M4 or 830

For firmware updates (with any hardware) you need a DOS boot CD/thumb drive most of the time. You can run that on any Intel Mac.
Thus, updating an 830 on a Mac does work.

Just pick the drive you want and update its firmware before you put your data onto it (safer this way).

I'd go for the 830.

 

Both are good drives and fast. The M4s write speeds are much slower than the 830, but that wouldnt be noticed in day to day use, only heavy writing situations.

I would recommend the 830 over the M4, but if your wallet cannot afford it, the M4 is still a great SSD.

 

whichever is cheaper. I have the 512GB M4 in my MacBook Pro and a 256GB 830 in my PC. Both are extremely fast, with the MBP booting to the login screen in less than 20 seconds.

 

I'm very happy with my 256GB 830, but it was the cheapest when I bought it. If the M4 was significantly cheaper I'd just have easily gotten that.

 

I'd go M4 purely because it's cheaper.

In fact I did, as I faced the same decision last month.

The beach balling generally only happens if you put the SSD in the optibay, so be sure to put the SSD into your HDD bay.

 

I seem to remember that you cannot update the 830 using a mac (I talked to Samsun on the phone when considering this option). You must take the SSD out of your computer and place it INTERNALLY in a Windows machine. PITA

I got the M4 because of this and the price. I too used CCC to copy both over my system to the SSD. Boot from the external SSD to verify it, then swapped them. Only problem was I had to find my Office product key. No problems at all and machine is quite fast.

 

That's nonsense. See my post above.

 

Of course you can do the firmware update on a Mac (via boot camp). Samsung guy was talking nonsense.

It's not like there are regular firmware updates for the 830, though. You only need a firmware update if it was manufactured before Jan 2012.

 

I purchased and installed a 256 M4 last month and everything has been smooth as butter since. I was also debating between the 2 SSDs, but I went with Crucial not because of speed, but reliability.

 

If you're doing it via boot camp, then you're running Windows. Samsung don't support updating the firmware from within OSX, there is no provided utility to do so (unlike Windows which does have such a utility).

 

"on a Mac" ≠ "under OS X"

Samsung guy said "on a Mac" but should have said "under OS X". That's what we've been saying here since my first post (second post in this thread).

 

Yes, and in effect I was agreeing with you - I didn't say it couldn't be updated on a Mac.

Burn the ISO and boot from it, booting into Windows to run Magician is overkill, especially if you don't have Windows installed.

 

OP:

These: http://amzn.to/U8gQJ8 or These (Samsung): http://amzn.to/U8h0jP

I've heard the samsung is incredibly stable and well supported, in fact, more so than the M4 which I've also heard good recommendations. At this point, I say you just go with what's cheaper. They're both VERY stable.

 

No, you don't have to actually run Windows. You just need boot camp to boot the bootable .iso image that Samsung provide.

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Apple is using the Samsung 830 SSDs in the Retina MacBook Pro and 2012 MacBook Airs. So I would hope they are pretty reliable! In any case, I think the days of unreliable SSDs are thankfully behind us. You hear of very few failures for either the M4 o the 830.

 

Why not just burn the iso to disc, reboot and hold down the c key as it starts to boot from CDROM? No need to fiddle with bootcamp, although obviously it would cost a burnt disc.

 

I think the OP meant on a windows OS. Which is a real pita of you don't have bootcamp. I avoided the 830 for this reason, and of course price.

P.S. Many people are ignorant to the fact that a Mac can run windows. Which probably explains why the Samsung rep chose the wrong wording in his advice to the OP.

 

People. Perhaps in bootcamp you can update the firmware. Booting from an ISO does not work. I tried it and contacted Samsung tech support. Plus, suppose you do have bootcamp installed on your 830 SSD. This SSD must be located internally on your mac. So you would have to instal the formated SSD, load OSX, then load bootcamp, then download the Samsung updater software. Then migrate your data. Good luck using CCC or some such easy path to updating your SSD. As for never needing a future update. Yeah right. You have no idea if there will be a vital update in the future.

Here is a screen capture from Samsung:

 

The last sentence is bs. Samsung is the leader in reliability. They make most of the components in their 830 SSD. If you can control who makes the components and who designs them, you get a better product. Great example is Apple. Cruial's reliability is nothing out of ordinary. They aren't bad, but they aren't anything special like Samsung.

Also, the 830 is faster by a good margin. 500MB/s read and 320MB/s write on the 830 vs 415MB/s read and 175MB/s write on the M4. I also don't know where the $100 cheaper stuff comes from. But I do know that it doesn't apply to all M4 vs 830 models. The 128GB model of the 830 costs $130 on Amazon, retail price is about $150 max. Are you saying the 128GB model of the M4 costs $50? Now the $100 price disparity occurs in other models but you guys are a bit misleading since the smaller models don't exhibit it.

 

I have an M4 in my iMac and honestly, these speeds don't really matter because they're all very fast.

 

SSD firmware is not like smartphone firmware. Samsung will not update it every few months nor will they need to. They make most of the components in the 830, which makes it easier to make every component work together. Other vendors source components from different OEMs and therefore have more compatibility issues thus more firmware updates. But if SSDs are to become more popular, they must not have firmware that needs to be updated out of the box. Normal people don't give a rat's ass about their HD/SSD firmware. They won't know how to update it nor will want to be bothered. And if an SSD needs a firmware update out of the box to function with major problems, then I would never buy such a product because that tells me the company sucks.

Btw, why would I need a vital firmware update in the future if it works fine with no issues for everyone? There have been no issues for the 830 which is a lot than I can say for other SSDs which have had many major problems that require firmware updates. Significant number of people have issues w SandForce based drives and thus new firmware. But that hasn't been the case for the 830.

 

Kinda like the M4's firmware update for the "BSOD issue"? The drive would begin to fail after exactly 5184 hours. It appears that the M4 is stable now but that wasn't always the case. And yeah, I'd stay away from any Sandforce drives at this point.

 

No offense but your post is also bull. Samsung is very reliable, but so is Crucial. Which is the most reliable? You would need more information on that. Intel is also very reliable. As for the read/ write speeds, your Crucial figures are not even close to what has been reported on this very forum. From my personal experience, 512 GB M4 i get about 510-515 MB/S read and 265 Mb/s write.
Stick to numbers that you are sure of aka your samsung ssd numbers. You would also not notice any real world difference unless you have huge files or the .5-1 seconds of boot uptime between these two.

To the OP. I personally chose the M4 for the simple reason that it was cheaper and has been reported as a reliable ssd. Any SSD will make your computer feel fast and you will love your choice no matter what. If price isn't a factor and you just want the fasted SSD, i'd look at Intels SSDs because they have great R/W speeds.

 

Yea that's the type of problem I was referring to. It's not unique to Cruicial M4. Even Intel had a problem like this in the past. SandForce is pretty good but in a worst case scenario, Samsung is the undisputed leader. I got this info from AnandTech which I think is a reliable source. In case someone attacks my credibility, AnandTech's review of the 2012 MBA includes an overview of Toshiba (SandForce) vs Samsung SSDs. I'm on my phone so I won't go post a link.

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I got my data from AnandTech. Is that not a credible source to you? I never said Crucial isnt reliable, just NOT AS RELIABLE which is obvious from their problems that they released many firmware patches for. Samsung has a clean track record regarding this. Just because you can't notice a real world difference doesn't mean it doesn't exist. That's a poor excuse to argue with. I could argue most people won't notice the difference between a Ferrari and Lamborghini. But from a fact based standpoint, there are key technical differences. I'm not saying anything other than the plain facts. Whether you or the OP thinks it's a real world difference or not is subject to opinion. But facts are not.

Link: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4253/the-crucial-m4-micron-c400-ssd-review/

If price were not a factor, I'd choose Samsung. They are experts w ARM (which is what their controller is based off of) and various types of flash based silicon. Their 830 SSD is currently the consumer market leader in terms of raw performance, reliability and long term performance. And their prices are rather competitive. I bought two 128GB 830s for $90 a piece. Again, I get the technical data from AnandTech.