After installing the new Intel SSD, my good ol’ MacBook Black Early 2008 has become much faster. This surely achieved my dream setup (for now at least):
- 22” ViewSonic VA2213w as the main display
- 13” MacBook Black as the secondary display
- Apple Wireless Keyboard & Magic Mouse to drive the machine
- 2x2GB Crucial RAM to replace the default 2x1GB configuration
- Intel X25-M 120GB to speed up the whole machine
- Icy Box StuE-B HDD Enclosure w/ Firewire support to hold my old 250GB Hitachi HDD
I timed how long it took to perform various tasks and the results were amazing:
- MacOS X 10.5.2 installation: 13 minutes
- MacOS X 10.6.3 upgrade: 12 minutes
- MacOS X 10.6.6 upgrade: 6 minutes
- Xcode 3.2.5 w/ iOS SDK 4.2 installation: 10 minutes sharp
In contrast, it used to take me about 50 minutes each time I installed a new version of Xcode.
Verdict: If you have money to spare, an SSD is a worthwhile investment.