As the title states; good news on my part! I decided to break down and buy the OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD from Newegg.com to pop into my MacBook Pro MC118L/A (2.53GHZ Core2Duo)
I really can't wait for this drive and see how well the performance will increase and what not. I will post the results shortly of what the upgrades are like coming from the OEM 5400RPM 250GB



Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD
OCZ Vertex 2
Model: OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G
Device Type: Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Architecture: MLC: Expansion / Connectivity
Form Factor: 2.5"
Capacity: 120GB
Interface Type: SATA II

Sustained Write: up to 250 MB/s
4k Random Write (Aligned): 50,000 IOPS
Seek Time: 0.1 MS
TRIM (requires OS support)
ECC: 27 bytes of redundancy per 512 bytes data. Up to twelve 9-bit symbols correctable
Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Re-porting Technology

Max Shock Resistance: 1500G
Power Consumption (Active): 2W
Power Consumption (Idle): 0.5W
Sequential Access - Read up to 285MB/s
Sequential Access - Write up to 275MB/s
MTBF: 2,000,000 hours

 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts once you get this installed.

 

Will do.

 

Got the SSD installed, took 15minutes to get everything up and running. And holy CRAP. It loads super quick.
When I had to reload my OSX/files from my Time Machine backup, it took 20 minutes to extract 80GB worth.
15.4 seconds exact to load Mac OSX from dead stop
1.6 seconds for Office Mac 2011 (word, powerpoint, etc)
2.6 seconds for iTunes to load 12,000 songs
1.8 seconds for Aperture 3 to load 100%

This drive is INSANE... anybody who is looking for an SSD upgrade, turn to OCZ. The quality, performance is unmatched!

 

Nice choice. I'm building this when the parts come in in the coming weeks.

 

Wow, quite a build. Looks like it'll be a good one!
Good luck with that man! Post up when you get news of delivery and such. Maybe some specs on all this?

 

I have the Vertex 2 in my desktop and it really is a solid drive that shouldn't be confused with the Vertex. I was told it has something to do with the memory controller. I don't notice the difference between the Vertex 2 and the optional solid state drive in the MBP.

Something to note about F1-LH's startup times: I noticed applications load the instant the desktop is ready whereas with a 7200 hard drive, it would take some time after the desktop had loaded for the applications to start loading.

Personally 120gb is a sweet spot and I have a 1tb drive that I use for bigger files. I store files from the laptop on an external.

 

Thank you for adding to the post and for the comment.
Yes, the Vertex 2 is a solid drive I absolutely love it.
Yeah the 7200 hard drive would take it's time loading and creep along. Whereas the vertex 2 is snappy and loads anything super quick. Thanks to the controller!
I have a 1tb iomega external I use for all my music, etc as well.

 

F1-LH, did you have to purchase anything else to install this in the MBP or is it as simple as backing everything up and then swapping the drive?

 

All I did was back everything up in Time Machine, take the bottom aluminum plate off (10 screws around the edge of the plate; depends on the model of MBP), take cover off, locate the SATA hard drive and remove the old, pop the new SSD in and viola! You're done.
Make sure that before you turn on your MBP that you slide your Mac OSX disc in and it will boot from the DVD drive. Then just follow your normal OSX setup.
You may have to name the SSD Drive, it didn't default to "Macintosh HDD" it did it to "Unknown". Just simply go into Disk Utility from the Utilities folder in Applications and rename the SSD from "Unknown" to "Macintosh HDD" or w/e name you want.
If you need any help if you install one, I will gladly walk you through it.