Advice wanted about SSD

Good afternoon, diligent and hard-working editors.

Question: Is there any point to my blowing about $250 on an SSD drive for my Mac?
It's 8 Core, 2x3 Ghz with 8 Megs RAM.

I was thinking of putting my System stuff and FCS and other related Apps like Protools on it. But since FCPX will not apparently require rendering any more, I'm unsure as to whether I will really need the speed boost come June.

I'd be very grateful for opinions. It seems like a cool idea, but maybe I should wait for FCPX to actually appear and open up on my monitor before making a decision.

Ideas please.

All the best,

Harry.

I would recommend the SSDs...worth every penny to me and I plunked down $1100 for the 512 GB SSD upgrade (the largest SSD I have ever heard of) on my new 17" Macbook Pro / 2.3 GHz Quad Core / 4 GB RAM (swapped out for OWC 8 GB RAM kit) / 512 GB SSD / 27" Cinema Screen running off the Thunderbolt port). To be honest with you it is the fastest machine I have ever owned or worked on in my career...period (beats my 8 core / 24 GB RAM at the studio) and the SSD is a huge part of that. The OS boots up in 3 to 5 seconds (from power on to Desktop). Apps load in a quarter of the time they used to. Apple has addressed the "Trim" function to keep performance hopping. The price is the only down side (If you look at the drive sizes on OWC, the 480 GB SSD is almost $1700 so that means the Apple 512 SSD is a real bargain at $1100! OWC has some great SSDs...I recommend everything they have:

[eshop.macsales.com]

Bottom line...if you like speed, you need the SSD. It generates much less heat, no moving parts (the silence is deafening - sounds like the machine is not even running until those render fans kick in), no vibrations. Just be sure look into an app called "TRIM Support Enabler" for non-Apple SSD Drives if you go that route. Without TRIM Support, the drives lose their performance over time. TRIM Support keeps them clean and speedy. I have been told the TRIM Support built into Snow Leopard is only for Apple SSDs...but I could be mistaken.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thanks very much for the response with all the detailed info, Joe.

Harry.

You don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money. I'm planning to get a small one just to have as my boot drive while continuing to store all of my media on a conventional RAID.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

> I'm planning to get a small one just to have as my boot drive

Great idea. That takes advantage of the lightning-fast access and startup without the cost. It's too bad laptops can't take a second internal drive, but we can always go with externals.


www.derekmok.com

If you guys want to know more about SSDs you should follow Lloyd Chambers Mac Performance Guide blogsite: [macperformanceguide.com]



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Cost is relative to what you need the larger SSD drives for...and is justified in my case.

Quote
Jon Chappell
I'm planning to get a small one just to have as my boot drive while continuing to store all of my media on a conventional RAID.

The 512 GB Apple SSD drive is my boot drive and nothing else. I don't use my boot drive as a RAID or for project media ever. It is the center of my world that gets populated with tools, images and files that I use all the time. I have it filled up to 235 GB currently and I am not finished. That's where I keep all apps and media that I use regularly that will stay on the drive (HDRI libraries for C4D / Artbeats libraries / inspirational pieces / template projects / teaching materials / FXPHD classes / etc). My boot drive is the base station for everything I do...and now that I have an SSD, I do it a lot faster and time is $$$

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Obviously that won't work for everyone. It works for my desktop but I'm holding out for SDDs to go down in price for my laptop because I store far more data on the boot drive.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...