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Is OWC Mercury Extreme still the best?

ZestyOne

ZestyOne

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 18, 2009
113
68
Paradise
I researched this a long time ago when I wanted an SSD.

I just bought a BRAND new 17" 2.2 GHz macbook pro though.

2 questions.

1. wheres the cheapest/best place to upgrade RAM to 8gb

2. does this article still hold any weight? it was 6+ months ago so I dont know how things have changed: http://macperformanceguide.com/SSD-RealWorld.html

Click the dropdown to see all the comparisons, it shows how the OWC is the only one that performs consistently even under extreme conditions, while most other drives simply are destroyed

I'm looking for something about 256GB cause cost of 512 is a little steep :/
 
Ive had my 240GB OWC SSD for over a year and its been solid and performance is still the same as day one. Very happy with it and it doesn't need TRIM.

I would buy the SATA III now. Prices have lowered quite a bit.
 
ZestyOne said:
I researched this a long time ago when I wanted an SSD.

I just bought a BRAND new 17" 2.2 GHz macbook pro though.

2 questions.

1. wheres the cheapest/best place to upgrade RAM to 8gb

2. does this article still hold any weight? it was 6+ months ago so I dont know how things have changed: http://macperformanceguide.com/SSD-RealWorld.html

Click the dropdown to see all the comparisons, it shows how the OWC is the only one that performs consistently even under extreme conditions, while most other drives simply are destroyed

I'm looking for something about 256GB cause cost of 512 is a little steep :/
Click to expand...

Anandtech just performed a Sandforce-Based SSD Roundup, but threw in a few other drives in the benchmarks as well.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4604/...rsair-patriot-ocz-owc-memoright-ssds-compared

As for RAM, I like the treatment I've gotten from OWC at eshop.macsales.com, but don't know how their prices stack up since I really didn't shop around too much.
 
I always order my drives from OWC. Infact tomorrow I got a brand new 1TB External "Quad" Drive coming. SATA, Firewire 400, 800 and USB 2.0. Their warranty is great, too. Plus the freebies you get when you buy a new drive. I bought an 80GB Firewire 400 from them like 10 years ago and on it came a buncha old Apple commercials from the 90's.

My old, old IDE based 160GB finally died on me on Tuesday. When I needed a new enclosure for them when my new iMac didn't come with a Firewire 400 port they were really helpful. I called them up and they found me an IDE to Firewire 800 enclosure in a store room and sent me it for like $30 bucks.

As for RAM. I always go with OWC. I'm operating on 4GB's still. Two 2GB chips. I plan on filling all four slots on my iMac with 4GB sticks soon. Give me 16GB total. I'll take advantage of their mail in older RAM chips/rebate when I pull out the two stock Apple 2GB sticks.
 
There are still some problems with SATA III SSD's are there not?

OP, I have a 120GB OWC SSD, I've had it for over 6 months now, its running perfectly. Highly recommended.
 
Blue Sun said:
There are still some problems with SATA III SSD's are there not?

OP, I have a 120GB OWC SSD, I've had it for over 6 months now, its running perfectly. Highly recommended.
Click to expand...

There are "some" problems with all storage. Nothing to worry about though. OWC 6G's have 5 year warranties. Mine are purring just fine and yes, they are the fastest outside of PCI based storage.
 
I installed a OWC SSD 6G (Sata III) on MBP 13" 2011, not one problem on SL or Lion. Works excellent and speeds are amazing.
 

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Sensamic said:
Yes. The new mac minis and macbook pros come with SATA III I think, so the speeds are amazing: 500MB/s. Mine is SATA II, which is at 245MB/s or so, which is more than enough for me for a long time to come.

My 240GB SSD was expensive, but now it has a really good price. In two years Im sure there will be 500GB SSD for 100$.
Click to expand...

Thanks,

so do you think its worth it for me to buy the 'extreme' model for an extra $100?
I dont hae a problem paying unless the difference is very very negligible (I use photoshop and a lot of editing software)

Link again for reference:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_6G/

also, this is a stupid Q but what form factor is a macbook pro harddrive. i want to make sure i dont have to get any addapters or anything when i order it.
 
ZestyOne said:
Thanks,

so do you think its worth it for me to buy the 'extreme' model for an extra $100?
I dont hae a problem paying unless the difference is very very negligible (I use photoshop and a lot of editing software)

Link again for reference:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_6G/

also, this is a stupid Q but what form factor is a macbook pro harddrive. i want to make sure i dont have to get any addapters or anything when i order it.
Click to expand...

Go spend the extra $100, I have a OWC Mercury Extreme Sata II and a Extreme Pro Sata III; HUGE :eek: difference when when doing intensive tasks. (Photoshop, video editing, etc.)

And no, you do not need any adapters that I know.
 
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