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fisherking

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jul 16, 2010
11,083
5,431
ny somewhere
i know: 'search'.

i HAVE searched, the web included, and am (LOL) more confused than before i started investigating.

just got a new 13" macbook pro, and installed a Crucial M4. so...should i enable trim enabler?

things are running very well, but i want to do what's best for the drive (and of course, myself :D ).

anyone?
 

ahdickter

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2011
293
0
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
There's been a lot of debate as to whether enabling TRIM for the Crucial M4 is beneficial or not. Some will say yes, others have had problems.

Personally, I would try to use the SSD without and see what happens. You can always enable TRIM later if you find out that you really do need it. Some people need the hack, others seem fine without it.

It's a good idea to do it that way, because the TRIM hack modifies core system files, that if damaged could result in verrry bad things. Good luck!
 

Steve's Barber

macrumors 6502a
Jul 5, 2011
773
1
As long as I keep maintaining 250MB/s write and 500 read I'll just let the M4 garbage collection do it's thing without the hack.
 

yang88she

macrumors regular
Oct 26, 2011
217
34
ATL
been running my m4 w.out TRIM, can't say that I notice any issues and I am very happy from switching to the m4 from an intel x25m G2 80gb
 

fisherking

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jul 16, 2010
11,083
5,431
ny somewhere
thanx all.
things running perfectly here, so am not gonna enable trim
(but dL'd the hack in case i change my mind later...)
 

JGO

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2009
62
0
About two weeks ago I installed an M4 in my 2009 MBP. I enabled trim using a program posted at Hardmac.

I have not experienced any problems, but I did notice that, according to Xbench, my 4k randoms reads decreased from 14.61 MB/s to 9.71 MB/s. However, I don't see how trim activation would affect reads, so this may simply be coincidence. Even then, I don't really notice any perceptible difference in speed in day-to-day use.

So far so good.
 

Alexjones

macrumors 6502
May 28, 2010
421
0
I had a Crucial SSD. I returned it and now i am back to my good ol' original , old fashion 7200 rpm 500 Gb that came with the unit. No issues and it is super reliable
 

Saberon

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2008
982
1
I put an M4 in my MBP 13 2011 and used the Groths 2.0 (not the bad method of TRIM enabling like his old version) and haven't had a single issue
 

aphexacid

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2007
936
22
Chicago
I just bought a 64GB M4 for my MacBook 2,1.
I didn't even know the M4 has native garbage collection. I was Planning on doing trim enabler. I'm using snow leopard, and plan on using SL until I HAVE to upgrade to Lion. I wasn't crazy about it when I used it.

What's the final verdict? Enable trim on M4? Or no
 

jstahmann

macrumors newbie
Nov 3, 2011
18
0
USA
I have two MBPs with M4s and haven't enabled TRIM on either one. I doubt I will. They both run great.
 

aphexacid

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2007
936
22
Chicago
I have two MBPs with M4s and haven't enabled TRIM on either one. I doubt I will. They both run great.

Thanks for the feedback, i will not enable TRIM for now. I'll use it as is, and then down the road if need be, either enable it with the existing install, or reformat and begin with TRIM enabled
 

aphexacid

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2007
936
22
Chicago
Wow Wow WOW!

I just put my M4 in my macbook! what a night and day difference!

I have a gaming laptop with a pretty nice SSD in it running Win 7.

But OS X + SSD = scream!

My macbook 2,1 with a T7200 boots in 1 revelation of the spinning circle!
Firefox 1 bounce?? itunes 1 bounce! Never seen this even on a brand new macbook pro!

I'm impressed!

Too bad its not even using the SSD to its full potential :(

No TRIM enabled btw
 

daneoni

macrumors G4
Mar 24, 2006
11,610
1,155
Been using the M4 with TRIM enabled (old method) since July and not even a single hiccup.

*knock on wood*
 

punchwalk

macrumors regular
May 16, 2010
214
65
Maryland, USA
I have a 128GB M4 in my 2011 MBP. I enabled TRIM using the "new" method. No complaints though I've heard (and even witnessed) anecdotal evidence that enabling TRIM slows things down a little bit (but not enough to be significant in my usage scenarios). So I think the "by consensus" answer is:

- For the fastest speeds out of the box, don't enable TRIM for the M4.
- The jury is still out on whether leaving TRIM disabled will cause the M4's performance to degrade substantially over time (more so than that which is unavoidable with current SSDs).
- There's no conclusive evidence that enabling TRIM is detrimental to the M4 at this time.

You might as well take a "do what you want" approach for now.
 
Last edited:

djpuma

macrumors regular
Jul 13, 2010
139
33
serious question.

So if the drive starts to slow down a lot, can you just take a reinstall OSX and migrate your data back over, or do you have to do some crazy write zeros 10 times type stuff to get your drive back to full speed read/write?

serious question btw
 

fins831

macrumors 6502a
Oct 7, 2011
657
0
So if the drive starts to slow down a lot, can you just take a reinstall OSX and migrate your data back over, or do you have to do some crazy write zeros 10 times type stuff to get your drive back to full speed read/write?

serious question btw

TRIM is designed to optimize the drive while using it. Any file degradation can lead to degradation of the drive, and permanent speed declines. Granted, this is not always 100 percent assured, and any slowdowns could theoretically be fixed with a full wipe and install, any degradation can be detrimental to the longevity of the SSD.

Its basically hit or miss, and there is no definitive right answer. Personally, I have a desktop with Intel 510 Elmcrest and use Intels Toolbox to optimize Trim and the drive, keep it functioning. However, in OSX, since no toolbox is there, I would probably enable TRIM.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
15,598
California
So if the drive starts to slow down a lot, can you just take a reinstall OSX and migrate your data back over, or do you have to do some crazy write zeros 10 times type stuff to get your drive back to full speed read/write?

serious question btw

Even if you never enable TRIM the worst that will ever happen is your write speeds and write speeds only may slow down. If that happens, just install the TRIM hack, boot to single user mode, then run the command "fsck -ffy" (without the quotes) and all free space on the drive will be TRIMed and the drive will be back to like new performance.

Again, not using TRIM will in no way harm the drive.
 

dsciel

macrumors regular
Jul 13, 2011
148
0
For all M4 users, When your computer resume from sleep ~ does ur computer freeze for a few seconds? when my computer is back on from sleep, the computer screen is on but cant use mouse or anything for like 2-3 secs. Wondering if this is a problem to my SSD. because i remember that the original drive does work right away when i pull the screen up for my macbook pro
 

Steve's Barber

macrumors 6502a
Jul 5, 2011
773
1
My macbook 2,1 with a T7200 boots in 1 revelation of the spinning circle!
Since dumping Lion and reverting back to Snow Leopard the spinning circle doesn't even show up for me. I go from the Apple logo, to a blue screen for about a second then the desktop flashes on to the screen.
 
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