Intel 530 in 2011 MBP

[Otterblue]

So I decided to jump the SSD bandwagon with all the hype and all.

But here's my issue: I just brought an Intel 530* SSD for my MacBook Pro* but the speeds I'm getting is not even close to what's on the manufacturer's page. The SSD has a fresh install of Mavericks. TRIM is enabled for the SSD via TRIM Enabler. System Information reports the link speed is 6Gb/s (SATA III). Overall the system feels fast but not as fast as I expected.

Are there any confirmed SSD issues with Mavericks? Is there anything else I can do to increase the SSD speed? Why are the Black Magic speeds so low? (I've seen 520s with better results) Are the following speeds expected?

The speeds listed on the manufacturer's page is up to 540 MB/s read and 480 MB/s write.

Benchmarking using a write test command* from terminal gives me a write speed of 469 MB/s.
Black Magic* gives me a write speed of 134 MB/s and a read of 401 MB/s (5GB stress).
NovaBench* gives me a write speed of 225 MB/s.
Xbench* gives me a random uncached write speed of 254 MB/s and 167 MB/s for sequential uncached write (4K blocks).

I don't usually post to the forums unless I'm completely stumped so any help would be much appreciated.

*Intel 530 SSD:
120GB
Firmware: DC22
OEM Version

*MBP:
OS X Mavericks 10.9 (13A603)
15-inch, Early 2011
2 GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB
AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB
SMC Version: 1.69f4

*Terminal Command

time dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=tstfile count=1024 2>&1 | awk '/sec/ {print $1 / $5 / 1048576, "MB/sec" }'

*Black Magic

*NovaBench

*Xbench

 

[blake2]

Intel 530 uses the Sandforce-2281 controller, and I believe that has impacts on write speeds with incompressible data.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1177020/

There are people here who have the same issue with the SF-driven OWC drives. Also, as it's being said in that thread the size of your drive may have to do with speeds as well.

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...taining-lesser-performing-sandisk-128gb-ssds/

Smaller drives... even with non-SF seem to suffer slower write speeds.

 

[saturnotaku]

Intel 530 uses the Sandforce-2281 controller, and I believe that has impacts on write speeds with incompressible data.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1177020/

There are people here who have the same issue with the SF-driven OWC drives. Also, as it's being said in that thread the size of your drive may have to do with speeds as well.

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...taining-lesser-performing-sandisk-128gb-ssds/

Smaller drives... even with non-SF seem to suffer slower write speeds.

All of this is correct. OP, there is nothing wrong with your drive. If you're unsatisfied with its performance, try to exchange it for a Samsung Evo or Crucial M500 in a larger capacity (240-256 GB). They are more costly but perform much better over the long term.

 

[flurescent]

so how did you fix this?

I've just replaced my HDD with Intel 530 120 gb, and I get the same speeds as you do. I've got 13' early 2011. Reading speeds are awesome, but I'm disappointed with the writing speeds, 140 is just too low.
How did you solve yours? Did you get a different SSD? I'm thinking about getting Samsung 840, because I can still return this disk. What would you suggest?
Thanks for your answer.