solid state or disc spining heardrive on mac pro

creativedrinker

Hey,

im thinking on getting a 13" mac pro for college and i was wondering for the extra 248 euro is it worth getting a 128gb solid state drive or get the 320 gb disc hard drive, Is there any major benefits, i know there is a speed increase but are there ant others.

Im Thinking on getting it with the 2.66 ghz processor and its a toss up between bumping up the ram to 8gb but that may be more than ill ever use or the solid state drive...

Thanks

maccored

apparently solid state drives are more reliable, low power use and have a high performance

kmick

Personally I'd get a bigger screen.

Dublin_Gunner

creativedrinker wrote: »

Hey,

im thinking on getting a 13" mac pro for college and i was wondering for the extra 248 euro is it worth getting a 128gb solid state drive or get the 320 gb disc hard drive, Is there any major benefits, i know there is a speed increase but are there ant others.

Im Thinking on getting it with the 2.66 ghz processor and its a toss up between bumping up the ram to 8gb but that may be more than ill ever use or the solid state drive...

Thanks

You'll need the space more, go for the HDD.

You will barely notice any difference with the SSD.

Are you studying anything in particular that requires a Mac Pro? TBH the idea of a note-book type Mac Pro is a bit of an oxymoron. You pay way over the odds for something that's little different to a Mac Book, apart form the gfx card really, but you only have a tiny screen to utilise it.

If you don't really need the Mac OS for anything, consider getting a more powerful PC based laptop, with at least a 17" screen.

The storage really should be the least of your worries.

creativedrinker

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

You'll need the space more, go for the HDD.

You will barely notice any difference with the SSD.

Are you studying anything in particular that requires a Mac Pro? TBH the idea of a note-book type Mac Pro is a bit of an oxymoron. You pay way over the odds for something that's little different to a Mac Book, apart form the gfx card really, but you only have a tiny screen to utilise it.

If you don't really need the Mac OS for anything, consider getting a more powerful PC based laptop, with at least a 17" screen.

The storage really should be the least of your worries.

The main reason im going fo the macbook pro over the mac book is basically the look.. i know its stupid but with student discount the basemodel works out just over 1000.. and the reason im thinking mac over pc is basically i got a mac mini at the start of the summer and it so much quicker than a pc...i just really dislike windows opperating system now..

Dublin_Gunner

creativedrinker wrote: »

The main reason im going fo the macbook pro over the mac book is basically the look.. i know its stupid but with student discount the basemodel works out just over 1000.. and the reason im thinking mac over pc is basically i got a mac mini at the start of the summer and it so much quicker than a pc...i just really dislike windows opperating system now..

Well I use both for work, and 8 core Mac Pro, and a PC. There is little or no difference in speed, that is a myth.

Win 7 is excellent, as is OSX Leopard / Snow Leopard. (I'd say I have more problems with my OSX Mac Pro than I do with my Win 7 based PC - which in fact I find much faster in Photoshop / InDesign / Premiere / After effects)

Go with a PC based lappy if you wish your machine to be more configurable, go with a Mac if your software depends on it.

I certainly wouldn't be wasting money on a tiny laptop for 'the look'.

Both Macs and PC's essentially use the same hardware inside, so the main difference is price and operating system.

If its a case you're going to be working mainly on macs in college, get a macbook. If you're going to be using PC's, and PC based software, get a PC based laptop.

Trust me, trying to use PC based software on a Mac (even Mac versions of the likes of Office) is a PITA.

What are you studying?

creativedrinker

im doing engineering, theres nothing mac software related in the course.. Im thinking down the line of trying to learn to dj somewhere down the line too so thought it would be a good platform for it...

The main thing that i have against windows is the potential for virus's and the mac's have a very good batterylife

Dublin_Gunner

creativedrinker wrote: »

im doing engineering, theres nothing mac software related in the course.. Im thinking down the line of trying to learn to dj somewhere down the line too so thought it would be a good platform for it...

The main thing that i have against windows is the potential for virus's and the mac's have a very good batterylife

Macs have no better battery life than PC based laptops. And the chargers are dodgy (well, I hate the magnetic thingy).

You're doing engineering??????? Well then why you're even remotely considering a Mac I don't know. Nearly ALL engineering software will be PC only based.

So if you need to get your hands on student versions to do projects etc etc they are not going to work on your shiny €1k Mac Pro

Even DJing, there's a LOT more available for the PC than a Mac. Sure, there's some good recording software on a Mac, and some great studio / sequencers for the mac, but there's a lot for the PC.

From what I can see, you would benefit a LOT more from getting a PC based laptop.

Ultimately, the decision is yours, but buying a Mac when you're going to be living in PC land for at least the next 4 years would be a catastrophe.

creativedrinker

u have a very good point there... Ill look into a pc laptop and weight up the specs and what ill be using it for...

Originally i thought of buying a ipad as i thought it would be handy for taking notes with pages, because my notes are all over the place on sheets, but im not sure how it works transferring them to your computer after.. plus 500 quid for 16gbs is a bit steep...

Thanks for the help!!

Dublin_Gunner

creativedrinker wrote: »

u have a very good point there... Ill look into a pc laptop and weight up the specs and what ill be using it for...

Originally i thought of buying a ipad as i thought it would be handy for taking notes with pages, because my notes are all over the place on sheets, but im not sure how it works transferring them to your computer after.. plus 500 quid for 16gbs is a bit steep...

Thanks for the help!!

Obviously just my opinion - but I wouldn't touch an iPad with a barge poll. There are better and cheaper pads on the market, that aren't restricted as much.

Get a PC laptop, even a decent spec Dell you'll get for around €700, and will serve you far better for what you're doing than the Mac.

iPad, for college???!!!!! And you an engineering student - tut tut tut!!!

creativedrinker

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

iPad, for college???!!!!! And you an engineering student - tut tut tut!!!

At least ill get good at physics with angry birds

Ill have a look at some dell laptops.. and some sony ones.. ill do my homework on it, thanks a mill for the help!!

Stainless_Steel

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Obviously just my opinion - but I wouldn't touch an iPad with a barge poll. There are better and cheaper pads on the market, that aren't restricted as much.

Get a PC laptop, even a decent spec Dell you'll get for around €700, and will serve you far better for what you're doing than the Mac.

iPad, for college???!!!!! And you an engineering student - tut tut tut!!!

I am miffed how you use Macs and PC's and still recommend a Windows Dell laptop over a Macbook Pro. Side by side my 3 year old macbook would leave a 3 year old Dell sitting.

Creativedrinker - I am an engineer....all the software I use is indeed PC based - my advice - get a Macbook so you CANT take your work/study home with you.

creativedrinker

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Creativedrinker - I am an engineer....all the software I use is indeed PC based - my advice - get a Macbook so you CANT take your work/study home with you.

HAHA very good point!!!!

Elessar

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

You will barely notice any difference with the SSD.

Eh?! Have to stop you there! :eek:

An SSD will make the biggest difference to a computer than any other component. As CPU and GPU speeds increase and every other part of a mac and PC improves the old mechanical HDD is stuck in the dark ages and has been for years. The biggest bottleneck in any modern machine is the HDD.

OP, I would strongly advice the purchase of a SSD over anything else. You will not believe the difference in the speed and responsiveness of your machine whether it's a mac or a windows laptop. Boot times are lightning quick, programs open instantly, your machine never slows. I put an OCZ Vertex SSD into my macbook pro and it is a different machine. Completely silent for one. And I don't suffer anymore due to intensive I/O operations like unraring and unpacking large files from usenet like I used to. On the stock HDD the entire machine slowed to a crawl. With the SSD it's 10x faster and it doesn't affect the laptop at all! It's unbelievably snappy in everything.

Believe me when I say SSDs are the future. Once the price per GB starts to come in line with regular HDDs you will see those mechanical relics cast back to the stone age where they belong.

One word of advice though, don't buy Apple's SSDs. They are far too expensive and inferior. Get yourself an OCZ drive with a sandforce or indilinx controller.

creativedrinker

Elessar wrote: »

One word of advice though, don't buy Apple's SSDs. They are far too expensive and inferior. Get yourself an OCZ drive with a sandforce or indilinx controller.

I have one question about swapping hardrives, if i go out and but a mac book and a ssd separately, when i go to swap hardrives is it just the boot up discs that i would need??

i know its simple to swap i just always wondered do you swap the data between drives first or just reload osx when its swapped

Elessar

creativedrinker wrote: »

I have one question about swapping hardrives, if i go out and but a mac book and a ssd separately, when i go to swap hardrives is it just the boot up discs that i would need??

i know its simple to swap i just always wondered do you swap the data between drives first or just reload osx when its swapped

Just the boot discs. If you had files on the HDD you could create a Time Machine backup and restore that back onto the SSD but otherwise all you need are the boot discs.

creativedrinker

Elessar wrote: »

Just the boot discs. If you had files on the HDD you could create a Time Machine backup and restore that back onto the SSD but otherwise all you need are the boot discs.

Ah right cool, i might lookinto that when i decide on a laptop or macbook as would save alot of money, Thanks!!

drunkmonkey

creativedrinker wrote: »

I have one question about swapping hardrives, if i go out and but a mac book and a ssd separately, when i go to swap hardrives is it just the boot up discs that i would need??

i know its simple to swap i just always wondered do you swap the data between drives first or just reload osx when its swapped

get a new drive and a hard drive caddy to fit it, update your mac with all available updates and then clone your drive using super duper and then swap the drives, it's that simple.
I recently upgraded my 13'mbp to a 1TB WD drive, very easy and I noticed no difference in speed or heat etc. Cost me 130 including the hard drive caddy. It's an easy diy job, just make sure to discharge any static from yourself.

creativedrinker

@ Drunkmonkey - how do you find the screen size on the 13' mac book??

drunkmonkey

creativedrinker wrote: »

@ Drunkmonkey - how do you find the screen size on the 13' mac book??

Perfect for a laptop, you won't notice the size difference. If you were doing a lot of graphics work a bigger screen would be essential but for the odd bit of photo shop etc it's 100%

creativedrinker

I ended up getting the iPad, have been using it in college the last two days and it's brilliant for taking notes on pages

Thanks for the help and replies

Now to start fill in it up with apps

Sad Professor

creativedrinker wrote: »

I ended up getting the iPad, have been using it in college the last two days and it's brilliant for taking notes on pages.

Do you use the keyboard add-on?

creativedrinker

I use the touch keyboard, when it's on it's side it's roughly about the size of a normal Mac wireless keyboard and I find it brilliant, You can also use a Bluetooth keyboard with it but I haven't brought that to college incase it gets damaged in my bag..

I'm typing off the iPad at the moment

James Collingwell

Well, first of all you can get a 120GB disk for around 156 EUR in Ireland today. Try OWC, they have a great reputation with Apple computers. Also, as commented by other members, the slowest component on any computer today is the Hard Drive, so upgrading to an SSD will immediately boost performance. RAM or better processor will only partially do the job, you money is best invested into a Solid State Drive.

There are a few vendors of good SSDs in Ireland and a couple sell OWC and even the newer SATA III SSDs.

Hope this helps,

James

creativedrinker wrote: »

Hey,

im thinking on getting a 13" mac pro for college and i was wondering for the extra 248 euro is it worth getting a 128gb solid state drive or get the 320 gb disc hard drive, Is there any major benefits, i know there is a speed increase but are there ant others.

Im Thinking on getting it with the 2.66 ghz processor and its a toss up between bumping up the ram to 8gb but that may be more than ill ever use or the solid state drive...

Thanks

holystungun9

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Macs have no better battery life than PC based laptops. And the chargers are dodgy (well, I hate the magnetic thingy).

You're doing engineering??????? Well then why you're even remotely considering a Mac I don't know. Nearly ALL engineering software will be PC only based.

So if you need to get your hands on student versions to do projects etc etc they are not going to work on your shiny €1k Mac Pro

Even DJing, there's a LOT more available for the PC than a Mac. Sure, there's some good recording software on a Mac, and some great studio / sequencers for the mac, but there's a lot for the PC.

From what I can see, you would benefit a LOT more from getting a PC based laptop.

Ultimately, the decision is yours, but buying a Mac when you're going to be living in PC land for at least the next 4 years would be a catastrophe.

If, like you say, it is DJing and not production you are interesting in pursuing, then the mac is a good choice. (of course PC will do the jog too). I presume someone who is taking time to seek out the best notebook for themselves and is willing to spend money on it, will then do the same as regards DJ software. When you come to do this you will be making your choice between Serato and Traktor. These are available for Mac and pc but if you do some research you will find that the majority are happier running them on Mac. (search the forums for both sets of software, even look at youtube and see what the majority are running this stuff on).
Even just glancing at the Traktor manual, the install instructions for Mac is one page, for PC it is three pages. Just wanted to address the DJ issue alone. That's my side and i know there will always be a debate and it is down to what suits you, what's best for your overall set of requirements. (the bigger picture)
Maybe the PC is the best fit at the moment for college and of course the DJ software is available for PC too. Or in time you could run a dedicated mac for music if you wanted and if it suited.

darragh o meara

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Creativedrinker - I am an engineer....all the software I use is indeed PC based - my advice - get a Macbook so you CANT take your work/study home with you.

parrallels or bootcamp can sort that fairly quick I'm running auto cad inventor and siemens solid edge with no probs on both mbp and iMac using parallels. But to be fair I'm sure them programs would run a slight bit better if they had full access to system resources and not share with a system running 2 operating systems in the background. The 13" screen is a bit small for drawing packages but is still functional.

As for dj'ing I've been using a mac for the past two years running Traktor and in comparison to the previous 7 years using all models of very expensive windows based laptops, mac wins hands down. The windows based systems slowed down with time and gave the odd crash every so often. In two years of dj'ing with a mac 3-4 nights a weekend it hasn't once slowed or crashed. The software seems a lot more stable running on mac too, as said earlier have a look at what all the top djs are using and you'll be hard pressed to find a windows system.