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    MacBook Air HD vs. MacBook Air SSD

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by J Untitled, May 6, 2008.

  1. J Untitled

    J Untitled Notebook Consultant

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    Between the regular hard drive Air and the more expensive solid state drive version, is there truly an advantage with one versus the other (i.e. is one faster/more reliable than the other)?
     
    J Untitled, May 6, 2008
    #1
  2. boypogi

    boypogi Man Beast

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    the ssd is faster than the normal hdd. you'll notice it when loading huge files :D
     
    boypogi, May 6, 2008
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  3. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Yeah, but wasn't it really bad at writing? Most SSD's get killed when they actually have to write.
     
    hollownail, May 6, 2008
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  4. Duct Tape Dude

    Duct Tape Dude Duct Tape Dude

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    SSD's are basically better all around, though some people say they wear out a bit faster because of reduced rewriting capabilities, but in reality SSD's...
    -use less power
    -are phyiscally much more durable than a hard drive (and have fewer mechanical failures because of zero moving parts)
    -have faster seek times (<1ms vs 14-19ms)
    -have faster sustained transfer rates (HDD's might outrun them only in bursts)
    -are quieter

    however,
    -they are more expensive
    -have lower (but constant) write speeds
    -you might be kicking yourself soon because the prices for flash memory are dropping (as with all computer parts, but imo memory especially)


    Conclusion: if you can afford the SSD definitely get it.
     
    Duct Tape Dude, May 6, 2008
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  5. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Oh... SSD's can run HOT. Very hot...

    They also don't improve the battery life by much at all. The benchmarks between the MBA's show a 10-15 min battery life increase with the SSD. Other benchmarks with laptops changing to the SSD drives show similar results.

    But again, this technology is far from perfected. I'm betting in a year, we will see some substantial improvements in every aspect.

    Oh... another thing... You don't have to worry about the SSD being damaged due to being moved while writing/reading.
     
    hollownail, May 6, 2008
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  6. someguy00

    someguy00 Notebook Consultant

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    High quality SSD's have faster transfer rates than normal HDDs. However, the SSD used in the MBA is really slow, and does not offer faster data transfer rates than the regular HDD. SSD's are a lot faster at accessing random data though and you'll definitively notice a difference in boot times, or program start times. Also, I think with the SSD you should get up to 30 minutes more battery life.

    Anyway, after reading anand's review (at anandtech.com), I decided that the SSD wasn't worth the extra $1000 and I am now happily using the hdd MBA version.
     
    someguy00, May 6, 2008
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  7. jjahshik32

    jjahshik32 Notebook Deity

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    Ive owned the samsung sata-II 64gb SSD drive put it in my mbp and didnt feel that much of a difference because it lacked cache. But boot time was fast... that's about it.. ran pretty hot as well..
    I think ssd is not just quite there yet.
     
    jjahshik32, May 6, 2008
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  8. J Untitled

    J Untitled Notebook Consultant

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    That seems to be the case at least for the current MacBook Air, yes.
     
    J Untitled, May 6, 2008
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  9. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    15 minutes is a lot when you consider that you only changed one component. we are only dealing with a battery life of a few hours to begin with.

    ssd is not worth the cost at the moment. it is better, but not triple digit dollar better.

    i might consider paying 50% extra (of the hdd cost only, not total laptop cost) for an SSD of equal capacity compared to a normal HDD.
     
    masterchef341, May 6, 2008
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  10. niemassacre

    niemassacre Notebook Evangelist

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    If I remember, from the Ars Technica reviews that were posted with both the HDD and SSD versions of the MBA, the performance increase with the SSD was pretty minute, and the battery life increase was fairly small as well. I certainly don't think it justifies the huge price tag.
     
    niemassacre, May 6, 2008
    #10