I've been doing a ton of research ever since it came up last year and it seems the technology is finally with us to make it viable.
I have a 2008 imac which has served me well; solid as a rock, nice and powerful, and really quiet. In looking to one day replace it, I can't justify the $1300+ to get a marginally more powerful imac, and it's seems the leaps in processing have not been as substantial as the decade before.
But one thing that has happened is SSD's!
I've been looking at the results where people who have been replacing the internal drives in the macs and PC's are seeing staggering performance results, to the point it's like having bought a completely new computer.
Random access read times (the bit we're really concerned with) jump from around 60-80mbps to over 200 for SATA3, and over 400 for RAID0 or SATA 6 configs.
The stability has now got to comparable levels with mechanical drives, especially with intel's x25 range and the sizes of drive compared to cost mean they're getting close to what normal HHD's were about 6 years ago.
For instance you can pick up a 120g Intel SSD MLC for around $200, and that's more than enough space for your system drive.
I just installed 2 SSD's in a friends mac pro for composing and watching logic load in under 5 seconds, especially with all his libraries for composing, truly is a thing to behold.
So back to the thread topic: you can buy a excellent condition ALU 2008 or 2009 24" imac for about $600 second hand. Slap in a 120 or 160g SSD, and you've got a audio rig that will smoke a stock machine bought for 3 times the price.
WORD OF WARNING - do research on what SSD will suit your computer. Some work better than others and some need software to avoid gradual degredation in performance. Also, 2011 imac's are currently extremely difficult to install SSD's in, not just in terms of installation, but they also require hard to find adaptor cables.
More info here: (scroll down to the side by side comparison)
what SSD should i get for my almost two year old macbook pro 13". the current HD is 250GB and currently 200GB free. in other words i dont need space.
Waza
Yip i agree i have just upgraded to intel 510 ssd 120gb drive and it's very fast.
Storyteller
had a harddrive crash last tuesday which was a deadline day for the biggest webproject 8'm working on thus far. I was not amused.
Went to the pc shop and got a 64gb ssd. Wanted 128 but I had to get that on backorder in any nearby shop so I had to go with it as I couldn't wait the 24 hrs. With just windows 7 on there it's already 60% full, but damn in it is fast :). Everything feels do much more instantanious, just when you thought computers wouldn't really get anu quicker anymore. It's relatively expensive technology, rougly 40 timer more expensive than regular harddriver but well worth it.
Want to get another 120gb ssd soon but first need some invoices paid.
clay
im bumping this.
wants a SSD for my macbook pro. just not sure what the hell to get. 128GB is more than enough, but 64 might be a little bit too small as im running OSX and Logic (i guess those two takes up 30GB alone).
Lunar Phase 7
quote:
Originally posted by DJ RANN
I've been doing a ton of research ever since it came up last year and it seems the technology is finally with us to make it viable.
I have a 2008 imac which has served me well; solid as a rock, nice and powerful, and really quiet. In looking to one day replace it, I can't justify the $1300+ to get a marginally more powerful imac, and it's seems the leaps in processing have not been as substantial as the decade before.
But one thing that has happened is SSD's!
I've been looking at the results where people who have been replacing the internal drives in the macs and PC's are seeing staggering performance results, to the point it's like having bought a completely new computer.
Random access read times (the bit we're really concerned with) jump from around 60-80mbps to over 200 for SATA3, and over 400 for RAID0 or SATA 6 configs.
The stability has now got to comparable levels with mechanical drives, especially with intel's x25 range and the sizes of drive compared to cost mean they're getting close to what normal HHD's were about 6 years ago.
For instance you can pick up a 120g Intel SSD MLC for around $200, and that's more than enough space for your system drive.
I just installed 2 SSD's in a friends mac pro for composing and watching logic load in under 5 seconds, especially with all his libraries for composing, truly is a thing to behold.
So back to the thread topic: you can buy a excellent condition ALU 2008 or 2009 24" imac for about $600 second hand. Slap in a 120 or 160g SSD, and you've got a audio rig that will smoke a stock machine bought for 3 times the price.
WORD OF WARNING - do research on what SSD will suit your computer. Some work better than others and some need software to avoid gradual degredation in performance. Also, 2011 imac's are currently extremely difficult to install SSD's in, not just in terms of installation, but they also require hard to find adaptor cables.
More info here: (scroll down to the side by side comparison)
Also would not a modern, cheap windows build with ssd beat a 3/4 yr old mac? I fear it would.
meriter
120gb Intel x25-m here w/ april 2010 macbook pro i5. blistering fast
kitphillips
I'm going to hang out for another 18 months, or until I get my next machine. Then I'll be trying for a 128 gig SSD and a 750 GB magnetic disk. Do the macbook pros have two hard disk slots? Most PCs laptops do these days, but not sure about macs... May make the switch if they do.
meriter
quote:
Originally posted by kitphillips
I'm going to hang out for another 18 months, or until I get my next machine. Then I'll be trying for a 128 gig SSD and a 750 GB magnetic disk. Do the macbook pros have two hard disk slots? Most PCs laptops do these days, but not sure about macs... May make the switch if they do.
you have to swap out the optical drive which voids the warranty. It can easily be done though.
DJ RANN
quote:
Originally posted by clay
im bumping this.
wants a SSD for my macbook pro. just not sure what the hell to get. 128GB is more than enough, but 64 might be a little bit too small as im running OSX and Logic (i guess those two takes up 30GB alone).
OSX takes up about 9/10gigs but with all your peripheral drivers (printers etc), and misc software, you're probably looking at about 16 all said and done. Then you want to add your audio programs (non library ones - you can put those files on external disk and just use the copy files to working directory option) so you'll be at about 30gig.
The only thing is, the process difference between a 60, 80 and even 120 isn't that huge so I'd just go for the biggest one above 80gigs that you can afford.
One thing to bear in mind though, is that some of the larger drives are actually slightly faster, even form the same model range; an example of this in the intel 320 series, where the 160gig is slightly faster than the smaller ones even though they are the same model.
The best drives at the moment, in terms of both performance and reliability are the intel drives. They make both the controller chips and the firmware, as well as the drive technology itself so compatibility issues are minimized and they're the most solid.
Some other drives claim to have faster sequential read times, but for our uses, that is not important. All we care about is the Random access read times and Intel are up there with the best.
For your MBP, go for an Intel SSD, either the 320 series or 510. The main difference is the 510 does SATA3 (6gb/s) and SATA2 (3GB/s) while 320 only does SATA2. As your MBP is only SATA2, there's not much point going for the 510, unless you want to use it in the future with another computer that has a SATA3 motherboard. In use, on a SATA2 system, both these drive perform nearly the same with Random access times.
@LP7 - just checked ebay for imac 2008 and found one 20" for $300 (will probably go for around $800), and then two other 24" going for around $900. That's more than 40% off their original retail price. And yes, we could get in to the old mac vs PC debate, but as I've said many times before, the imacs are, all thing considered (stunning screen, case, connectivity, reliability, performance, etc) extremely good value, so buying a second hand one for that money and putting an SSD in there will give a damn powerful and fast computer for little money.
@kit - yes it's actually very easy. All you need is the optical bay converter kit. Then you just keeps the parts you removed and should you have a warranty issue, just slap the old optical drive back in.
Do it. You know want to come over to the darkside :whip:
aNYthing
quote:
Originally posted by meriter
you have to swap out the optical drive which voids the warranty. It can easily be done though.
I was researching this subject matter and it appears that it does not. It voids the optical drive warranty but the rest should be fine. Best bet (came from mac forums): email support and ask them if it will void your warranty. When they reply (most likely along the lines above): just save it. Because in warranty it states something like "unless in writing from apple support" yada yada yada.
So, if they say: Hey, your optical will be OOW but rest cool - you're good to go.
I'm gonna do the swap on my mac very soon. Just installed 750GB Seagate 7.2K rpm drive and ALREADY see blazing fast speed vs piece of 5400 rpm that came with it. Also, I saw 256GB mac book air drive for $400 or so - you can get an adapter that will fit it into available slot.
might go that route. BTW, I loaded Ableton on my girl's MBA (new one) and that IS AWESOME!
I might wait til mid year when they come out with more powerful MBAs and buy that instead for portable use.
johncannons1
So im a little confused.
I have an old 24inch white imac. The version just before they changed to the new silver ones.
Am i able to modify that to make it better because its SLOW as!
I have 4gb of ram in it because it cant take more supposdly..
hardrive is full as and its just slow..
I use my macbook pro now.. but can i make my old comp faster than that you rekon?
