2 Questions: Garbage collection & SD Card slot

[hkim1983]

Hi, I will be moving from a '08 Alu Macbook to a '12 MBP. Just for background, the '08 Alu Macbook doesn't have a SD card slot.

-I will be purchasing a USB 3 stick for various reasons. With this in mind, I wasn't sure what I could use the SD card slot for, but since I've never had the opportunity to have one on my computer, I could just be missing something. So I ask, with the USB stick in mind, is there anything I can get out of using a SDXC card?

-Awhile back, when I first started investigating SSDs, it was deemed almost universally important to have either TRIM enabled or a form of garbage collection on your SSD. I plan on purchasing a Samsung 830 series SSD, do either of these things mean anything to me anymore? Do I have to do something special on my own to address this?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can assist me or contribute to this thread.

 

[Acidsplat]

Nowadays, you won't have to worry about TRIM as many, if not all, SSDs have their own garbage collection, Sandforce being the most popular.

 

[hkim1983]

Nowadays, you won't have to worry about TRIM as many, if not all, SSDs have their own garbage collection, Sandforce being the most popular.

I assume this applies to Samsung too? They don't use the Sandforce controller. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Mr MM]

I assume this applies to Samsung too? They don't use the Sandforce controller. Thanks for the reply.

yes it applies to all relatively new SSDs, however I dont recommend sandforce at all, just google sandforce problems to a get an idea of how good that controller is.

I do advise on getting the samsung 830 its one of the best SSDs

but you wont have trim, since apple doesnt enable trim for other SSDs than theirs, you could use trim enabler its an app

 

[dusk007]

Actually Trim is rather useless without some Garbage Collection. You need GC but you want Trim. GC is just way more effective with Trim.
GC without Trim is like working on a drive that is constantly 100% filled up. Some modern drives do quite okay in that situation with common consumer workload. Writing often big files is good not much need for Trim. Writing often small files across the drives and Trim is your friend.

You can always enable Trim with Trim enabler. I don't have any problems only clearing the Trash takes a little longer. It is as easy as downloading an App and hitting a button.

 

[hkim1983]

So let me get this straight: I want to enable trim via an app on the Samsung 830? The Samsung 830 includes some kind of built in garbage collection, so by enabling trim as well, I'll get the best of both worlds?

Now, I want to complicate this a little bit. Let's say I enable trim on OS X. I plan on installing boot camp on this drive, so would I have to enable trim on Windows as well?

Thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate it.

 

[hkim1983]

I'm sorry for the bump, but I'm hoping someone can answer the question I outlined above. I also want to expand on it a little more.

I remember back in my original research, it was important to format the drive in a specific way (something about the blocks being a certain number divisible by 4?). Is this still relevant?

To repeat my earlier question: If I have a boot camp partition, and I enable trim on OS X, do I have to enable trim on Windows too separately?

Thanks to everyone for any and all help. I appreciate it.