Now I've sorted out the external hard drive and got the Time Machine backup's sorted, I've been doing some reading on SSD's. Apparently, they are far faster than HDD and will speed up boot times and usage of any computer but they aren't cheap.

Apple are now using Toshiba SSD's according to the Mac forums. Has anyone on here changed to one? If so, are they easy to fit? If I fitted one myself, I assume I can just download what I have saved using Time Machine from the external hard drive to the SSD.

Cheers  LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Here's a guide on how to do it. Looks reasonably straight forward.

http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-replace-y...ith-an-ssd

SSD's are great, work exactly the same as normal HDD as far as swapping out.

Thanks for the input

Ideally, I would like a 512GB but I guess 256GB would still make the standard HDD seem slow... LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Even the 256GB SSD will be fast.

How much RAM have you got in your Macbook? Might be a cheap(ish) upgrade to performance you can do there.

8GB which is the max it can take. It came with 4GB when I bought it in 2011 but they offered a discounted upgrade when I purchased it so I decided it was a good idea. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

This seems pretty decent: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/components-u...7-pdt.html LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

If you want to make a REAL difference to the speed / performance of a PC, moving from a HDD to a SSD is the way to go.
Faster CPU? More RAM? Tweak the config? Naaaaah! GET AN SSD.

And, yes, it's relatively trivial to move your data.

Go for Crucial or Samsung in my experience.

You'll be amazed by the improvement. ...

Be true to yourself. That way happiness lies...

I fitted a Samsung 256gb SSD to my 2009 Unibody MacBook, and upgraded the RAM from 2GB to 4GB two years ago.

It's the sole reason why I haven't bothered to replace my battered yet trusty MacBook, as it totally transformed the machine, and still leaves most modern machines for dust.

Well worth the investment if you plan to hang on to it for a while. Had it been a Windows machine, it would have more than likely been replaced at least twice by now! Foraging near Gaydon....
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I am sold on this now and the Samsung 840 seems good value. I don't want the software though. I reckon it must be just a case of plugging in the new SSD and then connecting my Seagate external HDD which I have backed up to using time machine and then restoring to the last backup.

The link posted by Martin P didn't work for some reason. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

You won't be able to boot up your machine from the Time Machine back up, so will need to install the OS on the SSD before you fit it (or maybe create a bootable external HDD, use that to boot up the machine and then copy the OS on the the installed SSD).

Anyway, here's the link again (not sure what went wrong in the earlier post)

http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-replace-y...ith-an-ssd

Hmm, you've got me thinking about upgrading my Macbook Pro now...

Crucial.com have a 256GB SSD for a bit cheaper than that one from PC word. I'd be tempted by the 512GB one though at £180.

You can download a system scanner from the crucial website and it will list all of the products they sell that are guaranteed compatible with your Mac.

I can't afford to shell out this side of my holiday which is at the end of the month but I am now wondering if I could pick one up whilst in the states. I assume the connections are no different. I wouldn't ordinarily do that but I'm thinking they will be cheaper there. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

i have a Toshiba 128GB SSD in my pc running windows 8.1 and the boot times went from 1min 42 sec to 38 sec, so well worth it.
There are a few down sides and thats low space for your £, compared to a normal HDD. And that the normal life on the SSD is about 3 years as they only have a limited number of read and write cycles.

I dont know much about MAC's but if i had the money a would buy 2 SSD's and 4 HDD's and use RAID 0+1. I6 WITH GAS CONVERSION
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MartinP wrote:

Hmm, you've got me thinking about upgrading my Macbook Pro now...

Crucial.com have a 256GB SSD for a bit cheaper than that one from PC word. I'd be tempted by the 512GB one though at £180.

You can download a system scanner from the crucial website and it will list all of the products they sell that are guaranteed compatible with your Mac.