Will I see a serious performance increase from SSD?

[luke62092]

I just ordered the 2.4GHz i5 15" (with high-res glossy screen) and was wondering whether it was worth it to spend the $225 and buy an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD. Will the performance be that noticeable (for the money)?

Any other suggestions of SSDs near or under $200 would be nice.

Thank you.

Link to SSD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167023

 

[m85476585]

I just ordered the 2.4GHz i5 15" (with high-res glossy screen) and was wondering whether it was worth it to spend the $225 and buy an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD. Will the performance be that noticeable (for the money)?

Any other suggestions of SSDs near or under $200 would be nice.

Thank you.

Link to SSD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167023

Yes.

I'm looking at this SSD. It's not as fast as the Intel drive, but my MBP is stuck on SATA 1.5gbps.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227461

 

[luke62092]

Another quick question. I've heard that SSDs decrease battery life (an article from tomshardware about 2 years ago), and I've heard they increase battery life (a little, like 5-15%). What's the real truth here?

 

[Pressure]

I bought the Intel 80GB Solid State Disk last year and it made my 1st generation MacBook Pro (2006) feel like a whole new computer!

Everything is just snappy. Booting and starting applications is a whole new experience.

Probably the single best upgrade you can make for your computer

 

[lionheartednyhc]

Another quick question. I've heard that SSDs decrease battery life (an article from tomshardware about 2 years ago), and I've heard they increase battery life (a little, like 5-15%). What's the real truth here?

Slight, if any, increase due to it not having to spin a platter. Same reason it doesnt get as warm.

 

[luke62092]

Slight, if any, increase due to it not having to spin a platter. Same reason it doesnt get as warm.

Alright, I just didn't want to have a decrease in battery life.

 

[TheRekz]

Upgrading to an SSD is definitely going boost your performance over anything else.

 

[swish2351]

SSD is WAYYYYYYY faster. But 80GB is not a lot make a bigger investment to 128 or 256, trust me it will be worth it

 

[UKBeast]

1. Your software will start very fast but the overall software process speed will not be boosted a lot.

2. If you are working with large files like big photo files or if you are working on video files with softwares like Photoshop, Final Cut, you will have a decent performance upgrade.

3. writing & reading files will be a lot faster than before.

4. Boot up will halve, if you were booting up in 30 secs, with an ssd no matther how slow it is you will bootup about 15 or 20 seconds.

5. You will save battery life up to about 5 to 10%

6. You computer will be almost silent like a cemetary except the fan noise and keyboard noise you will not hear anything.

7. You computer will not vibrate.

8. You files will not be corrupted



Though, it has some disadvantages :

1. SSD's ARE VERY EXPENSIVE

2. You will not have large capacity.

3. You might need an external hard drive to keep your database.

4. Performance sometimes drops down a bit after a long usage.


In spite of all these disadvantages and it's EXTERMELY EXPENSIVE price, they are still worth to buy.

It is the final EVOLUTION of disk drives.

Today I orderded a low end 13inch macbook pro with a 128GB SSD

I do not want bulky, noisy hard disk drives anymore.

Once you use SSD, you will never want to turn back to hdd's

 

[Chupa Chupa]

If you get a serious SSD, yes. Just stay away from the "value" models. They are no bargain. A good SSD can give you a huge speed boost.

 

[Lyshen]

SSDs are by far one of the main performance changers for laptops, for loading and wait times related to HDDs.

I won't reiterate what others have already said in this thread... but will chime in that whatever drive you want to get, do some research on it before purchasing.

There are so many different types of SSDs on the market now that the difference between two can be enormous, unlike HDDs. Even things like idle and max power usage vary... example, Intel G2 idle at about 0.1 watts and maxes out at 1.8 watts, while Crucial C300 is 0.4 watts idle and 1.7 watts max... Kingstone SSD-now V is 1.4 watts idle and 2.4 watts max.

I settled on Crucial's C300 SSD, very speedy but in terms of power usage, it is middle of the pack. Also they need to put out a new firmware, current one has little issues but not a deal breaker. Works great in the new i7 MBP I just got, now just waiting for the 8GB ram to arrive.

 

[McBob]

Not yet...

At the moment an SSD is something I cant afford, but I hope to be able to upgrade to one in about 2 years, including to 8gb of RAM. I like to work it this way as it feels like getting a new computer 2 years down the line.

Upgrading the cheap way!

McBob

 

[luke62092]

Thanks everyone.
So does anyone recommend any SSDs out there for around the $200 price range and under? I don't really mind the lack of storage - got external hard drive - but something good around 60-80GB would be preferred. I was looking at the Intel X25-m 80GB. Any thoughts?

 

[UKBeast]

Thanks everyone.
So does anyone recommend any SSDs out there for around the $200 price range and under? I don't really mind the lack of storage - got external hard drive - but something good around 60-80GB would be preferred. I was looking at the Intel X25-m 80GB. Any thoughts?

Thats what many people suggests..

I ordered value that is coming with macbook pro defaultly.

I do not want to replace any parts and I want apple warranty.

 

[bob5820]

Dave Hamilton of the Mac Cast Geek Gab podcast said that installing an SSD in his MBP is the single greatest performance boost he has ever had, and he's been around Macs for a while.

 

[irishgrizzly]

Is this the same Intel X25-M? Also, do I have to update any firmware if I switch into a new MBP?

 

[luke62092]

Is this the same Intel X25-M? Also, do I have to update any firmware if I switch into a new MBP?

Yeah, that is the same Intel SSD. But I am not sure whether or not one would have to update firmware first.

 

[Gorilla Power]

luke, you should get the Intel X-25M G2. It is the second revision of the same SSD you're interested in. Its qualitatively better and supports TRIM. Do not opt for the first generation ones.

Intel SSD's are for the moment the best choice for ordinary consumers. I asked Anand Shimpi of Anandtech himself the same question and this is what he had to say :

https://twitter.com/anandshimpi/status/12249774649

As for size, it depends on what you're willing to do with your computer. As one of the members pointed out, 80GB may become tight in the long run so you might want to get the 160GB. However, if you're using something like Optibay in your MBP to add a second storage disk, I feel 80GB will be good enough for the OS (~ 10GB) and install programs.

Hope this helps.

 

[dusk007]

1. Your software will start very fast but the overall software process speed will not be boosted a lot.

2. If you are working with large files like big photo files or if you are working on video files with softwares like Photoshop, Final Cut, you will have a decent performance upgrade.

3. writing & reading files will be a lot faster than before.

4. Boot up will halve, if you were booting up in 30 secs, with an ssd no matther how slow it is you will bootup about 15 or 20 seconds.

5. You will save battery life up to about 5 to 10%

6. You computer will be almost silent like a cemetary except the fan noise and keyboard noise you will not hear anything.

7. You computer will not vibrate.

8. You files will not be corrupted

Until #8 it is true.
But the sad fact is SSDs die too and in general with no warning at all. All it needs is some little error in the firmware and there have been lots of reports on dieing ssds. All the good controllers are very young and there is not much reliability data available. If you get an SSD you should back up all data as often if not even more often.