MBA hard disc vs SSD
February 6th 2008
Ars Technica has posted the review many of us have been waiting for--a comparison of the MacBook Air equipped with an solid-state disc (SSD) and standard hard disc. Reviewer Jacqui Cheng answers the question essential question nearly:
The $1,300 question is whether the SSD is worth the extra cash. The answer seems to be no. I experienced only moderate gains in battery life and not very noticeable speed differences. The one major benefit of the SSD model is that it doesn't cause the same types of slowdowns as the HDD model during times of high disk activity ... Speedy read times are great, too, but they are balanced out by pokey write times.
Of course, Ms Cheng's review includes a full battery of benchmarks and an SSD MBA does demonstrate better performance.
Nevertheless, it's still not as a good as plain-vanilla MacBook while costing a lot more money.
Thereupon, the "world's thinnest notebook" is increasingly looking like expensive eye candy and little more...
What's your take?
Starting at $129. Plus free shipping.
