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SSD recomendations ...

R

Rainier42

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 21, 2009
69
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Am looking to upgrade my boot drive on my 2006 Mac Pro to an SSD ... any recommendations on a good drive at a decent price? Any issues I should watch out for/be aware of.

Thanks,
Rainier
 
ventro said:
The best boot drive would be an Intel X25-M G2.
Click to expand...

The Intel looks like a great drive. Since it is a 2.5 inch drive, is there a kit to mount inside of one of the existing HD bays? Also, am assuming the older Mac Pros are SATAII compliant?
 
I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Why do people spend so much money on kits like the MaxUpgrades for SSD?
The thing has the same connectors as a 3.5" SATA drive and does not suffer from any considerable vibration or heat.
No offense, but a lot of my fellow :apple: enthusiasts prove the "appletax" theory, again and again.
 
wpc33 said:
I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Why do people spend so much money on kits like the MaxUpgrades for SSD?
The thing has the same connectors as a 3.5" SATA drive and does not suffer from any considerable vibration or heat.
No offense, but a lot of my fellow :apple: enthusiasts prove the "appletax" theory, again and again.
Click to expand...
I agree that the MaxUpgrades kit is overpriced and overkill for SSDs, but you still need an adaptor to mount 2.5" drives (i.e. almost all SSDs) in the Mac Pros (and any other hotswap/tray mount) even though they have standard SATA connections. IMO the IcyDock tray is a reasonable solution.
 
OCZ Vertex drives are due for a price drop soon that will make their capacity and performance per dollar an alternative worth considering.
 
HunterMaximus said:
but you still need an adaptor to mount 2.5" drives
Click to expand...
No, you don't. You can save your cash by merely plugging the drive in by hand, and propping it up inside the MP's sled with whatever you choose.
Or, you could use some cheap, short cables and also prop it up inside the sled(so it doesn't fall out)
Or, just plug it into a Bay, or the ODD SATA ports, affixing it to the underside of drive 2 or 3 w/velcro, or just let it sit comfortably to the left of your GPU.

You don't need to spend more than $5, after having spent so much on such an amazingly versatile computer case as the MP, and the also-expensive SSD.

I really just don't want people spending their cash when such simple solutions are there.
 
wpc33 said:
I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Why do people spend so much money on kits like the MaxUpgrades for SSD?
Click to expand...
Not that I intend to act like a MaxUpgrades sales person, but I don't understand what the fuss is about.

The MaxUpgrade tray is a nice piece of equipment. Solid aluminum. And as a Mac Pro owner you might get a bit of pleasure from knowing that it also looks nice inside.

If you can afford a Mac Pro and an SSD surely $48.50 for the adapter is not an unreasonable price, nor something you wouldn't be able to afford.
Otherwise, don't get a Mac Pro nor SSD. Both would be beyond your budget.
It's not like we're talking $500 for an adapter.
Think about it.

But of course one can use duct tape to glue in the SSD, or chewing gum if one prefers.
There's options for everyone, nice and 'expensive' ones and cheap and cheerful ones. Choice is a good thing!
 
Dreamail said:
Not that I intend to act like a MaxUpgrades sales person, but I don't understand what the fuss is about.

The MaxUpgrade tray is a nice piece of equipment. Solid aluminum. And as a Mac Pro owner you might get a bit of pleasure from knowing that it also looks nice inside.

If you can afford a Mac Pro and an SSD surely $48.50 for the adapter is not an unreasonable price, nor something you wouldn't be able to afford.
Otherwise, don't get a Mac Pro nor SSD. Both would be beyond your budget.
It's not like we're talking $500 for an adapter.
Think about it.

But of course one can use duct tape to glue in the SSD, or chewing gum if one prefers.
There's options for everyone, nice and 'expensive' ones and cheap and cheerful ones. Choice is a good thing!
Click to expand...

I can understand people who refuse to shell out $50 for a 50 ct piece of metal to fix their SSDs properly. I would again recomend the Kingston adapter @ $15 in terms of value for money. Please no patronizing. I can make my own judgement what is worth the money and what not.
 
For the Intel X25-M, I am seeing two 80GB units listed ... the Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2C1 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk, which will be out on 8/28 and the Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G1 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk. Any major differences between these two? Price seems to be the same for both.
 
The G1 and G2 are the differentiating factors - G2 is, as you might imagine, the 2nd Gen version.

For me, I plan to slam 2x 2.5" SSDs in the bottom optical bay (running cables up from the mobo). I'm already doing this for one drive. I will reserve my 4 3.5" bays for 3.5" drives - slowly replacing my SATA HDDs with 3.5" SSDs once they cheapen.

So in around a year - 2nd SSD for a RAID 0 160gb volume

In around 2 years start replacing 3.5" HDDs with 3.5" SSDs (if you haven't heard of these yet, google 'OCZ Colossus').
 
nightfly13 said:
The G1 and G2 are the differentiating factors - G2 is, as you might imagine, the 2nd Gen version.

For me, I plan to slam 2x 2.5" SSDs in the bottom optical bay (running cables up from the mobo). I'm already doing this for one drive. I will reserve my 4 3.5" bays for 3.5" drives - slowly replacing my SATA HDDs with 3.5" SSDs once they cheapen.

So in around a year - 2nd SSD for a RAID 0 160gb volume

In around 2 years start replacing 3.5" HDDs with 3.5" SSDs (if you haven't heard of these yet, google 'OCZ Colossus').
Click to expand...

Wow, OCZ colossus looks good ... should really drive the competition to increase their form factor and drive down prices.
 
gugucom said:
I can understand people who refuse to shell out $50 for a 50 ct piece of metal to fix their SSDs properly. I would again recomend the Kingston adapter @ $15 in terms of value for money. Please no patronizing. I can make my own judgement what is worth the money and what not.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The Kingston adapter is just a rebranded Icydock that I provided a link for above... either is much better value than the MaxConnect. :rolleyes:
 
Just a tip - as of this writing, NewEgg has combo deals on X-25 M + IcyDock where you basically get the IcyDock free with purchase of the SSD.

Check it out here.
 
A few questions from me:

I have a 2 x 250gb RAID0 setup, both drives running at 7,200RPM. My mac runs pretty quick, given the fact that its much faster than a single drive. How would a single SSD drive compare to it? I'm looking at something along the lines of a Kingston, 220mb/s read, 140mb/s write (these numbers are proposed, i dooubt real world though).

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139030

Now, with that said, ive heard about the firmware problem that after some use SSD drives start to lag unless a specific firmware update is done, though from what i know, its not out yet. I read about it on engadget and it looks quite promising, so i'd much rather have that than get bogged down with inevitable speed issues. Here's the article link;

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/10/indilinx-firmware-cleans-dirty-ssds-restores-performance-while/
 
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