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nyzwerewolf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 11, 2007
146
15
Long Island, NY
I am sure this question has been asked probably a thousand times here. Mine is probably a bit diff. Lets see..

I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.4Ghz, Late 2007 model) with 1.5Gb/s SATA interface. Right now I am using a WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM 320GB 16MB Cache 3.0Gb/s but running @ 1.5Gb/s due to the interface architecture.

My question is, will I see a performance boost if I upgrade to an SSD?
I am planning to get a new MacBook Pro in 2012, so should I shell out $ for an SSD for my current one or save up that $ for the 2012 MBP + SSD?

This is what I do on my MacBook Pro
1) Run Windows on Parallels to develop C#, C++ apps in Visual Studio (I always have my Windows running)
2) Develop Java apps on Eclipse
3) Work with Adobe LightRoom, and CS5 apps for image editing.
4) Final Cut Pro Editing
5) Productivity apps.

It is basically my mobile workstation.

Love to hear your comments.
 

bozz2006

macrumors 68030
Aug 24, 2007
2,530
0
Minnesota
Definitely. I don't know the technical specs so someone will have to verify this, but I highly doubt your 5400RPM maxes out at anywhere near the top transfer speeds of SATA1. And even if it did, you still get lag and latency that is basically non-existent with an SSD.
 

MartyF81

macrumors 6502
Sep 5, 2010
332
240
Chicago IL
Yes you will notice a difference. SSD vs the fastest HDD is still a big difference.

You will be able to do all of those things with the SSD... just REALLY FASTER lol.

Putting an SSD in my computers changed my life. My computer was finally behaving like I always dreamed a computer should behave. Infact now when I use a computer WITHOUT a SSD... I think something is wrong with it because everything is so slow in comparison once you are used to INSTANT everything.
 

RKpro

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2008
467
1
1.5Gb/s SATA may become the bottleneck if you get a decent SSD, but it's still a worthwhile upgrade. Even if your not going to take advantage of the maximum transfer rates of the SSD, you still get the benefit of really damn quick seek times (less then 1ms, vs ~12ms on HDDs), because of no moving parts. These seek times are largely responsible for making your computer more responsive, when dealing with lots of small files, aka random read/write performance.
 

NickZac

macrumors 68000
Dec 11, 2010
1,758
8
Not with 1.5, especially since 3.0 is being replaced by 6.0. If you are getting a new computer soon, get a 6.0SSD, as that is what the current MBP can support. So right now, I would wait and get a new computer ASAP.
 

Tonepoet

macrumors regular
Nov 11, 2010
152
0
You lucky dog. You have an expresscard slot which means you might have a free spot for the Filemate Solidgo. Pretty much the only expresscard SSD confirmed to be bootable and utilize Expresscard's SATA interface as far as I know.

Sure it's not the best performing solid state drive in the world but it's a rather good deal if your expresscard slot is otherwise empty. It'll still run circles around your HDD and it's just big enough to store your O.S. for booting purposes and some frequently used apps. allowing you to compromise between having better performance now and saving your money for later. You can even continue to utilize your existing internal drive for storage. Granted you won't be able to boot windows off of it buuut if you don't need to, that's no minus.

There are bigger versions if you need them but that smallest one has the best $:GB ratio.
 
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Macsavvytech

macrumors 6502a
May 25, 2010
897
0
I personally would wait until you get your new MBP before getting the SSD. who knows what will be released then and at what price point. Sata at 1.5Gb/s is fairly slow any SSD will be limited by it, comparing a modern HDD to a SSD limited by 1.5gb/s Sata the SSD would be faster but not by much.
 

zeiter

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2008
384
3
Canada
You lucky dog. You have an expresscard slot which means you might have a free spot for the Filemate Solidgo. Pretty much the only expresscard SSD confirmed to be bootable and utilize Expresscard's SATA interface as far as I know.

Sure it's not the best performing solid state drive in the world but it's a rather good deal if your expresscard slot is otherwise empty. It'll still run circles around your HDD and it's just big enough to store your O.S. for booting purposes and some frequently used apps. allowing you to compromise between having better performance now and saving your money for later. You can even continue to utilize your existing internal drive for storage. Granted you won't be able to boot windows off of it buuut if you don't need to, that's no minus.

There are bigger versions if you need them but that smallest one has the best $:GB ratio.


How much space does SL 10.6.7 take up? I only have about 4gig of used space in my apps. folder and it might be cheaper than buying a black scorpio HDD I was thinking...any reviews of this?
 

iMackPro

macrumors 6502
Mar 31, 2011
333
0
the SSD is a universal upgrade, meaning anyone will benefit from it. Its not like going from 8 to 16 Gigs of ram or the Intel GPU to the much better 1 GB dedicated GPU in which only the intense or specific users benefit from. Everyone that uses a computer benefits from a SSD because it greatly increases read/write times. Anytime you open an application you will notice a difference. So yes it will be worth it to you, and anyone else that uses a computer. hope this helps. but the SSD really is the single greatest upgrade you can perform on your computer, the next best upgrade is a HD screen in your mac, but this one is entirely my opinion whereas the other is proven to be a fact based on the information you can gather from all the threads in this forums .
 

Tonepoet

macrumors regular
Nov 11, 2010
152
0
zeiter said:
How much space does SL 10.6.7 take up? I only have about 4gig of used space in my apps. folder and it might be cheaper than buying a black scorpio HDD I was thinking...any reviews of this?

Between 8-13 GB depending on your install options but a typical install is approximately 10GB. Maybe a few gigs more if you run xCode. You might want to use the rest to speed up thumb nail generation in iPhoto or iTunes library loading. It's worth noting that it has garbage collection too.

As for reviews here's an article from Macworld with a video I watched before purchasing mine and the 24GB's page on Newegg so you can examine the specs for yourself.

Rechecking the user reviews on both Amazon and Newegg shows some people have experienced failures on the higher capacity models since I last checked. It's also prudent to note, and I sorta forgot about this this, that some users report troubles with getting it out of the expresscard slot due to an improper fit of sort. At least one Macbook Pro 6,1 user on Amazon reports being afflicted by this problem.

Some people thought it was an issue with newer unibody MBPs but I'm happy to report that my older yellow labeled one works mostly fine my 17" Macbook Pro 8,3. My main complaint is that it's a little too flush with the slot, making it difficult to push in to activate the spring loading ejection mechanism. If the miniusb jack didn't stick out a little, giving me somewhere to actually push, I might've thought it got stuck too. I dunno how well the red label wintech variants would work.

I personally would wait until you get your new MBP before getting the SSD. who knows what will be released then and at what price point. Sata at 1.5Gb/s is fairly slow any SSD will be limited by it, comparing a modern HDD to a SSD limited by 1.5gb/s Sata the SSD would be faster but not by much.

Sata I's pretty fast actually. 1.5 Gbps equates to up to 174 Megabytes per second so earlier SSDs Megabyte Per Second reads don't go that far over with their advertised read speeds of 200-230 Megabytes per second.
 
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