Installing SSD for OS/Apps - Any advice?

[jpfour23]

I have decided to go with an SSD for my OS & apps. Currently I have a 500gb HD as OS/Apps, 2 1TB drives in Bay 2+3 running Raid 1, and Bay 4 just another misc HD.

I'm wanting to know, can I just take that drive out of the Mac Pro and install the SSD with the Icy Dock, start it up and install Snow Leopard? Is there anything else prior to this that I need to do, besides obviously back up? What about my raid drives, will these auto-detect once Snow Leopard is installed on the SSD?

Also, are there any other recommendations when running the SSD? I've read all kinds of different opinions about TRIM and performance... etc. Anything else I should be concerned about?

I am looking to purchase:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227395
with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994064

Thanks in advance!
Josh

 

[bozz2006]

what i would do is install the drive, format it, and use superduper, carboncopycloner, or disk utility to copy the contents of your current Boot drive to the SSD. then go to system prefs and set the SSD as the startup disk. Why make it more difficult than it has to be?

 

[jpfour23]

what i would do is install the drive, format it, and use superduper, carboncopycloner, or disk utility to copy the contents of your current Boot drive to the SSD. then go to system prefs and set the SSD as the startup disk. Why make it more difficult than it has to be?

Yea, thing is I don't want a copy of my current OS drive. I have a ton of unnecessary apps and junk in my library prefs, etc. I'd like to do a clean install. I'm just not sure (mainly) if my raid drives 2&3 will be automatically detected once SL is installed.

Thx,
JP

 

[Rainier42]

what i would do is install the drive, format it, and use superduper, carboncopycloner, or disk utility to copy the contents of your current Boot drive to the SSD. then go to system prefs and set the SSD as the startup disk. Why make it more difficult than it has to be?

To copy the contents my current Boot drive using Disk Utility is it just a matter of creating a Disk Image or is there some other means to copy?

 

[bozz2006]

Well...

 

[Transporteur]

Also, are there any other recommendations when running the SSD? I've read all kinds of different opinions about TRIM and performance... etc. Anything else I should be concerned about?

According to the OCZ support forums the Vertex works fine with OS X, but of course it gets "slow" over the time.

The current firmware (1.3) supports Trim commands, so you can clean the drive by yourself (windows and linux only), but they are about to release 1.4 which has an implemented garbage collection that cleans the drive during idle times. It i supposed to be OS independent!

Firmware updates can't be done with OS X, so you have to use a Linux live cd or a windows PC.

 

[ungraphic]

According to the OCZ support forums the Vertex works fine with OS X, but of course it gets "slow" over the time.

The current firmware (1.3) supports Trim commands, so you can clean the drive by yourself (windows and linux only), but they are about to release 1.4 which has an implemented garbage collection that cleans the drive during idle times. It i supposed to be OS independent!

Firmware updates can't be done with OS X, so you have to use a Linux live cd or a windows PC.

Any news on weather 'garbage collection' will be implemented into other drives? (kingston?). Or better yet, a rough date of when the OS independent firmware will be available? How would updating the firmware work, anyway? Would one need a windows box to update the firmware, or can it be done with mac os x after Snow Leopard has been installed? I'm in the same boat, however I'm looking at getting two SSD drives in RAID0, but not necessarily ocz vertex, something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227461

Would this OCZ also get the garbage collection update? or....is it all ocz SSD drives getting the garbage collection update?

 

[Macinposh]

Any news on weather 'garbage collection' will be implemented into other drives? (kingston?)

Anand had something on the ssd´s and garbage :

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=14



With my limited understanding was that the way the "garbage collection" is implemented,it is not a good thing atm. TRIM apparently is working better but it´s aviability on other drives than intels,dont know about that..

 

[gugucom]

I would recommend Intel 2nd Gen instead of OCZ. They are on the drive compatibility list of major RAID card manufacturers. There is a reason for it and it asures you the greatest compatibility with a wide range of systems.

 

[ungraphic]

Looks like its better to just wait for SSD drives to get where they should be, by that time prices should also fall.

I'm curious though as well, as you guys mention to get the Intel SSDs for proper RAID support. Would TRIM and Garbage Collection still be in effect when using two SSD drives in RAID0, especially on a Mac seeing how it uses HFS, or is the partition type not important?

 

[Transporteur]

I'm curious though as well, as you guys mention to get the Intel SSDs for proper RAID support. Would TRIM and Garbage Collection still be in effect when using two SSD drives in RAID0, especially on a Mac seeing how it uses HFS, or is the partition type not important?

According to the linked article on anandtech, they don't yet support TRIM when using RAID, but they are working on it to get this done.

However OS X has to support TRIM first before you can use it. Does it yet? I personally doubt it.