Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive

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iMac 24", 3.06 GHz / Late 2008 MBP 17" 2.6GHz high res. anti-glare, 4GB RAM
Now I am stuck with these two options and need some help here. Already placed an order for new MBP 17" 2.9Ghz, 4GB RAM.

Read lots of reviews online. I know SSD is more reliable than HDD but is it really worth spending an extra C$850 for 256GB? Does vibration/noise of HDD matters to me? Yes, to some extent. But what really is bothering me is SSD's limited write cycle. Does that mean at some point in time, it'll crash (sooner than HDD) and I will loose everything?

Yes, I use my notebook everyday but question is if its worth putting the money on SSD at this stage. The price will eventually come down every year.

Any thoughts, suggestions??? Thanks
 
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SSD's are *NOT* worth it right now. The cost is far too high for the marginal real world benefits.

You can buy enough replacement HD's for the price of the SSD that you'll outlast the life of the notebook.
 
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Save your money. It's just not worth it.
 
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SSD's are *NOT* worth it right now. The cost is far too high for the marginal real world benefits.

You can buy enough replacement HD's for the price of the SSD that you'll outlast the life of the notebook.

agreed but looking forward to the day when they are worth it :)
 
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I love the SSD in my MBA - very fast. Still, I don't see the value in it as a paid upgrade for my MBP. It's not that fast yet and not very big.
 
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Thanks everyone for your advise. I'll change my order to 320GB 7200 rpm. My order says it will ship on 19 Feb but when I phoned Apple, they confirmed that although its showing 19 Feb, its gonna ship at the end of Jan. But I still don't know why so much delay.
 
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Thanks everyone for your advise. I'll change my order to 320GB 7200 rpm. My order says it will ship on 19 Feb but when I phoned Apple, they confirmed that although its showing 19 Feb, its gonna ship at the end of Jan. But I still don't know why so much delay.

It's a custom ordered computer that is why. If it was stock specs it would ship sooner.
 
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even if its a standard stock spec, shipping is 3 to 4 weeks.
 
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Quick question, how easy is it to change over from standard hard drive to SSD. Is it basically plug and play once you have installed your operating system. In other words is it a case of removing hard drive and replacing with SSD, same connections etc.
 
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The write cycles are high enough that it'll most likely become completely obsolete before you ever reach the limit. They're extremely fast and energy efficient. (makes me wonder what the battery life gets up to with the SSD).

Having said that, the price doesn't justify the benefits to me unless you're so wealthy that $850 is comparable to $8.50 to the average person.
 
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Since SSDs are based on flash technology, just look at the prices for Compact Flash cards for cameras and what not. You can pickup 2GB cards for <$10, and pro level write speed cards for perhaps only double that.

All technology comes down in price because since Americans (I am included), are always told to get the newest stuff with the fancy bells and whistles, the old stuff becomes of lower demand and the prices have to drop.

I just sold a $2200 dell laptop purchased in 2003 for $200, and I was fortunate to get that.
 
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I used a Thinkpad X300 with the new 128gb SSD and it was not that fast at all. Only a slightly faster boot up time was the only advantage I found and for the cost ! Not another for me for now. Just get the 320gb 7200rpm drive for now and wait a few more years till they get the SSD running better!
 
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Mac SSD Upgrades In 2009 - And Beyond

Solid-State drive technology changed SOOOO rapidly in 2009. The biggest change was new controller chips from Indilinx and Samsung - both with more onboard cache - that just STOMPED on even high-end spinning platter drives. Period.

Any current crop of SSD's - OCZ Vertex, Patriot Warp III or Torqx, Intel X-25, SuperTalent ME -- relieve the last true bottleneck in computer performance. With 128GB around $300 it's an easy clone/swap in many Mac models. Best bang for the buck you'll ever experience from an upgrade, bar none.

Apple Mac SSD Drives : Solid-State Flash Memory Upgrade Disks
 

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