02-25-2011, 02:54 PM

So I am thinking about getting a new Macbook pro this summer since I am entering grad school and my current macbook pro is 4 years old. The question I have is for you all that have SSD how much faster is it compared to a 7200 rpm hard drive. I know that the machine will startup faster but how about when running programs. Can you really tell a difference between a 7200 rpm hard drive vs a SSD hard drive once the machine as started up and in normal use.

My second question is how big is a 256 GB SSD drive? I what I mean is how much actual staff do you get. For example even though I have a 160 GB drive in my current computer the hard drive is really just 149.9 GB.

Thanks for all the help. Just wanted to know if you guys think it is worth the extra cost to go to SSD. By the way I am engineer so I am always on my computer running simulations so I am a heavy user.

02-25-2011, 04:11 PM

On a Mac Pro certainly can tell the difference between a 7200RPM drive and a Mercury Extreme SSD, boot times, applications opening etc. The 8-9% loss on formatting is normal. The 250GB will be amply large enough provided you will not be using iTunes etc on your study computer.

For you an SSD and ample memory are a must.

02-25-2011, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by harryb2448

On a Mac Pro certainly can tell the difference between a 7200RPM drive and a Mercury Extreme SSD, boot times, applications opening etc. The 8-9% loss on formatting is normal. The 250GB will be amply large enough provided you will not be using iTunes etc on your study computer.

For you an SSD and ample memory are a must.

So you think it is worth the extra cost then?

02-25-2011, 09:14 PM

In a word indeed.

02-25-2011, 10:19 PM

There isn't even going to a contest if you are talking speed. Storage space and Pricing is a different story though.

02-25-2011, 10:22 PM

Would you all recommend getting the SSD when I buy the computer from apple or could I just get the normal drive and then replace it with a outside SSD drive from newegg or somewhere and get it cheaper and can I even do this? I figure I could.

02-26-2011, 10:39 AM

If you can get it cheaper (most likely a yes) and are happy installing it, go for that.

04-19-2011, 10:25 AM

I had a similar question, so I will not waste space and make a new thread

Well, I just bought a MBP and I will be using it primarily for college. My question is which is better? A 500GB 7200RPM HDD or 180GB SSD? Price range is about the same so I don't know which one will be best. Thanks in advance!

04-19-2011, 12:01 PM

Even though the price is similar, you are giving up storage space for speed. I would keep that in mind. 180GB isn't exactly a lot.

04-19-2011, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by Revelation1115

I had a similar question, so I will not waste space and make a new thread

Well, I just bought a MBP and I will be using it primarily for college. My question is which is better? A 500GB 7200RPM HDD or 180GB SSD? Price range is about the same so I don't know which one will be best. Thanks in advance!

Where are you getting a 180GB SSD for under $100??? 500GB 7.2k drives are in the $60-$80 range all day long. I have never seen an SSD for that little.

04-19-2011, 06:45 PM

Order your laptop with the standard drfiove and then look at a Mercury Extreme from OWC, Mac specialists. it is not a hard job fitting the SSD, but you will need to format it and install Snow Leopard. And the price range is nowhere near the same:-


http://blog.macsales.com/9843-new-ow...t-now-shipping

04-19-2011, 10:20 PM

I'm getting it off a guy from CL. He's selling it for 100

04-19-2011, 11:07 PM

OSX tends to consume a lot of disk space for Virtual Memory, at least mine does (174gig as I type this). I'm thinking that this will impact the performance of smaller SSDs. As a result, I'm just waiting for 500 gig SSDs to come down in price. The OCZ 480gig is down to $900 range now, so that is a good start. Maybe by next year they will be reasonable.

04-20-2011, 05:54 AM

what you should do is buy the 7200rpm HDD version and then replace the superdrive with an SSD for loading the operating system.
That way you could purchase a smaller SSD for cheaper and still use the stock HDD for things like media storage and so on.
Best of both worlds.

04-20-2011, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by Revelation1115

I'm getting it off a guy from CL. He's selling it for 100

Be extremely particular buying used SSD as there are many brands with extremely poor reputations out there. Suggest you stick with a brand that uses Sandforce.