Your experience & thoughts on SSDs for MacMini


I have a 2007-2008 MacMini that I use exclusively as a music server on a third system with the stock HD. I am considering replacing the stock HD to an SSD. The stock HD makes noise that is audible often enough to draw unwanted attention to itself.

I'm looking for experience-based thoughts and commentary on the various SSDs that are available for this replacement. I'm using SnowLeopard and iTunes 10 with Pure Music for playback of AIFF files from a peripheral HD (which is silent).

So far, my research on this seems to get a bit confusing. For example, Other World Computing offers two levels of SSD, one over 50% more $ in price (and 25% larger 40 Gb vs 50 Gb than the other (offering a longer warranty, etc.) And I know there are several other manufacturers of SSDs out there with varying price points and related benefits.

This MacMini isn't used for anything else than serving music, ripping files, streaming audio, playing Netflix downloadable movies, and the occasional download from iTunes.

Your points of view are appreciated.

:) listening,

Ed
istanbulu
Here is an interesting take by someone saying SSDs cant improve sound. http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Software-Hardware-Comparison?page=1
03-10-11: Perrew
Here is an interesting take by someone saying SSDs cant improve sound....
After reading it (the article on the lower half of the page) several times, I must say that I have very little idea of what he is saying :-)

I think that one of his main points, though, is essentially that noise produced as a result of activity of the cpu chip, under software control, is the predominant source of internally generated noise in the computer. The reason being that it draws more current than any other device in the computer, and rapid fluctuations in that current (which are primarily responsible for the noise generation) will be greater than for all of the other devices in the computer, including the digital chips in the SSD or HDD (an HDD has significant digital circuitry, in addition to the electromechanical stuff). He appears to conclude, therefore, that all internally generated noise that is not produced by the cpu chip, and all other effects that may be caused by the rapid switching of digital signals elsewhere in the computer, is insignificant.

As someone with extensive experience designing high speed digital circuits (not for audio), that all strikes me as meaningless oversimplification, of things that (due to their complexity) are inherently unpredictable apart from experimentation.

Regards,
-- Al
Its the first post by PeterST Im referring too, he is Not advocating what you say thats what Miska says, Peter says to deal with all small spikes.
Also he is saying in other places that he has designed his software after several trials so that now Ramdisk and SSD makes the sound worse.

All Im trying to say is that the story on SSD having superior sound is suported by some but some others dont support it, so I figure if you really wanna know what your own ears detect youre gonna have to give it a go or just ignore it and be happy with the sound you have know and improve the sound elsewhere, IF, you think its doing something wrong.
Post removed 
03-10-11: Perrew
Its the first post by PeterST Im referring too, he is Not advocating what you say thats what Miska says, Peter says to deal with all small spikes.
Yes, that is the post I was referring to also, the one entitled "SSD" and signed "Peter" at the end. As I said, I found it to be somewhat incomprehensible, so it could very well be that I was misinterpreting the point he was trying to make.
All Im trying to say is that the story on SSD having superior sound is suported by some but some others dont support it, so I figure if you really wanna know what your own ears detect youre gonna have to give it a go ....
Agreed 100%.

Regards,
-- Al