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Enable TRIM on a OWC SSD

C

comics addict

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2013
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I read that they don't recommend doing so but from what I gather from info concerning it I can't for the life of me understand how enabling Trim on OS X would affect negatively the performance of their SSD given the purpose of that utility. Besides I know that Windows from 7 onwards automatically enables the trim command on by default so what would they recommend, to disable it? Someone who has gone through this please feel free to comment on this indecision of mine. Your help would be much appreciated. :D
 
auero said:
OWC use Sandforce controllers. You don't enable TRIM because the controller handles that for you. Drives without Sandforce controllers would benefit from TRIM I have two OWC drives and they still work as well as the day I bought them.

Listen to the OWC, they know their stuff.
http://blog.macsales.com/11051-to-trim-or-not-to-trim-owc-has-the-answer
Click to expand...

Ok, great for your input. Out of curiosity, do you use any sort of benchmark software to test the overall performance of the SSD?
 
auero said:
OWC use Sandforce controllers. You don't enable TRIM because the controller handles that for you.
Click to expand...
I don't see how TRIM would be counterproductive to drive's GC algorithm? I mean, TRIM is OS's hint to the drive that it can regard certain sectors as unused from that point onward. So as I understand it, TRIM will benefit any SSD drive, that can understand it.

GARBAGE COLLECTION AND TRIM IN SSDS EXPLAINED – AN SSD PRIMER
 
priitv8 said:
I don't see how TRIM would be counterproductive to drive's GC algorithm? I mean, TRIM is OS's hint to the drive that it can regard certain sectors as unused from that point onward. So as I understand it, TRIM will benefit any SSD drive, that can understand it.

GARBAGE COLLECTION AND TRIM IN SSDS EXPLAINED – AN SSD PRIMER
Click to expand...

Right, but sandforce drives work differen't than a traditional SSD. It's compressing data on the fly. Sandforce is organizing data only to have the OS come in and move it around with TRIM resulting in sandforce having to try and fix it again. This is probably why OWC posted this..

In fact, enabling TRIM could actually hurt the performance and reliability of your OWC SSD, rather than help it. As OWC customer Scott Gosling recently said in an email to us,

“I used the trim enabler 1.1 initially, then realized that your self maintenance was far superior to using TRIM so I disabled it. It made a huge difference in terms of reliability.”
Click to expand...
 
But didn't trim enabler came up with a new version of its software ? Wouldn't it have fix said issues by now?
 
auero said:
Right, but sandforce drives work differen't than a traditional SSD. It's compressing data on the fly. Sandforce is organizing data only to have the OS come in and move it around with TRIM resulting in sandforce having to try and fix it again. This is probably why OWC posted this..
Click to expand...

I don't think that is the issue. Apple has used Sandforce controller SSDs and they have TRIM turned on with no issues. I suspect this is more an issue with instability with the firmware version Sandforce supplies OWC and other OEMs.

I have no proof of this... it is just my opinion based on Apple not having any issue with TRIM/Sandforce.
 
comics addict said:
But didn't trim enabler came up with a new version of its software ? Wouldn't it have fix said issues by now?
Click to expand...
Trim Enabler in fact does nothing more, than patch a string APPLE SSD (that's the beginning of every Apple-SSD media name!) with zeroes in the driver kext so that it will activate TRIM-functionality on drives, whose media name does not contain word APPLE.
What I tried to say is, that the Trim Enabler does not affect OS X driver's processing logic in any way, except for this disk identification.
 
Last edited:
I have the OWC mercury extreme pro. i tried enabling trim using the trim enabler. i noticed that it was a bit slower than when it wasn't enabled. so i disabled it and removed trim enabler.
 
mbp150 said:
I have the OWC mercury extreme pro. i tried enabling trim using the trim enabler. i noticed that it was a bit slower than when it wasn't enabled. so i disabled it and removed trim enabler.
Click to expand...

That has also been my experience testing it out. :confused:
 
It's been discussed a lot in other threads, but it's worth mentioning again.

Garbage Collection is a routine executed by the SSD firmware to reset 'unused' pages. The OS has no knowledge of GC.

TRIM is a OS command issued to the SSD to tell it which blocks are free.

For optimal performance and longevity, your SSD should include a robust GC routine and your OS should include a TRIM implementation.

The oft-cited quote from OWC was for the original firmware of their SandForce equipped SSD's.

Any SF equipped SSD should be on version 5+ of the firmware
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/OWC/SSD

This updated firmware supports the TRIM command on all compatible OS's.
 
MatthewAMEL said:
It's been discussed a lot in other threads, but it's worth mentioning again.

Garbage Collection is a routine executed by the SSD firmware to reset 'unused' pages. The OS has no knowledge of GC.

TRIM is a OS command issued to the SSD to tell it which blocks are free.

For optimal performance and longevity, your SSD should include a robust GC routine and your OS should include a TRIM implementation.

The oft-cited quote from OWC was for the original firmware of their SandForce equipped SSD's.

Any SF equipped SSD should be on version 5+ of the firmware
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/OWC/SSD

This updated firmware supports the TRIM command on all compatible OS's.
Click to expand...

Speaking with their tech support they still advise against using something like Trim Enabler paired with they're SSD. However Windows, according to them, implements Trim differently than Mac OS. Something to do with Apple implementing it at the controller level or something that the tech told me.
 
Their Tech Support is wrong.

TRIM is an AHCI/ATA command. The drive doesn't know the OS that passes it the command. It just responds to it.

What they 'should' be saying is 'TRIM on OS X is only enabled on drives that Apple has blessed. Getting TRIM to work with a non-blessed drive requires system file modification and we (OWC) don't want to be responsible for that.'

I understand their position. But to say not to run TRIM on their SF equipped drives is nuts.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-trim-firmware,2800.html
 
MatthewAMEL said:
Their Tech Support is wrong.

TRIM is an AHCI/ATA command. The drive doesn't know the OS that passes it the command. It just responds to it.

What they 'should' be saying is 'TRIM on OS X is only enabled on drives that Apple has blessed. Getting TRIM to work with a non-blessed drive requires system file modification and we (OWC) don't want to be responsible for that.'

I understand their position. But to say not to run TRIM on their SF equipped drives is nuts.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-trim-firmware,2800.html
Click to expand...

Have read more recent article from this website and and they did mention Trim on OWC SSDs (not to mention they use my model as the test one ;) ). I'll enable it and see how it performs. Have you by any chance done this yourself on a OWC drive?
 
Why, yes. Yes, I have. :)


Capacity: 240.06 GB (240,057,409,536 bytes)
Model: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD
Revision: 507ABBF0
Serial Number:
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Medium Type: Solid State
TRIM Support: Yes
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
 
MatthewAMEL said:
Why, yes. Yes, I have. :)


Capacity: 240.06 GB (240,057,409,536 bytes)
Model: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD
Revision: 507ABBF0
Serial Number:
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Medium Type: Solid State
TRIM Support: Yes
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Click to expand...

They released a firmware update a couple of weeks ago so I don't know if it might be the cause but I enabled trim to try it out and it became absurdly slow writing to it to the point where I couldn't manage any disk performance without disabling altogether.

OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD:

Capacity: 240.06 GB (240,057,409,536 bytes)
Model: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD
Revision: 520ABBF0
Serial Number:
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Medium Type: Solid State
TRIM Support: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
 
ooops...

i installed the firmware update and tried Trim Enabler 3.0. I didn't see any performance change. I also tried Trim Enabler 3.0 and it slowed down. So I just disabled Trim
 
mbp150 said:
ooops...

i installed the firmware update and tried Trim Enabler 3.0. I didn't see any performance change. I also tried Trim Enabler 3.0 and it slowed down. So I just disabled Trim
Click to expand...

I don't seem to comprehend what you just wrote... Are you saying that indeed you manage to update the firmware to the one released on August and enabled trim via Trim Enabler? If so, did you notice any performance degradation?
 
auero said:
Right, but sandforce drives work differen't than a traditional SSD. It's compressing data on the fly. Sandforce is organizing data only to have the OS come in and move it around with TRIM resulting in sandforce having to try and fix it again. This is probably why OWC posted this..
In fact, enabling TRIM could actually hurt the performance and reliability of your OWC SSD, rather than help it. As OWC customer Scott Gosling recently said in an email to us,
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Is Scott Gosling an authority, or just some random customer? In other words, why should I take Scott Gosling's word for it?

TRIM is just a hint from the OS: "hey, these blocks are free now". It doesn't force the drive to actually do anything with those hints. I think an argument could be made that if receiving these hints caused a drive to stop working optimally that the drive firmware is defective. Worst case, it could just ignore the TRIM info and go with the internal GC, couldn't it?
 
comics addict said:
I don't seem to comprehend what you just wrote... Are you saying that indeed you manage to update the firmware to the one released on August and enabled trim via Trim Enabler? If so, did you notice any performance degradation?
Click to expand...

sorry for that.

What I meant was when I enabled Trim using trim enabler 3 after updating the firmware, I noticed a slow down. So i disabled Trim.I checked using black magic, and found that the results (read/write) were more or less the same as before with the previous firmware, both trim enabled and disabled.
 
mbp150 said:
sorry for that.

What I meant was when I enabled Trim using trim enabler 3 after updating the firmware, I noticed a slow down. So i disabled Trim.I checked using black magic, and found that the results (read/write) were more or less the same as before with the previous firmware, both trim enabled and disabled.
Click to expand...

Ok so I am not the only one because I experienced the same performance degradation. Just wanted add that BlackMagic Disk Speed might not be the best benchmark to test your Sandforce-based SSD from OWC because it uses incompressible data which the SF controller can't not compressed any further to enable higher performance on the NAND flash chips.
 
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