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The Samsung 830 SSD thread

A

Acejam2k

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 16, 2008
244
16
I've seen a few posts here and there about the new Samsung 830 SSD. I think it would be a good ida to consolidate all of this information into one single thread. This would be similar to the stickied SSD buying guide, but would contain information only relating to the Samsung 830.

With that said, I'll start:

I recently picked up a Late 2011 15" MBP from my local Apple store. I wanted the anti-glare screen, so I ended up with the high-end 2.5 GHz i7 model. This came with a 7200rpm 750GB HDD, but I wanted an SSD simply because I previously had an 80GB Intel X25-M in my Dell laptop. I've seen first hand the difference they could make.

Before even powering the machine on for the first time, I opened it up and installed my new 16GB Corsair RAM kit, along with the 256GB Samsung 830 SSD. Everything installed smoothly. I selected the Notebook kit on NewEgg, therefore my kit came along with a 2mm plastic spacer. Due to the HDD positioning in the MBP, this spacer is not needed. I booted into the recovery menu and Lion was downloaded via Wi-Fi. Approximately ~15 minutes later I was up and running.

Overall, the Samsung 830 feels like a very solid performer. Some pictures of the installation process can be found below. Notice the height difference between the SSD and the stock HDD.

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Thanks,
Ace
 
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G

gsilver

macrumors member
Jul 6, 2010
38
1
I also got the Samsung 830 256GB. I've had it running for two weeks now with no problems. I thought about enabling trim, but I haven't had any performance issues so I'm going to hold off for now.

Screen%20Shot%202011-12-03%20at%204.49.37%20PM.png
 
UFO212

UFO212

macrumors member
Jul 29, 2008
50
0
I also have late 2011 15" but 2.2Ghz 8GB ram with 256GB Samsung 830

used to have Crucial M4 for few weeks but beach balling made me go with Samsung

My speed was fairly same with above thread 475 read 390 write..
 
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R

rheb1026

macrumors member
Jun 19, 2011
44
0
Taxachusetts
Just installed a 128GB 830 a few days ago in my 2011 13" i5. What a difference from the stock HDD! Zero problems so far, and I have not enabled TRIM. Super quiet too

71c2bbfe.jpg
 
J

Jpalessi

macrumors member
Dec 3, 2011
55
0
did either of you need any addition equipment to install the drive? I'm looking at buying a 830 series. my MBP is from last year so its only SATA 2 but the deals are better on SATA 3's from what I see.
 
N

nippyjun

macrumors 68000
Jul 26, 2007
1,638
323
For the OP.

Have your problems gone away.

If not maybe put the stock memory back in and see if it's the memory.
 
J

Jpalessi

macrumors member
Dec 3, 2011
55
0
rheb1026 said:
That's if you want to put a hard drive in place of the optical drive - instead of, or in addition to, the regular hard drive bay
Click to expand...

ahh i see. thats actually what im looking to do.. so i do need that "data dubler" Thanks!
 
Sasha-1

Sasha-1

Contributor
Aug 11, 2001
467
182
gsilver said:
I also got the Samsung 830 256GB. I've had it running for two weeks now with no problems. I thought about enabling trim, but I haven't had any performance issues so I'm going to hold off for now.

Image
Click to expand...

Which version of the blackmagic test are you running here?
 
A

Acejam2k

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 16, 2008
244
16
nippyjun said:
For the OP.

Have your problems gone away.

If not maybe put the stock memory back in and see if it's the memory.
Click to expand...

I enabled TRIM on the drive on Saturday. Unfortunately yesterday, it locked up again, and I received a never-ending beachball.

I didn't want to open up the case again and I'd really like to stick with the 16GB RAM, so I ran 5 rounds of Memtest overnight. All tests passed, so I don't think it's the RAM in this case. Typically bad memory/RAM will throw a few errors within the first few minutes of a Memtest round.

Maybe I got a defective SSD?
 
Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
Acejam2k said:
I enabled TRIM on the drive on Saturday. Unfortunately yesterday, it locked up again, and I received a never-ending beachball.

I didn't want to open up the case again and I'd really like to stick with the 16GB RAM, so I ran 5 rounds of Memtest overnight. All tests passed, so I don't think it's the RAM in this case. Typically bad memory/RAM will throw a few errors within the first few minutes of a Memtest round.

Maybe I got a defective SSD?
Click to expand...

Your only option is to troubleshoot. Put the stock RAM back in and see how it work. If it works, then it's the RAM. If it isn't, then it's most likely the SSD.
 
A

Acejam2k

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 16, 2008
244
16
Hellhammer said:
Your only option is to troubleshoot. Put the stock RAM back in and see how it work. If it works, then it's the RAM. If it isn't, then it's most likely the SSD.
Click to expand...

If it was the RAM - wouldn't you expect Memtest to fail? That's always been the rule of thumb for PC's/Windows (which I'm coming from) so I can't imagine why OSX (FreeBSD/Unix) would be any different.
 
Sasha-1

Sasha-1

Contributor
Aug 11, 2001
467
182
Acejam2k said:
If it was the RAM - wouldn't you expect Memtest to fail? That's always been the rule of thumb for PC's/Windows (which I'm coming from) so I can't imagine why OSX (FreeBSD/Unix) would be any different.
Click to expand...

Just to be sure, pop out the ram. Sounds like you'll know in a day or two if things stay the same. You'll want to this now as the clock is ticking and you will want to return either the ram or the SSD.
 
A

Acejam2k

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 16, 2008
244
16
sfoalex said:
Just to be sure, pop out the ram. Sounds like you'll know in a day or two if things stay the same. You'll want to this now as the clock is ticking and you will want to return either the ram or the SSD.
Click to expand...

It's worth a shot I suppose. Using system logs in OSX - is there any way to determine if the system freeze/beachball is from an SSD/HDD or RAM?

For example, I would imagine an SSD issue might render an error message such as: "Unable to read system drive..." or something along those lines.
 
A

Acejam2k

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 16, 2008
244
16
I just put the stock 4GB RAM back in (2x2GB). I ran the MBP through a CPU stress test and simulated 50+ tabs in various browser windows, etc, similar to how I received my prior crashes. So far, everything is stable, so I'm starting to wonder if my issue was in fact the Corsair 16GB RAM kit. In fact, I sort-of hope that is, since I'd really like to keep this SSD.

My understanding is that in the past, the typical 6Gbps SATA3 issues resulted in a freeze for about 20-30 seconds, and then the machine would continue on as normal. My crash/pause never ended - but then again, I never received the kernel panic screen. I looked in the system.log log file, but I couldn't find much at the time of my crash, everything appeared to look normal to me.

For reference, this is the 16GB RAM kit that I got: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233217
 
Sasha-1

Sasha-1

Contributor
Aug 11, 2001
467
182
Acejam2k said:
I just put the stock 4GB RAM back in (2x2GB). I ran the MBP through a CPU stress test and simulated 50+ tabs in various browser windows, etc, similar to how I received my prior crashes. So far, everything is stable, so I'm starting to wonder if my issue was in fact the Corsair 16GB RAM kit. In fact, I sort-of hope that is, since I'd really like to keep this SSD.

My understanding is that in the past, the typical 6Gbps SATA3 issues resulted in a freeze for about 20-30 seconds, and then the machine would continue on as normal. My crash/pause never ended - but then again, I never received the kernel panic screen. I looked in the system.log log file, but I couldn't find much at the time of my crash, everything appeared to look normal to me.

For reference, this is the 16GB RAM kit that I got: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233217
Click to expand...

Your problem crops up every two days roughly if I remember correct. Is that right? If yes, I'd seriously just use the Mac as normal for a few days and see if it comes up again.

How much free space do you have on the booting drive?
 
M

MJL

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2011
845
1
What are the temperatures in your machine when it happens? Often unexplained errors are the result of too high temperatures and parts unable to cope with that - memory included. Officially the Mac mini is only capable of 8 Gb so 16 Gb may at times work, on other occasions have reliability problems. (Perhaps this is why Apple only states 8 Gb?)
 
A

Acejam2k

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 16, 2008
244
16
sfoalex said:
Your problem crops up every two days roughly if I remember correct. Is that right? If yes, I'd seriously just use the Mac as normal for a few days and see if it comes up again.

How much free space do you have on the booting drive?
Click to expand...

I bought the MBP just last week, so it's crashed once (or more) per day, except for today.

I plan to leave the 4GB RAM in for the next 2-3 days. If I don't receive anymore crashes, then I'm going to RMA the RAM. The question is, should I try and get a replacement kit from NewEgg, or just should I just get a flat-out refund?

I'm wondering if I would be better off just picking up some certified Kingston RAM from Amazon. The only catch is, those kits only come in 8GB, with 4GB DIMM's. I will probably never use all 16GB, but more is always better right?

If they send me a new kit for the RMA and it works, I'd be happy.

I have over 200+ GB of free space on my SSD still.

----------
MJL said:
What are the temperatures in your machine when it happens? Often unexplained errors are the result of too high temperatures and parts unable to cope with that - memory included. Officially the Mac mini is only capable of 8 Gb so 16 Gb may at times work, on other occasions have reliability problems. (Perhaps this is why Apple only states 8 Gb?)
Click to expand...

My machine gets warm, but it wasn't doing anything stressful during the crash. Mostly just several browser tabs open.
 
M

MJL

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2011
845
1
If you have not had a crash today then I think the chance is high that it is the memory. It can be the memory itself or just that in your particular machine (not model) 16 Gb is unreliable. Personally I would respect the recommendations of the manufacturer and put only 8 gb in unless there is a compelling reason that you need more (but then do you have the right machine?) e.g. with Virtual Machines. However from your posting I do not feel there is a compelling reason.

It can also be that the machine is sensitive for which brand of memory you put in (although I believe not as bad as the 2010 model). Just because someone mentions that 16 Gb will work does not mean that is every case this is going to be true.
 
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