The Samsung 840/840 Pro SSD thread

Hey guys.

I'm looking into getting a SSD for my late 2011 13' MacBook Pro. I'm looking at both the 830 and 840 (non pro) in the 256/250GB configuration. I'm currently a uni student, but I occasionally do some light video editing on FCPX and musical stuff.

On paper, it sounds like the 830 might have a slight advantage and it seems the 840 (non pro) seems like a downgrade from the 830... Which drive do you guys think I should go with?

Cheers
Eddy

Someone help me

When i connect my 840 to my computer using my sata to usb cable the computer doesnt recognize it... what do i do?

new 480 appears slow or no?

hey guys,

so i just bought the samsung 480 500gb drive and popped that in my mid 2010 macbook pro. everything seems to work fine and i'm happy with the speed improvement but when i test it on black magic it seems a little too slow compared with what they promise on the packaging.

as you can see i get write 245mbs and read 268mbs but on the packaging it says write 330mbs and read 540mbs.

i updated the firmware for the drive in the store on their pc before installing it and also use the trim enabler. is there anything i've missed or is it just because my mac is old?

thanks for you time
martin

thermo7777 said:

hey guys,

so i just bought the samsung 480 500gb drive and popped that in my mid 2010 macbook pro. everything seems to work fine and i'm happy with the speed improvement but when i test it on black magic it seems a little too slow compared with what they promise on the packaging.

as you can see i get write 245mbs and read 268mbs but on the packaging it says write 330mbs and read 540mbs.

i updated the firmware for the drive in the store on their pc before installing it and also use the trim enabler. is there anything i've missed or is it just because my mac is old?

thanks for you time
martin

Click to expand...

The speed are always a little bit slower than the advertised ones. I have a 256 840 pro and I never get to 540Mb reads or 520 writes

old mac's limit

thermo7777 said:

hey guys,

so i just bought the samsung 480 500gb drive and popped that in my mid 2010 macbook pro. everything seems to work fine and i'm happy with the speed improvement but when i test it on black magic it seems a little too slow compared with what they promise on the packaging.

as you can see i get write 245mbs and read 268mbs but on the packaging it says write 330mbs and read 540mbs.

i updated the firmware for the drive in the store on their pc before installing it and also use the trim enabler. is there anything i've missed or is it just because my mac is old?

thanks for you time
martin

Click to expand...

I think the performance is ok, because your old mbp only has sata2 connector which has a max 300 MB/s read/write limit. New mac and PC today are standard with sata3 with max 600MB/s bandwidth, much suitable for ssd.
But Ur old mac is much much faster with ssd, right?

Kawing said:

I think the performance is ok, because your old mbp only has sata2 connector which has a max 300 MB/s read/write limit. New mac and PC today are standard with sata3 with max 600MB/s bandwidth, much suitable for ssd.
But Ur old mac is much much faster with ssd, right?

Click to expand...

Ah i see! well that explains it. honestly it feels like a new computer and i'm super happy about the upgrade. it's quiet, runs cooler and is very snappy opening apps that usually would hang a little. also opening up a lot of photos is a breeze.

i currently live in china for work so i was a little weary buying something over here and putting it in my computer. even explaining to the guys in the store that i wanted to upgrade the firmware caused some confusion on their end but about an hour and a half later i was good to go.
in china if you don't use a vpn you have limited internet so the whole install was in chinese, so i just wanted to make sure.

thanks!

Another satisfied Samsung 840 customer... $314 from B&H Photo in NY and Farcry3 free... not bad!

I did a clean install of Mountain Lion. Early 2011 Base i5 13" MBP - 320 MB 5400 RPM HD which was giving about 53 MB/s read and write...

Now getting close to published values - ~350MB write and 500MB read.

Trim enabled and all is great so far.


R

I made my own thread for this problem before stumbling across this one.

Here is my problem.

Am I doing something wrong with my external SSD setup? I thought it would be faster then it is right now. Im not to knowledgeable about SATA I, II, III and eSATA but im thinking I might have got the wrong (slower) enclosure. I know you never get to close to the manufacturers specs but im 5x slower on the read and 3.5x slower on the write. I want to stick with USB 3.0 because thunderbolt setup after enclosure and cable would be almost the price of another SSD.

Here is the enclosure im using

http://www.sabrent.com/category/hard-drive-enclosures/EC-3025/

Take advantage of the lightening speed of USB 3.0 to quickly transfer files up to 5 Gbps! Connect any 2.5″ Serial ATA (SATA) or SATA II Hard Drive to your computer through an available USB 3.0 port on your desktop or laptop. It is constructed from durable aluminum, to ensure heat dissipation. Transfer data quickly and easily, anywhere, with this great external hard drive case. This enclosure allows you to connect your SATA HDD to USB 1.1, 2.0. or 3.0.

With this Samsung SSD

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-7PD128BW

Type
840 PRO Series
Storage
Capacity: 128GB
Features
Sequential Read Speed: Up to 530MB/s
Features
Sequential Write Speed: Up to 390MB/s



Then I changed to this with no luck.

So I just went and bought this because it said it supports 6GB/s and the read and write speeds are exactly the same.

http://www.siig.com/it-products/con...erters/usb-3-0-to-ide-sata-6gb-s-adapter.html


Is it my samsung 840 pro 128GB SSD that is maxing out?



Can anyone help me get the most of my SSD.

Computer is a base 15" rMBP

I have personally never used external enclosures, but here are some ideas.

It is really easy to open up and replace the internal hard drive (takes 5 minutes).

Why not replace the internal drive with the SSD and install an OS and check it out? You can always pull it out and re-format it later.

OR

Is it possible to place your internal drive into the enclosure or adapter, install the new drive in the MBP and boot from the enclosed boot drive to do your testing?

(Have you checked other USB 3.0 devices with your ports?)

R

I did some simple tests awhile back with a 512GB Crucial M4 SSD:

WRITE / READ ...... Interface
167 / 194 MB/s ...... USB-3 Seagate GoFlex interface
260 / 382 MB/s ...... Thunderbolt Seagate GoFlex interface
230 / 277 MB/s ...... USB-3 OYEN MiniPro USB-3.0 enclosure

260 / 506 MB/s ...... PCIe SATA-III card in Mac Pro (Crucial M4 512GB SSD)


Using a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD:

WRITE / READ ...... Interface
495 / 507 MB/s ...... PCIe SATA-III card in Mac Pro (Samsung 840 Pro SSD)
242 / 376 MB/s ...... Thunderbolt Seagate GoFlex interface

That may give some relative guide numbers with these particular SSDs, interfaces/enclosures, and BlackMagicDesign "Disk Speed Test". I don't know why the results are better for the M4 than the 840Pro on the Seagate TB interface other than perhaps the larger drive size was faster.

-howard

Rhyalus said:

I have personally never used external enclosures, but here are some ideas.

It is really easy to open up and replace the internal hard drive (takes 5 minutes).

Why not replace the internal drive with the SSD and install an OS and check it out? You can always pull it out and re-format it later.

OR

Is it possible to place your internal drive into the enclosure or adapter, install the new drive in the MBP and boot from the enclosed boot drive to do your testing?

(Have you checked other USB 3.0 devices with your ports?)

R

Click to expand...

The computer is a rMBP with a 256gb internal SSD.


One weird thing is that I left the SSD plugged into the same SIIG adapter for about a hour and now I'm seeing speeds of 196mb/s write and 215mb/a read with nothing being changed from the other test I did. I'm happy with the numbers I'm seeing now.

----------

Rhyalus said:

I have personally never used external enclosures, but here are some ideas.

It is really easy to open up and replace the internal hard drive (takes 5 minutes).

Why not replace the internal drive with the SSD and install an OS and check it out? You can always pull it out and re-format it later.

OR

Is it possible to place your internal drive into the enclosure or adapter, install the new drive in the MBP and boot from the enclosed boot drive to do your testing?

(Have you checked other USB 3.0 devices with your ports?)

R

Click to expand...

The computer is a rMBP with a 256gb internal SSD.


One weird thing is that I left the SSD plugged into the same SIIG adapter for about a hour and now I'm seeing speeds of 196mb/s write and 215mb/a read with nothing being changed from the other test I did. I'm happy with the numbers I'm seeing now.

eeclipse16 said:

The computer is a rMBP with a 256gb internal SSD.


One weird thing is that I left the SSD plugged into the same SIIG adapter for about a hour and now I'm seeing speeds of 196mb/s write and 215mb/a read with nothing being changed from the other test I did. I'm happy with the numbers I'm seeing now.

----------

Click to expand...

It may be that while you left the SSD plugged in and idling, either Trim or the controller garbage collection was able to do a little "house cleaning" and resulted in higher speeds the next time you tested it.

I've got a 128gb 840 pro and the Apple 1tb HDD in my 2012 2.3ghz i7 Mac Mini, but only 4gb RAM until tomorrow. But here are my bench's as of now.

thermo7777 said:

hey guys,

so i just bought the samsung 480 500gb drive and popped that in my mid 2010 macbook pro. everything seems to work fine and i'm happy with the speed improvement but when i test it on black magic it seems a little too slow compared with what they promise on the packaging.

as you can see i get write 245mbs and read 268mbs but on the packaging it says write 330mbs and read 540mbs.

i updated the firmware for the drive in the store on their pc before installing it and also use the trim enabler. is there anything i've missed or is it just because my mac is old?

thanks for you time
martin

Click to expand...

It's because your computer doesn't support SATA III only SATA II. I get almost 200mb/s write and 268mb/s write with my Crucial M4 in my SATA II MacBook "aluminum unibody"

My contribution to the thread. Samsung 840 Pro (256GB) installed on a mid 2012 base model cMBP, also with 16GB of Corsair RAM added in

brig2221 said:

My contribution to the thread. Samsung 840 Pro (256GB) installed on a mid 2012 base model cMBP, also with 16GB of Corsair RAM added in

Click to expand...

Sweet rig

Rhyalus said:

Another satisfied Samsung 840 customer... $314 from B&H Photo in NY and Farcry3 free... not bad!

I did a clean install of Mountain Lion. Early 2011 Base i5 13" MBP - 320 MB 5400 RPM HD which was giving about 53 MB/s read and write...

Now getting close to published values - ~350MB write and 500MB read.

Trim enabled and all is great so far.


R

Click to expand...

Boom, I took up the $314 500 GB 840 as well. I almost didn't but I've got the need for speed now! Quite glad I did as I see it's currently priced at $369.

Also going to put in 16 GB of RAM at the same time so it's going to be quite the upgrade!

richnyc said:

Sweet rig

Click to expand...

Thank you sir! I'm loving it!

thermo7777 said:

hey guys,

so i just bought the samsung 480 500gb drive and popped that in my mid 2010 macbook pro. everything seems to work fine and i'm happy with the speed improvement but when i test it on black magic it seems a little too slow compared with what they promise on the packaging.

as you can see i get write 245mbs and read 268mbs but on the packaging it says write 330mbs and read 540mbs.

i updated the firmware for the drive in the store on their pc before installing it and also use the trim enabler. is there anything i've missed or is it just because my mac is old?

thanks for you time
martin

Click to expand...

I recently figured out how to take a partial screenshot on a Mac, and posted my SSD performance a few posts back. That said, looking at this post (screen grabs didn't come through, darn!), this person was able to take perfect screenshots of each application, such as the BlackMagic App that has curved areas, and they still were able to get just the app screenshot (and no background).

How exactly is this done might I ask?

Weaselboy said:

Hit shift-command-4 all at once and a cross hair will come up... then hit the spacebar and the crosshair will turn into a little camera icon. Place the camera icon over the app/window you want to grab and click the mouse.

Click to expand...

Always nice to learn something new in the morning ...

Thanks Weaselboy!



(much easier than the awkward way I have been doing it so far)

Weaselboy said:

Hit shift-command-4 all at once and a cross hair will come up... then hit the spacebar and the crosshair will turn into a little camera icon. Place the camera icon over the app/window you want to grab and click the mouse.

Click to expand...

I knew there had to be a way to do it better. Thanks so much!

So I've bitten the bullet and ordered the i5, 16gb of corsair vengeance RAM, and the Samsung 840 Pro. Everything should be arriving on Saturday so I hope to do the work over the weekend and have couple of questions.

I'm planning to just format the ssd and put it in the main bay and do the command+r to download a new copy of ML. Will I need to update the ssd firmware first? If so, what's the best way of doing that, I understand I'll have to use a pc which is ok.

When I take the old drive out and put it in the external enclosure can I keep it as a bootable drive and use it for a Timemachine backup? Or should I reformat it and wipe ML from it? I believe I can't partition it without deleting ML.

Thanks for any advice.