Help
Post your comments for Boost your Mac's speed with a hybrid drive here
Boost your Mac's speed with a hybrid drive
#2
wallygva 
- Member
-
- Group: Macworld Insiders
- Posts: 61
- Joined: 25-February 09
Posted 27 October 2010 - 07:39 AM
I've been using these 500 GB Momentus hybrid drives in two of my laptops: a 17" and a 15" MBP. In both cases, after about three or four boots, it was a great improvement. Lots of space and apps load faster. I recommend them as a nice 'tweener solution until SSD prices enter this sort of price range.
#3
squizato
- Newbie
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 27-October 10
Posted 27 October 2010 - 08:11 AM
Did you consider to use a SD card instead of changing the hard drive? What are the pro and cons of using a, let´s say 32GB (or even 64GB), SD card in the new MBP as you have done with the expresscard in your old MBP?
#4
hlachman
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 15
- Joined: 24-July 09
Posted 27 October 2010 - 08:11 AM
Don't you think with an incremental cost difference of only $175, that the speed tests should have included this model mac with a 128 GB SSD? That drive has 50% more storage than what I am currently using. I know I would need to know what I "lose" by trying to save $175.
harlan
harlan
#6
redgeminipa
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 973
- Joined: 01-December 09
Posted 27 October 2010 - 08:39 AM
You mention noise and heat with the Mac Mini, but not with the MBP. Is the same true for the MBP?
#7
MrLizard
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 131
- Joined: 23-January 06
Posted 27 October 2010 - 08:42 AM
squizato, on 27 October 2010 - 08:11 AM, said:
Did you consider to use a SD card instead of changing the hard drive? What are the pro and cons of using a, let´s say 32GB (or even 64GB), SD card in the new MBP as you have done with the expresscard in your old MBP?
I've heard/read from various sources that SD cards aren't great over time when it comes to constant writing to the card. The quality of memory, I understand, used in fairly inexpensive memory cards is inferior to that used in SSDs, and they eventually fail.
Maybe one of the other forum posters or the article author could co-oborate this?
#9
nathanator11
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 69
- Joined: 01-July 08
Posted 27 October 2010 - 08:48 AM
GBrown, on 27 October 2010 - 08:42 AM, said:
Could these drives be used in a RAID array?
Sure, with Disk Utility for a software RAID or a physical enclosure for a hardware one.
#11
griffman
- old friend
-
- Group: Macworld Insiders
- Posts: 8,788
- Joined: 09-January 01
Posted 27 October 2010 - 09:27 AM
redgeminipa, on 27 October 2010 - 08:39 AM, said:
You mention noise and heat with the Mac Mini, but not with the MBP. Is the same true for the MBP?
Just to clarify: Kirk tested the mini, and I tested the MacBook Pro. So far, I haven't noticed any additional noise or heat with the drive -- hence, no comments about either in my portion of the article.
-rob.
This space intentionally left blank.
#12
griffman
- old friend
-
- Group: Macworld Insiders
- Posts: 8,788
- Joined: 09-January 01
Posted 27 October 2010 - 09:30 AM
mretondo, on 27 October 2010 - 09:26 AM, said:
MacWorld, your test results are flawed. You compared a 5400 rpm drive to a 7200 rpm drive. Right off the bat you have a bias toward the Seagate drive with its fast rpm speed.
The test was a stock MacBook Pro anti-glare machine (which comes with the 5400rpm drive), not a custom-configured one with a 7200rpm hard drive. However, even with that said, you do not get these kind of performance gains by simply going from 5400rpm to 7200rpm. Sure, some bit of it is the faster drive, but the biggest bit is the solid state storage.
-rob.
This space intentionally left blank.
#13
kirkmc
- Member
-
- Group: Macworld Insiders
- Posts: 745
- Joined: 29-March 04
Posted 27 October 2010 - 09:31 AM
mretondo, on 27 October 2010 - 09:26 AM, said:
MacWorld, your test results are flawed. You compared a 5400 rpm drive to a 7200 rpm drive. Right off the bat you have a bias toward the Seagate drive with its fast rpm speed.
Yes and no. The results that Rob and I both see with our drives don't get quantified in the lab tests. Faster startup, faster app launch, these are things that they don't test. So while there is definitely a difference with the RPM of the two drives, that's not the entire answer.
Kirk
Macworld Senior Contributor - Macworld's iTunes Guy - Editor of Mac OS X Hints
Read my blog Kirkville, writings about more than just Macs. Twitter: @mcelhearn
My latest book: Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ
Read my blog Kirkville, writings about more than just Macs. Twitter: @mcelhearn
My latest book: Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ
#14
tee1up
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 65
- Joined: 08-January 09
Posted 27 October 2010 - 10:02 AM
wallygva, on 27 October 2010 - 07:39 AM, said:
I've been using these 500 GB Momentus hybrid drives in two of my laptops: a 17" and a 15" MBP. In both cases, after about three or four boots, it was a great improvement. Lots of space and apps load faster. I recommend them as a nice 'tweener solution until SSD prices enter this sort of price range.
I have a 2.1 Version macbook and about a year ago I upgraded (self-install) from a 160 GB 5400 rpm to a 250 GB 7200 rpm drive (third-party drive but - Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ~ $50. While I did notice a a drop in battery life using this drive (about 10%), the speed increase and extra storage made it totally worth the effort and the install was painless. It reminded me of the days when I was still using XP and I bought a WD Raptor drive. Everything became quicker. To this day, I still shun 5400 rpm drives for the dinosaurs they are. I agree, that SSDs or something like it will be the future but until the prices drop out of the stratosphere, cheaper options are necessary for mere mortals.
