Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[Zelig]

Yes, every sata standard is cross-compatible. You'll probably end up with a sata3 drive, there aren't any sata2 drives really worth getting even if you only have a sata2 port.

Data bandwidth is pretty much always limited by the sata port now, if you look at the pcie drives in newer Macs, they're significantly faster than sata3 drives. I wouldn't worry about it too much though, sequential read/write speeds are only one measure of performance in hard drives, there are multiple others than aren't significantly affected by moving to a slower port.

Hybrid technology is alright, but suffers from a few problems:
1. Hybrid drives don't have enough cache. Nobody builds caching solutions with enough SSD cache other than Apple with their imac Fusion drives, or custom builds if you buy a separate HDD and SDD to set up with caching yourself.
2. Hybrid drives (and pure HDDs) take more power than SSDs, which on laptops means less battery life.
3. Spinning drives are one of the easiest things to damage when dropping laptops.

I find 250GB drives to be pretty much the sweet spot for average laptop users now. Something like this is good at that size.

 

[cardgame]

As long as we're talking about hybrids, how can I set up a two-drive system, one SSD and one HDD, specifically in a MacBook Pro?

I got a 64GB SSD and put my OS on it last year, but when I boot it up my HDD won't spin up and is invisible to the OS. Can't access my pics, music, etc.

 

[Zelig]

It should be pretty much plug-and-play, does it not show up at all in Disk Utility?

Otherwise maybe doublecheck the ifixit install guide for your Applebook model to confirm correct installation?

 

[cardgame]

The SSD is plug and play, but when it's booting from that the HDD won't display. Everything is available on startup (SSD, Mac HDD, Bootcamp, Recovery) so it does read the drive it just shuts it down after I select SSD.

 

[peter grimes]

Yes, every sata standard is cross-compatible. You'll probably end up with a sata3 drive, there aren't any sata2 drives really worth getting even if you only have a sata2 port.

Data bandwidth is pretty much always limited by the sata port now, if you look at the pcie drives in newer Macs, they're significantly faster than sata3 drives. I wouldn't worry about it too much though, sequential read/write speeds are only one measure of performance in hard drives, there are multiple others than aren't significantly affected by moving to a slower port.

Hybrid technology is alright, but suffers from a few problems:
1. Hybrid drives don't have enough cache. Nobody builds caching solutions with enough SSD cache other than Apple with their imac Fusion drives, or custom builds if you buy a separate HDD and SDD to set up with caching yourself.
2. Hybrid drives (and pure HDDs) take more power than SSDs, which on laptops means less battery life.
3. Spinning drives are one of the easiest things to damage when dropping laptops.

I find 250GB drives to be pretty much the sweet spot for average laptop users now. Something like this is good at that size.

Since I'm on an older battery, extended use is going to be a priority over drive size - so no hybrid. I'm also concerned about the moving parts in the traditional drive. I've lost HDDs before, I'm hoping solid state is better since it has no moving parts...

I think I'm going to go with this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171741

A lot of the drives in this class consume 5W in R/W active mode, this one sips power at .12W active! Nice. And at $120 it's a great deal, I think.

 

[leif erikson]

Just checked it out and it looks pretty good. Read some of the reviews and found this response to a problem from a MAC user:

Manufacturer Response:

Dear dotLou,

This is Michael from SanDisk support. Please note that the issue that you are facing is due to the Nvidia MCP79 chipset. This SATA chipset does not correctly negotiate the SATA link speed for many SSDs. Using other SSD may also pose a similar situation because the issue lies in the speed negotiation done by MCP79 SATA chipset. A small number of manufacturers have chosen to release a FW that will lock the SSD in SATA 3Gb as a work around. SanDisk has not released an Extreme II SSD FW specific for this Nvidia MCP79 SATA chipset compatibility issue. If there is anything we can assist you with please contact SanDisk support at 1-866-SANDISK or submit a support request at www.sandisk.com./ask.

Thank you,
Michael
SanDisk Support

btw, this is what the MAC user wrote:

Cons: Not compatible with certain nvidia chipsets in the Mid 2009 line of Macbook pros, leading it to behave more slowly than a traditional SATAI disk. Unable to use computer with it installed.

 

[Zelig]

The SSD is plug and play, but when it's booting from that the HDD won't display. Everything is available on startup (SSD, Mac HDD, Bootcamp, Recovery) so it does read the drive it just shuts it down after I select SSD.

So it doesn't show up in Disk Utility?

Since I'm on an older battery, extended use is going to be a priority over drive size - so no hybrid. I'm also concerned about the moving parts in the traditional drive. I've lost HDDs before, I'm hoping solid state is better since it has no moving parts...

I think I'm going to go with this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171741

A lot of the drives in this class consume 5W in R/W active mode, this one sips power at .12W active! Nice. And at $120 it's a great deal, I think.

That drive does look particularly low power, but I wouldn't expect .12W in real-world use: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6553/sandisk-ultra-plus-ssd-review-256gb/8

Edit: And in general (not just SSDs), idle power consumption is at least as important as as load power consumption. With increasing speed, you get a "race to idle", so if a faster component takes more power but is able to return to low-power idle faster, it can still take less power to complete a given task. Just for some numbers, checking the SSD in my laptop that I've had for about 8 months now, it has 2.82 TB of writes, so assuming 50x more reads, that's somewhere around 150TB of total drive activity... at 500 MB/s that's about 85 hours of drive activity. My laptop probably averages about 12 hours of uptime per day, so that means my SSD is idle about 98.5% of the time.

 

[peter grimes]

Good catch, Leif, I'll double check. But I'm pretty sure that my computer wouldn't have the same issue, as it's a late 2007 macbook, not a pro.

Of course, that doesn't mean I won't see any problems at all....

I checked the first few reviews and didn't notice anything to out me off, I should be more thorough!

EDIT: Just bought this one, after careful reflection:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...40+EVO+MZ-7TE250BW+2.5"+250GB&N=-1&isNodeId=1

Final price $140. Less than a couple $20 bills more than the SanDisk I had been looking at, and hopefully something I'll be using for several years. In other words, I won't care about the slightly higher cost in the long run.

And to be honest this is going to be a casual use computer that I'll rarely travel with. It's most likely going to supplement my work desktop so I can install Civ4 on it to keep up with my PBEMs

 

[peter grimes]

SSD arrived yesterday but I forgot to bring home the tools I need

 

[peter grimes]

When plop this new drive in the computer, I know I'll need to have an OSX install disk on hand to boot from. I have Snow Leopard disks, I wonder if it can run Mavericks?

Do the different version of OSX use roughly the same amount of space?

 

[Zelig]

Latest OS any 2007-era Macbook will support is Lion. I'd generally recommend it, as it's still receiving security patches from Apple, while pre-Lion OS's are not.

System requirements for Snow Leopard and Lion are identical: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4949

Disk space requirements for Mavericks are 8GB vs 7GB for SnowLeopard/Lion: https://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

 

[atticus finch]

There is a PCI device under other devices in the device manager on my computer and it has a yellow exclamation mark. Is there a way to figure out what it is and what drivers to install to make it work?

 

[peter grimes]

Once I get this laptop working again I'm going to have to take some care with it, since I'll be accessing the Internet through my employer's network.

Using a quick and dirty site like hidemyass.com will the It guys be able to determine what sites I'm accessing? Or do browser proxies not generally encrypt? Will I have to Tor my way to access Steam?

 

[Zelig]

Well if you use a web proxy, they can determine that you're using that web proxy, and whatever non-web stuff you're doing.

Tor is secure, but Steam and avoiding employer oversight isn't a real kosher use of the Tor network, and the speeds will be pretty miserable for anything gaming-related.

Easiest thing if you have a router with support is to set up a VPN server on your home router which you long on from remotely. I don't do this from work, because I can do whatever I want on my work computer, but I'll log onto my home VPN if I'm at a remote location and security of my data is in question.

 

[peter grimes]

I've been meaning to sign up with at VPN at some point. Was considering Private Internet Access

The steam access I need is just for uploading/downloading saves. nothing live.

 

[Zelig]

I mean, if your home router is capable, you can run OpenVPN on it, so then you can get an encrypted line at no cost (beyond the router cost and your regular ISP cost) at any time.

Not really helpful if you're trying to avoid your home ISP knowing what non-encrypted things you're doing, but if that's a problem my recommendation is to get a new ISP.

 

[cardgame]

no

hidemyass cooperates fully with the authorities

 

[peter grimes]

I'll look into openVPN. Sounds adequate for my needs.

As for hidemyass, I'm not concerned if they tell the fbi that I uploaded a save file during works hours.

 

[ctsfan]

no

hidemyass cooperates fully with the authorities

I set up a VPN on a VPS a few days ago. It is almost 5 times faster than hidemyass and VPS only costs $5 a month.

 

[peter grimes]

When plop this new drive in the computer, I know I'll need to have an OSX install disk on hand to boot from. I have Snow Leopard disks, I wonder if it can run Mavericks?

Do the different version of OSX use roughly the same amount of space?

Well shoot.

I'm using the original install disk that came with the macbook and it's not seeing the SSD.

I accept the license agreement and then I'm supposed to choose an install location. The window is empty

Upon reading some many threads with very similar problems I'm wondering if the issue is the harddrive connector + cable assembly.

Apparently it's a known weak point. Rats! The ifixit guide for it is quite a bit more complex, but as long as I'm careful it's nothing I shouldn't be able to handle.

But now I have to wait for the cable - if that's even the issue. And it's out of stock right now.

When I've got the upper case off, is there anything else I should look into swapping out? The trackpad button is a little tweaky, so that's one possibility....

EDIT: ordered the cable on NewEgg, got a notification this morning that the payment had processed and they gave me a tracking number. I check it out, says it's shipping from L2 computers, 7-something 10th ave with a freakin' 212 area code! That's MidTown Manhattan!! I call them up and ask them if instore pickup is possible for future orders, the guy tells me he's putting a no-ship flag on my current order and I can swing by and pick it up any time before 6pm. :woot: