Q: 5200 rpm SSD vs 7200rpm SATA

You will almost ALWAYS get better performance from an SSD, the reason being there is little boot process.   It is instant-on, and ready to run.  My old MBA1,1 with a physical disk used to have a boot time of 30+ second from full off...   My new MBA 4,1 SSD can reboot (go from full-on, to full-off, to full-on again) in about 10 seconds (fastest) or 15 seconds (average)

SSD's don't have a rotational speed - they are flash media.

They will be faster at most tasks at a significantly higher price and smaller capacity.

For system disks they make sense. For storage and playback of standard audio files, less so.

x

JJH Music wrote:

 

Thanks for the help. So I am wondering why the ssd is listed at 5200 rpm if it actually has no rotation speed? Doesn't seem to make sense.

Well, I may be heading in the wrong direction here, but I know that some older modles of certain SSDs had rotating magnetic buffers, which would obviously have an RPM speed, but *MOST* of the modern-day SSDs are fully solid-state.  There are no buffers or platers, they opperate basically like a flash drive you might have in your pocket. 

As the previous poster said, they are really only practical as internal boot drives.   For external storage, it would make more sense to go with a HDD.

there is no such thing as a macbook pro with a 5200 rpm ssd drive.

there's better playback performance on the ssd but theyre not completely recommended for recording. if you are buying for a multitrack recording playing machine, go hd, if mostly playback, go ssd.

can you post a link or screenshot?

no problem.

enjoy the macbook pro and make some great music!