SSD on the budget

[thefollower]

Hi!
I am going to upgrade my 2010 i5 15" Macbook Pro, my budget is £80, I have never used SSD previously, and I mainly use my machine for Graphic Design, software such as InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, DreamWeaver, Flash etc, I don't really play games (I may do once in a while, but it isn't that important to me), also surfing the web, streaming movies etc, I am currently awaiting delivery of my RAM (it will be 8GB from now on).

I did some research and by the look of it Samsung 840 EVO 120GB seems to be the best according to benchmarks, however do I need "the best" SSD to the stuff I will use it for? Will I even see the difference? The less money I'll spend on it the better. I was thinking about getting 64GB SSD for startup disk (OS X, Adobe software etc) while keeping my 5400 HDD 500GB instead of DVD drive.

In general, what will be the best option for me in your opinion, getting 120GB SSD for everything and keeping DVD drive (I sometimes use it for watching movies or burning CDs for my university submissions) or getting rid of opti drive, placing my current HDD in there, and getting smaller (64GB) SSD and saving money? Will there be any significant difference in performance depending on if Ill use SSD only for MBP (in this case new M500 240GB costs about £80) , or use 64GB SSD + 500GB HDD? (in this case I was considering Samsung 830 64GB). I was told to go with brand new SSD due to warranty and apparently second hand ones won't perform as good and might have some issues (don't know if its true tho). As I mentioned before, the less money I will have to spend the better, however I would like to have the best value for money I am capable of spending (£80)

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[mickypheonix]

Hi Thefollower,
no you do not need to go with the samsung , if you want affordabillity and fast read write speeds look at some of the Mushkin Chronos range of ssd's
with read/write speeds above 500mbs they are hard to beat for price
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MUSHKIN-MKNSSDCR120GB-120GB-Chronos-Drive/dp/B005CGFU4I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398513205&sr=8-1&keywords=mushkin+chronos

 

[13thmonkey]

you need to understand what apple allows you to use as an SSD, and do you have a new enough version of the OS to use on (trim enabled).

 

[thefollower]

Thanks for reply guys, yes I have newest Mavericks OS, where can I find what SSD is allowed to use on my mbp?

EDIT:

I have SATA II in my mac, but still can get SATA III SSD as I suppose,

how about OCZ Vertex Plus Optimized Edition 120GB SSD SATA II new for £50? If I have SATA II in my MBP it means even if I get SATA III SSD I will only get SATA II out of it right?

 

[13thmonkey]

http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?nord=1#nord=1&q=what+ssds+are+compatible+with+macbook+pro

 

[13thmonkey]

and yes you can use a sata 3 drive on a sata 2 port

 

[thefollower]

yeah so after I have checked what I am allow to use, I wonder between Samsung 840 Evo 120GB for £75 or Crucial M500 240GB for £85 or Mushkin Chronos 120GB for £61 while still keeping my DVD drive and converting 500GB HDD to external HDD or Samsung 830 64GB for about £30 + 500GB HDD without DVD drive, any advice?
Thanks in advance

 

[mickypheonix]

ultimately it depends on how much you want to save , the samsung is the best of all three , then the crucial , then the mushkin.
It is up to your personal preferance , all three are good ssd's and all will be throttled down to sata 2 speeds anyway so probably the cheapest option would be best
also depends on size of ssd you require as to price aswell

 

[Y0GI]

yeah so after I have checked what I am allow to use, I wonder between Samsung 840 Evo 120GB for £75 or Crucial M500 240GB for £85 or Mushkin Chronos 120GB for £61 while still keeping my DVD drive and converting 500GB HDD to external HDD or Samsung 830 64GB for about £30 + 500GB HDD without DVD drive, any advice?
Thanks in advance

1) I'm a big fan of Samsung, but in this case, I would opt for the larger capacity of the Crucial.

2) Don't convert the HDD to external. It will be too slow and you need it for your photo editing, graphic design, etc.

3) Put your DVD drive in an external caddy.

Yogi

 

[thefollower]

Thanks for info, I think I will get rid of my DVD drive, and go with SSD + HDD option, so now I am stuck between M500 240GB and Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, found them even cheaper now, M500 240GB for £79 and 840 Evo 120GB for £60, is Evo really that much faster comparing to M500? Because for additional £19 I would have twice its size if Ill go with Crucial, I also don't think I need that much storage (maybe I'm wrong tho) because at the moment I only used 130GB of my 500GB HDD. So, considering that both of these SSDs are SATA III but I will be using them as SATA II will there be "visible" difference in speed? Because if so, maybe I should go with EVO and safe £19 for something else. Also Samsung 840 Series PRO 128GB costs £80, so basically the same price as 240GB Crucial M500

Thanks!

 

[13thmonkey]

if the choice is between a 240 and 120 at similar prices, i'd go 240, the performance difference will be unnoticable in day to day life, only in benchmarking.

 

[mickypheonix]

the samsung evo 120gb has read speads up to 540mbs and write at 410mbs
the crucial m500 has read speads up to 500mbs and write up to 250mbs
The mushkin chronos has read speed up to 550mbs and write up to 515mbs

hope that helps