Best SSD for a Mid 2010 27" iMac?

[Locker]

I've been trying to research what the best third-party SSD upgrade options are out there for my Mid 2010 27" iMac. From what I can gather the OCZ Vertex 4 and Samsung 830 are the top two drives... My questions are:

• Which is better? Anyone have personal experience with either of these drives?
• Does a capacity of 256GB or 512GB make any difference to SSD performance?

I look forward to receiving some feedback and hopefully making the right choice!

[chevalier433]

Originally Posted by Locker

I've been trying to research what the best third-party SSD upgrade options are out there for my Mid 2010 27" iMac. From what I can gather the OCZ Vertex 4 and Samsung 830 are the top two drives... My questions are:

• Which is better? Anyone have personal experience with either of these drives?
• Does a capacity of 256GB or 512GB make any difference to SSD performance?

I look forward to receiving some feedback and hopefully making the right choice!

Samsung 830

[Locker]

Originally Posted by chevalier433

Samsung 830

What makes you say that?

From the figures in this review the Vertex 4 seems to come out quite favourably: http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-har...5182249-2.html

Plus, of course, it has a 5 year warranty. Bold claims...

[chevalier433]

Originally Posted by Locker

What makes you say that?

From the figures in this review the Vertex 4 seems to come out quite favourably: http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-har...5182249-2.html

Plus, of course, it has a 5 year warranty. Bold claims...

In terms of reliability i think Samsung is step front of all others.I have two of them in RAID 0 in my iMac for one year and they are rock solid plus the performance is great better than they post in drive's specifications.In the past i had OWC performance far worse that the numbers they mention in ther site plus some other small issues.

[Locker]

It also appears that you have to purchase an adapter to fit the Samsung SSD into the iMac - is that right?

[ladysman]

Originally Posted by Locker

It also appears that you have to purchase an adapter to fit the Samsung SSD into the iMac - is that right?

Correct. For what it's worth, i went with the 830. The difference an SSD makes is astounding...lol

[chevalier433]

Originally Posted by Locker

It also appears that you have to purchase an adapter to fit the Samsung SSD into the iMac - is that right?

it depends in my case i open two new holes in the HDD bracket for the first drive and for the second drive i purchased the original apple SSD bracket which is installed under the GPU heatsink.You can also put a drive in exchange with superdrive again with a bracket.

[Sjhonny]

840 pro (samsung) is currently the fastest SSD.

[Locker]

With my iMac only having SATA II (3Gbps) connection, I'm not sure the latest and greatest would make sense for me as it'd be hindered anyway...

I think what I'm really after is something reliable!

[The Samurai]

Interesting - let us know how it goes. Was thinking about fitting in a SSD too (Samsung 830).

Will be good to see how you get on with fitting it in.

[Sjhonny]

Originally Posted by Locker

With my iMac only having SATA II (3Gbps) connection, I'm not sure the latest and greatest would make sense for me as it'd be hindered anyway...

I think what I'm really after is something reliable!

In random read/writes your SSD isn't hindered by the 3 Gbps. So only in copying large chunks of continuous data, you'll notice the difference between SATA 2 & SATA 3.

----------

Anyway, in your position I'd try and buy an intel 320 SSD. If you search a little, you'll find them dead cheap.

I'd chose the 830 over the vertex 4 any day of the week.

[chevalier433]

Originally Posted by Locker

With my iMac only having SATA II (3Gbps) connection, I'm not sure the latest and greatest would make sense for me as it'd be hindered anyway...

I think what I'm really after is something reliable!

Correct but newer drive new technology better controller

[Sjhonny]

Originally Posted by Locker

What makes you say that?

From the figures in this review the Vertex 4 seems to come out quite favourably: http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-har...5182249-2.html

Plus, of course, it has a 5 year warranty. Bold claims...

That's an interview that says absolutely nothing. The reason why SSDs speed up your computer and boot times have next to nothing to do with the sequential read/write speeds. It's all in the low access times and high random read/write speeds, which aren't even mentioned in that article.

Anandtech's review. Anandtech uses a pretty comprehensive synthetic benchmark that offers a very decent base for comparing SSD's. They also have a light workload benchmark.

[philliplind]

Hey guys,

I am really nervous about this, could you give me an exact link to a guide on how to install and where to buy the right samsung 830 and maybe the toolkit for installing it into my imac (mid 2010).

And can i put an 512gb in it? or only 250gb?

Really hope you can help me out, so i can get this baby rocking

[The Samurai]

Originally Posted by Locker

I've been trying to research what the best third-party SSD upgrade options are out there for my Mid 2010 27" iMac. From what I can gather the OCZ Vertex 4 and Samsung 830 are the top two drives... My questions are:

• Which is better? Anyone have personal experience with either of these drives?
• Does a capacity of 256GB or 512GB make any difference to SSD performance?

I look forward to receiving some feedback and hopefully making the right choice!

OP - just following up if you managed to get the SSD installed? Offer any tips / your experiences?

Looking to go for the 830 myself (primary) and keep the current 1TB hard drive as secondary for storing files etc. I've heard the fans will go bonkers if Apples firmware detects a non-apple installed drive - is this true or bo11ocks?

[inscrewtable]

Originally Posted by The Samurai

I've heard the fans will go bonkers if Apples firmware detects a non-apple installed drive - is this true or bo11ocks?

I remember seeing this mentioned elsewhere and apparently it's basically bollox because the original drive is still in the machine. The SSD is not replacing it.