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SSD 128GB. What brand? Is it fast? Should I stay with 500gb mechanic drive...

W

WaterW0lf

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 28, 2011
23
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What brand is it on the SSD disc apple put in the Macbook Pros? The new 2011.
I read it was Toshiba somewhere. Are they any good, or are there better out there?

I cant make out my mind of I should get the stock 500gb, and wait for cheaper 128/250gb drives, or get the 128gb. I want o course it to be the fastest disc available . :)
 
No one has received their BTO MBP with an SSD yet, so we don't know. First ones should arrive on Wednesday.
 
WaterW0lf said:
What brand is it on the SSD disc apple put in the Macbook Pros? The new 2011.
I read it was Toshiba somewhere. Are they any good, or are there better out there?

I cant make out my mind of I should get the stock 500gb, and wait for cheaper 128/250gb drives, or get the 128gb. I want o course it to be the fastest disc available . :)
Click to expand...

I ordered the 128 GB SSD for $90 with my MBP. I thought it was a great deal, and I might as well get it (and sell later, if I don't want it). My bet is that it's either a Samsung or a Toshiba. I'd prefer a Toshiba, as they seem to have very aggressive and effective garbage collection in their newer controllers (used in the MBAs). Samsung, on the other hand, has had some really bad performance degradation in the past.
 
axu539 said:
I ordered the 128 GB SSD for $90 with my MBP. I thought it was a great deal, and I might as well get it (and sell later, if I don't want it). My bet is that it's either a Samsung or a Toshiba. I'd prefer a Toshiba, as they seem to have very aggressive and effective garbage collection in their newer controllers (used in the MBAs). Samsung, on the other hand, has had some really bad performance degradation in the past.
Click to expand...

Actually, the latest MBAs use Samsung SSDs. Apple changed the SSDs in the middle of the revision and they now have around 260/210 MB/s speeds. A lot has happened in Samsung's camp as well since the SSDs Apple used in the past so I wouldn't judge SM based on their past.
 
$90? How'd you manage that? (I'm seeing $250 for 128gb or $225 with student pricing)
 
moosaur said:
$90? How'd you manage that? (I'm seeing $250 for 128gb or $225 with student pricing)
Click to expand...

The high end 15" and 17" come standard with the 750 GB 5400 RPM or the 500 GB 7200 RPM, so the upgrade price is only $90 for student pricing. I guess if you're looking at low end, $225 might be a bit harder to swallow. However, as I value the 2 disk drives I mentioned at only like $60 a pop, the SSD upgrade cost in the high ends is really like $150, which is very competitive.
 
I don't think I'd ever get the Apple installed SSD upgrade. I got a 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 w/SandForce technology for $215 on Amazon. It appears to be the fastest for the money, and with the Vertex 3 on the horizon, the V2's should drop in price. The install was a couple of screws and 5 minutes of my time. I went from a 53 second boot to a 12 second boot on my 2010 13" 2.66.

Even if I paid the same price as the apple upgrade, now I have an external 320GB drive that I can use CCC to create a system image every month.

Here's the SSD I got. OCZ Vertex 2 120GB

And the external USB3 enclosure. Rosewill USB3 2.5" enclosure
 
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axu539 said:
I ordered the 128 GB SSD for $90 with my MBP. I thought it was a great deal, and I might as well get it (and sell later, if I don't want it). My bet is that it's either a Samsung or a Toshiba. I'd prefer a Toshiba, as they seem to have very aggressive and effective garbage collection in their newer controllers (used in the MBAs). Samsung, on the other hand, has had some really bad performance degradation in the past.
Click to expand...

How did you manage to get it for 90 bucks? ;) 190 maybe?
 
falterego said:
I don't think I'd ever get the Apple installed SSD upgrade. I got a 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 w/SandForce technology for $215 on Amazon. It appears to be the fastest for the money, and with the Vertex 3 on the horizon, the V2's should drop in price. The install was a couple of screws and 5 minutes of my time. I went from a 53 second boot to a 12 second boot on my 2010 13" 2.66.

Even if I paid the same price as the apple upgrade, now I have an external 320GB drive that I can use CCC to create a system image every month.
Click to expand...

All this is very true but what about the reliability of the drive on sleep/wake/hibernation? It is my understanding that while the Apple SSD (whatever brand it is) is perhaps not the fastest when it comes to read/write speeds (like only 200+ MB/s) it has unparalleled stability and reliability. I would trade a little speed for never having an issue with the drive but thats me.

WaterW0lf said:
How did you manage to get it for 90 bucks? ;) 190 maybe?
Click to expand...

and to answer your ? about SSD pricing, if i build the high end 15" under my education discount it is only a $90 upgrade to the 128GB SSD. I'd rather pay that and then buy a WD 500GB 7200 HDD at $85 and stuff that in the optical bay, then factory spec it with a 500GB 7200 and buy a $215 128GB SSD. By going the first route you get a good SSD and then you get a really nice spiny drive, where if you go the second route you get a really nice SSD but a sub par spiny drive.
 
Merkyworks said:
All this is very true but what about the reliability of the drive on sleep/wake/hibernation? It is my understanding that while the Apple SSD (whatever brand it is) is perhaps not the fastest when it comes to read/write speeds (like only 200+ MB/s) it has unparalleled stability and reliability. I would trade a little speed for never having an issue with the drive but thats me.
Click to expand...

I haven't had any issues with the sleep/wake/hibernation usage. The drive came preformatted HSF+, and all the documentation indicates that it was designed for the Mac platform.

I tend not to sleep my computer too much though. When I'm done using it for the day I'm really done, and probably won't touch it for another 20 hours. With a 12 second boot time I'm fine shutting it down completely. The only time I use sleep is if I'm running out to grab a bite to eat or run a quick errand. With a 3 year warranty I don't have much to be concerned about with my drive.

As for overall performance, I haven't seen a spec sheet for the SSD Apple is putting in their computers, so I don't know what the read/write speeds are. My drive is a 285 MB/s read 275 MB/s write, which was the fastest for the price when I did my searching. I know there are faster drives out there that are above the 300 mark and probably above the 400 mark, but I'm running a C2D CPU right now, so I don't think I'm waiting on the drive anymore. 2 seconds to load Photoshop is fast enough for me.
 
I am doing the Optibay thing with a Mercury 128gb SSD and it's awesome! I still have a 500gb 7200 WD Caviar Black. What a setup! It's so nice not having to hear the CD drive make any noise.

I have the computer set to never go to sleep and have not had any problems yet.
 
Do you guys think it would make sense to get the cheapo 90$ SSD from Apple (I also get EDU-pricing) and sell it right away? I'm planning on getting a 256 GB SATA-III SSD anyway, and I think the 128 GB OEM drive might fetch a bigger price than 90$ on ebay - right?
 
I ordered a 13" inch a 128G SSD drive, it's arriving Wednesday. I only use about 50G of my current 80G white macbook laptop, so I should be fine with the 128G. I only need my laptop for light video streaming / iTunes and media use / home productivity / etc.
 
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