Advice On Buying SSD For Macbook Pro Mid 2010

[danielgb123]

Hey guys,

Now before I start, I just want to say I've done a whole lot of reading on what I should get, but just need a little push in the right direction.

I was basically set on getting a Samsung 840 PRO 256gb, but the shop I found a good deal at only stocks the 850 now which is about $50 more.

My situation:
I currently have a 2010 MBP 13" which has gotten a little sluggish lately. 4GB RAM, 2.4GHz processor, 250gb HDD you know the drill.

Looking for something to give it an overall performance boost and I feel that a SSD is the best move

Here's the dilemma however in my reasoning; I'm going to be in the market for something bigger, either a 15" or 17" used MBP, probably rocking 8-16GB RAM and another SSD with 256gb+ pretty soon.

So in saying that, I don't want to spend TOO much on this SSD for this mac.

I've had a look at a few options; and noticed most are SATA III (I know they're backwards compatible) but the mid 2010 MBP is SATA II and I won't experience the upper end of the write/read speeds of the SATA III SSD; so it might be worth going the cheaper route.

Secondly, this laptop is a bit of a throw around laptop but I want to have a bit of speed about it.

So is it worth spending a little less money and getting something like a Kingston or Intel 520? Or should I go with the 256gb Samsung 840 Pro or Evo and bite the bullet spending a bit more?

I think I'll go for the 512GB Samsung 850 PRO on the new laptop; but again don't want to spend that much on this.

Just looking for suggestions on whether I should go for something like the 840/850 PRO or something like the EVO/Kingston?

It needs to be consistent, but it doesn't necessarily need 70 years of life as it is the second throw around laptop. Additionally, I don't use it as a gaming laptop or render any 3D, the most I have open is a lot of tabs on Firefox, Photoshop, Illustrator and other basic appliances at any one time.

Thanks in advance.

Here's what I can select from and the prices beside them:

Apologies for the post in two sections, need a response ASAP.

 

[gochi]

i think if you put in a sata iii ssd in a sata ii compatible device, you still get the faster speeds. and later when you are selling you can put back in the original hard drive and put it in the new mac.


ive got a 480gb kingston ssd and a samsung 840 pro 512gb ssd that i would love to sell. just email me at siddom@yahoo.com and ill give you a quote.

its all bee tested and works 100%

 

[Naimfan]

Get the Samsung EVO 840. Good value, performance and reliability.

 

[danielgb123]

Get the Samsung EVO 840. Good value, performance and reliability.

Perfect - just the response I was after.

I think the EVO is priced very well in comparison to others I can purchase and 250GB will make an awesome difference.

Thanks mate!

 

[had0ukenn]

Perfect - just the response I was after.

I think the EVO is priced very well in comparison to others I can purchase and 250GB will make an awesome difference.

Thanks mate!

I heard there were some performance issues with the samsung 840 evo:

"Both EVO drives have the same exact problem, read speed on old files drops with time as low as ~60Mb/sec. New written files instead are as fast as advertised read/write speed ~450Mb/sec Please note that the data must be "old" in terms of weeks or months to show the problem. Newly-written data read speed is fast as advertised, this is why benckmarks shows always a fast drive.. After a reboot the read speed improves a bit, but not much"
. . .
" I have now seen several reports of this problem on different sites. I own a 1TB EVO since a few days and will try to verify this problem although it supposedly affects 'old' files. But 'old' in all likelihood doesn't mean that you have to leave your SSD lying around for 1 year and then the read data rate even on big 'sequential' files will have dropped significantly. It might rather be related to writing a lot of files or some infrequent event like a sudden system power loss (reset, blue screen, ...)." . . .
"Performance drops to as low as 60 MB/s or so for old files. Sadly first hand experience over here." . . .
"I have the 840 EVO 1TB, its performance detoriorates heavily the more you use it and it goes down with every benchmark. I would never use that drive as a main drive I just have it in my system to store videos and mp3s / pics. I treat it as a supercharged HDD nothing more nothing less"

source: http://www.overclock.net/t/1507897/samsung-840-evo-read-speed-drops-on-old-written-data-in-the-drive

I have the samsung 840 pro, and its great. Amazon had some sort of deal on them recently, not sure if its still going on.

 

[happyslayer]

Just in the past year, I have upgraded over twenty customers with Samsung EVO 250 GB SSD's. Windows laptops, MBPs, Desktops and all of them are running really well and my customers have been happy. I'm running both an EVO 840 250GB and an EVO 840 500GB HD in my custom gaming PC. No issues.

Basically I'm saying... buy the Samsung 840EVO SSD. At approximately $150.00 for the 250, it's a great deal.

 

[CarreraGuy]

500GB SSDs are very good value right now, I bought this drive almost two years ago for my cMBP 13" and still going strong as a daily driver:

840 MZ-7TD500 500 GB 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (Samsung)

If you go with an SSD go name brand and always have a backup: cloud, other ssd/hdd, etc.

Make sure and enable TRIM so drive will last longer.

 

[danielgb123]

Hey guys, quick Q before purchasing tomorrow.

Considering:
SATA III = 6.0 gigabits/sec. = 750 megabytes/sec.
SATA II = 3.0 gbps = 375 MB/s

The Samsung 840 Evo can do 540 MB/s sequential read. However, using it on a SATA II port, it will be capped at 375 MB/s.

Therefore, is it worth just getting the cheapest 250gb+ SSD on the market considering they'll all be capped at the same speed?

 

[Fishrrman]

My opinion, and mine only (will be different from others).

I, too, put an SSD into my 2010 MacBook Pro. It runs like a new machine, and actually boots in 5 seconds from the first appearance of the Apple logo (on the gray screen) to a ready-to-use Finder.

Best advice I can give:
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY on a high-end SSD like the Samsung.
You CAN'T realize the speed benefits, because I believe the 2010 MacBook SATA bus is only SATA-2, not SATA-3. You absolutely, positively WILL NOT get speeds that are anywhere near what the high-end Samsung is capable of.

I put an Intel 520 series into mine (which I had been previously using with my Mac Mini for about a year). I get read speeds of 260mbps and writes of 145mbps.
Again, it's important to understand that the speeds you see here are due to the limitations of the SATA-2 bus. A "faster drive" will make NO difference. Any SATA-3 drive is going to yield the same overall performance.

I would suggest picking up a Crucial SSD in the 240gb range, will serve you well and won't cost a bundle.

 

[Weaselboy]

I heard there were some performance issues with the samsung 840 evo:

This has been fixed by a firmware update See this.

Therefore, is it worth just getting the cheapest 250gb+ SSD on the market considering they'll all be capped at the same speed?

Yes... your logic is sound. Just get whatever you can get the best price on since you will never see the top speeds of even the lowliest SATA III SSD.

Samsung EVO and Crucial MX100 are about the best bang for the buck right now.

 

[astrograph]

I just bought the Crucial MX 100 512 GB SSD.. it has really good reviews and is MUCH cheaper than a 500 GB SSD from samsung.

I bought from tiger direct for $213.. amazon is selling it for $209 and free shipping.. but i wasn't patient enough

Installing a clean OSX Yosemite (depending on whatever this TRIM problem is) or Maverick on my late 2009 MB Pro.

 

[danielgb123]

Interestingly enough, the Crucial MX100 256GB is about $20 more than the EVO 840.

Might just go the EVO.

 

[astrograph]

Oh.. I'm getting the 512 GB

 

[danielgb123]

I just don't think I'll find a 256GB SSD for much cheaper than the $135 the EVO is priced at.

 

[astrograph]

Yes if you're looking for a samsung then that's probably the cheapest ..

This crucial is $110

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16820148820

And amazon has the samsung for $119
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E3W1726/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1416455564&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

 

[danielgb123]

Anyone want to hear an update?

Decided to go with the 250GB Samsung 840 EVO - not bad at $135.

Used time machine to backup my hard drive (which took hours); installed OSX via the CD on the SSD (which took hours); and after all the steps and hours in between, and finally prompted to just restore the backup with time machine, I get a hanging white load screen which moves onto a blue screen.

So I decide to boot into safe mode, and it's password protected. So I enter the password which of course is incorrect. Doesn't allow me to change password, just restart or get a useless password hint.

To say I am pissed off which how much time I've wasted is a hell of an understatement. Issue after issue and just when I thought I was past them and on a clear run, the damn thing didn't even work. I had to deal with hanging loading screens, blue screens, all kinds of crap.

It's 3am now and I've had enough, I just reinstalled the old HDD and I'm done with it for tonight at least. I most definitely don't have the patience to reinstall OSX again, I'm just utterly pissed off at how this went.

Bahhh!!!!

 

[brdeveloper]

Anyone want to hear an update?

Decided to go with the 250GB Samsung 840 EVO - not bad at $135.

Used time machine to backup my hard drive (which took hours); installed OSX via the CD on the SSD (which took hours); and after all the steps and hours in between, and finally prompted to just restore the backup with time machine, I get a hanging white load screen which moves onto a blue screen.

So I decide to boot into safe mode, and it's password protected. So I enter the password which of course is incorrect. Doesn't allow me to change password, just restart or get a useless password hint.

To say I am pissed off which how much time I've wasted is a hell of an understatement. Issue after issue and just when I thought I was past them and on a clear run, the damn thing didn't even work. I had to deal with hanging loading screens, blue screens, all kinds of crap.

It's 3am now and I've had enough, I just reinstalled the old HDD and I'm done with it for tonight at least. I most definitely don't have the patience to reinstall OSX again, I'm just utterly pissed off at how this went.

Bahhh!!!!

If you can prove you bought this Macbook you can ask a genius bar/AASP to unlock its firmware protection. It must be the actual source of problems.

 

[danielgb123]

If you can prove you bought this Macbook you can ask a genius bar/AASP to unlock its firmware protection. It must be the actual source of problems.

I don't think I can to be honest with you; I bought it off someone on Gumtree.

Might give it another go this weekend, but not planning on spending 7 hours on it again!

 

[danielgb123]

Quick update guys - went at this again tonight.

Booted up SSD and of course got the blue screen, so here's what I did to fix it:
- Booted up and held 'option'
- Booted from external HDD
- Launched disk utility
- Erased SSD
- Copied HDD to SDD
- That was pretty much it, for some reason things just worked today - much the opposite to yesterday!

Now the speed isn't as advertised, and that's as a result of being on SATA II for this Mac, but it is the difference between night and day and feels like a I have a brand new machine.

Yeahh!!!!!