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Crucial M4 or Samsung 840 500GB SSD

J

jemichael

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
6
0
This post is specifically about 500gb+ SSD Drive. I have a budget of $400 to spent. My current 750gb 7200 is biting the dust and is just slllooooowwww..

Was looking at this Crucial m4: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846

and this Samsung 840: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846

I am a web developer, I use my computer a lot, 12-14 hours a day. Dreamweaver, Photoshop, AI, I watch a lot of movies on my laptop via Netflix video files. I do a lot with photography and some video editing for clients.

Are there any pros or cons about each drive that I should consider? The price is almost $60 difference between the two and I am not sure of the differences.

Key notes and questions:
- RELIABLE, I need a reliable drive for my line of work - I can't have HDD issues.
- I read somewhere there is a memory different between the two. Something about the Samsung using cheaper memory that won't last as long?
- I need and want everything to be fast/snippy when opening/loading... I don't mind waiting a few extra seconds for something to write, so reading time is more important than writing.
- I read the crucial had a firmware issue, is this something to worry about with a drive purchased today or do drives come with corrected firmware?
- I read the Samsung cannot be updated via Mac, has to be updated via a windows bootcamp.
- I read somewhere that Samsung uses their own controller, where the Crucial does not?

This is going into a Macbook PRO 2011 17" using Mountain Lion. Have a couple hours to make a order on amazon to get it here tomorrow as weekends are my only time to install/restore my data.

Appreciate ANY answers and ANY opinions to assist me in the decision making process. I am also open to ANY other brands if they are reliable.

Thanks so much!
 
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Both the Crucial m4 and Samung 840 you can update the firmware via Mac OSX.

Samsung has a 3 year warantee (I think) which protects the drive. So if you have any problems, you are set.

They are both SSDs-- exact or similar speeds.

If it was me, I would go for the Samsung 840 PRO, becuase I know that Samsung makes very fast and reliable drives. Crucial might also, but there is a reason Apple uses many/mostly Samsung SSDs in their rMBPs and MBAs.
 
I've got a 512 gig M4 in my MBP and a pair of 256 gig 840 pro's in a machine that I built, and both are very nice devices. The 840s provide better performance, but the difference between spinning media and an ssd is night & day. Either is a great choice, IMNSHO.
 
Thanks for the replies, and quick replies!

I dont have the budget for a 512 840 pro, they are $487 on Amazon right now.

I have to stay under $400. I would love to purchase the 840 pro but I can't right now.

Because of the price, I was seriously considering the Samsung 840 (non-pro) but I read about the TLC memory being used and not the traditional memory (like crucial, and others).

I am trying to determine the concerns with reliability and how it affects speed between the two- for $60 difference.

Thanks!!
 
They both have 3 year warantees, so any reliability issues are moot. They both have a certain amount of read and writes to the drive, but that should not affect a con/pro sumer. It really depends on price for you, I guess. The m4 is still a great choice, especially coming from a HDD.
 
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So the the Samsung 840 uses TLC NAND chips. TLC NAND have fewer Program/Erase cycles than MLC NAND, is this a concern?

Also I did some searching for read/write speeds of each drive and got some conflicting results. Anyone have some reliable sources for the read/write speeds they can link for these two drives?
 
All SSDs can last 8-10 years under normal uses. It is no issue unless you do a lot of perfecting work like audio rendering.

I must repeat that speed will be VERY similar, so do not base your decision off of that. Any SSD can run circles around a HDD.
 
Hi B

So assuming from your posts - your feeling is the Samsung 840 (non-pro) would be a more reliable drive than the Crucial m4?
 
jemichael said:
Hi B

So assuming from your posts - your feeling is the Samsung 840 (non-pro) would be a more reliable drive than the Crucial m4?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. I have heard of issues, but all SSDs have defective units. They are both nice drives, but my feeling is tht the 840 is stuck awkwardly between the 830 and the Pro. You have to decide if just the crucial name is worth $60-- I would go Samsung though, considering the price.
 
I can't vouch for the other one, but I have Crucial's M4 128gb SSD. What I'v noticed is that my SSD may not measure up to be the very fastest, but it maintains a stable, steady data rate for a wide variety of tasks.

Benchmarking, for example, I can regularly get almost 200Mb/s write and sustained 500mb/s read.

In theory the M4 512gb should have equally stable but more powerful stats, SSD size vs. speed usually increases predictably.
 
Unless you're writing hundreds of GB to the drive on a regular basis and plan to keep it for 10 years, NAND lifespan is a moot point. The M4 and 840 are great drives, especially since Samsung has finally decided to allow firmware updates on a Mac. Just get whatever is cheaper. I've seen the 500 GB 840 for as low as $280, which is about $100 less than the M4. If you're not in a big hurry, it might pay to wait for a sale. If Newegg or Amazon has a special, the sites will typically price match each other within a day or two.
 
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