upgrade to an ssd?

hey guys

2 part question

1. which SSD do you recommend? i have a late 2008 macbook, so i doubt i have anything beyond SATA II (system info for my SATA controller says "Speed: 3 gigabit" so i assume its SATA II?). i was looking at the 64/128GB Crucial C300

2. my current storage is as follows:
- 160 GB internal HD, 1TB external HD acting as a time machine backup drive

i dont know much about ssd, but i read it should be used for system/app files only. i only have 2 USB ports, one of which is being used by a laptop stand w/ fan, i can only have 1 external HD plugged in. also, id rather NOT have 2 external boxes sitting on my desk.

what would you recommend for me? should i partition the 1TB drive so that 500GB acts as a time machine, and the other 500GB acts as a file drive? the downside is that the TM side wont back up the file side, so id want to run another backup anyway, which brings me back to having 2 boxes.

running a drobo/NAS is not an option, simply because i dont want to spend that kind of money. buying an SSD+another ext hd+memory upgrade would already set me back around $300-400

ekinnyc wrote in post #12226354
1. which SSD do you recommend? i have a late 2008 macbook, so i doubt i have anything beyond SATA II (system info for my SATA controller says "Speed: 3 gigabit" so i assume its SATA II?). i was looking at the 64/128GB Crucial C300

Yup, the 128GB C300 is a pretty good choice. Personally, I'd wait a week for the new G3 Intel drives. The new 250GB one looks very yummy.

ekinnyc wrote in post #12226354
i dont know much about ssd, but i read it should be used for system/app files only.

That'll be for people who buy small drives and can't fit much more than the OS and apps on the drive. If you can fit more on there then you can only get better performance (as long as there's a nice chunk of free space).

You'll still find some people saying that you shouldn't put cache files on the SSD - they're wrong. The stupendously short access times of SSDs means you'll not get the performance hit that you used to get with old-fashioned mechanical drives.

The new intel drives are out and so are the vertex 3. I have 3 SSD's in my main rig and about order me a vertex 3 for my new 2011 macbook pro...

Yes they are well worth it. I came from a raptor 150 and 300 in my main rig and SSD kills it hands down. Even in my old sony laptop I have a kingston v+100 SSD and it made 100x better (both mentally and reality...).

I also I can recommend some NAS that is better and cheaper than the Drobo (this is coming from a ex drobo user...).

Sorry I did not read your post completely, since you will be installing this in your older macbook I would recommend either C300 or the intel x-25 (because of it's reliability rating).

Here's a question about upgrading a laptop for the SSD crowd.

Are there any special things to consider when upgrading a Windows laptop internal HD to a SSD?

Let's assume I have the original backup/restore discs for the laptop and don't care about any data or programs currently on the laptop.

What is required to make the swap from HD to SSD?

Thanks

Palladium wrote in post #12226728
Here's a question about upgrading a laptop for the SSD crowd.

Are there any special things to consider when upgrading a Windows laptop internal HD to a SSD?

Let's assume I have the original backup/restore discs for the laptop and don't care about any data or programs currently on the laptop.

What is required to make the swap from HD to SSD?

Thanks

Get into the laptop's BIOS and change the boot order so that the CD/DVD is at the top, switch off the laptop, open laptop, remove HDD, insert SSD, close laptop, switch on, insert Windows CD/DVD, reboot, follow instructions. After installation change the boot options back.

hollis_f wrote in post #12226774
Get into the laptop's BIOS and change the boot order so that the CD/DVD is at the top, switch off the laptop, open laptop, remove HDD, insert SSD, close laptop, switch on, insert Windows CD/DVD, reboot, follow instructions. After installation change the boot options back.

Thanks frank - I'm going do the upgrade this weekend. The Bios switch is something I probably would have forgot about.

darktiger wrote in post #12226676
Sorry I did not read your post completely, since you will be installing this in your older macbook I would recommend either C300 or the intel x-25 (because of it's reliability rating).

is that because i cant take advantage of the SATA III?

also, what about the reliability of an SSD with long term read/writes? i thought NAND chips eventually stop holding a charge if you cycle data too many times

ekinnyc wrote in post #12226918
also, what about the reliability of an SSD with long term read/writes? i thought NAND chips eventually stop holding a charge if you cycle data too many times

Yup, they will fail after around 10,000 to 100,000 write/erase cycles. If one were to erase and fill the whole drive once a day then it would start suffering problems after 30 to 300 years.

I'm planning to upgrade before then.

point taken

so basically the easiest thing for me to do is shell out $$ for a sizeable SSD so that i dont have to worry about an external drive and just use my existing time machine drive to back it up, OR spend less money on a 7200RPM 500GB WD Scorpion Black drive. sure, its less speed, but its also considerably less money

ekinnyc wrote in post #12227510
point taken

so basically the easiest thing for me to do is shell out $$ for a sizeable SSD so that i dont have to worry about an external drive and just use my existing time machine drive to back it up, OR spend less money on a 7200RPM 500GB WD Scorpion Black drive. sure, its less speed, but its also considerably less money

Or....

Get a 500GB Seagate Momentus XT. It's a reasonable 7200 rpm HDD with a 4GB SSD to store commonly-accessed data. It can be pretty good - not really near an SSD but still nippy.

thanks! i forgot these drives exist!

but whats really the benefit here? will it so vastly improve my processing? i am going to bump my MB from 2gb ram to 4gb, and am expecting some improvement there. but with this drive, sure some apps will open faster, but the files are still on the platters, so will i see a real improvement in running DPP batch exports vs a 7200RPM scorpio black? and what if the SSD portion does fail - what happens to my files?

also, i hardly shut down/reboot. my MB tends to be sleeping while i am not using it. not sure if the benefit of an SSD will manifest itself.

FYI, practically all MLC nand these days (25 nm) will have up to 3000 P/E cycles, not the 10,000 that was the norm in the beginning with the larger nand size.
And remember that 3000 P/E cycles does not equal 3000 x (size of drive) in data that can be written by you. Write amplification and other housekeeping issues decrease the actual lifespan.
But whatever the case, these drives should last 2-3 years easily with normal usage.

i went with the 500gb scorpio black. ill sacrifice speed for simplicity. upgrading to SSD either meant shelling out big $$ for a sizeable drive, or dealing with external data drives. even replacing the optical drive in my MB with a SSD would cost $300-$400. i got a 7200rpm 500gb drive for $70

thanks for everyone's feedback and replies