Best SSD for our ProBook's 4530s?

[TheEnthusiast]

Appleiscool, I'm not sure what you're doing on your end to have 40 second boot times. I have a standard HDD and my boot time is nowhere close to 40 seconds for any of my operating systems. Though, I should state that I have very few things installed.

 

[RehabMan]

Appleiscool, I'm not sure what you're doing on your end to have 40 second boot times. I have a standard HDD and my boot time is nowhere close to 40 seconds for any of my operating systems. Though, I should state that I have very few things installed.

I would agree. It has been a while since I booted OS X (or any OS, for that matter) off HDD, but from what I remember boot times were around 25-30 sec for OS X. Like I said though, it depends on whether you have the optical drive hooked up or not...

 

[Joyfult]

I can't 100% confirm because I don't own one. But I have used three different SATA III SSDs with my ProBook and never had an issue. And yes, both SATA ports on the ProBook are SATA III.

RM, What about the SSD life? I mean, it "live" like an HDD or it "die" before?

Thanks!

 

[appleiscool]

The one linked above is a 7mm unit.



A properly installed Win7/Win8 boots almost as fast on SSD as OSX or Linux. Most Win7/Win8 installs are full of junk, of course...

I find Windows and even OS X/Linux spend quite a bit of time waiting for the optical drive to initialize (maybe 5-8 seconds). Of course, I don't have optical drives connected anymore on my desktop or laptop...

I'm not a fan of hybrid drives. If you can afford a capacity that satisfies your needs, go SSD and don't even look at hybrids.



My OS X boot time is about 15 sec on the ProBook (Chameleon -> Login). On my desktop it is 5-7 sec (hard to tell because the monitor is slow to sync to the signal).

Appleiscool, I'm not sure what you're doing on your end to have 40 second boot times. I have a standard HDD and my boot time is nowhere close to 40 seconds for any of my operating systems. Though, I should state that I have very few things installed.

I would agree. It has been a while since I booted OS X (or any OS, for that matter) off HDD, but from what I remember boot times were around 25-30 sec for OS X. Like I said though, it depends on whether you have the optical drive hooked up or not...

Ok, I just did a fresh cold osx boot, and with the timer it says 41.3 seconds +/- .5 second for human reaction variance.

the timing was taken from the point after you choose the os x volume in the chameleon/chimera menu, to the point you see the login screen.

my install is as plain and noob as anyone else i guess, its just a pro book 4230s with stock spin drive, non ssd, ml 10.84 and current pbi 6.1.

i do run cleanmymac and ccleaner once a week for housekeeping, if that helps, it clears about 200 to 500mb of 'crap' or cache stuff. and i also use onyx once a while, mostly on the non system critical things, like reset cache and clear caches and various house keeping stuff.



i would be happy to get 480gb ssd, but not at todays prices, maybe try again in xmas sales?

in my 4340s probook it uses the newest micron/crucial 500/500 r/w ssd, and the boot speeds I get are similar to RM about 5 to 9 seconds for osx. i'm not focused on boot speeds, and it doesnt bother me, only until I have to boot up windows 7/8, which I don't really maintain or use as often, unless it's an app thats windows only, such as updating probook bios etc.

and i do have a lot crap installed from the app store, and open source, like gimp image editor. that app really rocks but steep learning curve.

 

[TheEnthusiast]

That is absolutely horrifying, even for a HDD! 40 seconds from the point where you choose an the boot volume!? I use Clover EFI boot, which is similar to Chameleon after the loading the GUI and I can boot in 20 seconds, 18.7 to be specific, from the point where I choose the boot volume to log in screen. Also, why do you use those "maintenance" applications? Everything they do you can do manually and I've seen past reports stating that they cause more harm than good.

 

[appleiscool]

That is absolutely horrifying, even for a HDD! 40 seconds from the point where you choose an the boot volume!? I use Clover EFI boot, which is similar to Chameleon after the loading the GUI and I can boot in 20 seconds, 18.7 to be specific, from the point where I choose the boot volume to log in screen. Also, why do you use those "maintenance" applications? Everything they do you can do manually and I've seen past reports stating that they cause more harm than good.

20 seconds with clover? thats fast! is it easy to setup? i'm a noob on all this.

i'm not sure about what reports you saw, and not sure about what kind of harm. can you be specific?

i don't tick every box for those maintenance apps, mostly its cache stuff that one or the other doesnt get to.

Is there a list somewhere of how to do those things manually?

now tell me more about clover please. 20 seconds is bloody fast assuming you use a non ssd 5400/72000 rpm hdd .

 

[TheEnthusiast]

Yes I do have a standard 5400 RPM, but the kexts that you load are also a factor in conjunction with Clover. Clover loads its stuff (DSDT, SSDT, ACPI tables, etc.) before loading the GUI unlike Chameleon so only OS X information is loaded once you choose the boot disk, like a real Mac. Plus, only three of my kexts are non-Apple so that may be a factor. As to not detract too much from the original topic, you can Google for information about Clover. I suggest reading about the boot loader first because it can prevent your system from booting entirely. Also, it is recommended to try a USB install first to see how it works as it is different from Chameleon. It is easy to setup by some standards as most of your information goes inside a config.plist file, plus it automatically chooses what is best for your system in most cases.

Also, I just wouldn't trust a third-party software to clean caches since it's easy to do it manually, especially for internet browsers. Not like it does much for long anyway, they're just re-created. Again, Google is your friend.

 

[Don_Grappler]

Appleiscool, I'm not sure what you're doing on your end to have 40 second boot times. I have a standard HDD and my boot time is nowhere close to 40 seconds for any of my operating systems. Though, I should state that I have very few things installed.

Make sure you talk about the same boot time. From hitting the power button until a) login screen appears, or b) until icons appear on desktop (this with automatic login, of course). I think b) is more relevant for users, because it covers the real-life waiting on every boot but excludes the extra time for individual login items.

 

[RehabMan]

RM, What about the SSD life? I mean, it "live" like an HDD or it "die" before?

Thanks!

The only one that has died was the gen1 OCZ Vertex. Each cell in an SSD does have limited lifetime writes and will eventually fail. Too early to tell whether "real world" lifetime is any different/better/worse than HDD. And of course it depends on how you use your computer.