Purchase dilemma MBA/MBP/SSD

[maflynn]

So I'm between the horns of a dilemma,
newegg has SSDs on sale, and I'm very tempted for it but as I'm ready to plunk down some $$. I'm leaning towards the 13" MBA early next year. My thinking is why spend > 200 today for an SSD that I'll not be able to use in the MBA.

Has anyone else altered their component purchasing decisions because of the MBA?

The prices for SSDs are good, but not great. Great to me would be a dollar per gigabyte. If apple had reduced their MBA's by more then 50 bucks, I'd probably get one now. By waiting until 2011, my company will kick in some $$ to offset the cost of the computer so it makes more economic sense for me to wait but if apple was less stingy, I probably would have folded and bought one now.

 

[lucashungaro]

Since price seems to be a concern, check the discounts for the MBA 13'' today: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_air?mco=MjAxMDMwMjg (basically, you get the 4 GB RAM upgrade "for free")

 

[Hellhammer]

Where would you use the SSD if you bought it now? I wouldn't worry, SSDs keep going down in price all the time

 

[neteng101]

Has anyone else altered their component purchasing decisions because of the MBA?

Ended up not waiting for SSD to throw into a 15" MBP, and just getting the MBA. A part of the MBA "premium" is going towards the cost of bundling the SSDs... go check out the cost of a 240/256GB SSD, they're NOT cheap at all.

I can't help but wonder if the rumors will come true next year - MBPs with SSDs and no superdrive... will it result in the 13" MBP going away because it'd be so close to the 13" MBA at that point? In less than a year, we might see all macbooks using flash storage and probably blade type modules too, so any HDD form factor SSD is going to be useless in a future system.

Btw - the discount is $101 on the 13" MBAs today.

 

[maflynn]

Where would you use the SSD if you bought it now? I wouldn't worry, SSDs keep going down in price all the time

Newegg has some decent prices today. Yeah, I know that they're going down, speeds are increasing but being black friday, my credit card is itching to be used

Ended up not waiting for SSD to throw into a 15" MBP, and just getting the MBA. A part of the MBA "premium" is going towards the cost of bundling the SSDs... go check out the cost of a 240/256GB SSD, they're NOT cheap at all.
...
Btw - the discount is $101 on the 13" MBAs today.

I know, temptation is reigning supreme

 

[neteng101]

The new Toshiba SSDs seems to be a really good match for OSX with the built-in garbage collection... not the fastest SSDs out there, but much improved speed-wise.

 

[pandamonia]

There is more to the SSD than meets the eye.

The Tosh ones are cheap and sold in bulk to apple for one reason and one reason alone.

PRICE. - So steve can buy low and sell to you high

Its ok for the AIR but id be dammed if id ever have one in my MBP

 

[neteng101]

The Tosh ones are cheap and sold in bulk to apple for one reason and one reason alone.

Perhaps you should do your research before you go spouting off without knowing what you're talking about.

The Kingston V+100 drives are the same controller/chips as the Toshiba MBA modules, and is hardly cheap...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=kingston_v+_100-_-20-139-414-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=kingston_v+_100-_-20-139-413-_-Product

The current SSD upgrades for the MBPs are not nearly as good. They are the equal of the older Kingston V+ drives. Here's how they stack up...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4010/kingston-ssdnow-v-plus-100-review/5

The V+100 drives are not cheaper, but more expensive than the Sandforce based drives. May not win in every single category but its hardly an inferior or cheaper product.

 

[miata]

If you are going to buy an SSD for the MPB get aftermarket OWC or OCZ for the best price performance and reliability.

 

[pandamonia]

Perhaps you should do your research before you go spouting off without knowing what you're talking about.

The Kingston V+100 drives are the same controller/chips as the Toshiba MBA modules, and is hardly cheap...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=kingston_v+_100-_-20-139-414-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=kingston_v+_100-_-20-139-413-_-Product

The current SSD upgrades for the MBPs are not nearly as good. They are the equal of the older Kingston V+ drives. Here's how they stack up...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4010/kingston-ssdnow-v-plus-100-review/5

The V+100 drives are not cheaper, but more expensive than the Sandforce based drives. May not win in every single category but its hardly an inferior or cheaper product.

Err apple doesnt pay newegg prices.

you would be surprised how cheaply you can get NAND for when your one of the worlds biggest users of flash memory. the Toshiba controller is cheap compared to a Sandforce controler or intel

The SSD in the Air isnt a performance king but its good enough i suppose considering the rest of the specs.

 

[neteng101]

the Toshiba controller is cheap compared to a Sandforce controler or intel

Can you provide some proof to substantiate your claim?

Of course a bulk buyer can get better prices, but that doesn't mean the Toshiba controller is cheaper... that's just plain economies of scale. And if Apple wanted to they could get those economies of scale/savings from Sandforce or Intel just as easily.

 

[pandamonia]

Can you provide some proof to substantiate your claim?

Of course a bulk buyer can get better prices, but that doesn't mean the Toshiba controller is cheaper... that's just plain economies of scale. And if Apple wanted to they could get those economies of scale/savings from Sandforce or Intel just as easily.

I know its more expensive thats a fact. its been reported on many many many times from various places that the Sandforce controller is a premium controller and they charge much more for it than intel and toshiba and micron etc etc.

i could go into why but its just not worth it.

But before they started clearing the drives through to make way for the new Sandforce controller there was a big price difference

 

[neteng101]

Sandforce controller is a premium controller and they charge much more for it than intel and toshiba and micron etc etc.

Dare I say - people were indeed too gullible and willing to pay up... when they had a performance edge, but like all things, they couldn't keep the advantage forever. I'm personally glad Apple isn't dealing with the likes of a minor league like Sandforce or Indilinx who really don't have the scale needed.

If you look at Sandforce, they don't even provide any toolkit when one was sorely needed to enable some of their controller functionality, and if you saw what the OCZ Toolkit looks like (amateurish beyond belief after months of them promising something and not releasing it for the longest time) you'd wonder how much faith you want to really place in their drives.

Toshiba and Samsung have the scale needed, and while Intel does, unfortunately their controllers seem to need to reserve way too much space so they haven't as yet been able to match in terms of size so much for their mainstream drives. The C300 has Micron behind it so there is silicon expertise, but the early versions were saddled with firmware trouble. And the Intel G2 is known to slow down over time with OSX.

Apple is doing the right thing and Toshiba has constantly improved their SSD performance to a point now where the average person won't be able to tell a difference in a blind test. Samsung seems to be on the same path too, the C300 is much more stable now, and Intel G3s could be really interesting. You can keep your Sandforce "premium" crap off my Macs.