Reliable SSD for 2009 Mac Pro

[Angelo95210]

I have an OCZ Vertex Plus (Sata 2) with firmware update in my MBP06 and I am more than happy with it!

 

[derbothaus]

I think the prices are now down to where an SSD of a decent size is now a viable upgrade for me. But my god it's impossible to find consensus on what is a good reliable drive.
I know that the first answer from a lot of people will be the OWC Mercury Extreme but I have 2 problems with that
1. Its simply not available here in Sweden and importing one adds cost and makes returns really troublesome ... which brings me to the second point
2. They just don't seem reliable with long term usage. I have 3 friends/colleagues who have gone with these drives. My friend had his first one crap out after 2 weeks. It took 8 weeks to get a replacement and that died after 3 months. One of my colleague's disk is fine after 3 months but thats not exactly a long term test The other colleague has had his 9 months and it runs like crap even after firmware upgrades, restoration attempts etc etc

Go Intel 520. Can you get those easily in Sweden? Supposedly way better firmware than stock sandforce. Doubt Intel would go out of their way to soil the solid reputation they have gained by going sandforce and having the reliability go down the toilet.
Or possibly wait a few more months as the Intel firmware will eventually leak down to SF proper and stability could be had by cheaper distros. Can't know for sure though. All speculation.

 

[seer]

I did go with the Intel 520 240GB in the end and one of these http://www.apricorn.com/products/desktop-ssd-hdd-upgrade-kits/velocity-solo-mac.html

The Velocity Solo is awesome! Upgrade to 6gb/s to get the full benefit and no cables involved at all 🙂

A quick CCC of the boot disk and away I went .... 20 minutes total from opening the package to booting OSX on the new disk :O

Now my only headache is in Windows 7. I will partition the new SSD for bootcamp and clone over my Win7 install too (240GB plenty big for both 🙂 ) ... but seems there are no drivers for it in Windows, none that either Microsoft or I can find anyway! Hopefully something I can resolve, but no big loss if I dont as I spend 95% of my time in OSX anyway

 

[AlexMaximus]

Intel 320 all the way..

Intel drives.

I've had four, with a mate having a 5th and they have all worked flawlessly (And the ones I sold are still too).

You get what you pay for with Intel SSDs.

Get an Intel Drive, the best one on the block by miles!

Have an Intel 320 with 300gig - outstanding fast and very stable!

 

[Shadow2k]

My MacPro is equipped with 3 SSDs from different brands. So far all of them run without a single problem.

1. Intel 510 - 120GB (System Drive, Lion)
2. Crucial M4 - 120 GB (My user's home folder, movies and downloads are symlinked to a 1TB Hard Disk)
3. OCZ Vertex 2 - 120GB (Bootcamp, Win7)

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Had a G.Skill Falcon die within four days.

Kingston SSDNOW lasted four months.

Two OWC Mercury Electras presented no problems at all. Depends on the luck of the draw. Have had an Hitachi Travelstar 7200 get here d.o.a.

 

[JesterJJZ]

I'm looking at the Intel 520 180GB SSD when I get my new MacPro. I have dual Intel 80GB SSDs in Raid 0 in my current one. I have 25gigs free on that so I know that I need at least the same 160GB or more, 180GB looks like the sweet spot, either that or 240GB for about $100 more.

 

[deppest]

I am happy with a Samsung 830 128GB as system drive in the free optical bay in my macpro 2009. very snappy despite 3Gb connection only. no issues at all but can't exactly call that a long-term test just yet (2 months).

 

[gglockner]

My Mercury Extreme Pro 120GB SSD worked perfectly for about 9 months. For the last 2-3 months, it gets corrupted, and I have to restore from a backup. Works fine for a few weeks, then gets corrupted again. Today is the 3rd time that's happened, and I'm giving up now: I'm returning to RAID-0 with regular hard drives. I don't expect to see a big speed hit, as I was surprised that the SSD wasn't a big speed improvement over RAID-0 when I first installed it.

In contrast, the SSD on my Macbook Air (11" C2D) and my previous model Macbook Air has been rock solid. Though in fairness, my Air is really just my travel computer, so it doesn't get used nearly as much as my Mac Pro.

Edit: RAID is rebuilt, the Mac Pro is running fine now. Seems like the Mercury Extreme Pro was faulty. I'm tempted to try an Intel SSD or a Momentus XT but I think reliable hard drives are more important than taking chances on another SSD failure.