I've been looking at the Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD and the Crucial M500 960GB SSD. I need to decide which one to buy.
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7200rpm HDD and 16GB RAM
- Thread starter CheMillan
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I'd save the $100 and go with the Crucial. I believe they also offer firmware updates that work on OSX unlike Samsung.
Before I take the plunge buying an SSD for my MacBook Pro there's something that concerns me a lot. SSD Firmware Updates. Installing firmware updates for Samsung and Crucial SSDs are not user friendly, they can be tricky, complicated, and can severely damage an SSD beyond recognition. Do I feel lucky? I'm not willing to take a chance and destroy such an expensive $400 plus SSD.
Nothing is guaranteed to be problem free. Once you accept that, life with your new SSD will be much simpler.
My advice: Don't sweat it.
Worst case, if you need to update firmware down the road, and OS X is not supported for firmware updates for whatever reason, you can always put an eval copy of Windows in a bootcamp install, boot it up, and update the firmware from there. When done, just delete the bootcamp partition from OS X using the bootcamp assistant (or leave it dormant for the next firmware update.)
My advice: Don't sweat it.
Worst case, if you need to update firmware down the road, and OS X is not supported for firmware updates for whatever reason, you can always put an eval copy of Windows in a bootcamp install, boot it up, and update the firmware from there. When done, just delete the bootcamp partition from OS X using the bootcamp assistant (or leave it dormant for the next firmware update.)
I left my Crucial 120GB at v2 with no ill effects. Unless I get an issue that requires an update my current Crucial will stay at its current level too.
Samsung currently have an issue with one of their drive technologies that requires updates to try and restore performance that has been lost, that is a different problem and not confidence-inspiring in Samsung tbh.
You are worrying too much. In my old 2012 15" cMBP I used a Samsung 250gb 840 SSD then upgraded to an m500 480GB SSD with no need for software updates. Both ran fine simply by putting it in the computer. I'd suggest going for the crucial m500 since its $100 cheaper and literally offers no real difference from a Samsung.
Buy the SSD, stick it in the computer, marvel at the speed, and enjoy your computer.
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I just ordered the Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD from Amazon. I sure hope I made the right decision and not regret it later.
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Update:
Finally success at last. I just installed the Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD on my MacBook Pro. After the installation was done I ran the Apple Hardware Test and NO errors or issues were found. Unlike two weeks ago when I installed a HGST Travelstar spinning hard drive the AHT detected a 4HDD/11/40000000:SATA(0,0) error for the hard drive which was obviously defective. Going from a HDD to this SSD combined with 16GB of RAM installed in the MacBook Pro the performance is amazing and supercharged. All I have to do now is turn on TRIM using TRIM Enabler or Chameleon SSD Optimizer. My MacBook Pro has Mavericks 10.9.5 installed so there shouldn't be any problems with TRIM.
Finally success at last. I just installed the Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD on my MacBook Pro. After the installation was done I ran the Apple Hardware Test and NO errors or issues were found. Unlike two weeks ago when I installed a HGST Travelstar spinning hard drive the AHT detected a 4HDD/11/40000000:SATA(0,0) error for the hard drive which was obviously defective. Going from a HDD to this SSD combined with 16GB of RAM installed in the MacBook Pro the performance is amazing and supercharged. All I have to do now is turn on TRIM using TRIM Enabler or Chameleon SSD Optimizer. My MacBook Pro has Mavericks 10.9.5 installed so there shouldn't be any problems with TRIM.
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