What were your issues with the Vertex 2? The one's I've experienced is hibernation, which I rarely do. And then inactivity sleep doesn't seem to want to work. That's I guess my biggest gripe. But it's a solid SSD and extremely fast other than that.
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Intel 320 SSD (X25-M G3 Postville Refresh) Released!
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What were your issues with the Vertex 2? The one's I've experienced is hibernation, which I rarely do. And then inactivity sleep doesn't seem to want to work. That's I guess my biggest gripe. But it's a solid SSD and extremely fast other than that.
I haven't timed it exactly. I also have a password at login, so it's hard to get an exact timing without disabling it, plus I have quite a few login items that launch at startup. But I'd estimate 15-20 seconds total with the 320 SSD. It's definitely nice and quick -- not the fastest SSD by any means, but a great choice for the quality associated with Intel products, and a very competitive price.
My Vertex 2 was one of the new 25nm ones, which have been very widely reviewed as slower and generally inferior to the older 34nm ones. The drive was pretty fast (at least as fast as this Intel 320 SSD), but for whatever reason I had problems with it. The drive would sometimes not get recognized by the Mac during bootup (I'd get the directory symbol with a question mark) for a few seconds before things started working. Time Machine was generating numerous errors and couldn't complete backups. Snow Leopard refused to install to the SSD from scratch - had to clone a fresh install using Carbon Copy Cloner. And a sector scan using TechTool Deluxe yielded 60 or so bad blocks. So I probably had a defective unit. This makes me wary of OCZ's quality control, especially after reading quite a few similar stories and reviews on the Internet. Intel has a much better track record with compatibility and reliability.
So between the issues with the drive and the deceptive marketing of 25nm flash, I decided it wasn't worth it to deal with OCZ, so I returned the drive to Newegg for a full store credit refund and used that on this Intel 320 drive.
Got my new MBP '11 today, and I bought an 120GB Intel 320 at the same time when I still was in the city. I didn't even boot the computer when I opened the box, I immediately turned it upside down and screwed it open to replace the hard drive. Followed the guides on ifixit, it was super easy and took me about 15min.
Then I screwed it back together and put the OS X install DVD into the SuperDrive and installed it. When it was done, I enabled TRIM with the hack and installed all my programs. And it works really really good, this is the first time I'm using an SSD so you can imagine how it feels.
Been using the computer all day now, and the SSD works really well with the enabled TRIM. It wakes up from sleep instantly, and boots in mere seconds. I haven't tried automatic sleep or hibernation yet though, but I guess that should work just as well.
I ordered a Data Doubler from OWC to replace the SuperDrive with the original HDD. But those seemed to be out of stock, ~15 days until it ships. Ah well, I guess these 120GB (well, ~70GB left now) will have to be enough until then
Then I screwed it back together and put the OS X install DVD into the SuperDrive and installed it. When it was done, I enabled TRIM with the hack and installed all my programs. And it works really really good, this is the first time I'm using an SSD so you can imagine how it feels.
Been using the computer all day now, and the SSD works really well with the enabled TRIM. It wakes up from sleep instantly, and boots in mere seconds. I haven't tried automatic sleep or hibernation yet though, but I guess that should work just as well.
I ordered a Data Doubler from OWC to replace the SuperDrive with the original HDD. But those seemed to be out of stock, ~15 days until it ships. Ah well, I guess these 120GB (well, ~70GB left now) will have to be enough until then
I installed my 320 160gb today, feels snappier than the x-25 120gb it replaced. Will run some benchmarks later
Posted by me in another thread:
Just put in an order at newegg for a 120GB Intel 320. I'm a little leery about the issues some folks have been having with SATAIII connections and even though this drive will be going in a SATAIII capable2011 MBP (which I will be ordering as soon as tomorrow, after the Mac Pro I sold to finance the MBP arrives safely with its new owner), I'm just not comfortable with compatibility at this point.
This way I can put the SSD in the optibay and keep the stock HDD in the HDD bay. Since it doesn't have SMS built in I wouldn't feel safe putting the stock HDD in the optibay and would have to buy a replacement HDD. And money's tight, so that will save me the cost of buying a replacement HDD if I needed to have a SATAIII SSD in the HDD bay.
I imagine that I probably wouldn't feel the difference between a 510 and a 320 much anyhow. Or hopefully I wouldn't! lol. If I were to go all out with a 510 and a replacement HDD it would cost me $150 more. I decided that the difference probably wouldn't end up being worth $150 to me. We'll see.
And with the 320 I'm buying, maybe when the SATAIII issues calm down in the next year or so, I can upgrade and put the 320 into my 2008 aluminum macbook. I think I've made a wise choice. I hope I've made a wise choice.
Just put in an order at newegg for a 120GB Intel 320. I'm a little leery about the issues some folks have been having with SATAIII connections and even though this drive will be going in a SATAIII capable2011 MBP (which I will be ordering as soon as tomorrow, after the Mac Pro I sold to finance the MBP arrives safely with its new owner), I'm just not comfortable with compatibility at this point.
This way I can put the SSD in the optibay and keep the stock HDD in the HDD bay. Since it doesn't have SMS built in I wouldn't feel safe putting the stock HDD in the optibay and would have to buy a replacement HDD. And money's tight, so that will save me the cost of buying a replacement HDD if I needed to have a SATAIII SSD in the HDD bay.
I imagine that I probably wouldn't feel the difference between a 510 and a 320 much anyhow. Or hopefully I wouldn't! lol. If I were to go all out with a 510 and a replacement HDD it would cost me $150 more. I decided that the difference probably wouldn't end up being worth $150 to me. We'll see.
And with the 320 I'm buying, maybe when the SATAIII issues calm down in the next year or so, I can upgrade and put the 320 into my 2008 aluminum macbook. I think I've made a wise choice. I hope I've made a wise choice.
Looks nice!
I'm getting about 10MB/s less on all of my results then you are on my newly installed 120GB. It doesn't worry me too much except for on the 4k block reads which are already pretty low. I'm attaching a screenshot of my results on my late 2009 MacBook.
I didn't make a clean install of the OS, instead I used install from TM-backup. I couldn't get Migration Assistant to play nicely when I did a clean install so that was the only option I had if I wanted to keep my data.
Do you think this could be the reason my drive is slower, if so, why is a time machine backup restore slower then clean install when access times are supposed to be 0?
Could it be that since you are using the Pro model which has some better hardware that makes the difference?
Attachments
Results from the 320 on my 13 2.3
Results 334.06
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.7 (10J3250)
Physical RAM 8192 MB
Model MacBookPro8,1
Drive Type INTEL SSDSA2CW160G3
Disk Test 334.06
Sequential 220.60
Uncached Write 266.61 163.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 268.69 152.03 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 120.74 35.33 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 420.54 211.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 687.83
Uncached Write 509.49 53.94 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 487.58 156.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2133.59 15.12 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 750.19 139.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Results 334.06
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.7 (10J3250)
Physical RAM 8192 MB
Model MacBookPro8,1
Drive Type INTEL SSDSA2CW160G3
Disk Test 334.06
Sequential 220.60
Uncached Write 266.61 163.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 268.69 152.03 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 120.74 35.33 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 420.54 211.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 687.83
Uncached Write 509.49 53.94 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 487.58 156.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2133.59 15.12 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 750.19 139.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]
I actually do not have a MacBook Pro...it's the late 2008 Aluminum MacBook, so that's probably not the difference. How much free space is there on your drive? I'm using 40% of mine; if yours is pretty full that could definitely reduce the speed a bit. I also have 8GB of RAM, which probably doesn't matter unless you are running the benchmarks with little to no free RAM.
Otherwise I'd just attribute the differences to random effects. Who knows what, nothing to go crazy about.
I just bought this on around noon...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167050
Now I see where they have another Intel 320 120GB also(comparison link)...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%2050001157&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=636|20-167-052^20-167-052-02%23%2C20-167-050^20-167-050-TS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167050
Now I see where they have another Intel 320 120GB also(comparison link)...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%2050001157&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=636|20-167-052^20-167-052-02%23%2C20-167-050^20-167-050-TS
The only seemingly reasonable prices are here:
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-SATA-2-...DNPG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1302041020&sr=8-3
Umm... note to any forum mods, If posting of external links is not allowed or something like that, please hide the link for me
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That second one looks like it's OEM...so no retail box....just a bare drive. For 5 bucks more, I'd take the retail box (which you ordered).
How did you do the carbon copy of the old system? What software did you use? Can you place the carbon copy on an external disk and then have it install?
The OEM one has better write speed and slightly less read speed. I wonder why...?
Use Carbon Copy Cloner (free, donation-based). You have lots of possibilities on how to clone the drive. You can clone your existing harddrive to a USB external drive, for example, then boot from the USB external (holding the option key at boot), and use CCC to clone to the SSD.
Welp newegg finally got around to posting the 40 Gb 320 so I went ahead and ordered one. Will be a tight squeeze but i've learned to make do with over 2 years of having the 80 Gig x25-m
Love my new SSD. My effective boot time went from 2-3 minutes to 20-30 seconds. Everything feels so fast and responsive. iPhoto is a pleasure to use, it had gotten slower and slower on my old hard drive. No more jumping dock icons and beach balls.
Yeah I love it too, I will never own a computer without an SSD ever againLove my new SSD. My effective boot time went from 2-3 minutes to 20-30 seconds. Everything feels so fast and responsive. iPhoto is a pleasure to use, it had gotten slower and slower on my old hard drive. No more jumping dock icons and beach balls.
In the 3 days that I have had it installed, I have not had a single problem with the drive. My MBP runs SUPER fast and SUPER quiet and SUPER cool. I highly recommend this SSD. Plus lets not forget Intel's track record with the lowest failure rate.
Just ordered the 80GB model, replacing the optical drive with the new SSD... does anyone know if there are any performance differences between 80GB and other capacities?
There's a difference in write speeds, but since I'm going to just install the OS on it, I don't really care about write speeds...
There's a difference in write speeds, but since I'm going to just install the OS on it, I don't really care about write speeds...
