Rev A SSD (1.8GHz) vs HDD (1.6Ghz)

[h1d]

I just got a second Macbook Air that is Rev A SSD (instead of Rev B... But at least screen is flawless...) And since I still have HDD Rev A at hand as well, if anyone is interested in asking me to do some kind of benchmark one wants to try, now is the time. (I usually don't do much of these stuff, so tell me exactly how I can do it.)

I wouldn't be holding the HDD in about 5 days, so, I can only do it in those days.
So far I like the app icon only bounce once for most of the app's initial launch.

 

[NC MacGuy]

I think the rev. A's have already been tested, compared and posted in Feb-April of this year. Now if you had a Rev. B HDD, that'd be a horse of a different color.

 

[gsampson85]

I have an 1.8 rev a 80gb hdd, and like to compare it with the 1.8 64ssd

 

[h1d]

Well, yeah, if all your demands are fixed by other articles and whatnot, that's cool, but I'm open for any personal benchmarks for the next 3 days or so if anyone wants it.

And no, I'm not buying 2 Rev Bs

gsampson what do you want to compare about them?

 

[6SSD4]

Can you please compare them to eachother and tell me the difference in speed while web-browsing? Also can you check out it's capability to watch videos at surfthechannel.com? I would appreciate that as I'm about to buy a Macbook Air. Are you happy with the overall preformence?

 

[h1d]

Well, a bit more precise request would be nicer for me to give you anything accurate though.

But if you want my general idea, the browsing is almost just about same, and it's because,

- CPU is almost same, doesn't make any difference to make you feel it's faster. (On some benchmark, 3:40 mp3 encoding may become 3:15 or something but that's about the best difference it can make on a CPU intenstive job.)

- The amount of data per page isn't big enough to make much difference between SSD/HDD. (And because pages are cached in memory while browsing, it makes less difference.)

And what am I supposed to do in 'surfthechannel.com'? I couldn't really find what to do there. If you mean about general flash video playback, then HDD was just fine. I watched some HD (some 1080px width) flash at youtube on HDD version and it played fine at around over 150% CPU usage but it was smooth.

The chance that SSD/HDD makes difference is when an operation does alot of random reads, (writes are about same) like OS boot up, application boot up and maybe data transfer against other faster HDD. And general responsiveness against random moments when disk IO gets heavier.

The really big improvements I cannot miss to feel were the OS boot up time and application boot up time. I installed Windows on bootcamp and I almost wow'ed at the speed Windows boot up. And hopefully I see less beachballs as I keep using it waiting for disk IO. It boot up faster than my expectation I thought it crashed during the boot when the boot animation disappeared so quickly...

I haven't tried enough of each applications I use to see how they differ, but general rule is, if it uses alot of disk activity, you can see much improvements.

And then there's no need for disk defragmentation (if I read things properly on other sources) as SSD doesn't have to 'seek' for data as HDD does with it's head. And of course the total silence when doing disk operation is a nice plus too. Without the fan moving, the biggest noise source was the bird outside.

So far I like the $300 difference I paid for slightly better CPU and much better disk read performance (where it matters).

 

[6SSD4]

Thank you. I think that answered all my question. Atleast close to it.
I do web browsing, and I watch tv series at surfthechannel.com. That litteraly all I do on my computer. I think i've watched every single MBA review on youtube + read every review I could find on google. I know the 120GB HDD isn't released yet, but I think I will be buying the 64SSD shortly without looking at the 120HDD. Nice Christmas present for me then
Now I just pray it's as fast as I want it to be. If it loads Safari within three seconds and i can change between sites in 2-3 seconds i'll be amazed. As I ruined my laptop yesterday, I'm using my mother's which boots in only 3 minutes and 30 seconds! It loads internet explorer in 12 seconds and word in 40. So, I look forward for chrismas eve!