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SSD Buying Guide
- Thread starter Hellhammer
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No question! But my issue is the price of SATA III SSDs.I'd assume SATA I & II were cheaper.
They aren't cheaper. It doesn't make sense to design a SATA 1.5Gbps or 3Gbps SSD because the controller is only a small part of the BOM - the biggest chunk comes from NAND. Even old drives are not cheaper because they use NAND with bigger lithography, which is more expensive to produce (the smaller the lithography, the more chips per wafer and hence cheaper $/GB).
Besides, while you may not be able to take full advantage of a SATA 6Gbps SSD, they are much better than 3Gbps designs in terms of random IO performance and especially IO consistency, which are things you'll notice even with SATA 1.5Gbps interface.
Sata III drives also tend to have newer more reliable designs. So even on an older mac, the advantages (read:value) is still good.
On the trim question, my understanding is that the detriments of not having trim come over time as the non-deleted items accumulate. So a test for the benefits would best be done after many months of having it off.
On the trim question, my understanding is that the detriments of not having trim come over time as the non-deleted items accumulate. So a test for the benefits would best be done after many months of having it off.
Finally made up my mind and bought and installed a Samsung Evo 840 120GB into my late 2008 15" Pro. Process of installing was very easy:
1. Put drive into USB caddy
2. Cloned with super duper
3. Installed in Macbook in place of old HD (only annoying thing were the very tight screws on the hard drive, and why do they need to use such an odd screw design???)
4. Turned on and all worked
5. Checked the firmware installed, found the following: EXT0BB0Q
6. Burned DVD with Samsung firmware EXT0BB6Q
7. Booted from DVD to install newer firmware
8. All went fine (warning that all would be deleted etc) until I got message that this firmware is not compatible (?)
9. Rebooted and all data was still on SSD (again ???)
10. Checked firmware again and now it says EXT0BB6Q (even bigger ????)
11. Installed Trim Enabler (Groths)
All working fine. Speed is about 200 write and 270 read which is what I would have expected (my old Macbook Pro only supports SATA2 i.e. 3 Gigabit)
Boot up (after complete shutdown) does not seem to be much faster but applications definitely open quicker.
So all in all quite easy and cheap upgrade (525 CNY or about 86 US$)
1. Put drive into USB caddy
2. Cloned with super duper
3. Installed in Macbook in place of old HD (only annoying thing were the very tight screws on the hard drive, and why do they need to use such an odd screw design???)
4. Turned on and all worked
5. Checked the firmware installed, found the following: EXT0BB0Q
6. Burned DVD with Samsung firmware EXT0BB6Q
7. Booted from DVD to install newer firmware
8. All went fine (warning that all would be deleted etc) until I got message that this firmware is not compatible (?)
9. Rebooted and all data was still on SSD (again ???)
10. Checked firmware again and now it says EXT0BB6Q (even bigger ????)
11. Installed Trim Enabler (Groths)
All working fine. Speed is about 200 write and 270 read which is what I would have expected (my old Macbook Pro only supports SATA2 i.e. 3 Gigabit)
Boot up (after complete shutdown) does not seem to be much faster but applications definitely open quicker.
So all in all quite easy and cheap upgrade (525 CNY or about 86 US$)
Samsung EVO 840 750Gb results .... though you're not recommended to do this to a
new SSD !!!
Pretty impressive compared to this :
Lacie 1TB Thunderbolt drive on the TB connection, only 5400rpm though!
Martin.
how are you people taking screenshots of your blackmagic tests?
mine does a read/write test that immediately repeats the test making it near impossible to pause it fast enough to take a screenshot
mine does a read/write test that immediately repeats the test making it near impossible to pause it fast enough to take a screenshot
There is a screenshot function built into blackmagic, somewhere in the menu.
It's in a late 2011 i7 quad 2.4 MBP - bought in July 2012.
Was one of the final pre-retina MBP's and was on "special" so I saved
around 300 on buying it a couple of months earlier.
The EVO has only been in a few months, originally I had a Crucial M4 256 installed
but that failed after just over a year .... the "4000 hrs use" bug.
Martin.
Oh and yup, Speed Disk has a built it capture, paused right at the top of it's
first test, it actually was a touch higher and dropped back about 10MB/s before
I paused it !!
Helllo, I'm considering buying a new internal hard drive for my Macbook Pro 17'' (Early 2009, with 8GB of RAM). Right now it still runs on the drive with which it came (Hitachi HTS723232L9SA62 - 140GB free out of 320), but I'm afraid that it's running a bit slower than it did one or two years ago. I don't want to spend a lot of money, so I've been thinking about buying a Seagate SSHD, in particular this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178339
What do you think? Also, my current drive is a 7200rpm, while the Seagate SSHD I'm considering is 5400rpm. Does this mean that it may not be faster?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178339
What do you think? Also, my current drive is a 7200rpm, while the Seagate SSHD I'm considering is 5400rpm. Does this mean that it may not be faster?
There are multiple advantages to SSD. Going with a hybrid skips some of them, like noise and battery life. When I need to save cash, I go smaller. Save money by spending time combing my drive for things to trash.
Crucial M500
I've got a 15" mid-2010 MBP and want to get a SSD. The price on the Crucial M500 is at $260 right now.
Anyway, I'm about to pull the trigger but one thing is holding me back - the M500 has been out for a while now (April 2013). Any idea when the new model might be coming out? It seems like they should be due for a new one, right??
I've got a 15" mid-2010 MBP and want to get a SSD. The price on the Crucial M500 is at $260 right now.
Anyway, I'm about to pull the trigger but one thing is holding me back - the M500 has been out for a while now (April 2013). Any idea when the new model might be coming out? It seems like they should be due for a new one, right??
I wouldn't expect an M500 replacement from Crucial/Micron anytime soon. The M4 ran for over two years, the M500 replaced it the second half of last year.
The M500 is more than fast enough to saturate the SATA II connection on a 2010 MBP anyway.
The M500 is more than fast enough to saturate the SATA II connection on a 2010 MBP anyway.
There are better SSDs in terms of performance (especially IO consistency) but the M500 is currently a great bang for the buck and the performance difference is mostly negligible unless your usage is very IO heavy.
SanDisk Extreme II and Seagate SSD 600 for example (purely from a performance perspective).
The product is the same. But the total price (unit price, shipping, tax) may be different. Watch for sales tax. Amazon is now collecting sales tax for some states. That is why I buy from B&H instead.
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