SSD Question

rajivhifi said:

I have a 2012 i7 mini and intend to add an SSD to it. I bought the Intel 530 series 240 gb sad from BB yesterday but am not sure if its the right one. Says its Serial ATA. The Samsung 840 says its SATA III. Please tell me which is the right one for my mini.


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/intel-5...rive/1780055.p?id=1219063707409&skuId=1780055

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...tops/1902435.p?id=1219066876764&skuId=1902435

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All modern SSD drives are SATA III (6.0 Gbps) interfaces, you will be fine.

Serial ATA is SATA. The Samsung drive is a tad faster at writing.

Weaselboy said:

See this chart. The EVO is faster in almost every test and costs less. Easy choice IMO.

Also the Intel uses a Sandforce controller that I am not a fan of. Sandforce controllers compress data on the fly and that causes slow write speeds with incompressible data.

Get the EVO.

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I read somewhere [https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1820365/] on this forum a sandforce controller is THE way to go as Yosemite disables trim for non apple ssd. Sandforce controller would also perform some kind of trim. If true the intel could be the better option despite worse benchmarks. Your insights please...

ps read this article too http://www.zdnet.com/os-x-yosemite-and-third-party-ssds-heres-what-you-need-to-know-7000035872/ and https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/31/angelbird-ssd-trim/ and http://www.macworld.com/article/2849366/mac-wont-boot-about-yosemite-and-your-third-party-ssd.html

rajivhifi said:

I have a 2012 i7 mini and intend to add an SSD to it. I bought the Intel 530 series 240 gb sad from BB yesterday but am not sure if its the right one. Says its Serial ATA. The Samsung 840 says its SATA III. Please tell me which is the right one for my mini.


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/intel-5...rive/1780055.p?id=1219063707409&skuId=1780055

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...tops/1902435.p?id=1219066876764&skuId=1902435

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do read my post above

"Can I install the drive on the mini and then use carbon copy cloner to move the contents?"

After installing the SSD you will partion the drive, reboot in CMD-R, copy OSX to the drive and make it the boot drive, and then copy the old data from the old drive. This is all done from the CMD-R restore process and there is no need for an after market program.

Samsung 840 EVO.

I went with the Crucial M550 after checking out this info at below link. I think I found it cheaper than the Samsung on the day I was ready to buy. Both great drives.

http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Explore/Fastest-SSD/8

Weaselboy said:

IMO that is nothing more that OWC marketing speak. All modern drives have garbage collection and can function without TRIM.

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I read other articles too. Garbage collection would not really delete. If so SSD with sandforce controller seem the way to go. Apparantly the Intel has sandforce controller.

Weaselboy said:

IMO that is nothing more that OWC marketing speak. All modern drives have garbage collection and can function without TRIM.

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Not true, there are lots of tests showing that once the drive is full, they slow down without TRIM, even the latest flagship models. One pass with TRIM and they are up and running at full speed.

Technically you're right it will function fine without TRIM, but they will slow down to spinner speeds or less.

Weaselboy said:

You misunderstand me. I am not advocating running without TRIM. All I am saying is all drives have garbage collection just like Sandforce drives do and there is nothing that makes them special in that department.

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Yup agreed, it's just that I considered going Yosemite and losing TRIM, and many people on here do advocate running without TRIM!

I think it's silly paying for an SSD then eventually losing all the performance benefits, but that's me.

qcmacmini said:

Yup agreed, it's just that I considered going Yosemite and losing TRIM, and many people on here do advocate running without TRIM!

I think it's silly paying for an SSD then eventually losing all the performance benefits, but that's me.

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I don't understand why people think you can't run TRIM Enabler under Yosemite. All that is different is that TRIM Enabler now disables kext-signing, a new unnecessary security feature Apple includes. DO NOT RUN WITHOUT TRIM!!!! You will loose performance and lifespan.

qcmacmini said:

Not true, there are lots of tests showing that once the drive is full, they slow down without TRIM, even the latest flagship models. One pass with TRIM and they are up and running at full speed.

Technically you're right it will function fine without TRIM, but they will slow down to spinner speeds or less.

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Drives slow down when nearing full regardless of trim or not. Its pretty well known that, if one is worried about performance, you should never run SSDs at more than 80% of its rated capacity. A 50% limit is even better... One of the hidden costs of using SSD is you need to buy double the capacity you need.

ColdCase said:

Drives slow down when nearing full regardless of trim or not. Its pretty well known that, if one is worried about performance, you should never run SSDs at more than 80% of its rated capacity. A 50% limit is even better... One of the hidden costs of using SSD is you need to buy double the capacity you need.

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It depends on the over provisioning given to you by the manufacturer, which is not widely published, and is said to vary by a large amount!

With spinners it's even more that you need to have as a buffer to maintain performance so I would not say this is a massive disadvantage with SSDs.

They say the downside to not having TRIM can be a 10 fold difference in performance, I was just making the point that those advocating not running TRIM haven't read the tests where it is proven to be an issue.

You'll hit the point of the drive being nearing 'full' a lot sooner without it.