Serial ATA vs Solid State

So I'm going to buy an MBP 17" but I'm not 100% sure about the difference. I know that the solid state is faster but is it worth it?

Would I be able to tell a difference between the 320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm and the 256 Solid State Drive?


Anyone have the 7200 rpm or the Solid State? Please give your opinions!


Please and thanks for any help!

jcb815 said:

So I'm going to buy an MBP 17" but I'm not 100% sure about the difference. I know that the solid state is faster but is it worth it?

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More durable, yes. Faster? It depends on what you're doing. Certainly read speeds will be faster, but most SSDs suffer from poor write performance. That might not be a bad idea if you're doing general computing, but if you're doing video editing or regular write-intensive operations, the benefits of an SSD are dubious. Personally, I'm waiting for SLC-based SSDs to drop in price and come up in capacity.

Also, do keep in mind that you can always upgrade later as the Unibody MBPs have a user-removable HD.

Would I be able to tell a difference between the 320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm and the 256 Solid State Drive?

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No moving parts and better read performance. Not worth the price premium IMO.

For video editing would it be faster if you have a SSD with your project files, but your raw clips saved on a 7200 rpm external? I don't do a lot of editing on my laptop, but just wondering.

Solid State vs. Serial

I am purchasing a 6-Core 3.33 GHZ Mac Pro. Is it worth the expense to have my OS run off of a solid state HD? I am mainly using this computer for Final Cut Express and Photoshop CS5. I have read that it writes slower than a Serial HD. Is that true? Should the OS and applications sit on a SSD and the rendered and raw footage sit on a Serial HDD?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you,

Seth

SSDs are really in their infancy. Yes, you will get much faster reads from an SSD. Write speeds are also faster, but not to the same extent (generally). Also, there are a finite number of writes you can do to the drive, so most SSDs use a technology called wear-leveling, that tries to keep the same part of the disk from being written to over and over again. Additionally, there's another technology called TRIM (which is currently not implemented in Mac OS X) that keeps the disk performing well over time.

In your application, the OS and any app installs will benefit greatly from being installed on an SSD. But data should be stored on a traditional HDD. You'll gain performance in terms of boot up time and the time to launch apps. Is it worth the premium you'll pay over a traditional HDD? Tough question - it really depends on your priorities. Personally, I'm waiting for the cost per GB to come down and for Apple to implement TRIM. Until then, I'm going to hold off.

A BIG BIG 'yes' from a satisfied Mac Pro user.

I would just like to state one thing about ssd's on mac pros. At CSU, we have a "mac lab" for editors/designers. All the Macs there, whether it's an imac or mac pro, they all have solid state drives.

The only thing I don't like about them is their price. It is what's making me hold off on the mba. When OWC's SSD price drops to $100 for a 120gb ssd, then I'll upgrade my 32gb OCZ ssd, and by that time, the macbook air will probably have a bump in ssd space for the same or cheaper price.
+SSD=match made in heaven!