Kingston SSDNow V+100 Installed Into 2011 13" i5

[The Critic]

Just finished installing a Kingston SSDNow V+100 96GB into my 2011 13" i5.

I used the trim enabler patch, erased my free space and ran the suggested commands in terminal to improve boot time.

No stability or reliability issues to report at this time, but I have only had this running for the last hour. Speeds appear to be a noticeable improvement over the stock 5400rpm drive, especially for the boot time. However, the improvement isn't drastic-- just noticeably better. Also, it feels like the computer is less snappy with TRIM enabled.

I ran xbench to obtain results on the drive's performance. I have no idea as to whether these numbers are good. Let me know what you guys think. The w/o TRIM enabler numbers were obtained by doing a "restore to default" option on TRIM enabler and nothing else. Not sure if that's the correct way to "reverse" the hack.

Thanks!

xbench results w/TRIM:

Results 325.40
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.7 (10J4138)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro8,1
Drive Type KINGSTON SVP100S296G
Disk Test 325.40
Sequential 218.21
Uncached Write 331.43 203.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 332.70 188.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 103.22 30.21 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 381.59 191.78 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 639.56
Uncached Write 430.35 45.56 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 617.64 197.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2134.00 15.12 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 542.60 100.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]

xbench W/O Trim:

Results 313.43
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.7 (10J4138)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro8,1
Drive Type KINGSTON SVP100S296G
Disk Test 313.43
Sequential 207.88
Uncached Write 293.97 180.49 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 343.59 194.40 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 97.69 28.59 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 371.29 186.61 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 636.74
Uncached Write 439.39 46.51 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 611.97 195.92 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2071.09 14.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 529.31 98.22 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

[Captain Dynamo]

Thanks for your interesting post

Thanks, I've been thinking of doing something like this. I found your statement:

"Speeds appear to be a noticeable improvement over the stock 5400rpm drive, especially for the boot time. However, the improvement isn't drastic-- just noticeably better."

to be interesting. I've never used an SSD, but many other posters state that the improvement is extraordinary. Sounds like that wasn't the case for you.

I believe I'll stick with my Scorpio black 7200 rpm drive. Fast enough and of course bigger.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

I have exactly the same SSD in my 17" 2010 MBP, along with the stock 500GB hard drive with my home folder on it.

I've not bothered with TRIM as the drive has very aggressive garbage collection, I've also not bothered changing any settings.

No stability or reliability issues to report at this time, but I have only had this running for the last hour. Speeds appear to be a noticeable improvement over the stock 5400rpm drive, especially for the boot time. However, the improvement isn't drastic-- just noticeably better.

When you say the improvement isn't drastic, are you referring to general performance or boot time?
For me the difference was quite noticeable in both respects over the stock 500GB 5400rpm drive. Especially when launching several apps.

Although not particularly useful for judging performance, my boot time is around 18 seconds to the login screen. 5 of which are from the time I press the power button till the startup chime. It takes another 2 seconds or so for the desktop to be fully loaded as well though. Was a bit faster when I only had the SSD and not the SSD+HDD.

As a comparison here are my scores for both my SSD and HDD.

Results 317.19
Drive Type KINGSTON SVP100S296G
Disk Test 317.19
Sequential 220.43
Uncached Write 307.61 188.87 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 323.31 182.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 109.12 31.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 379.11 190.54 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 565.36
Uncached Write 370.66 39.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 458.48 146.78 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2238.06 15.86 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 571.67 106.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Results 49.52
Drive Type Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02
Disk Test 49.52
Sequential 97.95
Uncached Write 101.53 62.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 97.35 55.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 82.10 24.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 117.17 58.89 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 33.14
Uncached Write 12.06 1.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 73.26 23.45 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 66.41 0.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 109.87 20.39 MB/sec [256K blocks]