[Macworld]

Post your comments for SSDs and the MacBook Pro here

[Martian]

Yet another reason to hate Apple marketing a-holes.

My cheap, slow, basic, commodity-priced Lenovo netbook has an ExpressCard slot, but 13" & 15" new, state-of-the-art-priced MacBook Pros don't.

[panny]

Awesome - thanks for this. I was trying to use my ExpressCard slot to connect to my external HD through eSATA for high speeds but found it totally unreliable. Also considered the SSD replacement but too expensive ($400). This is a perfect option that I didn't know about - can't wait to get it.

I think people underestimate the benefit of time saving of opening applications.

[elCapiton]

Even if your Mac can't boot off of this, it should be almost as good if you move your frequently used apps over to the SSD card. I think I might try that since my MacBook Pro is a 2,1 model.

[Martian]

panny, on 08 January 2010 - 09:48 AM, said:

Awesome - thanks for this. I was trying to use my ExpressCard slot to connect to my external HD through eSATA for high speeds but found it totally unreliable. Also considered the SSD replacement but too expensive ($400). This is a perfect option that I didn't know about - can't wait to get it.

I think people underestimate the benefit of time saving of opening applications.

They also underestimate the benefit of hardware compatibility including a full array of ports (laptop sides don't have to be smooth as a Ken doll's groin).

[wlunscher]

I'm glad this topic has been revisited.

Question: can an ExpressCard be set up as a Windows drive for use by bootcamp/parallels/fusion?

As we all know, compared to a Mac, Windows startup, shutdown, app's launch just crawls. It's very annoying, but we have to live with it.

This looks like a great solution to that problem. Plus you wouldn't need to sully your internal drive with Windows.

[spinoza2]

I installed a Kingston SSDNow drive (128GB) in my four-year old MacBook Pro, and all I can say is, wow, what a difference. Everything is notably faster, boot-up, starting programs, working with large files, etc etc, the fan rarely runs now, and it is much cooler than before. For $250 and a half-hour of work, it was one of the better upgrades I've ever done, and will give me another couple of years of life to my trusty old MBP.

[griffman]

wlunscher, on 08 January 2010 - 10:31 AM, said:

Question: can an ExpressCard be set up as a Windows drive for use by bootcamp/parallels/fusion?

Other than space, there's no reason you couldn't store a virtual machine on an SSD - just tell your VM app to store it there when you create it. Boot Camp, though, is another story: the Boot Camp Assistant will only partition your internal startup disk. It was a no go when I tried while booted from the SSD.

-rob.

[WaltFrench]

Rob, you mentioned some pre-'07 MBPs might not work on a SSD, and as an owner of a 17" Core [1] Duo machine, I wonder if you could point me to some supporting info.

I like your suggestion of dealing with a seller who'll accept returns, but if this is a reliability issue that might take time to research/debug, I'd hate to blunder away, wasting my time on a fruitless enterprise, even more than I regret not having the snappy load times you document.

[WaltFrench]

Another issue that I didn't notice your addressing: since SSDs are sensitive to number of read/write cycles, some writers strongly prefer for the OS to be smart about "TRIM" to allow updates of sub-block files. Any info on where OSX is on that?

[griffman]

WaltFrench, on 08 January 2010 - 10:52 AM, said:

Rob, you mentioned some pre-'07 MBPs might not work on a SSD, and as an owner of a 17" Core [1] Duo machine, I wonder if you could point me to some supporting info.

I bought my card from Newegg, and on the comments page for the card, someone commented that their 2006 MBP wouldn't boot from the SSD slot (the drive was usable, just not bootable). A bit more digging with Google seems to show that models with "2,1" in the Model Identifer string in System Profiler do *not* boot SSDs; "3,1" and newer should work fine.

So it's not relability-related, it's bootability-related.

-rob.

[griffman]

WaltFrench, on 08 January 2010 - 10:54 AM, said:

Another issue that I didn't notice your addressing: since SSDs are sensitive to number of read/write cycles, some writers strongly prefer for the OS to be smart about "TRIM" to allow updates of sub-block files. Any info on where OSX is on that?

Sorry, no idea. I'm approaching this as an experiment, and given its relatively low cost of entry (vs. going for a full-size internal SSD), it may eventually stop working.

Things I am doing already to protect myself include automatic backup of key files from the SSD to the internal disk (I don't care about the apps, just the data files I create), and using Time Machine on both the internal disk and SSD. I am also contemplating moving swap to the internal drive, and possibly relocating my user's folder there as well, all to reduce the read/write cycle count. Of course, I'll give up some speed if I do this, so that's why I'm holding off so far .

-rob.

[mountainbiker63]

you mentioned the possibly of (needing to) reboot back to the internal HD. on what occasions do you forsee this need? would it be possible to put your frequent apps and supporting files on the SSD and maybe symlink back to the HD, or do you see this as a maintenance challenge? and finally, in looking at the reviews of the expresscard SSDs at various retailers, it seems they are still a bit unreliable. what are your feelings?

[prl53]

I bought the FileMate card through CompUSA on-line and ran it through a battery of speed and usability tests. I'm using a MBP 3,1 for most of the testing. The FileMate popped right up with a volume name of SSD. I had to press fairly hard to get it to eject but it does.

1. I could install 10.6.2 on the 48GB SSD after reformatting with GUID. It boots fine and has Blackmagic read/write speeds of 123MB/s and 68 MB/s. The test times are about the same whether I'm running from a FileVault account or not.

2. I ran Blackmagic against my internal drive (probably 5400 rpm) and my internal drive stinks. I was getting R/W in the 40 MB/s range. I checked this against another MBP (this one is only a 1,1 model) and the speeds were in the same range.

3. I went to my iMac9,1 (2.93GHz) and it's internal drive is much faster, running at 98/99 MB/s.

4. To confirm my MBP drives stink, I booted from my backup drive, a FW800 Mercury Elite Pro from OWC and its results were 74/71 MB/s so I'm now running my MBP from my external drive.

5. I installed my Fusion XP image on the FileMate after removing all by one snapshot (only way it would fit) and it runs fine. I removed all VMs from my internal drive a long time ago, running them from my FW800 drive. Running from the SSD gave me a slight visual speedup so XP doesn't take as long to boot up. My BootCamp version of XP running on an older Mac mini still runs a ton faster than when running in Fusion.