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Compatible, safe choice SSD. 2011 MBP

K

klinic

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
54
0
Popular opinion on this seems to change quite a lot, so I'm making a new thread despite knowing that their are other topics on this.

How are the Vertex 3s on the 2011 MBP now? Have their issues been sorted out with firmware revisions or anything?

How do Vertex 2's, or other cheaper drives fare?


I'm looking for about 256gbs of space, and complete compatibility with either Snow Leopard or Lion and all of the MBPs features such as sleeping and waking from hibernation, no stalls or delays or frequent lost data.

Will be used as a scratch disk for Adobe CS5 as well. Photoshop isn't so bad with lower res images, but After Effects is intolerable with the 5400 rpm drive.

Thanks for your time and suggestions.
 
Crucial M4 256GB (firmware 2) and Vertex 3 (firmware 2.06 and higher) run stable in Macbook Pro 13" and 15". I've tried them myself in 13" MBP. 17" can have problems.

Vertex 2 has the worst reliability track record ever, for examples see Newegg Vertex 2 120GB, 90GB and 60GB reviews.

I hope Vertex 3 will do better, but if reliability is a priority I'd recommend the Crucial M4.

Vertex 3 is slightly faster but real world differences are very small, see 5 pages with real world benchmarks here:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1143/pg8/crucial-m4-256gb-ssd-c400-review-file-copy-tests.html

Crucial M4 has lower power consumption than Vertex 3, especially idle.

I'm using Seagate's hybrid drive now and am perfectly happy with it.

PS, there's a thread with the same topic: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1195471/
 
First of all, thanks for replying to my thread. :)

I have the 17" MacBook Pro. :/ Is the Crucial also going to have issues with the 17" or just the Vertex 3?

The naming conventions on this site are a little bit inconsistent...

Is the "Crucial RealSSD C400 256G SATA3 " listed here the Crucial M4? Where does C400 come from? -.-;

And despite the other thread, I didn't know whether it would make a difference being in a MacBook Pro, being 256GB OR being used as a scratch disk for Photoshop and After Effects.

Thanks again. ^_^
 
If you have a 17" Macbook Pro 2011 I would not recommend the SATA III SSDs like Crucial M4 or Vertex 3, based on what user OWC Larry has posted.

Good and reliable SATA II SSDs are for example Samsung 470, Kingston V+ 100.

PS. The Crucial product is called M4, the Micron C400, they're the same.
 
Any remedies to the SATA 3 issue on the 17"? I've heard something about replacing a SATA cable... But I'm stabbing in the dark a bit here.

And how is the Samsung vs the Crucial in TRIM support?
 
klinic said:
Any remedies to the SATA 3 issue on the 17"? I've heard something about replacing a SATA cable... But I'm stabbing in the dark a bit here.
Click to expand...
Lots of info here; https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12972905/

And how is the Samsung vs the Crucial in TRIM support?
Click to expand...

Both work fine. the Samsung doesn't really need is because GC is sufficient. I've even seen many posts of Crucial owners say they didn't loose any performance without TRIM.

Crucial has one problem though. It looses performance when you fill it over 95%. It's explained by Tomshardware.
 
I received a Crucial M4 256GB SSD today.
I put it into my 2011 13" MacBook Pro 2.3GHz and did a fresh install of Lion.

Can't believe how fast it is. Lion boots in about 8 seconds and applications loads almost instantly. Even Windows XP running with Parallels boots in a few seconds.

The drive arrived with Firmware 1, but I upgraded it to version 2 before installing Lion. Speedtests give about 250MB/sec write and 420MB/sec read.
 
Philflow said:
Lots of info here; https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12972905/



Both work fine. the Samsung doesn't really need is because GC is sufficient. I've even seen many posts of Crucial owners say they didn't loose any performance without TRIM.

Crucial has one problem though. It looses performance when you fill it over 95%. It's explained by Tomshardware.
Click to expand...

Eh... That's really embarrassing about the Sata III problems with the 17" :/ It doesn't seem like I can do anything about it if it IS stuffed. :/ I guess I'll check the return policy. If the Crucial doesn't work, Samsung it is. (Although I can't find anyone selling the Samsung in Australia.
 
I want to do the same, but i wanna know something first.
If i put the hhd, which came if my macbook pro 13 2011, in the optical bay... wil this connection be sata 3?
cause when i see in "about my mac", the speed in serial ata/intel 6 series chipset for the hhd is 6gigabits (sata 3), but when i check for the superdrive, i see 3 gigabits (sata2)... but i'm not sure if it's because the superdrive is sata 2..
does anyone know if i put a hhd sata3 in this bay, will the speed information change for 6 gigabits?

sorry about my english.. i'm from brazil.
cheers
 
Is there any chance that Apple will look at my laptop and possibly replace it with a 17" that doesn't have the 6G problem if I end up having issues? Do they even support such drives?

And why is the Samsung 470 so expensive compared to the faster drives? :/
 
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