Corsair 128GB SSD in Macbook Pro

[echelon234]

Hi. I've just installed the Corsair 128GB SSD in my MBP. This is basically a rebadged samsung mlc. It is rated for 70MB/s write & 90 MB/s read. It should be identical to the upgrade you can currently purchase on a unibody MBP in the Apple store. But according to my benchmarks it outperforms its specifications.

It seems to be 80 MB/s write and 110 MB/s read!!

Unlike the power hungry OCZ apex/vertex and G Skill Titan this only uses 0.4W in operation. I think this is probably the best performance/capacity/power balanced SSD on the market right now.

Anyone else got this drive yet?

 

[dgdosen]

These look pretty good - I can confirm the Titan's power consumption and heat - but it's still a pretty good value today.

I look forward to seeing Corsair rebrand the larger Samsung drives soon!

 

[opera57]

Thats awesome!

I really want one for mine, but I'm not quite sure if 128gb would suit my needs.. it would feel like a downgrade in a way from the 160 I have now. I dont know..

 

[bugout]

the updated sata interface in the unibody really makes a difference

 

[alphaod]

Looks awesome

I'm still waiting for the Intel 64GB SLC

 

[MikhailT]

Hi. I've just installed the Corsair 128GB SSD in my MBP. This is basically a rebadged samsung mlc. It is rated for 70MB/s write & 90 MB/s read. It should be identical to the upgrade you can currently purchase on a unibody MBP in the Apple store. But according to my benchmarks it outperforms its specifications.

It seems to be 80 MB/s write and 110 MB/s read!!

Unlike the power hungry OCZ apex/vertex and G Skill Titan this only uses 0.4W in operation. I think this is probably the best performance/capacity/power balanced SSD on the market right now.

Anyone else got this drive yet?

1) Does bootcamp work on it? Did you experience any stuttering?
2) What is your MBP spec?
3) What was your previous HD?
4) How big of improvement did you notice from previous HD?

 

[echelon234]

1) Does bootcamp work on it? Did you experience any stuttering?

Yes bootcamp works fine, no stuttering as the samsung controller can get ~1700 IOPS @ 4kb. Most of the jmicron ssds (ocz/g skill/patriot/etc.) can only get 4 IOPS @ 4kb hence stuttering!

2) What is your MBP spec?

2.4 GHz unibody Macbook Pro / 4GB Ram

3) What was your previous HD?

Stock 5400 rpm hitachi

4) How big of improvement did you notice from previous HD?

Big improvement overall. Boot up/application opening/loading photos/loading pdfs are all miles better. Parallels desktop VMs load very quickly. Whole computing experience much smoother. This proves that raw sequential transfer speeds are not the biggest factor to consider. I guess if you were constantly duplicating large files (>10MB) then other SSDs may be better for you but I rarely do anything like.

 

[nippyjun]

How is battery life. I've been reading about the possiblity of lower battery life, although it's not clear if that's actually the case.

 

[MikhailT]

How is battery life. I've been reading about the possiblity of lower battery life, although it's not clear if that's actually the case.

For samsung it is either equal or better since it consume much lower rate compared to the other SSDs like Titan/Apex series of SSD.

 

[echelon234]

I don't actually know yet as I spend most of the time plugged in. People are reporting 30 mins extra with the Intel x25-m (0.2W) so I'm guessing maybe 15-20min extra with the Corsair. What is even better is because it generates so little heat the system fans don't come on and there is no hard disk spinning sound. So this effectively makes your MBP a silent computer!

 

[TexasAg]

Parallels desktop VMs load very quickly.

How long does it take to load up windows in parallels? Just curious - I didn't see as quick a bootup as I had expected in parallels with the g-skill titan.

 

[bugout]

How long does it take to load up windows in parallels? Just curious - I didn't see as quick a bootup as I had expected in parallels with the g-skill titan.

Thats odd.. XP boots in about 10-15 seconds for me under vmware with the titan.

 

[tubbymac]

Wow this may be the very first SSD drive I'd actually consider buying. The Intel is amazing but has problems with bootcamp. The Samsung SSD drives that Apple provides are a rip off if you buy them from Apple. Everything else was garbage because of cheap JMicron controllers.

If Corsair can get out a 256 gig version of these drives with a Samsung controller they could grab a lot of business from Intel and JunkMicron.

 

[CTechKid]

My Benchmarks from a previous thread!

Rather than reposting my benchmarks, I'll just leave you guys with a link to my results. Keep in mind my numbers are from a 2.2 SR with SATA I.

My Corsair 128 SSD Benchmarks

 

[ayeying]

Thats odd.. XP boots in about 10-15 seconds for me under vmware with the titan.

That seems a bit slow. I can easily boot XP within the same amount of time on a 5400RPM hard drive. Is it booting via Boot Camp Partition or a virtual machine?

 

[MikhailT]

Rather than reposting my benchmarks, I'll just leave you guys with a link to my results. Keep in mind my numbers are from a 2.2 SR with SATA I.

My Corsair 128 SSD Benchmarks

Thanks for sharing the numbers. It's hard to find results with SATA I interface.

So my choices are to get this drive for my penrya 2.5ghz or try to replace the mbp with the unibody with sata 2 interface to get 250/250Mbps that the latest Vertex/Summit from OCZ and the new Sammy 256gb SSD can get.

If only the economy wasn't this bad. Sighs. I would get the Corsair if it could get at least 110 in writes.

 

[echelon234]

I've got windows 7 beta installed on boot camp and it takes about 40s to start up in Parallels. I imagine an XP VM image would probably be a fair bit quicker.

Yes the new ocz vertex and samsung 256gb are both amazingly fast. However they are also expensive, and not available! You probably need to wait 6 months for those to come down to an affordable price. The vertex also runs hot at 2 Watts. Depending on your usage patterns you may hardly notice the difference between 80 MB/s write and 200 MB/s. Most of the SSDs "instant response" factor comes from the 0.1 ms access time.

From the corsair forum:

32MB of onboard Cache on the 128GB Corsair SSD. (official)

It is slowly becoming one of the top SSD drive next to Intel for people with SATA I laptops and anybody who wants super stable with no stuttering SSD.

I'm now doubly convinced I've made the right choice

 

[MikhailT]

I've got windows 7 beta installed on boot camp and it takes about 40s to start up in Parallels. I imagine an XP VM image would probably be a fair bit quicker.

Yes the new ocz vertex and samsung 256gb are both amazingly fast. However they are also expensive, and not available! You probably need to wait 6 months for those to come down to an affordable price. The vertex also runs hot at 2 Watts. Depending on your usage patterns you may hardly notice the difference between 80 MB/s write and 200 MB/s. Most of the SSDs "instant response" factor comes from the 0.1 ms access time.

From the corsair forum:

32MB of onboard Cache on the 128GB Corsair SSD. (official)

It is slowly becoming one of the top SSD drive next to Intel for people with SATA I laptops and anybody who wants super stable with no stuttering SSD.

I'm now doubly convinced I've made the right choice

You took my quote from corsair forum. It is merely my opinion of S128 over months of looking at people's experiences all over the internet and based on the Samsung controller that the Corsair S128 is using.

Vertex is within weeks of coming out. Vertex should be much cooler than the Titan/Apex series since it is not using 2 controllers + 1 raid controllers. Samsung 256 is definately expensive as hell, 1200$ retail or 400$ upgrade on Dell Studio XPS 16. Possible same SSD for 700$ upgrade on Apple MBP.

While it is true that I might not be able to see 200MBps from 80MBps, my concern is that there's a lot of confusion over long term performance degradation, especially seeing the Intel x25-m dropping from 80MBps to 40MBps as the drive get fuller and fuller over time.

 

[tubbymac]

I was waiting on the Vertex to get reviewed but that sucker has been constantly delayed since Christmas. From the previews it's more a super performance drive and will use up more power. It's also brand new and untested.

The Corsair is based on the Samsung which has been around for a while. I know the performance isn't quite as good as the Intel or the Vertex but on a notebook I probably won't feel the difference. I love the low heat and low power consumption and the lack of JunkMicron. I pulled the trigger today and on an impulse buy bought it as my first SSD drive. I'm already second guessing and having buyer's remorse but at the same time I can't wait till it get's here, hah!

 

[bugout]

That seems a bit slow. I can easily boot XP within the same amount of time on a 5400RPM hard drive. Is it booting via Boot Camp Partition or a virtual machine?

10 seconds for a VM of XP to boot is slow? It took over a minute with my old 7200 RPM hard drive.

 

[ayeying]

10 seconds for a VM of XP to boot is slow? It took over a minute with my old 7200 RPM hard drive.

For XP, I never had more then 25 seconds on a 5400rpm to boot. If you're taking Vista or Windows 7, then it could take ~a minute.

 

[be300test]

corsair ssd

hi,

i too have the 128gb corsair ssd in my unibody 2.4ghz mbp

the drive is very very fast, xp boots great , vista boots great , windows 7 i cannot get working.

i had a ocz solid in here before. which i have benchmarks for and will post shortly. and of course the new benchmarks with the corsair...which match the other posted.

definitly worth the price.

 

[be300test]

bench's

hi,

i too have the 128gb corsair ssd in my unibody 2.4ghz mbp

the drive is very very fast, xp boots great , vista boots great , windows 7 i cannot get working.

i had a ocz solid in here before. which i have benchmarks for and will post shortly. and of course the new benchmarks with the corsair...which match the other posted.

definitly worth the price.

here are the benchmarks i have

 

[tubbymac]

My corsair came in and I've done a fresh install of OSX and Windows 7 on bootcamp. Had to create a GUID Partition Table during the OSX install with Disk Utility, but other than that everything else was pretty much plug and play.

I'm getting nearly 6 hours of battery life now while web browsing which is crazy. Machine feels snappier, runs cool and silent, haven't seen any stutters like on JunkMicrons, and am happy so far with my purchase.

 

[Sareth]

Sorry to bump this old thread but I'd be interested in how those of you who got one of these are finding the performance now ? has there been much degradation ? any compatibility issues that have cropped up since you got one ?