128gb SSD vs. 320gb serial ATA drive at 5400 rpm

I don't know much about hard drive space. I plan on purchasing a new MacBook for college, but I don't know what kind of hard drive space is better. Can someone explain what SSD is and what the serial ATA drive is. Any kind of help will be greatly appreciated.

SSD is a sold-state drive, i.e., the memory is of the kind you might find in a thumb drive or in the iPhone. The advantage is that it is not prone to the kind of failure that normal, spinning hard drives are. They are not eternal, however, and will die eventually anyway.
Traditional spinning HDs are more vulnerable to damage due to mishandling the computer, for example, and bearings occasionally wear out. But more space is much cheaper on a traditional drive.
For my money, I would buy the cheaper traditional drive, a backup drive, and the extended AppleCare. I think you'd still spend less than upgrading to the solid-state memory.

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MBP for a New College Student - 128 SSD or 750 Serial ATA Drive?

Hi, I'd like to start by thanking anyone who will take the time to answer my questions and have the patients to work with me. Also, I appologize if this thread is a repeat of another, I have searched and googled extensively, and have not found a thread that answers all of my questions. Lastly, I also appologize if I have posted in the wrong section, if you could please direct me to the correct section.
So, I have just graduated high school and am entering college next week, and decided to purchase a Mac. While I have long been an iPhone user, I am new to Mac's, and am relitively clueless about computer hardware. When I purchase my computer, I plan on using it atleast 4 years, and maybe longer depending on my financial status entering graduate school. I don't plan on doing anything super extensive with my Mac, basic student needs, music, some pictures and hard core web browsing. I used to be big into PC games, but don't see myself going back, and do enjoy graphic designs with Photoshop and Illustrator.
What I had in mind was the upgraded 13" MacBook Pro
2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4GB
Does this seem fitting for what I had described? Then, my main question is the 128GB SSD worth the 500GB decrease in memory? I will always be on the move with my computer, I bring my current PC everywhere, and plan on using it in most classes. How big of an advantage is it to have no moving parts? I cannot afford more anything more than the 128GB SSD, but if I get the 2.5 GHz MBP, I can afford a 256GB SSD.
Thanks again for any and all help.

I wouldn't buy the Apple SSD - they simply want too much for it. Just buy the least expensive hard drive that is sold and upgrade the SSD to a 256 or 512GB yourself. It's a very simple procedure and you only need two screwdrivers to accomplish the installation. Apple wants, I think, $1000 for a 512GB SSD and you can get one for about $400 and install it yourself. 128GB just won't be enough - 256GB might be just right for you.
You should also purchase an external drive for backups. I use Time Machine and have been quite happy with it -- it's saved my arse on two occassions.
Good luck - call back with any questions.
Clinton

750gb serial ATA drive vs. 128gb SSD

Hey I'm looking to buy a 13 in. macbook pro and I don't know the difference between the 750gb serial ATA drive and the SSD. I know the SSD will make the computer operate faster, but that's pretty much it. Any information on these two would be greatly appreciated.

I was in the same position a month ago. Its basically a pro and con list.
SDD is much more expensive, to upgrade from a 500gb HDD to a 512GB SSD is $1000 dollars!!!
SDD is more energy efficient, so you will get about an extra half hour of battery life(on average). It is faster to load from, and it has no moving parts so is supposed to be have longer life.
I however went with a 750GB 7200rpm HDD as I didn't want to worry about running out of space. I use a lot of photos and videos and I didn't want to have to worry about bringing external hard drives around with me.
Right now I don't think the SSD is necessary for your average person. My 15" is flying with my HDD and I am very happy with my choice!
Hope this helps

Is it possible to install a ssd in my 2013 imac 27 inch that currently has a serial ATA drive?

Is it possible to install a SSD in my 2013 imac 27 inch that currently has a serial ATA drive?

Not only possible, but well documented as well:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/imac-aluminum-tapered-edge-faq/how-to -upgrade-imac-hard-drive-aluminum-2012-2013.html

Is it possible to upgrade from 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm to ssd on the new 13" 2012 macbook pro?

is it possible to upgrade from 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm to ssd on the new 13" 2012 macbook pro?

New non-retina 15" MBP, I just replaced the 500 gb HD with a Samsung 830 256 gb SSD from Amazon, $255 for the kit (includes a USB cable). Wow. What a difference. Yes, there was a learning curve for some of it, but was so worth it. Let me know if I can help. I'm using the 500 gb in 2 partitions - one for a clone of the SSD, and one for Time Machine.

750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm or 128GB Solid State Drive?

Ok so im probably going to get the MacBook Pro 15 inch non retina 2.6 GhZ. it comes with 750 GB Serial ATA Drive and im trying to see if it is worth upgrading to the SSD im going to be using it for a lot of video editing (Final Cut Pro/YouTube) as well as streaming videos and using it for class work give me your opinions on what you think would be best to get if im using it for this thanks! (also ahould i upgrade to 2.7 GhZ.??)

I agree with Bimmer 7 Series. I did the same SSD update of the 2.5" Hard Drive. i went from a 750GB 5400 RPM to a 512 GB SSD and used the 750 for additional storage (put in a chassis) and a 4x improvement on performance on the SSD vs. the typical HD.
Boot time went from 50seconds to 10 seconds.
Loading Parallels 7 load of Windows XP Pro was 1:33 minutes to 40 seconds.
Excel 2010 load time was 25 seconds, now 7 seconds
iMovie with 40 minute move added to edit/preview- 40 seconds, now 14 seconds.
These are just a few examples. I have the 2012 13 MBP (2.8Ghz 8GB RAM).

Replacing a Serial ATA Drive with a SSD HD

Does anyone know if its difficult to replace a Serial ATA Drive with a SSD? And if possible and not difficult, which specs should this SSD have?

if you buy your SSD as a kit, it comes with sata to usb connector.
if you buy your SSD as a bare drive then go out and buy an usb external enclosure.
Before you install your new drive, turn your computer on with your old drive, hook up your new drive via external enclosure to your usb port.
Launch Disk Utility, erase/format your new drive with MAC OS Extended Journaled.
Open Carbon Copy ( free download if you don't have it) and start to clone your drive, a pop up will come up saying you haven't created a recovery partition, follow the instructions in Carbon Copy then proceed to clone your drive after.
Once that's done, open the back of your MB, take out the old drive, install your new ssd, then turn it on. You're back in business.
As for your old drive, put it in the external enclosure and use it as a back up drive.

1TB Serial ATA Drive vs 512GB SSD

what is the major differences between 1TB Serial ATA Drive and 512GB SSD when chooseing your mac book pro,because i dont understand why you have to pay more money for less memory,can anyone explain as im going to purchase 1 in the next week and $900 is alot of money...

Yes - but as mende1 points out, it would be much less expensive to go ahead and buy the 1TB unit, put your own 512GB SSD in it (around $400), and buy an enclosure for your 'old' 1TB HD to use for backup purposes.
But an SSD is much, much faster than a spinning platter hard disk drive.
Clinton

Can you upgrade a MacBookPro hard drive from a "750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm" to a Solid State Drive easily? The info seems to say that it's as easy as plugging the new drive into a drive slot?

I am about to buy a new MacBook Pro, but want to try out the Serial Drive 7200rpm before taking the plunge to use the SSD....Can you upgrade a MacBookPro hard drive from a "750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm" to a Solid State Drive easily? The info seems to say that it's as easy as plugging the new drive into a drive slot?

shldr2thewheel wrote:
Fmaharg wrote:
I am about to buy a new MacBook Pro, but want to try out the Serial Drive 7200rpm before taking the plunge to use the SSD....Can you upgrade a MacBookPro hard drive from a "750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm" to a Solid State Drive easily?
Yes
Fmaharg wrote:
The info seems to say that it's as easy as plugging the new drive into a drive slot?
It's easy, but not that easy. You need to copy all the info from the drive currently in the mac to the new one before you install the new SSD. You can do this by downloading cloning software (I use CarbonCopyCloner because it's free)
Not to be picky but CCC is donationware, if you use it because of its quality you should send a little bit of money in appreciation, and as a bonus you get to turn the banner off.

Can i change the serial ATA Drive to solid state drive easily ?

I just Bought a MacBook Pro , With Hard Drive (500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rp) .
Is it easy to Change it later to to (Solid State Drive) ?

An SSD is simply going to provide much, much, much faster access than a standard hard disk drive. Your machine has a SATA II controller, meaning that it can have negotiated speeds of up to 6Gbps. You'll get very near that limit with a SSD but you won't be even close with a standard hard drive.
I've had a SSD in my late 2011 15" MBP since about a month after I bought it. I've also increased the RAM to 16GB. My machine flies - and so can yours.
Clinton

1TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive

Hi,
How do I confuger my iMac if I select the "1TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive"?
Thanks.
Ed

Hi Ed,
Your new iMac will come with OSX Lion.
What you want to achieve is to have all your user accounts on the hard drive and your OS and Applications on the SSD.
The way to go about this is to create your User Account/s on the SSD. (Do not migrate your data at this point).
You will need to create a temporary User Account that you can login with, so that you can either replace or create the User Account that you want to migrate from your MacBook Pro.
Now, clone your SSD to the hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!. (Migration Assistant will not migrate data to a HD without a System folder, I believe).
Bootup from the SSD, change the path to your User Account/s in System Preferences>Advanced Options. Reboot and then migrate your User Account, Applications and Settings from your MacBook Pro using Migration Assistant.
That is the configuration I have working on my MacBook Pro with dual drives, an SSD and HD.
Good luck.
Sam

Solid state drive vs a serial ATA drive?

What is the difference between a solid state drive and a Serial ATA drive in the MacBook Pro's? And why would I choose one over the other?

If your going to go SSD you need to go large as you can get, like 750GB or more and it's going to cost plenty.
SSD's are shock resistant as they have no moving parts, should last longer and cause less problems that hard drives, but they can wear out faster than hard drives if your moving around a lot of data.
Drawback to SSD's is you can't securely erase them, and with their "wear leveling" placing your data on the least used cells, you basically have to enable Filevault 2 to encrypt the whole thing all the time to protect your data, this results in a performance loss a bit as your CPU has to encrypt and decrypt everything on the fly before using it.
A skilled person can break the password, or you have to provide it to Apple for repair purposes or Customs officials/law when ordered by the courts. There are devices for iPhones, iPods, iPads and even GPS that can image the whole SSD in mere minutes and gleam the password, apparently in cooperation with these major companies like Apple. So it's safe to assume the newer SSD on the closed boxe MBP-Retina's will also be accessible this way via the Thunderbolt port.
So if you want the option to "scrub" your boot drive, then your going to want to go with a SATA hard drive and not a SSD. Also you want a MBP other than the MacBook Pro-Retina, so that you can open the machine and remove the internal storage for destruction.
How do I securely delete data from the machine?

Delete files from an External Serial ATA Drive

I have an external Serial ATA drive with a windows operating system connected to my macbook pro by a usb adapter. I'm trying to delete some files from the drive but it tells me it is read only. How do I change the sharing and permissions?

You can't write/make changes to an NTFS formatted drive using a Mac without third party software.
Search Google for "Mac NTFS"

Bad Serial ATA Drives?

I've got a Daul 2.5ghz G5 that's really had a lot of problems since I bought it. The graphics card has been replaced, the motherboard has been replaced, and both processors have been replaced.
The other day, I noticed that rendering in Final Cut Pro 5 was just crawling.
Processor intensive tasks seem to go fine, but tasks that involve writing to the disks (both of the 250 serial-ata drives) go very slowly.
Computer is, of course, out of warranty now.
I wipped the computer and started from scratch and reformated both drives, same problem. Disks are not fragmented.
I ran Xbench. All computer tests scored above the 100 point baseline, except the drive tests:
Disk Test 71.27
Sequential 104.09
Uncached Write 109.13 67.00 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 100.96 57.13 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 99.81 29.21 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 107.04 53.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 54.19
Uncached Write 20.81 2.20 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 131.48 42.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 93.06 0.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 134.96 25.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Both drives scored really low on the random uncached write speed. Any ideas on what the problem would be? Could both drives go bad at the same time? Hard drive controller? Is there a way to test it without buying a new drive?
Russ
Dual 2.5ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

What make/model of drives? how old are they?
Hitachi 7K500 might fit the bill. Or 10K Raptor (but probably need SeriTek controller now, a must for the 150GB model and now the 74GB - both are excellent for boot drive). The 500GB 16MB cache Hitachi is also a solid drive.
Disk Utility: Erase: Options: Zero-all is what I would do first.
I try to keep one drive's outer track partition (100GB) just for OS / Apps (and use the 2nd parition for static archive and backups).
Then use Drive #2 for data / media / Users.
Maybe extra (external0 eSATA drives for FCP, scratch, backup and projects.
Some drives, SATA is going through a lot of changes, are trouble, not compatible, have SSC enabled, firmware doesn't support RAID as well as it could/should. NCQ being enabled doesn't help desktop use and isn't supported on G5 SATA ports.
Xbench is not the most 'reliable' test, but those are not normal numbers.
Keep your disk drive in "good health" (run Disk Utility, Disc Warrior etc from a cloned emergency drive regularly to do any repairs) as well as keep log and temp files to a minimum? run cron tasks at least weekly?

Serial ATA Drive Question

Would you reccomend the 120 GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 RPM or the 100 GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 RPM?
Thanks
Max

My startup times are much faster with my 7200 RPM drive. But I would agree with Kappy, decide how much HD space you need.

128gb SSD vs. 320gb serial ATA drive at 5400 rpm

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