Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Best SSD for me?

S

smcbaird

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2010
18
0
Melbourne, Australia
Hey guys, seriously considering jumping aboard the SSD bandwagon.
My price range is 300 - 475.
Read/right speeds don't mean a hell of a lot to me, i'm coming from a bog 5400 drive so any upgrade will be noticed.
I want a size of 160 - 256 GB (preferably 240 or 256).
My biggest want is for a reliable drive that will last me the 2 and a half years left of the life of my macbook pro.

Any help would be appreciated!
 
I would get a vertex 2 240GB.
The only issues it used to have never applied to the 240GB version and it is also way over hyped.
The most reliable are Intel SSDs but I would backup each and any SSD and once you backup all the competitors such as OCZ, Corsair, Kingston offer still better failure rates than you usually get for HDDs. The reliability of all those other is good enough for any consumer.

You could also get a SATA 2 one if you get a smaller one but I would choose size over speed unless you have an optibay HDD and want to use it later in a new notebook again.
The difference between 250 and 400-500 MB/s is actually not that great since the CPU already limits the speed and also the I/O ports.
You cannot transfer that fast to an external drive anyway even through thunderbolt there would be nothing that can write fast enough and there still isn't even any thunderbolt device. Application start and boot times are already limited by CPU power and hardly change with the newer drives.
There is actually very little to gain from those newest drives it is more for the spec sheet enthusiasts.
 
I'd say go for an Intel one then. And get a Sata 2 as yous mbp I assume the one in your sig is only Sata2 . To be honest most are good. Just choose the one that meets you $$$ and then do a search on the forum if there are any comparability issues. It will make your mbp seem was faster ;) enjoy
 
Thanks guys!
You've made me much more confident about the vertex 2, i was a tad worried because i'd heard bad things about its reliability on newegg.
I'm choosing between a 160gb Intel or a 240gb Vertex 2. The Vertex 2 is obviously a better deal storage wise.

the other concern, is firmware. Is this a big deal when buying and managing an SSD? Is it complicated?

your responses have been incredibly helpful thus far!
 
smcbaird said:
Thanks guys!
You've made me much more confident about the vertex 2, i was a tad worried because i'd heard bad things about its reliability on newegg.
I'm choosing between a 160gb Intel or a 240gb Vertex 2. The Vertex 2 is obviously a better deal storage wise.

the other concern, is firmware. Is this a big deal when buying and managing an SSD? Is it complicated?

your responses have been incredibly helpful thus far!
Click to expand...

Heaps of guides and support here
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?237-OCZ-SSD-Support-for-Linux-and-Apple-OSX
 
I'd go Intel if reliability is what you seek, and NOT the Vertex.
 
Last edited:
marku5 said:
I really recommend you buy one of these:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce/Solid_State_Pro
Go for the 240GB version
Just look at all the awards and reviews they've got!
For me it was a no brainer.
Especially because they have been tested on all Macs.

:apple: :)
Click to expand...

OWC currently offers no way for the user to perform firmware upgrades on a Mac unless you want to pay another $99 to buy and install Windows under Bootcamp on your machine. I would go with a vendor that offers some method of updating firmware on the Mac. Both Intel and Crucial for example offer a downloadable boot CDRom ISO that can be used to update FW on a Mac.

smcbaird said:
Hey guys, seriously considering jumping aboard the SSD bandwagon.
My price range is 300 - 475.
Read/right speeds don't mean a hell of a lot to me, i'm coming from a bog 5400 drive so any upgrade will be noticed.
I want a size of 160 - 256 GB (preferably 240 or 256).
My biggest want is for a reliable drive that will last me the 2 and a half years left of the life of my macbook pro.

Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Read this info about SSD reliability showing Intel far ahead of the other brands. If you want reliability over speed, I would look at the new Intel 320 series SSD. Users here do not seem to have Mac compatibility troubles with them.
 
Got my Intel 320 300 GB on Friday, waiting for my RAM to come in tomorrow to install both at the same time. I would recommend Intel if you are not going for the highest speeds but want reliability. Can't go wrong.
 
What's the point of an SSD if you're not worried about speed?

Besides from the fact that OWC SSDs can't be updated via a Mac (which they are currently working diligently on), I think they are the best choice. A combination of speed and reliability. Not to mention that they offer a 30-Day Money Back guarantee and a 3 year warranty.

How important are the firmware updates for SSDs (I've never owned one so I don't know, but want to know because I'm looking for one for my MBP)?
 
Firmware updates can be critical. Until a month ago, most SandForce driven SSDs, such as the OWC, could only be used if you disabled the automatic sleep function. There have been much larger issues that are firmware related than that as well. The inability to update the firmware can result in you having a completely useless SSD that can sometimes cause a need to be sent back to the manufacturer for updating.

Most modern SSDs are running so fast that the statistical speed numbers are really not that important, especially all SATA3 SSDs over 120GB. Almost all SSDs have speed, but the reliability of SSDs is very dependent upon who manufacturers it.
 
Okay, thanks. What is the speed of Intel's SSD's compared to the speed of the low end HDD that comes standard with Apple's MacBook Pro?
 
i have 3 OCZ Vertex 2 SSD

2x 120gb
1x 240gb

havnt changed the firmware for 6 months on either and they are super fast and have never slowed down one bit with use.

Never had a problem with any.

OCZ Sandforce owns intel on the SSD front
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

iPhoneAppMan said:
What's the point of an SSD if you're not worried about speed?

Besides from the fact that OWC SSDs can't be updated via a Mac (which they are currently working diligently on), I think they are the best choice. A combination of speed and reliability. Not to mention that they offer a 30-Day Money Back guarantee and a 3 year warranty.

How important are the firmware updates for SSDs (I've never owned one so I don't know, but want to know because I'm looking for one for my MBP)?
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt you would be able to tell the difference among any modern SSDs from reputable manufacturers. Look on OWC's blog comparing their Pro 6G (newest SATA 3) SSD and the Mercury Extreme Pro (older SATA 2). From boot to opening some Adobe apps the difference is 1.5 seconds. If you want to pay for 1.5 seconds and bragging rights then go for it. No modern SSD is slow. Synthetic benchmarks are one thing and real world feel is another.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back