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New OCZ Vertex SSD drives specifically for Macs !

H

harshw

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 19, 2009
202
54
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_vertex_series_mac_edition_sata_ii_2_5-ssd

These are specifically for Macs, tested at Apple labs. Way to go OCZ ! Apple users are going to love you :)


apple_vertex_b.jpg


" .. The Mac Edition delivers the incredible performance enthusiasts have come to expect from OCZ’s premium Solid State Drive offerings with the peace of mind knowing they are tested in Apple’s own labs."
 
IrishSniper87 said:
If they were affordable, maybe people would love them, haha.
Click to expand...

Yeah I am hoping they are the same cost as the normal OCZ Vertexes ... I've seen the 120GB for 280 gbp in UK. They should certainly be cheaper than the X-25's ... Intel's 160GB alone would cost as much as OCZ's 250GB. And the X-25's are not Apple certified.
 
JGO said:
"Peace of mind?!" :confused:


This is only good news if those who already purchased a "standard" vertex receive enough support to make their vertex "specifically" compatible with the Mac too. Go ahead and ask them this question in the support forums and they get irritated about it. If they can't come up with a flashing tool for the mac, then this Mac labeling is ridiculous. Why? Because in their support forums they come right out and say that the Vertex is still a work in progress and that you will have to do successive firmware updates. The mods on the OCZ support forums sometimes don't understand the frustration associated with spending $700+ for such a dodgy setup, but do they ever realize that the Vertex isn't MARKETED as an expensive experiment. It is marketed as a finished product. Seems to me that I spent $725 to be a Beta tester.

I am sitting here now with a Vertex (FW 1199) in my 17" UMBP, and I am unable to flash the drive due to some incompatibility of hardware (Non-Intel Controller). When booted in Vista, the Vertex in service mode doesn't show up. When booted in OS X the Vertex does appear in service mode. Weird.

Yet they now have a drive labeled as Mac compatible... Apple users will only really love them when they can flash these drives into long-term usefulness without being chided in the support forums for having a mac related problem, and then being told to "find a pc."
Click to expand...

That's what happens when you bought products from small companies that often sources products from other companies.

Last time I checked, this product wasn't selling saying that it'll support Mac out of the box nor did they market that. You made that decision yourself without doing research. This is what's called EAS, Early Adopters Syndrome.

At least OCZ is working hard on trying to fix all the issues. Intel still haven't fixed their early X-25M with bootcamp issues, so nobody is perfect and neither is SSD. It is still an immature technology for consumer market.

Those Mac drives are the same as the regular Vertex but with the new firmware 1370 aka 1.10 which contained mac support for sleep/hibernation.

BTW: it is rare to find a flashing tool with mac support. OCZ claim that they might work on it but they don't know when and if it will be done.
 
MikhailT said:
That's what happens when you bought products from small companies that often sources products from other companies.

Last time I checked, this product wasn't selling saying that it'll support Mac out of the box nor did they market that. You made that decision yourself without doing research. This is what's called EAS, Early Adopters Syndrome.
Click to expand...

You are 100% correct.

However, I do believe that my message provides some balance to the original post. Now the box says (implies) that it works with Macs. Regarding firmware flashing: just because it if rare to find the tool doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, or that it is somehow impossible to do.

All this being said...how do I get around the controller issue os that I can update my firmware? Use my wife's older MBP to do the flash? Not sure what the controller is in that model.
 
JGO said:
You are 100% correct.

However, I do believe that my message provides some balance to the original post. Now the box says (implies) that it works with Macs. Regarding firmware flashing: just because it if rare to find the tool doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, or that it is somehow impossible to do.

All this being said...how do I get around the controller issue os that I can update my firmware? Use my wife's older MBP to do the flash? Not sure what the controller is in that model.
Click to expand...

The easiest and fastest method is to use a PC or go over to a friend's pc to do the flashing. (bring it to work if you have a pc )

Your inability to actually flash may be because Vista is seeing it as SCSI and you need to go into Bios(which macs lack) to change to IDE mode so that the flasher can be used.

Now did you use the new improved 1.10 flasher tool to try?

You can try other methods such as BartPE/Vista Recovery CD, but I am not sure if it is working or not on Macs. OCZ working on freedos boot CD that should work but unknown atm.
 
MikhailT said:
Now did you use the new improved 1.10 flasher tool to try?
You can try other methods such as BartPE/Vista Recovery CD, but I am not sure if it is working or not on Macs. OCZ working on freedos boot CD that should work but unknown atm.
Click to expand...

I have not yet tried the 1.10 flasher. I will do this.
 
JGO said:
"Peace of mind?!" :confused:


This is only good news if those who already purchased a "standard" vertex receive enough support to make their vertex "specifically" compatible with the Mac too. Go ahead and ask them this question in the support forums and they get irritated about it. If they can't come up with a flashing tool for the mac, then this Mac labeling is ridiculous. Why? Because in their support forums they come right out and say that the Vertex is still a work in progress and that you will have to do successive firmware updates. The mods on the OCZ support forums sometimes don't understand the frustration associated with spending $700+ for such a dodgy setup, but do they ever realize that the Vertex isn't MARKETED as an expensive experiment. It is marketed as a finished product. Seems to me that I spent $725 to be a Beta tester.

I am sitting here now with a Vertex (FW 1199) in my 17" UMBP, and I am unable to flash the drive due to some incompatibility of hardware (Non-Intel Controller). When booted in Vista, the Vertex in service mode doesn't show up. When booted in OS X the Vertex does appear in service mode. Weird.

Yet they now have a drive labeled as Mac compatible... Apple users will only really love them when they can flash these drives into long-term usefulness without being chided in the support forums for having a mac related problem, and then being told to "find a pc."
Click to expand...

I feel your pain dude, but let me say this: The early intel drives that dont work with bootcamp - do you know of anyone who had a firmware flasher for them yet ? AFAIK, you have to send them in and they give you ones with fixed firmware. And as for the mods ... any mod on any forum will take you down if you have a go at them - whether it is MR, OCZ or Apple discussion forums. At least the MR and OCZ forums are a lot more tolerant than Apple Discussion forums :)

Maybe you can sell the non-Mac vertex on ebay and get the Mac specific variant ? You would probably get the same price you paid for them. Or then you can RMA the drive back to OCZ for them to flash/exchange with the Mac specific variant. One thing that is unknown right now is pricing. I really hope OCZ dont charge extra for the Mac variant or then to differentiate it somehow.
 
harshw said:
I really hope OCZ dont charge extra for the Mac variant or then to differentiate it somehow.
Click to expand...

If they are using the Apple name then it isn't OCZ you should worry about. It is whether Apple will charge more for something with their brand.

I am sure you aren't that naive to believe that OCZ would eat the cost right? Expect a SIGNIFICANT premium if these drives use the Apple trademark or state that these are APPLE approved. Any use of Apple as a marketing ploy (regardless of whether they test or not) will increase cost.
 
I think Intel fixed the X25-M and bootcamp problems. The price is comparable the same 450chf for 80GB X25-M vs 530chf for 120GB Vertex, so I think I'll rather go for Intel (I don't care for extra 40GB)
 
Super Talent Ultradrive ?

harshw said:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_vertex_series_mac_edition_sata_ii_2_5-ssd

These are specifically for Macs, tested at Apple labs. Way to go OCZ ! Apple users are going to love you :)


apple_vertex_b.jpg


" .. The Mac Edition delivers the incredible performance enthusiasts have come to expect from OCZ’s premium Solid State Drive offerings with the peace of mind knowing they are tested in Apple’s own labs."
Click to expand...


I received a new super talent SSD last week and it's been working pretty well. While it isn't "apple certified", it is much faster than the stock 200GB drive my early 2008 MacBookPro4,1 shipped with. Here's the properties of this new 256GB Ultradrive from super talent (FTM56GX25H)

Intel ICH8-M AHCI:

Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

STT_FTM56GX25H:

Capacity: 238.47 GB
Model: STT_FTM56GX25H
Revision: 1275
Serial Number: XXXXX-fbix-XXXXX
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Blink:
Capacity: 238.15 GB
Available: 98.91 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /


I bought it because of the iometer performance numbers they quoted on their web site. While I've been unable to reproduce 4000 random IOPS with it, it is much faster than what I had and I'm pretty happy with my decision even though it cost me USD $640.00 from NewEgg.

In the last week, I've had one sleep/wake problem that may or may not have been due to the SSD ... I am running the BIX firmware which I believe is the latest and greatest. Also, since my MacBookPro is old, it can only do SATA at 1.5Gb/s.

The SSD does become warm to the touch but it seems to have improved my battery life by maybe 15-20 minutes. Startup times are quick. I don't use bootcamp but my multiple VMware fusion images work great and suspend/resume very quickly.

I know the $$/GB cost is bad but the $$/IOP is cheap which is why I bought this drive. All of my large data sets are kept on my office MacPro and servers so 238GB on my laptop is okay.
 
MikhailT said:
The easiest and fastest method is to use a PC or go over to a friend's pc to do the flashing. (bring it to work if you have a pc )

Your inability to actually flash may be because Vista is seeing it as SCSI and you need to go into Bios(which macs lack) to change to IDE mode so that the flasher can be used.

Now did you use the new improved 1.10 flasher tool to try?

You can try other methods such as BartPE/Vista Recovery CD, but I am not sure if it is working or not on Macs. OCZ working on freedos boot CD that should work but unknown atm.
Click to expand...

I have only a MacBook, and I've flashed the drive twice with the Bart PE boot disc. Only takes a few minutes, but I do have to make a new Bart PE boot disc with each new firmware revision.

At least you don't need an actual PC though.
 
L0s7man said:
I think Intel fixed the X25-M and bootcamp problems. The price is comparable the same 450chf for 80GB X25-M vs 530chf for 120GB Vertex, so I think I'll rather go for Intel (I don't care for extra 40GB)
Click to expand...
I went with the Intel as well. Very happy here!
 
L0s7man said:
I think Intel fixed the X25-M and bootcamp problems. The price is comparable the same 450chf for 80GB X25-M vs 530chf for 120GB Vertex, so I think I'll rather go for Intel (I don't care for extra 40GB)
Click to expand...

In UK the price for the X-25M 80GB is £ 334 and the Vertex 120GB is available for £ 285. So that works out to £4.175 per GB for the Intel drive as compared to £2.375 per GB for the Vertex. Much cheaper than the Intel for sure. And Anandtech's review compared the drives and found them to be head to head in real world performance. Just because the Intel wins all the IOMeter 4K random read/write benchmarks doesn't mean much in real world usage.
 
I never liked hardware makers that sold seperate "Apple versions" of their hardware. This made some slight sense back when it was a completely different platform (PPC), but nowadays the hardware in Apple products is the same as the hardware in every other laptop on the market.

If I buy standard memory, it doesn't matter whether I want to put it in a $300 Asus netbook, a $1000 MacBook or a $3100 Dell Adamo - it's standard and it should work. Same goes for SATA drives. If this SSD didn't work properly on some Macs, they should simply say it's a problem on their side and release a fix, not make a new product and claim it's a feature.

If this thing wouldn't work on a Sony, nobody would say "Oh well, it doesn't specifically say it's Sony compatible, I guess I'll just wait for the special Vaio version". They would complain - and that's the only right thing to do. Right now, hardware makers are often simply trying to leech more money out of us Mac users by selling us repackaged "regular" products that should be following standards in the first place.

Macs being incompatible with standard hardware is a thing of the past. We shouldn't be embracing it, we should take a more critical stance and tell hardware companies to stop manipulating us.
 
in 3 years

I just bought a MacBook with the stock 250GB drive. I'm figuring it will take me 2-3 years to fill it up, based on how I use it. Hoping that a 512 GB SSD will be affordable in about 2-3 years.
 
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