SSD for MacBook Pro 4,1

[Draeconis]

Hi all,

I've got a MacBook Pro 4,1 which I currently use as my main machine, but soon it will be replaced with an iMac.

Once I do, this machine will be only for music production/performance, and I was considering getting an Intel SSD for it (from OcUK, of course!), but looking on Wikipedia, I've learnt that the SATA-I connector on my MBP 4,1 is limited to a max speed of around 140Mb/s.

Since the cheapest (and slowest) Intel SSD, the Intel X25-V 40GB drive reads at 170Mb/s, that's already fully saturating the SATA-I connection, so am I right in thinking that buying anything faster than this is relatively pointless? I'm not really concerned about the size of the disk, as Snow Leopard iirc takes up about 7Gb, and my relevant music files only take 15 or so at the moment, so, do I have that right?

 

[theheyes]

In a way, yes, but sustained read speed of 140 mb/s is a lot better than a normal disk so it's still worth it. The write speed of that particular SSD is also pretty crappy, so if you buy a more expensive SSD although your sustained read speed won't be any better your writes have a lot of headroom to improve.

 

[Draeconis]

How much does write speed factor into it though, as predominantly through production and performance I'm reading files more than writing them?

 

[theheyes]

I'm not really au fait with what "production and performance" entails but by normal standards the sustained write speed of that drive is pretty naff. If you're going to be saving any large files (tens of megabytes and above) you'll notice it.

 

[Draeconis]

Ahh, ok, I getcha, might research into it a bit more then, cheers