Another SSD advice needed :)

[firephoenix1985]

First things first: Hello everyone! I've reading this site for a long time, but without even registering in it. I have an Early 2011 15" high end MBP. I've been looking at SSD since I bought it a year ago. Now I have it with 16GB of OWC ram. I want the ssd who gives me the best performance and a good price and 240/256GB of storage. Here are my options with the current exange euro/dollar as I write this:

Primary option: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe: 360$ (cheapest, SandForce and Sync Toggle NAND)

Rest of options:
Crucial M4: 427$
Intel 520: 427$
Samsung 830: 427$
Kingston HyperX: 454$
Patriot Wildfire: 553$ (ridiculously expensive)
OCZ Vertex 3 MaxIOPS: 579$ (ridiculously expensive)

What is the best option? Thank you in advance
Regards!!

 

[thundersteele]

Wait until you find a deal on the crucial or samsung.

Right now the 256 GB crucial M4 is available for $339, e.g. here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

Other brands are probably also fine... I just read and hear less about them.

 

[IngerMan]

This;

 

[firephoenix1985]

Wait until you find a deal on the crucial or samsung.

Right now the 256 GB crucial M4 is available for $339, e.g. here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

Other brands are probably also fine... I just read and hear less about them.

Hello! I'm from Spain, and if I order it overseas, it's a matter of luck getting it through customs and pay about 100-120$ of taxes.

Thank you for your 2 answers

And between the samsung, the intel and the crucial, who is going to perform best? Thank you!

 

[lamboman]

The Mushkin drive in terms of price/performance ratio is incredible, as it is very similar to the Max IOPS. However, the huge issue is the reliability of the drive; the SF2281-based drives have proven to be very unreliable, with crashes and hangs that, for some, haven't been fixed in the latest firmware updates. Mushkin doesn't provide a method to update firmware for Mac OS X, so it will have to go into a Windows machine for that.

That said, if the Mushkin works, it is a great drive that is very, very fast. Mac users have used this drive in the past as well, and the reliability situation has improved.

At the prices you have mentioned, the Intel 520 will most likely offer the best of both worlds, as Intel have worked hard to ensure that their drive, which is Sandforce based, is reliable.

The m4 offers great reliability and read performance. Writes are still good, you will likely not notice the difference. It is the one to go for if you want a drive that has been tried and tested

Apologies for the rather brief post!

 

[thundersteele]

Hello! I'm from Spain, and if I order it overseas, it's a matter of luck getting it through customs and pay about 100-120$ of taxes.

Thank you for your 2 answers

And between the samsung, the intel and the crucial, who is going to perform best? Thank you!

When did Spain switch to using Dollars?

I was suspecting that you are not quoting US prices, since they seemed higher than current market prices... but the Dollar sign confused me

Anyways, all three of them should be about the same. There are a few things to consider like firmware updates, which I think the Samsung can't do on a Mac.

 

[firephoenix1985]

The Mushkin drive in terms of price/performance ratio is incredible, as it is very similar to the Max IOPS. However, the huge issue is the reliability of the drive; the SF2281-based drives have proven to be very unreliable, with crashes and hangs that, for some, haven't been fixed in the latest firmware updates. Mushkin doesn't provide a method to update firmware for Mac OS X, so it will have to go into a Windows machine for that.

That said, if the Mushkin works, it is a great drive that is very, very fast. Mac users have used this drive in the past as well, and the reliability situation has improved.

At the prices you have mentioned, the Intel 520 will most likely offer the best of both worlds, as Intel have worked hard to ensure that their drive, which is Sandforce based, is reliable.

The m4 offers great reliability and read performance. Writes are still good, you will likely not notice the difference. It is the one to go for if you want a drive that has been tried and tested

Apologies for the rather brief post!

All help is much appreciated, and I dont consider it beeing brief. Thank you!

 

[macchiato2009]

M4, Intel 510 and Samsung 830 are the best at the moment

M4 is the cheapest

510 is the good price/performance compromise

830 is most expensive but the best performance


speaking of reliability i have no clue about how to compare these 3

 

[firephoenix1985]

M4, Intel 510 and Samsung 830 are the best at the moment

M4 is the cheapest

510 is the good price/performance compromise

830 is most expensive but the best performance


speaking of reliability i have no clue about how to compare these 3

For me the three costs the same, but i'm speaking about the Intel 520, not the older 510. Thank you!

 

[IngerMan]

For me the three costs the same, but i'm speaking about the Intel 520, not the older 510. Thank you!

If the price is the same between the 3, I would do Intel 520 1st best performance, known good reliability. M4 2nd good performance, known good reliability. What I would be hesitant for me with the Samsung is not being able to update firmware in a Mac only world.

But for sure Intel for the same price.

 

[Spink10]

I love my Vertex 3 MAX SSD - However, I have the 120GB one and got it for slightly more than $1/GB

 

[firephoenix1985]

If the price is the same between the 3, I would do Intel 520 1st best performance, known good reliability. M4 2nd good performance, known good reliability. What I would be hesitant for me with the Samsung is not being able to update firmware in a Mac only world.

But for sure Intel for the same price.

I don't know about the crucial, but Intel's and samsung's updates are done in windows.

I love my Vertex 3 MAX SSD - However, I have the 120GB one and got it for slightly more than $1/GB

I'm searching for a 240/256GB drive.

Thank you both!

Any more opinions? Who perform best? M4, Intel 520 or Sammy 830?

 

[IngerMan]

I just ordered a Crucial M4 last week and it came with the new firmware rev 309. But you can update the firmware via OSX from Crucial using your ODD. They also were working on a USB option for those people with an optibay. If you check there website, I am sure you can find out about the USB option.

 

[jekyoo]

Here is my benchmark of the 240gb Intel 520. I have the 15" early 2011 mbp (entry)

 

[Gav2k]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Anyone using the older Samsung drive??

 

[jekyoo]

Image

Here is my benchmark of the 240gb Intel 520. I have the 15" early 2011 mbp (entry)

My options list was very similar to yours but I opt'd for the Intel 520. I wanted performance and reliability. I know the 520 is new and we can't really establish reliability on it yet but I decided to go by Intel's track record, which has been amazing.

 

[jekyoo]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Anyone using the older Samsung drive??

You're better off getting the Samsung 830 over the 470. Remember that sata 3 drives are backward compatible with sata 2 controllers. Also, the 470 is actually more expensive than the 830. So even if you had a 2010 or early mbp, getting the samsung 830 would be cheaper.

 

[IngerMan]

Image

Here is my benchmark of the 240gb Intel 520. I have the 15" early 2011 mbp (entry)

Jekyoo, I have the same model MBP, I thought the Intel 520 had 500 write speeds. My M4 states 250 writes.

 

[Freyqq]

I vote for the samsung 830. Very reliable and fast.

 

[jekyoo]

Jekyoo, I have the same model MBP, I thought the Intel 520 had 500 write speeds. My M4 states 250 writes.

From what I know, the disk speed test tests the ssd with incompressible data (hence the write speed). If it was using compressible data, the write speeds would be around 500mb/s like you stated. The m4 rivals practically all sandforce ssds when it comes to incompressible data.

It's either that or there is something wrong with my ssd lol hopefully its the former.

 

[lamboman]

Just to sum up really, as I didn't so in my previous post:

The Intel 520, while not proven, will most likely be the best all rounder. M4 reliability with Sandforce performance.

The m4 and 830 are proven in reliability. The Intel is presumed to be reliable, even though there is no solid proof. That said, it most likely will.

The 830 and m4 trade hits in performance. The m4 is often considered "slower" than the Sandforce drives; the reality is that for your average reads, it is one of the fastest drives out there. Extremely low access times (faster than Sandforces), fast 4K randoms, and fast incompressible writes.

The Sandforce drives are fast, but in terms of daily usage, performance with all of these drives are similar.

Reliability is as said before.

 

[jekyoo]

Just to sum up really, as I didn't so in my previous post:

The Intel 520, while not proven, will most likely be the best all rounder. M4 reliability with Sandforce performance.

The m4 and 830 are proven in reliability. The Intel is presumed to be reliable, even though there is no solid proof. That said, it most likely will.

The 830 and m4 trade hits in performance. The m4 is often considered "slower" than the Sandforce drives; the reality is that for your average reads, it is one of the fastest drives out there. Extremely low access times (faster than Sandforces), fast 4K randoms, and fast incompressible writes.

The Sandforce drives are fast, but in terms of daily usage, performance with all of these drives are similar.

Reliability is as said before.

+1 though I went with the Intel 520

 

[lamboman]

I don't quite remember the benchmarks exact numbers, but for the incompressible writes and 4K randoms I mentioned before, the m4 is often the faster drive. For most users, the m4 could actually be the fastest drive; it really depends on what you chose.

Either way, no matter what your usage, reliability should be a big factor - at the end of the day, all of these drives are far, far faster than our conventional drives!

 

[negativzero]

The M4 trades write speed for insanely high reads and it's on par or even better than some drives on writes. As far as real world performance goes, I've hardly seen anything that goes faster than this, plus it's pretty reliable too

 

[firephoenix1985]

Thank you for all the answers Now the Intel is out of stock , and there are 2 references, SSDSC2BW240A3 and SSDSC2CW240A3K5, with a difference of 8$ in price, but it doesn't shows the difference between them. I'm also considering OWC's Mercury Extreme Pro 6G, because if i'm going to spend more than 420$, maybe it's worth the little extra money of the OWC. What do you think? It's better than the others? Regards!