SSD over a normal HD in a MBP. Can someone explain why they are better?

[ThomasBrentnall]

How accurate is this though, one is on battery, one isnt. Tom's hdd might be fragmented etc! obv the ssd will be faster hands down but a comparison is best on a clean install!

 

[Tom]

How accurate is this though, one is on battery, one isnt. Tom's hdd might be fragmented etc! obv the ssd will be faster hands down but a comparison is best on a clean install!

It wasn't. In fact my machine is better maintained than his. As after we tested it i enabled TRIM and cleaned up his permissions + and a few other tweaks. Which predictably sped it up further. I'd say it's a good comparison given the hardware is identical. The video speaks for itself but nobody ever said it was scientific.

 

[seb]

Yes agreed if both had been fresh install etc but as Tom says I have done literally zero to my mbp in 3 years and toms would be in better nick. Not scientific but shows the advantage of an ssd

 

[Gouldy]

SSD's are brilliant. I've got one in my MacBook Air.

In the near future I shall be converting my Mrs' laptop and my PS3 to SSD

 

[ThomasBrentnall]

Ahh fair enough then!

 

[Silent_Scone]

Feel like a troll for saying this - but TBH it's properly justified.


Welcome to 2009.

 

[seb]

LOL welcome to 2012 prices.

 

[dk]

My late 2011 pro doesn't take anywhere near that amount of time to boot likes toms, it's a lot faster, but who ever shuts it down anyway? I always just close the lid, then when I open it, it's ready to use instantly, compared to my windows laptop which takes a good 3-4 mins to come out of a sleep.

ive no doubt ssd is quicker, but my pro is pretty instant as it is coming out of sleep, guess the hardware is better but the fact that I only boot it when I do updates and are forced to, I don't think I'll update, oh and the fact I am using 500gb of my 750gb drive......

the test above, as pointed out, isn't really a comparative one, different os, depending on the way the data was copied, (block or file copy) then the drive wouldn't be fragmented as said and the power cord might have some added some benefit.

my air doesn't come out of sleep any faster than my pro, but it does boot faster, but I always use sleep, so I don't really see that benefit. I just can't use an ssd in the pro as I use so much space.

i think to give an older laptop a new lease of life, this is the best way to do it as well as increase the ram, just like sebs done I guess, good investment.

 

[Tom]

Your late 2011 pro is nearly 3 years older, I should hope not!

I'm set on ditching my SuperDrive and putting my 640gb drive in it's place for media. Then a 256ssd in the drive bay.

Should have done it years ago.

Thankfully I have a caddy ready to go, just need the SSD.

 

[jenic]

Your late 2011 pro is nearly 3 years older, I should hope not!

I'm set on ditching my SuperDrive and putting my 640gb drive in it's place for media. Then a 256ssd in the drive bay.

Should have done it years ago.

Thankfully I have a caddy ready to go, just need the SSD.

I nearly did it, but apparently a HDD in place of the superdrive will never spin down. That would annoy the hell out of me.

 

[dk]

Can I add an ssd to mine and keep the internal 750gb drive too?

but yeah, that age laptop with the ssd is super fast boot, like having a new laptop for seb I guess.

 

[Tom]

I nearly did it, but apparently a HDD in place of the superdrive will never spin down. That would annoy the hell out of me.

That's rubbish. You can tweak the power management with some simple command lines.

Yes you can David.

 

[Rob]

That's an awesome difference, are you not worried about the SSD failures people have been having? Lots of reports about.

I'd be running time machine weekly just in case, which is what I might do. Time machine + SSD

 

[seb]

It is like a new laptop tbh. Opening iPhoto is pure joy I almost cried.

 

[seb]

What is time machine? Lol crucial is a good brand should be ok?

 

[Tom]

That's an awesome difference, are you not worried about the SSD failures people have been having? Lots of reports about.

I'd be running time machine weekly just in case, which is what I might do. Time machine + SSD

I think the newer SSD's are much more reliable. But mechanical HDDs fail too.

 

[Gouldy]

Mechanical HDD's are more unreliable than SSD's, no?

 

[Rob]

There's been hundreds if not thousands of reports of lots of SSD's just stopping working.

HDD's do fail yes, but from what I've heard the risk is higher with SSD's but as Tom says it may be older ones?

Seb, time machine is just the apple backup, but it's awesome.

Plug in an empty HDD (or one with an empty partition) and back up, first one takes ages, then the next one takes far less time as it only updates any modified files.

It'll use the entire capacity you allow before it starts to overwrite anything, you can actually scroll back through your desktops and have the computer as it was exactly on "x" date.

For example, I can plug my time machine in and use my computer as if it was Dec 2011. Like, find old files, or files I modified in the past but want the original etc. Quite useful.

 

[ThomasBrentnall]

Older ssd's are not very reliable. They only support a limited number of IOps (read writes of the disk). However newer ssd's support the trim command which makes the iops a lot more efficient, thus making less of them which then increases the life span.

However, the trim command is not currently supported on RAID arrays, as we found out on the new servers at work

 

[The Fatty]

Not on a mac, but I have just upgraded to an OCZ Agility 3 250Gb SSD and the difference is amazing. I have installed them in other peoples computers but never in my own until now so have never really had a direct comparison. Well worth the upgrade on any computer imo. and with TRIM, secure delete is taken care of for you (once its deleted, its gone for good).