New MacBook speed difference between Solid State Disk and 5400 rpm disk

Has anyone bought the new MB or MBP with the 128 mb SSD harddisk? I am curious to see the speed difference between the normal disks and the SSD's.

Boot time or app launching time in OSX or windows?

Benchmarks?

 

Don't get the SSD from APPLE. For $500 ~ 128GB is a lot, there are other much cheaper online. Plus we don't know the specs on the apple provided SSD.

plus to change it is only 10 seconds.

 

I read on macrumors that is a Samsung MLC. Don't know if it is true though.

 

I would like to know the real SSD, just to check the REAL prices for that specific unit. Lately there are many SSD pretty cheap but still with great performance.

 

I'd recommend not getting the ssd version. Apparently the new intel ssd x25m trumps all other existing hard disks and ssds available. They have 80gig and 160gig versions. The 80gig version costs $640, but it's well worth it.

Actually, don't take my word for it, here is a review from NBR:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4647

Some of the highlights include a 1 hour battery life increase, which is pretty freakin awesome.

 

SSD Verses Hardrive.. Is SSD cooler or hotter in both extreme tasking (ie. playing games) and normal tasking (surfing and documenting)? Thanks

 

cooler and faster (access time of 0.1ms compared to 10-15ms for regular HDD). if you get a good SSD the system will be much much faster overall, but even with a medium priced SSD (I need a good but cheap one) you'll still get a nice performance bump.

myself I am looking for an 128GB (so that 80GB from Intel is too small for my needs) or even a 256GB. But anyone shopping around should check the performance, read some reviews, cause not all SSD are worth the money.

Please share any info on this issue, the SSD is discussed a lot on NBR but it's still confusing, with tons of pages per every thread about SSD and HDD, that's too much for me to read it all. I would really appreciate some new info about the best choice (performance&price) in 128MB or 256MB.

 

So does anyone know where to find real info on the apple SSD's?

Are the ones Apple uses good in comparison with other brands?

I am definately going to get one, and the apple deal seems ok to me, if the speed is on par with the best ssd.

 

They are Samsung Gen 2 MLC 128GB drives, similar to what Lenovo is offering in all its Thinkpads.

 

But that is ONLY on read functions where the 0.1ms works. Write operations on any SSD with MLC (which includes every current SSD under $800), with the exception of Intels new one, have write speeds that are generally *less* than a high-density 5400 hdd. Intel has figured out how to get good speeds on both operations, in contrast to all of their competitors.

 

I'm waiting for a good speed/size/value SSD in the market to upgrade my MB's 250GB 5400RPM drive to. Hopefully it'll be soon. I think 128GB is the minimum I'd need if not more. Until then, the Toshiba drive in my MB seems to be working great.

 

So how fast is that? I'll check the specs online, but if anyone has some info please post it
Also, what would be the price to get it? I only found it at 800$ online, so if this price is real than the $500 upgrade from Apple is a good deal and I might think about it.

 

It's expensive excersize just to gain not even more than 1/2 second speed over standard hard drive.

How much faster are SSD compared to 5200 RPM hard drive?

if it's only less than 1/2 or les than 2 seconds then that kind of money is wasted.

 

I hope i don't step on any FANBOYS toes here but knowing Apple you are not going to get the fastest performance hardware anyday.


Apples survives on profits. Their share holders demand profits.

 

errrr.... could you tell me what company/corporation doesn't survive on profits?

 

Fastest performance on SSD costs more 1000$ for 32GB. So if you do the math you'll get a 128GB SSD for like $5000 (talking about the fast perf.).

I only need to know if the 500$ SSD from Apple justifies it's price, cause if I can get the same performance&size but cheaper someplace online I will jump on it. That way I'll just exchange the drive with the SSD, I'll also get to keep the 320GB hdd as a backup(100$ value)..

I do expect Apple to make profit on my purchase. Don't worry, I am not a fanboy, I hate Apple for their policy on tons of issues but I also like them for their performance and design.

 

not only are they faster, but cooler, and use less power, thus a longer battery life. And they also wont break down in the long run like spinning disks do.

 

Yes but does anyone have links to numbers that show HOW much faster compared to a 7200 RPM disk?

If say photoshop will launch 50% faster i would say thats a pretty nice upgrade in speed for 500$....

But numbers? Benchmarks? Anyone has any links?

 

Same here. In a year or two when I can get a 128GB+ drive for under $200, then I'll be updating, for sure. I'd imagine the speed difference would be amazing.

 

You'll probably have to consider between a 1TB magnetic HDD and 128GB HDD (both for notebooks) which may have the same price. Also, in next 2 years, may be 128GB SSD become as small as 16-32GB SSDs today.

 

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-x25-m.aspx?page=6

The SSD Apple uses is a bit slower than the Intel, probably comparable to the Samsung 64GB in the tables.

 

If you go to the SSD thread, Samsung MLC doesn't seem to have many problems (Intel MLC has a good number but not as much as those really cheap ones with the Jmicron controller). Personally, I'd keep waiting until SLC prices drop as MLC still doesn't compete in terms of performance (consumes more power, higher access times, slower write speed, lower IOPs, undetermined reliability, possible stuttering issues).

 

When SLC 256GB SSD start going for ~$300-$350 I'll consider buying one for a notebook.

 

I could not really tell you ether but the way that regular HD works and the way that a SSD works are completely different and the OS need to be optimized for it. OS X uses HFS and is more efficient over NTFS but both need to be optimized for SSD. SSD's have a slow write state and the OS need to be optimized to write only important stuff. SSD's are also going to require a new controller driver and will most likely see that in Windows 7 and will be interesting to see what they do in Snow Leopard. Anyhow I would not invest in SSD for a while.

 

barefeats.com had a comparison between SSDs and HDs recently. Unfortunately they didn't test the stock Apple SSD, they used an OCZ drive. Should be comparable though.

 

The test isn't comparable. OCZ is far inferior to Samsung, who specializes in flash memory and uses its own controller.

 

How about you buy the MB with the cheapest 5400RPM HDD and buy an Intel SSD separately?

 

my plans, but waiting to see how the new 256 samsung does in terms of tests and price or if the new intel extreme ssd goes down in price somewhat

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/...d=news_view&newsId=20081119006508&newsLang=en "sequential read rates of 220MB/s (megabytes per second) with sequential write rates of 200MB/s"

http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/extreme/index.htm
Bandwidth Sustained sequential read: up to 250 MB/s
Sustained sequential write: up to 170 MB/s