“We have been told by one our Apple sources that the new MacBook Pro [notebooks] will be available for sale in the next two weeks,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR.
“We are told that the new [notebooks will contain glass trackpads that are even larger than the pads found on current-generation MacBook Pro models,” Geller reports. “We have been told the OS on the [notebooks will be loaded to a separate (internal) 8-16GB SSD.”
Geller reports, “There will be options for just SSD drives but the base models will feature regular hard disks with the SSD combo for the OS.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan K.” and “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]
If that’s true, that will make running programs like Protools and Logic more appealing, as they recommend that you don’t record onto the same disc that your OS is running on.
when they said that, they assumed that Logic and Protools were on your OS drive and that you should record onto another drive – if this rumor is true, the OS will be on the SSD but all programs, like Protools and Logic, will be on the other HD, so you will likely still need another drive (external) to record – same with Final Cut video editing – small SSD will not hold all your apps
I hate noisy hard drives, too.
Whether it’s true or not, that’s a very cool idea (separate drive for just the OS). That’s sort of how I run my old iMac. It’s NOT SSD-driven; it has the original 7200-RPM SATA drive. It’s only 160GB and dedicated to OS and application files. While there’s a small user home folder at the usual location, almost all of my data is stored on one of two external drives. Even without using SSD, there’s a benefit to separating the OS files on a small fast internal drive. AND it prevents the fragmentation of key OS files (and application files in my case) over an ultra-large single hard drive.
If you can afford a single half-terabyte SSD, that would be better, of course. But this idea provides many of the benefits of using an SSD for performance, while providing plenty of much lower cost data storage.
I hope it’s true and Apple does the same thing with iMacs.
I have also read on Techztalk.com that there will be other significant design changes that will increase the performance by more than 50 percent. In fact they wrote on their website “To all our readers, if you are planning to buy an Apple laptop (any Apple laptop, even the MacBook Air or White MacBook) wait for 7-10 days. The upcoming MacBook Pro update is so significant that you might decide to go for the Pro model in place of other Apple laptops.”
Two weeks? What’s in those pallet crates that Apple are shipping to stores. Sounds like a long time to keep the MBPs wrapped up.
I like the idea of having the OS on a dedicated SSD. Question is where will the VM go? My page in, out and swap is 25, 6 and 2GB.
@doggonetoo,
If you swap is just 2GB it would probably fit on the SSD. But I’m sure Apple has figured out how to make it work.
8GB would be tight for the OS. They need extra room when updating it.
Not technically true, if it’s really JUST the OS files. I have a small 20GB external drive (with 2.5-inch IDE hard drive that came out of a PowerBook a LONG time ago). I use it as a maintenance/emergency startup disk. It has a standard Snow Leopard installation, including iTunes, Safari, QuickTime, Disk Utility, and all the other “pre-installed” applications (no iLife or other Mac-bundled stuff). And It has my maintenance utilities, such as TechTool Pro and others. It takes up about 5GB of space, even with the applications, plus whatever is in my user home folder.
Also, there are probably many ways to minimize what needs to be on the SSD even more, because a lot of the stuff that is in “the main system and library” now, such as the Apple-supplied desktop background images, the first-time-launch “space hello” movie, default widgets for Dashboard, and the various “log files” don’t need to be there.
However, I hope it’s at least 16GB. Snow Leopard was a major “weight reduction” over Leopard, and I don’t see Lion becoming more “bloated” (maybe it will be even “slimmer”). But you never know with what will come AFTER Lion (when it’s no longer called “X”). Well, maybe Apple already knows…
Word has it that the announcement will be made this Thursday on Steve Jobs’ birthday.
Near instant-on. Love it. Dammit, I just bought a MacBook Pro last month.
They forgot to mention that the 13″ will have discrete graphics.
An interesting question is what version of chipset are they using? If it uses the early version Cougar Point Chipset then only 2 SATA ports are available. If the SSD uses up one of those, then that leaves one for the regular HD, but non for the DVD drive. Could this be the departure of built in DVD drives? Or did Apple secure enough revised Chipsets with more than 2 reliable SATA ports?
I love this idea. I’ve tried to do this before (on 10.2 I think), and it is a nightmare to move Home Folder locations to any other drive than the one OS X is on.
I guess Apple have fixed this little problem…
I have installed Leopard versions with the home drive set to a USB stick. This allowed each user of the same machine to bring/take their own home drive without leaving trace on the Mac. Apart from somewhat slow to delete on a USB stick, it works great.
I dont know how small the SSD would be in the new macbook pros, but separating the OS and User Files is a fantastic Idea.
Also, I’d like to note that I feel like Apple will do the smart thing here and use the 64 GB Blade-style SSD’s for OS and Apps – it will be attached to the logic board just like it is in the MB Air.
Then, the standard HDD bay will come with a 320 or 500 GB HDD where all the User’s data/Files can be stored. Of course, you will have the BTO option to make the second drive an SSD as well 🙂
In higher end models (15″ and 17″) I think Apple could give us options for the SSD being 128 GB (again, like the air, blade style)
Other than that, I would like to see:
1. Higher resolution Screens
2. Optical Drive Removal – Or a BTO option for it… batteries can take up the extra space, along with a 3rd fan….
3. the Third fan will allow for even more cooling of the High end Graphics card I hope the new Pro will have 🙂
4. Lightpeak??? Possibly….
All that, plus the more obvious stuff (Sandy bridge, etc.)
I actually do not think this rumor is accurate. I think there will certainly be SSD options a la the Mac Book Air, but not sure about the size of a secondary SSD for the less expensive models – we’ll see. Even with a small SSD that can’t hold your apps, you will get faster boot and unsleep times, etc. That would be cool. May MacBook is going to look like a dinosaur very soon!
I have recently replaced the HDD in my mid-2008 MBP with a larger hybrid drive that has a 4GB SSD component in addition to a 7200rpm 500GB HDD. The drive places the files accessed most often on the SSD. Speeds things up significantly.
I like the idea of instant on, but is this a way for Apple to control our computers? Would this be a non-user installable partition on this drive? Much like iPhone, AppleTV? Is this a way for Apple to say, not allow Flash to run, non-Apple approved software? Would users have to Jailbreak the OS in order to install other software, like QuickSilver, or PathFinder or other types of Finder/Utilities? If Apple eventually moves in Lion to only Mac App Store, this would be a way to control what you can and cannot put on your computer. A
@MacDust
you nailed it. right on the head.
P.S. Davork called and needs his notes back.
I can not wait until the day that ALL HDs are SSD – NO spinning disc HDs. This is still one of the oldest technologies on computers whose expiration date is WAY overdue.