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Performance / brand of SSD in new Macbook Pro
- Thread starter mitchmon
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Nice, so could someone explain it to me - what's the point ordering a SSD for now? As the performance degrades 30-75% over time...
Not all SSDs degrade as much as others. Samsung SSDs degrade quite a bit, while Intel on the other hand doesn't degrade as much even without TRIM and many Indilinx drives have Garbage Collection to actively curb a degradation in the background.
I'm using an Intel G2 in my Mac Pro for more than half a year now. No performance decrease noticeable.
The Vertex Turbo in my MacBook Pro however, is getting a little slower.
You simply have to choose the right SSD!
30% is still very very painful...
I was really thinking to go for 128 SSD myself, but in this case I'd rather wait 6-12 month. Thanks for the clarification though.
I'm using an Intel G2 in my Mac Pro for more than half a year now. No performance decrease noticeable.
The Vertex Turbo in my MacBook Pro however, is getting a little slower.
You simply have to choose the right SSD!
well, the question remains - what kind of SSDs apple puts inside of macbooks?
Hopefully Intel G2
scratch that, looks like the new ssd brand/model has been confirmed, it's well worth the $180 to upgrade to the new 120gb toshiba ssd.
So here's my final spec: 15" i7, glossy hi res, 128gb ssd. ordering tonight
I've got Bootcamp on the 160GB Intel in my MacPro (100GB OSX / 60GB Win7) no problems so far. It is 32bit Win7 not 64bit, not sure If that might make a difference.
scratch that, looks like the new ssd brand/model has been confirmed, it's well worth the $180 to upgrade to the new 120gb toshiba ssd.
So here's my final spec: 15" i7, glossy hi res, 128gb ssd. ordering tonight
Why are you so sure it is toshiba? The brand was confirmed for a 512Gb ssd... still, don't forget to report, what kind of ssd model u'll get
Fishing for some SJ terse...
So I sent an email to SJ. I'm sure it won't be answered, but issuing SSDs that degrade and then not supporting TRIM (or some better function, if they're working on one) seems foolish... to me.
Mr. Jobs -
Just bought the 15" MBP i7 refresh with a 256 SSD.
Is / Will Apple be addressing SSD maintenance / degradation via TRIM or other OS software support soon?
Thanks for your time!
On another note, my MBP is listed as "prepared to ship", so I'll either post the response or what drive I get...
So I sent an email to SJ. I'm sure it won't be answered, but issuing SSDs that degrade and then not supporting TRIM (or some better function, if they're working on one) seems foolish... to me.
Mr. Jobs -
Just bought the 15" MBP i7 refresh with a 256 SSD.
Is / Will Apple be addressing SSD maintenance / degradation via TRIM or other OS software support soon?
Thanks for your time!
On another note, my MBP is listed as "prepared to ship", so I'll either post the response or what drive I get...
wait - who confirmed it? where? it was speculated, but i haven't seen any pics or read anywhere from someone who opened theirs up and found a Toshiba. Also - the followup poster was right - we'd need to know the makers of each of the capacities ...
DOES THIS SSD resolve the fill issue on mac????
and is it really faster than the others????
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce
and is it really faster than the others????
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce
Just keep an eye out on the controller confusion:
http://anandtech.com/show/3661/understanding-sandforces-sf1200-sf1500-not-all-drives-are-equal
I asked on that forum how the controller thing relates in th eMac OS environment. no answer coz they are mostly pc users i thinnk.
now i'm really confused. fill issues, controller issues and there's been no verification yet as to who manufactures the Apple stock SSD's. this is a minefield of speculation
No. For all of year 2009, every Apple Macbook Pro built to order with an SSD that I saw (which were manY) use Toshiba SSD's with custom Apple firmware. See my other reply for more details on it.
Nobody knows yet what the 512gb SSD is shipped from Apple that's inside of the new 2010 models.
On April 14th 2010, I ordered a new Core-i7 Macbook Pro 17" with expedited shipping and the 512gb SSD option. As of April 28th 2010 10:31pm EDT, it still hasn't shipped. I'll post what SSD it is when I get it...
Reviewing this thread, it appears that nobody confirmed anything: It was just a reference someone made to the Samsung drives poor performance that somehow mutated into a false assumption that it's what is inside of a Macbook Pro.
On my Early 2009 Macbook Pro 17" the 256gb SSD option that shipped was a Toshiba. Everyone I personally know who has for sure ordered the built to order SSD option, got a Toshiba. The ones I consulted for my customers, had Toshiba. However it's firmware reports "Apple SSD" due to the Toshiba custom firmware for Apple. I'm hoping something is better in the new Core-i7 models, nobody knows yet.
In other words, as of late 2009, there are/were no Samsung drives in Apple's products that I know of... but it remains to be seen what Apple is doing for their new 2010 refresh.
ALSO: In case you're wondering.... Worse than the serious drive degragation issues with SSD and Mac OSX: The 256gb Toshiba that is built to order with Macbook Pro 17" is slow right out of the box. It's no faster than a standard 5400rpm laptop drive. Very lame. In fact... Cracking open the Early Macbook Pro 17" and looking at the drive itself, it says Toshiba, and it looks really cheap. As if it's made of aluminum foil or something, very flimsy and lightweight.
This is very true. Garbage Collection is such an issue on all operating systems, some SSD vendors have special utilities you can download from their websites that "clean up" your SSD to speed it back up again for a while until it degrades again over time.
The new Kingston 512gb SSD drive also degrades badly over time; from my early experiences already, it is about 50% slower after all sectors are written. For example, doing an OSX drive wipe in Disk Utility writing all 0's fairly well kills all performance of the Kingston 512gb SSD forever, as they currently have no utility to reclean it back to factory spec. But that's all assuming yours works... I've dealth with 2 of these new Kinston drives so far, and have had bad luck with them (see my other post on these pieces of junk).
I have configured 2 of these 512gb drives so far.
The first one started giving write errors on its second day, and then died so hard that it is no longer even seen by either a Mac or a PC. It went back RMA.
The second one gave a write error on the second day but has not been reproduced again. This drive has still not gone into production because obviously nobody trusts it.
Off hand, I'd say these drives are the worst quality and most unreliable SSD that has ever hit the market.
I have experienced many unexplained and weird issues with Non-Apple-Certified SSD's in various Macbook's.
The problematic SSD's do not have Apple certification, and they do not have custom Apple firmware.
There is only ONE SSD on the market that my customers or I have had zero issues with in Mac OSX:
OCZ Vertex OCZSSD2-1VTXA250G 2.5" 250GB SATA II MLC Apple / Mac Edition SSD
That's the ONLY one I recommend to all my consulting customers for reliability.
Compare that special Apple firmware SSD to their other 250GB SSD. It's writing speed compared to their regular model is slightly slower. I believe this is due to some weird special data handling or timing issue the Apple version has to do for Mac OSX. Otherwise the others out there in the market are just simply not 100% reliable WRITING lots of data or big files (under load). I think most people have good luck with the Intel's in Mac's because the Intel SSD write speed is so slow compared to others, that perhaps that writing timing issue with OSX is not a problem for Intel because they're slower writing already anyway.
My theory is that this is exactly why Apple always uses very poor performance SSD's in their built to order computers, so there are no writing issues under heavy usage.
can someone please confirm the brand of the 128 gb ssd that comes preconfigured with the 15 inch mbps as soon as they get it? i scoured the forums, but haven't been able to find a thread with any confirmations yet...thanks!
I think TS means its from Toshiba, because the old one from Samsung starts with SM.
Also I found some benchmarks for the ssd.
These numbers get inflated every thread I have seen them in. I don't think they degrade more than a few percent and still is way faster than any platter drive. I'm not going back to platter if I can help it. My gen2 intel is the bomb.