Building a new Mac Pro tower. SSD really worth it?

[mrt2]

Ok I'm about to build a freaking speed demon of a machine and I'm wondering is dropping the money for SSD really worth it? They are so small and for a solid state drive that is 500GB it'll be at least $1400 :(

I couldn't have anything lower than 500GB for my boot drive/home folder drive since all my apps will be installed there. I could move my home folder/applications folder to another drive but that would defeat the purpose of having a SSD which is that your Apps launch and run faster... thoughts?

[KeR]

Yes it is, I just upgraded my MacBook Pro to a SSD drive, and the speed improvement is amazing. Photoshop launches in seconds, it truly is amazing.

[.Kompressor]

Yep.

You could get an after market Intel 80gb or 128gb SSD for the OS and programs and also put in a 1 Tb secondary drive for storage.

[mrt2]

Yep.

You could get an after market Intel 80gb or 128gb SSD for the OS and programs and also put in a 1 Tb secondary drive for storage.

Well I'll have plenty of storage... my other 3 internal drives are going to be 2TB each. :) But 128GB isn't enough for applications IMO....

[svnO.o]

How many apps do you really have? I have more apps than most people (entire Adobe Suite, Visual Studio suite, Office 2010 suite, 3 browsers, ftp, steam, IM client, torrent client, 7zip, winrar, zune player, imgburn, microsoft security essentials, n all sorts of others, probably ~100 apps) and don't even use the full 80GB of my SSD (got 30GB left running Windows 7). I just keep games separate and my OS/main apps load super fast. Keep temporary files/downloads/docs/pictures/mp3s on another hard drive and you shouldn't need much more unless you have hundreds of apps installed. Maybe Mac OSX works differently than Windows though.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

i only use my 30GB SSD for Windows... all apps and games are on separate hd's.

i would suggest getting a 60 or 120GB SSD for use of only the OS and necessary apps. keep everything else on slower storage.

[KeR]

This is what I got last week: http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-SSDNow-Soli...690&sr=8-14

Its the Intel SSD, just re-branded as Kingston. It even uses the stock Intel firmware.

[5Horizons]

I use a 60GB SSD (~$200) for my Mac Pro's boot drive + Applications. Home folder is on a WD640AAKS. Granted, my workflow doesn't include a ton of huge apps, but I use Aperture, Photoshop, and Illustrator along with a bunch of smaller apps. Right now I have 45 GB free on the SSD.

[ToneKnee]

An SSD will be the biggest speed improvement.

[mrt2]

How many apps do you really have? I have more apps than most people (entire Adobe Suite, Visual Studio suite, Office 2010 suite, 3 browsers, ftp, steam, IM client, torrent client, 7zip, winrar, zune player, imgburn, microsoft security essentials, n all sorts of others, probably ~100 apps) and don't even use the full 80GB of my SSD (got 30GB left running Windows 7). I just keep games separate and my OS/main apps load super fast. Keep temporary files/downloads/docs/pictures/mp3s on another hard drive and you shouldn't need much more unless you have hundreds of apps installed. Maybe Mac OSX works differently than Windows though.

I do HD movie and music editing.... Final Cut is a 50GB Install and logic is a 30GB install.... :(

[mrt2]

Actually I don't use ALL the tools that final cut came with so I could cut the install down considerably... and I just saw some other areas on my boot drive I could skim down... I could get away with a 256 SSD... what's the cheapest yet fastest 256 or 250 I could get?

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

OCZ Vertex...around $700 probably?

[mrt2]

Those aren't as quick as the Intel/Kingston ones though right? Although any SSD would run circles around my 7200RPM drive...

[KeR]

Those aren't as quick as the Intel/Kingston ones though right? Although any SSD would run circles around my 7200RPM drive...

No they are not, here is a real good article with benchmarks that includes most of the SSD drives out there.

[stevember]

I do HD movie and music editing.... Final Cut is a 50GB Install and logic is a 30GB install.... :(

So install them 2 on another drive.

[mrt2]

So what would be the fastest sub $900 256GB SSD? Would it be the Kingston SNV225-S2?

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-SSDNow-2-5-...7806&sr=1-4

[master2k27]

wow pricey!

[drshdw]

http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-OCZSSD2-1VTX250G...d/dp/B001NPCTBY

With 1.41 Garbage Collection firmware.

[mrt2]

HMMmmm.... So does Snow Leopard support TRIM or the Garbage collection feature?

[drshdw]

HMMmmm.... So does Snow Leopard support TRIM or the Garbage collection feature?

No TRIM support yet. GC is native to the SSD so no need for OS support.

[AltecXP]

I hate SSD's, ever try recovering the data from one after they fail? Here's an idea...IMPOSSIBLE!

[drshdw]

I hate SSD's, ever try recovering the data from one after they fail? Here's an idea...IMPOSSIBLE!

So backup. Recovering data from a failed HD costs between $500-1000..

[Timan Veteran]

I'm thinking of buying one for my mac pro? whats the fastest / cheapest (storage space is not a problem, it'll be for the OS and Apps only) 30gb is fine.

Also what would you need to get them to fit in the mac pro bays (3.5")?

[lt8480]

Yes it is, I just upgraded my MacBook Pro to a SSD drive, and the speed improvement is amazing. Photoshop launches in seconds, it truly is amazing.

As opposed to what? Minutes?? :s

A ?400 PC I sometimes use with a SATA 7200rpm drive will open Photoshop in sub 3 seconds

[drshdw]

As opposed to what? Minutes?? :s

A ?400 PC I sometimes use with a SATA 7200rpm drive will open Photoshop in sub 3 seconds

I doubt this. Maybe if your running Photoshop 1.0