Buy MBP with SSD or Buy Aftermarket SSD?


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So I've finally saved up enough money to get my MBP and am seriously considering getting it with the 128GB SSD which costs an additional ?130 (educational discount). I will be working with rather large files (10-20~ GB) and extracting from large archives on a regular basis so it makes sense to me.

My question is, is it worth getting the Apple SSD or getting it with the standard HD and then buying an aftermarked SSD. From what I've seen, a decend 120GB SSD costs around ?250+ so why's the Apple one so cheap?

cheers,

Martin

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probably go aftermarket

rather than a standard 120gb ssd from whatever model/manufacture they happen to choose; you have control over exactly what model, and its performance.

the new gen intel ssd's are nice; as are gskills falcon, ocz vertex, etc.

check reviews/benches before deciding; performance can vary greatly between brands/models

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You can get a 128GB SSD from around ?170 (Apple charge less as you're upgrading - they take off their cost of the original hard drive) - decent ones will be more.

The key word in that sentence is "decent". I'd rather pay an extra ?100-150 and get a better performing drive. If you're spending that much money on a laptop (it's only ?130 on the 2.8GHz model, so you're already dropping ?1400 with an education discount), an extra ?100 isn't really much. You can also buy a cheap USB enclosure and shove the old drive in there, giving you a cheap external/time machine drive too.

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ive never even heard of an apple ssd, but if theyre offering it for less money than competitors, it's probably pretty slow.

as i said they usually go for samsung SSDs.. they are pretty fast also

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I'd phone them and ask about it - if it's a Samsung it'd go for it (they're pretty decent drives). I just wouldn't want to end up with one of those cheap OCZ ones that are, quite frankly, crap.

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ive never even heard of an apple ssd, but if theyre offering it for less money than competitors, it's probably pretty slow.

I'm aware apple don't manufacture the SSD's themselves just like they don't manufacture the SSD's in the iPhone/iPod touch, I just said 'Apple SSD' as they're so damn vague about the details of their hardware and whom it's manufacturers are.

as i said they usually go for samsung SSDs.. they are pretty fast also

Do you have anything to substantiate this? If they are Samsung drives which I've heard good things about then I might just go for it straight away. From working in a PC repair shop couple of years ago I fully understand how fragile hard drives are and I do plan to be carrying my laptop around with me.

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I'd phone them and ask about it - if it's a Samsung it'd go for it (they're pretty decent drives). I just wouldn't want to end up with one of those cheap OCZ ones that are, quite frankly, crap.

The OCZ Vertex, Agility and Extreme versions are far from crap. The Core V1, V2 and the Apex series are indeed crap though.

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The OCZ Vertex, Agility and Extreme versions are far from crap. The Core V1, V2 and the Apex series are indeed crap though.

yeah the Vertex range has been getting rave reviews. It's probably the fastest SSD you can buy right now, however, I believe Intel have revamped their line which is about to be released.

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