SSD Drive or ExpressCard SSD - your experience

[Alvis_Cortex]

Hi everyone.
I am planning to do some upgrade on my macbook pro (late2008) for better performance when VJing but after lots of research I am not really sure what to do and would like to hear your experiences and suggestions about this topic, since I am sure many of you are using SSD Drivers.
My original idea was to replace my current '5400rpm Hitachi 320GB HD' for a SSD hard drive, so all my system would benefit from it since I use my laptop as my main computer. But for this I would need a SSD drive with high capacity in order to have all my softwares/OS plus files installed. But since SSD drives with high storage capacity are quite expensive I need to come up with a different solution.

So I though I could buy a better hard drive (7200 rpm) 'suggestions?', to replace my current Hitachi HD to improve my system performance and then for a SSD Drive I have 3 options:

1 - get a SSD drive with lower capacity and use it as an external drive to access my video clips when VJing, connecting via expresscard slot.

2 - I read about replacing my DVD drive with (in this case) a SSD internal drive using Opticbay, so I would have both drivers inside my laptop and could store all video clips for performance in the SSD drive and also install those softwares that require good drive performance like After effects for example.

3 - What about ExpressCard SSD for storing videoclips for performance? is it the same as an external SSD drive but without the need for a adapter? my doubt here is if a expressCard SSD is the same as having an external SSD drive or even an internal SSD drive? if so would this be the best and easiest solutuon sine the Express Card SSD fits perfectly in the slot?

Or would you have a completely different setup? something I can't see as option.

Thank you and wish you all a great visual 2012

[Stickygreen]

I got myself one of these http://www.wintecind.com/features/FileM ... _Card.html express card SSD's and it works great!

I can run three layers of triple wide (1920x480) content without slowing down the FPS. It's probably the cheapest solution, and the most versatile.

[Alvis_Cortex]

Thank you Stickygreen
Having this ExpressCard SSD would be the same as having an internal SSD Hard drive?

Thank you

[Stickygreen]

no, the expresscard SSD is slower, than an internal, as the expresscard bus dose not have the same throughput as an internal SATAii, or even better SATAiii connection. But like I said for my application 3 layers of 1920x480 -photoJpeg .MOV, or DXV .MOV files it works great.

really sometimes you have to ask yourself how much bandwidth do i need, in your case, your using a 5400 rpm drive right now, and looking to improve. So the epresscard SSD is an improvement, but do you want to get a better improvement.. that's for you to determine. I've given you a benchmark to compare to 3 layers of triplewide 1920x480 clips, and I have the same computer as you do.