SSD in my Mac Pro mid 2009 model?

pigoo3

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I would like to upgrade my SSD i have read up on it but im not sold 100% yet!

Why do you want to upgrade your MacBook Pro's SSD?…and why are you not 100% sold yet? What else do you need to know? SSD's are simply a storage device. If your current SSD is too small…then install a larger one if your budget will allow it.

FYI…upgrading to a larger SSD most likely will not result in a noticeable (by human perception abilities) speed increase. Upgrading from a traditional hard drive to an SSD you will see a big difference. But going from a smaller SSD to a larger SSD is usually not that noticeable.

- Nick
 
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Are we discussing a Mac Pro or a MacBook Pro? No link below alas. As Nick suggests a new SSD will be simply bigger. The SATA speed of whatever you have will not change from SATA, SATA II or SATA III.
 

pigoo3

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Crucial USA - scan results ....Not the most computer savvy person but i believe i have a traditional HD....so you are saying upgrading to any compatible SSD will give me a noticeable difference in speed? are their any downfalls?

Your original post said that you had an SSD in it already. In your 2nd post you said that might have a traditional HD. This is a pretty important point...so it would be good to know for sure...before you start spending money.;)

If you do currently have a traditional "rotating" HD...then upgrading to an SSD will result in:

- faster restarts
- faster saving of files
- faster opening of files
- faster launching of applications

But...what an SSD will not do is actually increase the speed of things cpu and gpu related. An SSD is just a storage device...it will not make cpu calculations or graphics processing faster.

If you actually do already have an SSD...then another or bigger SSD is not really going to speed things up.

- Nick
 
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DeskTop is a MacPro 2.8 Quad/22gig/900gig SSD/2x3Tb HD plus MBP 15" 2.66 Core I7 /8gig/1.5Tb SSD
I have dual ssd's in my MacPro and MacbookPro they are very fast as I have also put them in a RAID 0 configuration. We are talking 12-15second boot times apps open in a flash... I'm very happy with my upgrades...
 
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Still in the dark oh well...........
 
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Adding to the question

I thought I'd raise the same question but with more info for my computer.
I have a 15" MacBook Pro 5.3" from Jan 2010 with the original 500 GB HD in it.
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,3
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.48f2
Serial Number (system): W800307864C
Hardware UUID: 56EECE0F-2473-5FC8-81D9-16E7FB46C233

I wish to upgrade to a 1 TB SSD at this time.
I have read (and it makes sense) that my system will only process 3 Gb/s, so there is no point in getting a 6 GB/s SSD.
However, I am having trouble locating recommended 1TB 3 GB/s SSDs that are still being made.
Any recommendations?
Or, shall I just get a 6 Gb/s that will run at 3 Gb/s?
 
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If you go through the threads you will see users have had problems with 6Gb/s SSDs not being backwards compatible with older MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Mac specialists OWC do have a 960GB SSD with the 3Gb/s speed but they sure are not cheap. Note OWC does state their 6Gb/s SSD is compatible with I think 2001 models and onwards. Here is a link with a second link showing the 2011 requirements for the 6Gb/s:-


OWC Mercury Electra 3G Solid State Drive (SSD) Solutions - High Performance, Reliability, and Endurance


Mercury 6G Solid State Drives 2.5" Serial-ATA 9.5mm 6Gb/s
 
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I have that same notebook, and have just sent back a defective SSD (480gb) The people at OWC are wonderful. Do the SSD drives use less power run cooler?
 
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I have a SSD in my mac book pro2007 model and its faster and more responsive than my mac mini 2010 (soon to have a SSD and 8gb ram).
i got my mac book pro off ebay for £74 sold as not working just wont boot. i put in a ssd drive and it boots fine and works fine defo put a ssd in your mac and watch the speed difference.
Also got a ssd in my ubuntu desktop and it boots in 9secs from post screen
 
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chas_m

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To summarize, here are the pros and cons of adding an SSD:

PROS
===

SSDs are 10x faster than traditional hard drives, making a **dramatic** difference in the speed of all read and write operations (which is a big chunk of what a computer does, so an all-around feeling of swiftness, particularly on bootup, program opening, and saving).

SSDs have no moving parts, so are less likely to fail *due to trauma* and may be less likely to fail generally than spinning HDs. They also use less power and run cooler (again that no moving parts thing)

Thus, they are a very cost-effective upgrade for an older Mac in good shape, up to a point (my personal opinion, Intel Macs -- you can probably add certain kinds of SSDs to PPC machines, and I'm sure it would be dramatic, but those machines have other issues that make it "good money after bad" at this point).


CONS
===

SSDs are more expensive than spinning HDs, which is why traditional HDs make great backup drives, where speed is not the highest priority. Although the price of SSDs has fallen a great deal, so has the price of HDs. SSDs are still around 4x-5x the price of a equivalent HD, but the performance difference is generally worth it. I prefer SSDs for internal drives and USB 3.0 (if your hardware supports that) external HDs for things like backup drives and media drives, etc.

SSDs tend to give fewer (if any) "warning signs" before they fail; they tend to fail suddenly, albeit rarely. Thus, backups are still a must, but your chances of the drive being okay after a fall for example are higher I believe. They're not shockPROOF, but they are more shock-RESISTANT.

Should an SSD fail, it is much more difficult to retrieve data than it would be from an HD.

I hope that helps you.
 

chscag

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Should an SSD fail, it is much more difficult to retrieve data than it would be from an HD.

I'll add one more thing to chas_m's excellent summary: If TRIM is used on a SSD, recovery of deleted data even with professional software such as Data Rescue 4 is not possible.
 

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