0
most significant changes you will notice are boot time speed, loading files or opening programs and it will be silent.
 
ayeying

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
Sanderr said:
The article you are referring to was written almost two years ago. Hasn't that improved by now?
Click to expand...

johnnymg said:
As others have pointed out that article is OLD and used a flawed benchtest.

My real world experience with low power SSD's indicate a moderate (1-2 hour) improvement in battery life in MBP's when SSD's replace conventional HD's.

cheers
JohnG
Click to expand...

You can't change physics. Under normal usage, you shouldn't really find any increases in battery life using an SSD unless you're loading A LOT of files or have A LOT of files stored on a drive, therefore making the Hard Drive work a lot more, aka, using more power. In that scenario, then an SSD will save you power because you can access all your stuff faster then the SSD will return to an Idle power state.

SSD only has 2 Power States as referred to the article. That still holds true, even for newer SSDs. The total power requirement might be lower, which will help in battery life, but if you were to have a comparison of a HDD and SSD while it tries to seek random files continuously, you'll notice a difference with the SSD using more power.

HDD has a variable power. It starts off from a low idle power state to a maximum power state. Therefore, it won't always be at 2 watts, it could be at 1.1 watts or 1.6 watts or whatnot.

The technology hasn't really change much at all. In fact, the article, despite being 2 years old, still holds truth.

Furthermore, do you know how much power a 1-2 hour improvement in battery life is required to be saved? You're looking at close to 10-15 watts savings on a laptop, which is 100% not possible since even the most power hungry hard drives only use 2.5 watts at 100% load.

You cannot change physics, and most of the time, these "improvements" in battery life is a placebo effect. Am I saying you won't get an improvements, no, you will, but nothing too drastic. A 15 to 30 minute improvement is the best you'll get in a perfect scenario.
 
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