OK I didn't know that, my MBP is 2009 with a DIY pair of regular SSDs... so a bit out of the loop. So any idea when I can buy a larger PCle SSD for a nMac Pro?
I'm sorry to differ, but it's not about the chipset! This is a laptop! It's about overall performance in balance with battery life, as well as issues with heat dissipation. Laptops ARE NOT desktop computers. If you really need that much RAM for your work the choices are clear.
I beg to differ, laptop is a misnomer, about practically 0% of macbook pro users use them on their lap, about 100% use them on a desktop.
I have been using a macbook pro daily for about the last 4 years. I'd say it's been used on battery power alone for about 6 hours during that entire time. I want a practical powerful machine I can move from location to location. An iMac just wont work.
Apple uses Samsung's NAND in the Mac Pro. Samsung also has SSDs that go up to 3GB/s. The 3D NAND hasn't arrived at a lower price point, Crucial's drives still undercut them as well as the EVO drives but Samsung says that 3D NAND will eventually drive prices down:
"Using up to 24 vertical NAND elements, Samsung predicts that they will be able to scale up to 1Tb per individual NAND chip. It’s not clear exactly how large the initial chips will be, but with conventional 19nm NAND currently shipping in 128Gb capacities we’d expect at least two to four times as much storage per chip. That means using current SSD standards of eight channels of NAND we’d see capacities for “commodity” SSDs move from 128GB to 256GB or even 512GB, and with four NAND die per package we could easily hit 2TB SSDs. The days of needing a secondary storage device with a hard drive could be quickly coming to a close depending on the timing and pricing."
"Regardless of underlying technology and road map issues, it is now clear that 3D NAND Flash will begin to replace its 2D NAND Flash predecessors starting next year with volume and increasingly attractive pricing in 2016."
If the cost doesn't come down, Apple may not go that high. Apple uses MLC NAND and it's higher quality. I'd be surprised if this year's Mac Pro gets more storage capacity but I could see it reaching 2TB by 2016. The only way to go just now is to get something like the M500 and put it in a USB 3 enclosure that supports the UASP transfer mode:
That gets over 400MB/s read/write from a Samsung drive at under $0.50/GB. You could fill a small quad 2.5" RAID with those drives to get ~4TB and hooked over USB 3 would give decent speeds.
I notice that the MBPr 13" has less than double the pixels of the MBA 13". Does Mac OS X handle the retina display exactly the same way iOS handles it? In that case, I would actually get less usable screen real estate with the Pro model over the Air model (although the text would be sharper on the Pro). For example, if I'm working in X Code, would I feel more space constrained in the Pro than the Air, or could I take advantage of the extra pixels so that it feels like a machine with a LOT more pixels?
I beg to differ, laptop is a misnomer, about practically 0% of macbook pro users use them on their lap, about 100% use them on a desktop.
I have been using a macbook pro daily for about the last 4 years. I'd say it's been used on battery power alone for about 6 hours during that entire time. I want a practical powerful machine I can move from location to location. An iMac just wont work.
I use my MBP on battery for at least 2 hours every single day. Some days far longer.
I have a late 2011 17inch macbook pro with 8gb of ram maxed out and its a really nice laptop and I love it but I honestly cant wait for apple to come out with at least a 24gb ram macbook pro. I am an audio engineer and I can tell you some of the instrument vst3 plugins that they are making can use a lot of memory. I am actually good right now and I really dont need more ram but I can see in the future software will use more resources and therefor we will need more ram so I sure within another year I can see apple doing this. I must say some of the OS improvements are amazing like mavericks with app nap features making an os faster and lighter is smart. Apple is going in the right direction.
I have a late 2011 17inch macbook pro with 8gb of ram maxed out and its a really nice laptop and I love it but I honestly cant wait for apple to come out with at least a 24gb ram macbook pro. I am an audio engineer and I can tell you some of the instrument vst3 plugins that they are making can use a lot of memory. I am actually good right now and I really dont need more ram but I can see in the future software will use more resources and therefor we will need more ram so I sure within another year I can see apple doing this. I must say some of the OS improvements are amazing like mavericks with app nap features making an os faster and lighter is smart. Apple is going in the right direction.
It's not Apple, their just aren't any 16GB SODIMMS yet.
It's pretty ridiculous for you to suggest that 0% of Macbook pro retina users use them on their laps or on battery power. I only use mine on a table or desktop about 50% of the time and almost alway use it on battery power. The only time it's not on battery power is when it needs to charge (after it's at least below 20% battery). granted, I and most of the other mbp users I speak of are biologists and not programmers or IT specialists.
Comments
I wonder when MBPs will get PCle SSD technology?
October of last year, I believe.
My year-old MacBook Air (Mid 2013) has a PCIe-based SSD too.
OK I didn't know that, my MBP is 2009 with a DIY pair of regular SSDs... so a bit out of the loop. So any idea when I can buy a larger PCle SSD for a nMac Pro?
Thanks for info.
I'm sorry to differ, but it's not about the chipset! This is a laptop! It's about overall performance in balance with battery life, as well as issues with heat dissipation. Laptops ARE NOT desktop computers. If you really need that much RAM for your work the choices are clear.
I beg to differ, laptop is a misnomer, about practically 0% of macbook pro users use them on their lap, about 100% use them on a desktop.
I have been using a macbook pro daily for about the last 4 years. I'd say it's been used on battery power alone for about 6 hours during that entire time. I want a practical powerful machine I can move from location to location. An iMac just wont work.
They top out at 1TB just now. Samsung recently brought out an SSD drive using 3D NAND (special glasses not required):
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/185671-samsungs-850-pro-is-the-first-consumer-ssd-to-use-3d-nand
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/Greenmemory/news-event/in-the-news/detail?contentsSeq=13227&contsClassCd=G
Apple uses Samsung's NAND in the Mac Pro. Samsung also has SSDs that go up to 3GB/s. The 3D NAND hasn't arrived at a lower price point, Crucial's drives still undercut them as well as the EVO drives but Samsung says that 3D NAND will eventually drive prices down:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7203/samsungs-3d-vertical-nand-set-to-improve-nand-densities
"Using up to 24 vertical NAND elements, Samsung predicts that they will be able to scale up to 1Tb per individual NAND chip. It’s not clear exactly how large the initial chips will be, but with conventional 19nm NAND currently shipping in 128Gb capacities we’d expect at least two to four times as much storage per chip. That means using current SSD standards of eight channels of NAND we’d see capacities for “commodity” SSDs move from 128GB to 256GB or even 512GB, and with four NAND die per package we could easily hit 2TB SSDs. The days of needing a secondary storage device with a hard drive could be quickly coming to a close depending on the timing and pricing."
Anantech has a lot of details on the 850 Pro:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8216/samsung-ssd-850-pro-128gb-256gb-1tb-review-enter-the-3d-era/2
They haven't aimed to increase capacity but improve performance. Toshiba is making moves to 3D NAND too:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwebster/2014/05/20/ssd-is-hot-so-why-is-toshiba-demolishing-a-nand-flash-fab/
"Regardless of underlying technology and road map issues, it is now clear that 3D NAND Flash will begin to replace its 2D NAND Flash predecessors starting next year with volume and increasingly attractive pricing in 2016."
There's some upcoming 2TB 2.5" SSDs this year:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8145/computex-2014-adata-booth-tour-2tb-sx930-ssd-micro-ssds-power-banks-wireless-chargers-and-more
http://www.maximumpc.com/leaked_intel_roadmap_shows_2tb_25-inch_ssd_coming_out_2014
If the cost doesn't come down, Apple may not go that high. Apple uses MLC NAND and it's higher quality. I'd be surprised if this year's Mac Pro gets more storage capacity but I could see it reaching 2TB by 2016. The only way to go just now is to get something like the M500 and put it in a USB 3 enclosure that supports the UASP transfer mode:
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-Inch-adapter-Internal-CT960M500SSD1/dp/B00BQ8RGL6
http://www.amazon.com/Optimized-Inateck-Enclosure-Installation-Compatible/dp/B00FCLG65U
That gets over 400MB/s read/write from a Samsung drive at under $0.50/GB. You could fill a small quad 2.5" RAID with those drives to get ~4TB and hooked over USB 3 would give decent speeds.
I notice that the MBPr 13" has less than double the pixels of the MBA 13". Does Mac OS X handle the retina display exactly the same way iOS handles it? In that case, I would actually get less usable screen real estate with the Pro model over the Air model (although the text would be sharper on the Pro). For example, if I'm working in X Code, would I feel more space constrained in the Pro than the Air, or could I take advantage of the extra pixels so that it feels like a machine with a LOT more pixels?
I use my MBP on battery for at least 2 hours every single day. Some days far longer.
I have a late 2011 17inch macbook pro with 8gb of ram maxed out and its a really nice laptop and I love it but I honestly cant wait for apple to come out with at least a 24gb ram macbook pro. I am an audio engineer and I can tell you some of the instrument vst3 plugins that they are making can use a lot of memory. I am actually good right now and I really dont need more ram but I can see in the future software will use more resources and therefor we will need more ram so I sure within another year I can see apple doing this. I must say some of the OS improvements are amazing like mavericks with app nap features making an os faster and lighter is smart. Apple is going in the right direction.
I have a late 2011 17inch macbook pro with 8gb of ram maxed out and its a really nice laptop and I love it but I honestly cant wait for apple to come out with at least a 24gb ram macbook pro. I am an audio engineer and I can tell you some of the instrument vst3 plugins that they are making can use a lot of memory. I am actually good right now and I really dont need more ram but I can see in the future software will use more resources and therefor we will need more ram so I sure within another year I can see apple doing this. I must say some of the OS improvements are amazing like mavericks with app nap features making an os faster and lighter is smart. Apple is going in the right direction.
It's not Apple, their just aren't any 16GB SODIMMS yet.
It's pretty ridiculous for you to suggest that 0% of Macbook pro retina users use them on their laps or on battery power. I only use mine on a table or desktop about 50% of the time and almost alway use it on battery power. The only time it's not on battery power is when it needs to charge (after it's at least below 20% battery). granted, I and most of the other mbp users I speak of are biologists and not programmers or IT specialists.