Specs: SATA II, 2.5″ form factor, MLC technology. (PATA also available)
32GB: $39.00 (prices in Australian dollars)
64GB: $58.00
128GB: $115.00
![wPYcL.png]()
I wanted to stick a cheap SSD in an old 2005 iMac I had lying around, since I was so impressed with the improvement in performance in everything else Id stuck an SSD in. I didnt need very much storage capacity at all, I really only needed enough for the operating system, a few programs, a few 64kbit/sec MP3s, a movie or two I figured 32GB was all I needed. This iMac is not a main computer of mine, it sits out in the home gym for a bit of music, web browsing, movies, etc. I wanted speed and didn't need capacity.
I hopped on eBay, eventually settled on one that seemed quite common. Brand name is KingSpec, never heard of them before, but at $39, I figured it was a worthwhile gamble. Turns out I was correct; I installed it in the iMac, taped it in place (Im apparently too cool for things like mounting brackets), cloned the system back over, and it all worked perfectly. Despite the SATA I limitation of the old iMac, sustained read speeds were hitting a consistent 130MB/second. That matches the high end SSDs Ive got in other computers that are also bottlenecked by SATA I.
Anyway, that KingSpec drive has performed flawlessly for the six or so weeks Ive had it. Performance is still just as good, and 75% of the drive has been used.
How to find them:
Search on eBay for KingSpec SATA SSD 64GB, without the quotation marks, and substituting the 64 for however many GB of storage you want. If I remember correctly, there were also 16GB drives going for about $29, and 256GB ones, but the 256GB drives were actually slightly more expensive than the same capacity OWC Mercury SSD I have.
32GB: $39.00 (prices in Australian dollars)
64GB: $58.00
128GB: $115.00
I wanted to stick a cheap SSD in an old 2005 iMac I had lying around, since I was so impressed with the improvement in performance in everything else Id stuck an SSD in. I didnt need very much storage capacity at all, I really only needed enough for the operating system, a few programs, a few 64kbit/sec MP3s, a movie or two I figured 32GB was all I needed. This iMac is not a main computer of mine, it sits out in the home gym for a bit of music, web browsing, movies, etc. I wanted speed and didn't need capacity.
I hopped on eBay, eventually settled on one that seemed quite common. Brand name is KingSpec, never heard of them before, but at $39, I figured it was a worthwhile gamble. Turns out I was correct; I installed it in the iMac, taped it in place (Im apparently too cool for things like mounting brackets), cloned the system back over, and it all worked perfectly. Despite the SATA I limitation of the old iMac, sustained read speeds were hitting a consistent 130MB/second. That matches the high end SSDs Ive got in other computers that are also bottlenecked by SATA I.
Anyway, that KingSpec drive has performed flawlessly for the six or so weeks Ive had it. Performance is still just as good, and 75% of the drive has been used.
How to find them:
Search on eBay for KingSpec SATA SSD 64GB, without the quotation marks, and substituting the 64 for however many GB of storage you want. If I remember correctly, there were also 16GB drives going for about $29, and 256GB ones, but the 256GB drives were actually slightly more expensive than the same capacity OWC Mercury SSD I have.
