I have a Mid-2012, 13' Macbook Pro, 2.9 GHz i7, 8GB ram,750 GB HDD. I'm contemplating upgrading to a SSD (256GB perhaps) and putting my existing HDD in an external enclosure. I realize there are numerous posts already about this topic but it seems every one points me in a different direction. From what I understand my model MBP has a SATA 6 Gbps interface. Ive looked and there aren't many options! Would a SATA l or ll or lll not be compatible? Also I've read that not all SDDs are mac friendly? And how important is this TRIM feature? Again I apologize for the redundancy but I need some clarification.
Thanks!
I did some reading on this subject before I got my first SSD in the MBP 2010 I was using back then, and this seemed to be a good read:
http://blog.macsales.com/11051-to-trim-or-not-to-trim-owc-has-the-answer
The OWC SSD isn't some magic sauce, just a SSD with 2nd gen SF controller that used to be common, and current gen SSDs all have some garbage collection so TRIM may not be totally critical. I had a Crucial M4 in that 2010 MBP for about a year and half with no TRIM and the M4 is still going well in another Windows desktop.
On the comments section, an OWC rep is even offering to help you choose SSD's and offer advice so you might even contact their support, OWC CS is great, although I'm sure they'll want to point you to their own line of drives ultimately
Nothing wrong with their drives and I even have one in one of my Windows laptops but they command a hefty premium for the good CS, so...
That said, SATA III(6Gb/s) is compatible with the previous versions but it's probably harder to find any SATA I(1.5) or II(3) SSD'S on the market anyway so just get whatever size and brand that works for you.
I'm not aware of any mac-unfriendly SSD drives at this point(I've read some reviews on the old Sandisk extreme that uses Sandforce controller saying it's not the best in a mac, but the current Sandisk Ultra Plus and Extreme II both use Marvell I think), and if I were you I would choose one of these:
Samsung EVO 250GB - good balance of price and performance
Crucial M4 256GB - from my personal good experience and stellar reviews
Or even the Mydigital 240GB on amazon, if you want to save $20.
I haven't tried the Mydigital SSD on a mac, but it went very well for my Windows machine(without TRIM on a Windows XP machine!), has good reviews from mac-users on amazon and it still is going in my PS3
If you want anything larger, i.e. 500GB or TB-class, the Crucial M500 is probably your best bet, and what I have in my MBP 2012 15inch as well.
GL.
