• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

MBP and SSD Concerns

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 15304
6
Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE Chrome
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My MBP was on its last leg so I sprung for one of the new MBP's with retina display. I got the 512GB SSD version. I knew before going in that SSD's have a finite life-psan because of write cycles. But I kind of ignored that out of excitement. The machine is really speedy and super quiet. However, now that the initial wow factor has slightly worn off, I'm concerned I made a bad decision going SSD. Yea, I would have lost the retina display, but the regular MBP might have been a smarter move considering all the compiling that occurs.

Anyone else share this concern? Is it a valid concern? Is there any way to possibly determine life-span of an SSD?
 
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I know a bunch of people who have SSDs in their Macs, including my partner who has one in his Air -- haven't heard any complaints so far. Just awe at how fast it is. At least no complaints as of yet.
 
Gregg Bolinger
Ranch Hand
Posts: 15304
6
Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE Chrome
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
How long have they had them and are they compiling code 8 hours a day?
 
Bear Bibeault
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A number of them are developers, one is a video editor. My partner does a lot of Photoshop on lots of little files.
 
Gregg Bolinger
Ranch Hand
Posts: 15304
6
Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE Chrome
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I guess time will tell. I've read some information regarding some firmware tricks that allow them to last longer. Not sure if Apple did anything special or not. These babies haven't been out long enough for there to be reported issues on the interwebs. At the end of the day, with TimeMachine, replacing a bad hard drive is not that big of a deal. I just don't want it to become a common theme.
 
Rancher
Posts: 4803
7
Mac OS X VI Editor Linux
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It used to be an issue, but its really not anymore. SSDs have gotten good, the controllers do wear leveling behind the scenes, etc.

You have to do reasonable stuff, like have more RAM that you can imagine using so you never swap to the SSD, but that's easy.

Realistically, a professional developer, who beats on a system 8 to 10 hours a day, is going to need a new computer in two to three years. Whether you need the SuperRetina++ display, or a new octo-core CPU, or 32GB of ram, whatever, your machine is not likely to really beat on the SSD that much.

For normal users, well, a MBP is overkill, but a three year old MBP is a nice fast machine for them.

We developers, we need MORE POWER!
 
Gregg Bolinger
Ranch Hand
Posts: 15304
6
Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE Chrome
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks Pat. So you're thinking that today's SSDs should last at least until I'll want to replace the computer?
 
author and jackaroo
Posts: 12200
280
Mac IntelliJ IDE Firefox Browser Oracle C++ Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Bear Bibeault wrote: ... Just awe at how fast it is.



I keep hearing this - I should jump on the bandwagon I guess.

Pat Farrell wrote:Realistically, a professional developer, who beats on a system 8 to 10 hours a day, is going to need a new computer in two to three years.



I guess I've been really lucky. My current MacBook Pro is a 2007 model, and it has had the logic board replaced (under warranty) and the battery replaced. Still going strong, despite developing on it just about every day and weekends.
 
Pat Farrell
Rancher
Posts: 4803
7
Mac OS X VI Editor Linux
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Andrew Monkhouse wrote:I guess I've been really lucky. My current MacBook Pro is a 2007 model, and it has had the logic board replaced (under warranty) and the battery replaced.



Luck has nothing to do with it. I don't mean they break, I mean that I need every cycle, every bit of ram, every IO bandwidth. My needs grow faster than Intel can make faster chips. After 3 years, I spend way too much time watching the rotating beachball, and then I need to go spend even more money on the current model.
 
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic