Hey anyone running an SSD have a list of tweaks that should be done to optimize performance?
I am putting an SSD in my uMBP 17.
Thanks in advance.
I am putting an SSD in my uMBP 17.
Thanks in advance.
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uMBP - SSD Tweaks (OSX)
- Thread starter Jsimon9633
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sudden motion off, put hdd to sleep off, noatime (look into ocz forum osx tweaks how to), spotlight off .. 
first of all clone with superduper, then put the ssd in your mbp and start ..
now, before restart, choose it as startupvolume. (first start will be slow, don't be nervous)
this works 100%, i have the intel x25-m 160gb and supertalent 256gb ultradrive ME ..
both are perfect in my umbp 17" 3.06ghz with win7 on a 2nd partition ...
take care to update your ssd to the newest firmware and buy only intel, ocz vertex, supertalent udme (.. or same build like kensingon/intel) there you can do fwupdate IN the mac with .iso cd and without loosing data !!
DON't buy samsung, corsair and similar they have NO firmwareupdate ..
first of all clone with superduper, then put the ssd in your mbp and start ..
now, before restart, choose it as startupvolume. (first start will be slow, don't be nervous)
this works 100%, i have the intel x25-m 160gb and supertalent 256gb ultradrive ME ..
both are perfect in my umbp 17" 3.06ghz with win7 on a 2nd partition ...
take care to update your ssd to the newest firmware and buy only intel, ocz vertex, supertalent udme (.. or same build like kensingon/intel) there you can do fwupdate IN the mac with .iso cd and without loosing data !!
DON't buy samsung, corsair and similar they have NO firmwareupdate ..
I have two questions for you:
1. How do you turn off the sudden motion feature? That of the mbp or the ssd?
2. How can we tell if the intel ssd that we buy comes with the latest firmware? Will it be stated somewhere in the packaging?
1. How do you turn off the sudden motion feature? That of the mbp or the ssd?
2. How can we tell if the intel ssd that we buy comes with the latest firmware? Will it be stated somewhere in the packaging?
1. sudden motion: osX, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1934
(ssd has no motion sensor as there is nothing to motion)
2. open about "this mac" and under sata/intel you find version and this should be at the moment: 8820.
(ssd has no motion sensor as there is nothing to motion)
2. open about "this mac" and under sata/intel you find version and this should be at the moment: 8820.
- a SSD doesn't have a SMS because it obviously has no mechanical parts. Use this command: sudo pmset -a ams 0
- You can check in System Profiler under Serial-ATA (firmware stated as revision, and last 4 digits should be 8820 for latest firmware).
thanks guys.
question:
1. if i disable spotlight how do i find things? doesnt Finder rely heavily on spotlight as well as other things like google quick search box?
question:
1. if i disable spotlight how do i find things? doesnt Finder rely heavily on spotlight as well as other things like google quick search box?
2. where is this how to forum for OCZ, thats specific to osx that is. I see a lot of windows topics in their forums related to SSD
3. noatime? how to disable in osx?
3. noatime? how to disable in osx?
All a bunch of witchcraft if you ask me..
I haven't done any of that stuff with the 160GB X25-M's in both my MBP's and have had zero issues.
I haven't done any of that stuff with the 160GB X25-M's in both my MBP's and have had zero issues.
I understand that SMS doesn't need to be active for a SSD. But why turn off Spotlight? Also, what about "put hd to sleep when inactive"? Someone above suggested to turn it off, but what are the benefits of this for a SSD, if any?
A lot of these so called tweaks are just personal preferences and not tweaks. Turning of Spotlight is not a tweak. It's a personal preference how you would like your search to function. Anyway. From someone who actually read the thread from the link posted I have one post that actually have knowledge regarding sms. See quoted post below from poster lgerbarg.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=368792&postcount=76
When I worked at Apple I was involved with the design of the SMS, and that is not what it does. When the SMS detects a fault it sends an "IDLE IMMEDIATE" command with the unload bit set, which tells the device it is supposed to move its head to physically safe position. You can see all of the ATA stack bits in the opensource ATA drivers. Since an SSD has no moving parts (and thus cannot actually move its head), I imagine it does nothing with it. I suppose it could try to flush its cache, but that is technically nonconformant. The drive stays turned on in all cases, it has to since it might have unsynced data in its track cache.
Okay, so just to prove I am not just a grumpy old naysayer, here are some things you could do to actually improve performance under OS X.
1) Disable Adaptive Hot File Clustering
This is a feature of the OS that tracks how often files are used and automatically moves them closer to the outer rim of the drive (which is faster on conventional disks). On an SSD it is just a useless block move.
2) Disable automatic defrag
This actually might not be a win, because the system only performs auto defrag in very limited cases (files less than >20 megs with more than 8 extents), and while defragging the file itself will not be a performance win, consolidating its metadata into the file record (so you don't have to walk through the extents btree) might in fact be a win even on an SSD because it significantly reduces the amount of reads you have to do figure out where the file is.
The unfortunate thing is that there is no simple way to do either of these. You could build a custom kernel (it is a ~1-2 line change to short circuit them out). I suspect that neither is going to be a particularly large win though, so you are better off just running a stock (supported) kernel.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=368792&postcount=76
When I worked at Apple I was involved with the design of the SMS, and that is not what it does. When the SMS detects a fault it sends an "IDLE IMMEDIATE" command with the unload bit set, which tells the device it is supposed to move its head to physically safe position. You can see all of the ATA stack bits in the opensource ATA drivers. Since an SSD has no moving parts (and thus cannot actually move its head), I imagine it does nothing with it. I suppose it could try to flush its cache, but that is technically nonconformant. The drive stays turned on in all cases, it has to since it might have unsynced data in its track cache.
Okay, so just to prove I am not just a grumpy old naysayer, here are some things you could do to actually improve performance under OS X.
1) Disable Adaptive Hot File Clustering
This is a feature of the OS that tracks how often files are used and automatically moves them closer to the outer rim of the drive (which is faster on conventional disks). On an SSD it is just a useless block move.
2) Disable automatic defrag
This actually might not be a win, because the system only performs auto defrag in very limited cases (files less than >20 megs with more than 8 extents), and while defragging the file itself will not be a performance win, consolidating its metadata into the file record (so you don't have to walk through the extents btree) might in fact be a win even on an SSD because it significantly reduces the amount of reads you have to do figure out where the file is.
The unfortunate thing is that there is no simple way to do either of these. You could build a custom kernel (it is a ~1-2 line change to short circuit them out). I suspect that neither is going to be a particularly large win though, so you are better off just running a stock (supported) kernel.