ssd blackmacbook

hey guys, im about to buy a black mac for my lil bro, and i was wondering if an ssd upgrade was possible. vThanks.

 

Yah, but why would you really want to do that....i dont think its really worth the price

 

because right now my macbook is stationed, and my lil bro moves around the house alot, he types while walking and just has alot of mobility is his life. And to my knowledge, it isn't the best to have a regular HD when ur always on the move, correct?

 

true, but they can handle that kind of movement its the sudden jolt thats really bad. but to answer your original question you can..

 

As long as the computer isn't on, you can move it as much as you want. SSD's aren't really for mainstream customers yet.

 

its kinda more of a Want, then a Need.

 

If it is just a "want", I think the upgrade is a bit over-the-top for the system that it would be going into. An SSD upgrade is more appropriate at this time for a state of the art setup, rather than an older/much lesser system. Your SSD, unless really small, is likely to be more value than the computer in which is is mounted.

An SSD (at this time) is one of those investments where you care less about ROI than about being at the cutting edge. It makes much more sense to use a cutting edge system to begin with.

Would you buy a blue-ray disc player for a B&W television?

 

I see some folks putting higher-end SSDs in their netbooks and just cringe. Getting a better computer with a slower HDD is the wiser move (IMO).

Your brother doesn't need the SSD. He would likely also miss the extra space of a conventional HDD if he's into movies and tv shows.

 

who knows, maybe this guy is loaded and spending 600 bucks on a hard drive isn't such a big deal to him...

i know for a fact that when i shop for family i tend to go overboard because i never want to be cheap towards family.

 

why buy an old low end black macbook and spend what is probably even more money on the hard drive to put in it...?

 

we're only getting the black macbook because we think it looks nice, or else we would get a mbp

 

why cant you guys just answer YES or NO to his question.

 

true enough.
I just bought a phone for my sister, and I buy her a good one, even I am now using a crappy phone.
Well, back to topic, how's old is your brother? I dont think that's he is old enough to value the money that you spend on an ssd. So my simple answer will be no.

 

Lol i love you guys, you guys are so much help, really. =) one last question, im looking for a blackmacbook right now, is 2.0dual core - 2.4 dual a big difference?, because they seem to be double in price. sorry for off topic.

 

Which BlackBook aer you looking for? Get the one with the X3100. The CPU won't matter that much for basic stuff.

 

Why spend $600 for an SSD upgrade. Go with the Intel G1 or G2 SSD, or the OCZ Vertex. The highest capacity drives are around $450 I think, and the 80GB SSD from Intel costs ~$290. For $220 you can get the 60GB (or is that 64GB) Vertex.

Definitely pay attention to what controller is built into the drive, because you don't want something like the JMicron controller or anything. Check out Anandtech's really good article summarizing the state of SSDs now.

 

is SSD compatible for most of laptop right now???
because i am waiting the decrease of premium product's price next years (hopefully)

 

All 2.5" SSDs will work for your MBP.

I'm also waiting for 60Gb drives to go under $150 (CDN) before I buy. This will probably be mid-to-late next year.

 

I would recommend an ssd and think it is usually the easiest bang for the buck upgrade in performance out there. My system never has a hiccup doing anything, apps open very snappily and restarts are consistently between 40-60 seconds. Benchmarks for typical applications are considerably faster with an ssd because the hdd is usually the slowest primary hardware component on a computer.

Even @ 2-3 dollars/gb of storage, an ssd beats a cpu or memory upgrade hands down because cpu, memory technology and how computers are currently configured is much faster than current hdd technology.

Hardware developers are currently looking at changing the way storage devices are connected to bring their performance in line with other hardware devices but until then hdd's are the weakest link. As they say, any system is only as strong as it's weakest link.

 

The primary problem with an ssd in a Mac is the fact that not one single ssd controller be it intel, indyllinx or Samsung currently offers background garbage collection or TRIM that will function in OS X.

My recommendation is to go against the concensus and get a Samsung based ssd with a Samsung controller. OCZ Summit, Corsair or Samsung. The Indyllinx controller drives(OCZ Vertex, etc.) still have Samsung flash chips. don't really see any reason to pay a premium for Intel ssd's.

One option that may work is to boot into Windows occasionally to allow background GC and TRIM functions maintain performance.

 

Before you go Samsung, at least read this. The flash chips are good, no doubt, but the controllers from them are behind the times.

 

All of the Samsung controller drives currently shipping have VBM18C1Q firmware not that it matters since it will not work within Mac OS X. i find a number of discrepencies in Anandtech's testing for example they state on that page you linked that the Corsair and OCZ Summit are rebadged Samsung controller/samsung chips.

On other pages they show benchmarks of the Corsair and Summit reporting wildly different scores in benchmarks although they are identical drives other than capacity which shouldn't make a difference with those benchmarks.

 

I wouldn't count Samsung controllers out especially for Mac users because they have the most to gain from firmware upgrades. Samsung has stated that it will offer a firmware flasher prior to Win7 release.

Samsung is by far the leader in flash memory chips--most ssd's are Samsung devices but have different controllers. Samsung is the biggest player in ssd technology and will be the odds on favorite to offer Mac support for GC and TRIM first IMO.

 

omg i got lost awhile back, someone said make sure i get the macbook with the x3100, he meant the integrated graphices or, some controller for an SSD.?