Macbook - HDD vs SSD

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soulhuntersoulhunter
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hi All,



I was wondering. We all know that SSDs are faster than HDDs, but is it worth it?



Considering a SSD (Read 220 MB/sec (max)/Write 125 MB/sec (max) slows down overtime, will it still be faster than a 7200rpm HDD operating in its normal conditions?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,464member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by soulhunter View Post


    Hi All,



    I was wondering. We all know that SSDs are faster than HDDs, but is it worth it?



    Considering a SSD (Read 220 MB/sec (max)/Write 125 MB/sec (max) slows down overtime, will it still be faster than a 7200rpm HDD operating in its normal conditions?



    Yes and with some of the newer drives they support a command call TRIM which makes rewriting cells more efficient and prevents some of the slow down that you see SSD that don't support TRIM.



    Apple will need to support TRIM in a future version of the OS
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  • Reply 2 of 9
    kareliakarelia Posts: 525member
    Installed a 128GB Crucial SSD in a customer's MacBook Pro not long ago. It was a night-and-day difference. If you can stomach the price and the lesser storage, it's worth it - no question.
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  • Reply 3 of 9
    soulhuntersoulhunter Posts: 50member
    So, it is worth it even with without the TRIM command? It seems to me that the TRIM option is only for windows, right?

    Well, I guess I am gonna get one soon anyways... if that makes that much of a difference, I will pay to see it. :-)



    Thank you!
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  • Reply 4 of 9
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,464member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by soulhunter View Post


    So, it is worth it even with without the TRIM command? It seems to me that the TRIM option is only for windows, right?

    Well, I guess I am gonna get one soon anyways... if that makes that much of a difference, I will pay to see it. :-)



    Thank you!



    For future proofing having support for TRIM would be nice.
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  • Reply 5 of 9
    soulhuntersoulhunter Posts: 50member
    ANother thing...



    What would be the slowest write/read speed recommended?

    Is Read up to 160MB/s, Write up to 50MB/s acceptable?
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  • Reply 6 of 9
    Marvinmarvin Posts: 15,584moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by soulhunter View Post


    ANother thing...



    What would be the slowest write/read speed recommended?

    Is Read up to 160MB/s, Write up to 50MB/s acceptable?



    The two top SSDs are the Intel ones and OCZ's latest series. The Intel ones have a sustained write of 70MB/s. The read speeds are very fast but when it comes to authoring/creating large disk images, raw sequential write is important and a standard 7200 rpm drive will get reads/writes on the order of 60-70MB/s.



    OCZ's Vertex Series have a bit higher sequential write at 100MB/s like on this model:



    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-395-_-Product



    and they have a Mac version that is tested to work with Macs but is reported to be the same with the latest firmware. You might get better support by paying the $15 extra:



    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...%20120gb%20mac



    The Vertex 2 series was rumored to be coming out a while ago with internal RAID-0 and 550MB/s read, 480MB/s write. I don't think it materialized though. A shame really as it totally saturates SATA2:



    http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/11365/67/



    There's always a reason for holding back though - it means that people keep upgrading and buying what you have now. Nice benchmarks in RAId-0 though:



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go8vnZj2vb4



    You can do this sort of thing on a Mac by replacing the optical unit.
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  • Reply 7 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    As a user of one in a MacBook Air I think it's worth it. But I may have to see both of your examples in action to be 100% sure.
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  • Reply 8 of 9
    fattymcbutterpantsfattymcbutterpants Posts: 6member
    I'll never use a HDD for my boot/system disk ever again.



    SSD is the future and it's here now.
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  • Reply 9 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by FattyMcButterpants View Post


    I'll never use a HDD for my boot/system disk ever again.



    SSD is the future and it's here now.



    Thanks, I just read your username while eating breakfast. Never again.
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