I've been thinking about purchasing a 128GB SATA III SSD, and everyone seems to have good and bad things to say about almost any SSD mentioned. But I haven't heard many people talk about the OWC SSD's. Is it worth it to buy from OWC or should I go with an OCZ Vertex 3 (or some other variant?)
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OWC Worth It?
- Thread starter ahdickter
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From what i've read in this forum and in reviews the sandforce controller is not too reliable.
I'm going to give samsung a try.... Otherwise maybe intel...
Performance wise, sandforce ssd is still among thequickest but if its dead in a few months, it will be such a waste
I'm going to give samsung a try.... Otherwise maybe intel...
Performance wise, sandforce ssd is still among thequickest but if its dead in a few months, it will be such a waste
Macsavvytech
macrumors 6502a
This Forum also has people who come around and say alot of other stupid things. OP OWC SSDs are great, you won't go wrong with getting an OWC SSD.
i've wondered the same thing....why we don't hear too much about OWC SSDs. frankly, i wouldn't buy anything else. i've owned two OCZ SSDs and both had problems within the first 6 months....and the whole online RMA and customer support email thing was just a pain. i was told by OCZ that they don't technically support their SSDs in Macs....very strange. i just don't trust OCZ anymore...but thats me. others have had good experiences with them.
on the contrary, i have owned 6 OWC SSD's and not one has given me a problem. they were really fast and stayed fast...no degradation whatsoever. and they are manufactured in the USA...if you live in the USA, that should be important to you. they are also built mainly for macs and tested in macs...so when you call, they know your hardware really well. i just bought a 120GB and 240GB 6G OWC Extreme last month, and they've been awesome....they also have a 5 year warranty that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside and asures me that my investment is secure....and their customer service and tech support are the best i've experienced. you can't go wrong with OWC. they really are a great little company.
on the contrary, i have owned 6 OWC SSD's and not one has given me a problem. they were really fast and stayed fast...no degradation whatsoever. and they are manufactured in the USA...if you live in the USA, that should be important to you. they are also built mainly for macs and tested in macs...so when you call, they know your hardware really well. i just bought a 120GB and 240GB 6G OWC Extreme last month, and they've been awesome....they also have a 5 year warranty that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside and asures me that my investment is secure....and their customer service and tech support are the best i've experienced. you can't go wrong with OWC. they really are a great little company.
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I would personally be not too comfortable with OWC, smaller company than OCZ and uses the SF controller. The fact that it uses the SandForce controller makes it a no go for me, and i would also not be too comfortable with OWC as a company.
Macsavvytech
macrumors 6502a
Does that make any Windows laptop a no go because they are made by a smaller company then Apple?
fill us in....did you have a bad experience with OWC? i'm curious because i've been buying products from them for many years and its been a great experience every time i either buy, return, or RMA.
I did not say that OCZ is better than OWC, i know both use SF controllers. I have not really used OWC SSDs but their Mac Certified Ram stuff(ie selling the same RAM at a higher price and explaining it is because their ram is specially built for MAC) just gave me a bad impression of the company. That is why i did not state any facts or stuff in my post, i said i would never be comfortable buying an OWC product. Never said they were a bad company or not worth buying, but i would never buy their products(apart from maybe their Data Doubler), just a personal opinion.
OWC RAM isn't expensive at all, and they don't claim their RAM is "specially built" for a Mac. where are you getting your information from?
85$ for 8gb is a bit steep. Though they do come with lifetime warranty but i still think Crucial could be a better company. OWC does claim that their products are built especially for Macs, but that is not true, they must be using flash chips from an OEM like everyone else, basically making their product not so different. While they do seem like a not so bad company but i would rather buy the other cheaper stuff from more proven mainstream brands.
OWC uses the same controller and memory as OCZ and Corsair. Performance differences between OWC, Vertex 3 and Corsair GT are negligible. I doubt you'll see any difference in reliability.
Vertex 3 Maxiops uses different memory, it's a bit faster but will be very hard to notice in real life.
If you want to know the reliability of Sandforce based SSDs I suggest to look on Newegg.
Vertex 3 Maxiops uses different memory, it's a bit faster but will be very hard to notice in real life.
If you want to know the reliability of Sandforce based SSDs I suggest to look on Newegg.
So even though OWC Extreme Pro 6G uses SandForce, does no one really discourage the SSD's because everyone like them? Or because not a lot of people have them to complain?
I bought a OWC Electra 6g off of Ebay and couldn't be happier with it. I chose this one as the power draw is lower than the pro version and for me the speed difference wont be noticeable.
Just need Lion to arrive now 😀
So then whats the advantage of shelling out another $65 for the Pro over the Electra?
I'm using an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD (SATA II). I've had it for two months. So far, everything is great. I went with the Mercury Extreme Pro over a Kingston, OCZ, Samsung, etc SSD because it is one of the fastest SATA II SSDs, the price was good, it got good reviews in power usage and reliability, and OWC is a very Mac oriented company. I plan to buy a new MacBook Pro in 2012 and I will almost certainly return to OWC for my next SSD.
Reliability on Newegg of any Sandforce drive seems to be low. I recommend Crucial M4 instead.
I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with OWC SSDs, but I also see nothing about OWC that would make me buy their product over any other brand. They often charge more for the same spec Sandforce controller based drives and despite their repeated promises they offer no way to upgrade firmware in a Mac OS environment.
Also, I was really turned off by OWC using their blog to trash OCZ on their RAM specs. An accusation that was debunked by Anandtech, yet no retraction from OWC.
Yeah the OCZ bashing on their blog made them look bad.
I must say though, I found updating the firmware on the Vertex 3 nearly impossible on the MBP 2011. After trying three guides I just did it in a Windows laptop. Later I found out there is a way to do it. OCZ isn't very active on supporting Mac.
I must say though, I found updating the firmware on the Vertex 3 nearly impossible on the MBP 2011. After trying three guides I just did it in a Windows laptop. Later I found out there is a way to do it. OCZ isn't very active on supporting Mac.
I think the problem all the vendors are having now with Mac firmware updates is they rely on a Linux or FreeDOS boot CDRom ISO and none of those boot CD versions support Sandybridge chipsets yet. I suspect once Linux/FreeDOS catches up the same vendors will again offer the boot CD solution.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
i have got an OWC SSD and zero probs do date - arguably the fastest SSD using the original sandforcer 1200x controller. However, i chose the ner patriot wildfire as i have lost a lot of faith in OWC over the past 9 months:
Firstly, as mentioned above, the perpetual promises on a mac specific f/w updater - i have windows +bootcamp + windows specific laptop; so this is not a massive deal. However, i do think this reflects badly on OWC, as a company.
Secondly, the rubbish they were screaming RE substandard NAND flash chips used by ocz - proved to be false.
Thirdly, Anands review of the 6G was somewhat disappointing - it just would not justify the cost IMO - as ordering it to the Uk would involve international shipping, + 20% tax. Also there was a 4KB random write cap 🙁
Not sure if this was addressed by f/w - they are very slow to release f/w updates.
Firstly, as mentioned above, the perpetual promises on a mac specific f/w updater - i have windows +bootcamp + windows specific laptop; so this is not a massive deal. However, i do think this reflects badly on OWC, as a company.
Secondly, the rubbish they were screaming RE substandard NAND flash chips used by ocz - proved to be false.
Thirdly, Anands review of the 6G was somewhat disappointing - it just would not justify the cost IMO - as ordering it to the Uk would involve international shipping, + 20% tax. Also there was a 4KB random write cap 🙁
Not sure if this was addressed by f/w - they are very slow to release f/w updates.
The Crucial M4 read/write speeds are 415 MB/s and 175 MB/s (respectively). The OWC SSD and OCZ Vertex 3 both run around 550 MB/s and 500 MB/s. The Crucial apparently has fantastic reliability once the firmware is updated. Although the speeds are comparatively slower than the SandForce SSD's, will it be a noticeable difference?
Look at these tests on Anandtech. In real world usage the perceived performance difference on any of these modern SATA III drives will be indistinguishable.
Sandforce SSDs only reach those quoted speeds with 0 fill data, which is unrealistic.
With real world data their performance is lower.
Here's a 120GB Vertex 3:
source: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6161&review=ocz+vertex+3+120gb
Here's a 128GB Crucial M4
source: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6152