But I already own an iPad and with the MB Pro having a quicker drive would potentially decrease music pauses/skips while multitasking

You missed the point. Let me try this. You could buy 12 more Music Matters 45's. The amount of time you will be using the MBP to listen to music you can deal with a pause here and there, if it happens at all.

You missed the point. Let me try this. You could buy 12 more Music Matters 45's. The amount of time you will be using the MBP to listen to music you can deal with a pause here and there, if it happens at all.

^This is the truth. Heed him.

@JP, why not just max out the RAM? I would imagine that would have more to do with skips/pauses whilst multitasking than a SSD, though SSDs are fantastic things. That machine should have 4GB, but max at 8, no?

**BRENT**

I would never give up the iPad for the MBA.

Same here.

You may be right about this. However, I may give up my thought of a MBA purchase for this:

The Beatles announcement today was lame.

I can't believe that I just witnessed Mike talking someone out of a hardware purchase.

That said, the SSD for nums might have other benefits like better battery life but that's hard to say for sure. I know I'd have an awfully hard time justifying dropping a $600 drive in any of my computers. I'm still waiting for prices to come down further.

@JP, why not just max out the RAM? I would imagine that would have more to do with skips/pauses whilst multitasking than a SSD, though SSDs are fantastic things. That machine should have 4GB, but max at 8, no?

Depends on the OS -- don't bother with 8 unless you're using a 64-bit OS.

Also, quit multi-tasking? You don't need to watch porn and listen to music at the same time.

And/or reinstall? Might be a lot of crap in the background that you're not using.

oh my, yes. somethings will be creepily fast. other things will just be nicely instantaneous. the rest will just be really fast.

Ok, sold. 64GB for $134.99. I already have a 500GB external drive for my backups and big file storage.

Better be fast. Jimmy John's commercial fast. I expect time dilation.

Hey, I was just looking a little closer ... this thing won't fit in my laptop, will it? Dammit!

Or will it? It's 2.5" SATA, but it looks different. Anyone know?

I can't believe that I just witnessed Mike talking someone out of a hardware purchase.

I think you would be surprised how many times we have talked each other off the ledge.

it'll be fine. i've dropped that same model into a MacBook Pro.

Cool, thanks! The casing looks different - I can't see the mounting holes, plus it was not listed under 'laptop hard drives' like the others were.

I had a phone conference with Jp and he explained his intentions for the SSD. While I still think it's a bit nuts I do get it. He is replacing his MacMini with the MBP so he believes and has been told by a distinguished member of our community that the SSD will make a difference running various programs including Amarra. He will also take about 50 GB of his most listened to music and put and play through Amarra from the SSD in his home system. I'm not sure I would do this but it does make sense. So, reluctantly, I change from a, are you nuts to a weak buy.

I'm in the nuts camp still. The benefit would have the access time to Amarra, not to the music files themselves. In that case, I think the Momentus XT would be an equal choice:

I could easily be convinced to be in the nuts category again (some might say I'm already in that category) as I was relying on what I was told by Jp and I do not have the technical expertise to dispute his statements.

I would use a SSD only as a boot/most used programs drive or in case you have a strong need for something rugged with no moving parts. I love my SSD boot drive in my desktop ($120 for 60GB vertex agility in April), screaming fast on boot and opening programs. Practically instant loading of software. If I used a laptop as my main tech now, I would probably settle on a 60-120GB SSD and have a 640GB portable drive for storage OTG and dual bay external drive with 2x 2TB drives for storage and backup at home. SSD are the biggest upgrade in speed the average user will be able to get for the price by a good amount. Many laptops are dual bay these days as well.

With the price of 2TB drives these days, its possible to spend around $200 after rebate for a decent 60GB SSD and 2TB of external storage. Not bad compared to the $100 increments Apple usually charges to add 16 or 32GB of solid state storage to many of their popular products. I thought most Mac users have been led to believe cloud storage is the future for portability anyway (I would agree).

If I used a laptop as my main tech now, I would probably settle on a 60-120GB SSD and have a 640GB portable drive for storage OTG and dual bay external drive with 2x 2TB drives for storage and backup at home. {snip}

With the price of 2TB drives these days, its possible to spend around $200 after rebate for a decent 60GB SSD and 2TB of external storage. I thought most Mac users have been led to believe cloud storage is the future for portability anyway (I would agree).

This is exactly my plan for my wife and me. The missing piece now is the the big external storage/backup at home. How do you like to set that part up? RAID? What Tier/level RAID makes the most sense for a routine home user? Or just a big external HD attached to a basic NAS system?

drobo.

Definitely like mine, but will warn that they can be a bit noisy.

This is exactly my plan for my wife and me. The missing piece now is the the big external storage/backup at home. How do you like to set that part up? RAID? What Tier/level RAID makes the most sense for a routine home user? Or just a big external HD attached to a basic NAS system?

I use backup software like Norton Ghost to backup now and again. A big external drive hooked up to a NAS makes the most sense to me.

I have a Rosewill dual bay external enclosure that can raid the two drive into big mode (one large drive) or mirror I believe. I have it mount the two drives separately without RAID currently to have the best compatibility, custom backups, and in case one were to fail. Connected via eSATA, no worries about loss of speed really then if they were internal drives. RAID 5 doesn't make sense anymore with 2TB disks from my reading on failure rates, so I just keep a drive as a remote backup since I only have used about 3TB of data total really these days, expanding storage as I need it.

You may want to do RAID 1 for backup purposes in case a drive fails on the storage/backup and set your computers to regularly backup to it at some interval. DROBO is a pretty nice all in one solution, can be a bit pricey though for an eSATA version I bet.

Sorry for the OT.

...He is replacing his MacMini with the MBP so he believes and has been told by a distinguished member of our community that the SSD will make a difference running various programs including Amarra.

Yeah, if it's going to be a music server, then by all means, put an SSD in it. It's too bad you can't put an SSD front-end and still have a hard drive, so that the SSD is doing all the "heavy lifting", as it were. SSD + external hard drive? Strikes me as kludgy if he has to move files every time he wants to listen to something different.

Not being familiar with amarra or itunes, I guess files have to be in a certain directory for playback? Maybe a 32gb SD card or thumb drive would be less cludgy then portable external for storage while

on the go?

sent via Droid X

Yeah, if it's going to be a music server, then by all means, put an SSD in it. It's too bad you can't put an SSD front-end and still have a hard drive, so that the SSD is doing all the "heavy lifting", as it were. SSD + external hard drive? Strikes me as kludgy if he has to move files every time he wants to listen to something different.

Isn't there a SSD + Platter HDD hybrid? Problem is I'm pretty sure it doesn't come in the 2.5" form factor. Actually... it looks like luvdunhill suggested it already (seagate momentus xt).

Isn't there a SSD + Platter HDD hybrid? Problem is I'm pretty sure it doesn't come in the 2.5" form factor. Actually... it looks like luvdunhill suggested it already (seagate momentus xt).

Indeed it's a 2.5" drive. I have 3 of them. Alas, people ignore me in this thread I'm not enough of an enabler. I did play with an AppleTV today, and I want one.

drobo.

I was looking into those when I saw morphsci sell his old one to postjack. That postjack is too quick for me! They do seem a bit pricey brand new, but they seem to resolve all my needs at once. I'll look into that vs NAS or RAID1.

I do like the idea of having each of our laptops backed up automatically when we're on the network via wifi and also having online access to it via the 'net.

I was looking into those when I saw morphsci sell his old one to postjack. That postjack is too quick for me! They do seem a bit pricey brand new, but they seem to resolve all my needs at once. I'll look into that vs NAS or RAID1.

I do like the idea of having each of our laptops backed up automatically when we're on the network via wifi and also having online access to it via the 'net.

For online access to hdds, perhaps this: Pogoplug Pro enables remote access to four USB hard drives, adds inbuilt WiFi -- Engadget should be a consideration.