Buying a MBP: SSD now or wait for TRIM support?

[un.titled]

Hello,

I'm going to be purchasing a MBP in the next week or so, and I had a couple questions regarding SSD's.

- How is the performance of SSD's on macs since OSX does not support TRIM?
- Does OSX even need TRIM?
- Does the speed decrease over time significantly, or at all?
- Does how large the files you're working with affect performance?
- Should I use an HDD till OSX supports TRIM?
- Any bootcamp with W7 issues?

I searched the forum and came across this thread, but I left it feeling even more confused: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1040538/

Thank you for your time.

 

[mcruzader]

I would just go for a SSD from OWC. It will do its own garbage recycling plus it has their warranty. So you are pretty much covered.

 

[un.titled]

I would just go for a SSD from OWC. It will do its own garbage recycling plus it has their warranty. So you are pretty much covered.

Does the "garbage recycling" have something to do with SandForce driven SSD's?

 

[deeddawg]

First off, I'd never buy an HDD, SSD, or RAM upgrade from the laptop manufacturer; pricing is usually WELL above what you can do on your own buying quality third-party components.

OWC is one of several manufacturers using Sandforce controllers which have decent garbage collection built into the firmware, effectively doing within the drive what an OS based TRIM support would accomplish. Others are OCZ, Corsair, and another one I'm not remembering right now.

HOWEVER, there are known issues with OWC and OCZ drives and hibernation; search the threads here for more info. Although likely not a big deal in practice according to posts I've read, I personally don't feel inclined to take the risk.

My recommendation is WAIT on buying an SSD unless you have a very specific reason not to. Two reasons; with the third generation Intel SSD's due out in the first part of 2011, there's a high probability of a price shift across the SSD market. (Search for more discussion). Second, if you're not already a long time Mac user, give some time with a new system just to see how well it really performs with an HDD first. Just sayin...

 

[un.titled]

First off, I'd never buy an HDD, SSD, or RAM upgrade from the laptop manufacturer; pricing is usually WELL above what you can do on your own buying quality third-party components.

OWC is one of several manufacturers using Sandforce controllers which have decent garbage collection built into the firmware, effectively doing within the drive what an OS based TRIM support would accomplish. Others are OCZ, Corsair, and another one I'm not remembering right now.

HOWEVER, there are known issues with OWC and OCZ drives and hibernation; search the threads here for more info. Although likely not a big deal in practice according to posts I've read, I personally don't feel inclined to take the risk.

My recommendation is WAIT on buying an SSD unless you have a very specific reason not to. Two reasons; with the third generation Intel SSD's due out in the first part of 2011, there's a high probability of a price shift across the SSD market. (Search for more discussion). Second, if you're not already a long time Mac user, give some time with a new system just to see how well it really performs with an HDD first. Just sayin...

Thank you for your opinion. I'm not new to a mac, I currently have the 24" 2.16 C2D white imac, but I am new to apple laptops. I was just hoping to get the 15" - 17" performance with the 13" form factor and battery life. I just found it bizarre that the MBA's all come with SSD, yet the OS doesn't fully support them yet.

I'm a mathematics major that frequently uses Mathematica / Maple, plus runs multiple applications at once, so I might just have to dive into the 15" - 17" range to insure performance and sacrifice the form factor. I just feel uneasy about SSD's in Macs right now and that feeling is probably my answer to my questions. I was just hoping my feeling was immature since Apple was using them in their entire MBA lineup.

 

[jetblk328i]

Go for the OWC SSD, the garbage collection is good enough. But it does seem to have an issue with automatically sleeping the computer...