Anyone used an SSD?

[kirbyds80]

Hello to all,
I'm in the market for a Mac Mini, and I was wondering has anyone used an SSD in their computer, be it a Mac or PC? What is the performance gain when using an SSD? I've read that an SSD will provide near instant boot up, and shut down time, and instant application load. And for about $85 I can get a 60GB SSD from OWC that will fit in the Mac Mini.
So do you like your SSD, and would you recommend one?
-Jay

 

[s31463221]

Jay

My laptop I'm using right now has an SSD installed in it and I must say I am absolutely ruined by it! This laptop is a Core i5 with 4 GB RAM and an SSD drive in it. It will absolutely smoke my laptop at home which is a Core i7, 8 GB RAM and a 1 TB regular HD. I used to work in the IT department here at the bank and I am not joking, we took old laptops that would have normally went into the retirement pile, upgraded the RAM and installed Intel SSD drives in them, and to the best of my knowledge, they are still in production going strong and out performing their newer counterparts that have regular drives. Yes, an SSD is a GREAT investment, especially if you're looking to breathe new life into an older computer. I have no experience with Mac products, but on PC based machines, it really does make a BIG difference. I don't remember exact times, but we tested boot-up times with the SSD and without, all other things being equal and while it wasn't like push the button and there it is, it wasn't too far behind that, while the old hard drive took what seemed forever to boot up!

 

[kirbyds80]

I'm sold

On SSD's, I think one would really make an old Core Solo, or Core Duo Mac Mini, even an early 2006 MacBook scream! I've read and read about SSD's and I've even seen the big performance gain that a normal HDD just can't touch. I do believe SSD's are going to put the old HDD out to pasture, because they do things way faster then a standard spinning hard drive can, I mean you have to basically wait for the drive to spin up, while SSD is just instant responsiveness.
OWC you've just gained a new customer.
-Jay

 

[jfalberti]

Be careful Jayson

While the performance of SSD is impressive, their failure rate is less so.  From what I've read, they are a relatively new technology and don't hold up nearly as well as standard HDD, and unlike a regular HDD,  failure is almost always catastrophic.  This means that you don't get much warning that the drive is having problems,  and unless you back up often, are apt to lose everything when they fail.  A lot of people are using SSDs to store OS and program files and standard HDD to store data, media, and pictures/videos and other data that would be irreplaceable in the event of a disk failure.

 

[kirbyds80]

SSD and failures

Thanks Joe,
I do realize that the SSD is a new kind of technology, and I do realize that I would lose everything on it should a failure occur. However I wouldn't be storing a whole lot on it except the main OS and some programs which can be downloaded such as Skype. In terms of storage I woudld most likely be using my Mini's old hard drive as an external drive to back things up.
-Jay

 

[kirbyds80]

I was thinking

After I get my Mini, I was going to throw an OWC SSD in it and put Lion on it just to have the iCloud functionality and the other features although this machine could run Mountain Lion, I don't care for Notifications, or Reminders, or anything like that sort of stuff. I feel that I don't need reminders sent to both my Mac and my iPhone.
-Jay

 

[jfalberti]

You don't have

to turn reminders on.  I run Mountain Lion and didn't turn reminders on.  Also, you should upgrade to Mountain Lion if your Mac Mini will support it.  In a couple of months, the new version of OS X will be out, and Apple will drop support for Lion.  That means no more updates or security fixes since Apple only supports the current version and one level back at any given time.  Only exception was when those Java based viruses were discovered last year, they patched Snow Leopard, even though it was officially unsupported.  Even then, the fix for Snow Leopard was to disable Java if it was installed, and not a true patch.

 

[kirbyds80]

So

Just throw ML on their and use like like Lion. How do I tun off/on reminders, and notifications?
-Jay

 

[jfalberti]

Here is a link

With the instructions to turn off notification center in ML.

Joe.

http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_disable_notification_center_mountain_lion

 

[kirbyds80]

To Permanently

Turn off Notification Center you use a terminal command.
-Jay