I'm a newbie on here and I've read some threads but I still can't decide if I should buy the Samsung 470 series SSD (128 GB). Is it reliable enough? Even if I do get it, do I need to enable TRIM with TRIM enabler? Does it even benefit/need TRIM support? Thanks!
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Samsung SSD's reliable?
- Thread starter blugrn6
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Samsung SSDs seem to be one of the most reliable ones so I wouldn't worry. TRIM has to be enabled with TRIM Enabler though.
I've posted about two threads about the reliability of Samsung 470 SSDs, and everyone gave me positive feedback about the drive.
Here are some links for the reviews of Samsung 470 from a Mac user:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2011/01/06/foxbusinesscom-review-samsung-series-solid-state-drive/
http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-256gb-ssd-470-series-review-24116133/
Here are some links for the reviews of Samsung 470 from a Mac user:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2011/01/06/foxbusinesscom-review-samsung-series-solid-state-drive/
http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-256gb-ssd-470-series-review-24116133/
Typing this from my newly installed Samsung 470 128GB on a Mac mini. Let's hope this is gonna be nice and stable like the Samsung in my MBA.
My personal experience with several top of the line brands of SSD's over time, is both Samsung & OCZ are top tier in performance & long term reliability.
+1
I'm using a Samsung 470 in my 2011 13" MBP and it is trouble free. I am fairly active here on the forums and I can't recall seeing a post about anybody having trouble with this drive.
I'm using a Samsung 470 in my 2011 13" MBP and it is trouble free. I am fairly active here on the forums and I can't recall seeing a post about anybody having trouble with this drive.
Quest for the best DIY SSD for Lion
Just to be clear, does the Samsung 470 series SSD have TRIM support enabled in Mac OS Lion?
I am curious because MBAs use Toshiba and Samsung SSDs have TRIM enabled in Lion by default, from my knowledge.
Maybe it uses different hardware than the Samsung SSDs in MBAs so that is why it must be enabled with 3rd party hacks/software. Also it seems the Trim enabler by Cindori has some issues and controversy with Lion. Can someone finally clear up my confusion with the TRIM enabler by Cindori with Lion in simple language?
Just to be clear, does the Samsung 470 series SSD have TRIM support enabled in Mac OS Lion?
I am curious because MBAs use Toshiba and Samsung SSDs have TRIM enabled in Lion by default, from my knowledge.
Maybe it uses different hardware than the Samsung SSDs in MBAs so that is why it must be enabled with 3rd party hacks/software. Also it seems the Trim enabler by Cindori has some issues and controversy with Lion. Can someone finally clear up my confusion with the TRIM enabler by Cindori with Lion in simple language?
Lol @ OCZ being put in the same category as Samsung in terms of reliability. Intel + Samsung are your best choices for reliability. For speed, OCZ wins but the performance difference is not even noticeable to 95% of users.
The Samsung 470 does not have native TRIM support in OS X. You can enable it by using the TRIM hack though.
Now whether the TRIM hack is safe long term and will cause data loss is I think still unanswered.
thanks Weaselboy.
Does the Samsung 470 have native Garbage Collection like recent Sandforce based SSDs? (So to avoid possible issues with TRIM enabler).
I could always search for the answer, but I'm gonna splurge today and rely on human interaction.
Does the Samsung 470 have native Garbage Collection like recent Sandforce based SSDs? (So to avoid possible issues with TRIM enabler).
I could always search for the answer, but I'm gonna splurge today and rely on human interaction.
The Samsung uses a Samsung controller rather than a Sandforce controller, but yes it does perform garbage collection.
How does the Samsung 470 compare to the Crucial M4 in Garbage Collection. OP, if you are a little patient, you could wait for the Samsung PM830, set to be released in October. The 470 is an excellent choice though.
I bought a Samsung 470 this week and the install went smoothly. It's extremely fast in the MBP, and from everything I hear they are tremendously reliable drives. Thinking about getting one for my desktop too.
Well, Crucial's GC is pretty poor so Samsung's should be better.
But then, we don't know the reliability of PM830. Yes, it's Samsung, but with a new controller and firmware. That means it's a totally different beast and could be flooded with issues. It takes months before we can draw any conclusions of its reliability.
For instance, the Intel 320 Series uses the same controller as X25-M G2 series, yet 320 was experiencing the "8MB bug" due to different firmware while X25-M was still doing strong.
I have no idea. The problem is all the test sites use Windows to test garbage collection/TRIM so it is difficult to come to any conclusions about which SSD has the best garbage collection under OS X.
I am concerned about running the TRIM hack all the time, but what I am doing is enabling the TRIM as as described here every few months then TRIM the drive by running "fsck -ffy" in single user mode. Then after TRIM'ing I remove the hack.
I do think everybody is a little over concerned about this whole TRIM topic though.
I'm going to install a SSD on my new 2.3 Mini as a system disk and keep the stock 500 GB Toshiba for data so I have wasted pretty much the whole day researching them. OCZ looked promising and is the king of the hill performance wise at this point but the more I looked the more problems I found with OCZ drives and unhappy users. When they work they are great but a lot of folks have issues.
Next, I decided the Crucial M4 looked like a real winner until I found the Crucial forums and found all the issues people were having with the M4 and OS X. Firmware 0002 seems to have helped greatly but there are still complaints of system freezes and beach balls. And I really don't want to have deal with upgrading the firmware on brand new drive since a lot of people also have issues getting that to work.
In the end I decided to go with the 128 GB Samsung 470. While it is not the newest, fastest or SATA III I found it had the most happy owners with the fewest complaints of all the drives I looked at. I seems to be a really solid, well balanced drive with good performance in real world tests. For me, reliability/lack of problems > speed.
Now I just hope it lives up to good reviews I read about it.
Next, I decided the Crucial M4 looked like a real winner until I found the Crucial forums and found all the issues people were having with the M4 and OS X. Firmware 0002 seems to have helped greatly but there are still complaints of system freezes and beach balls. And I really don't want to have deal with upgrading the firmware on brand new drive since a lot of people also have issues getting that to work.
In the end I decided to go with the 128 GB Samsung 470. While it is not the newest, fastest or SATA III I found it had the most happy owners with the fewest complaints of all the drives I looked at. I seems to be a really solid, well balanced drive with good performance in real world tests. For me, reliability/lack of problems > speed.
Now I just hope it lives up to good reviews I read about it.
Samsung 470 SSD
Been using a 64GB Samsung for about 6 months now with absolutely no problems. I downloaded the beta trim enabler hack for Lion and it shows that it is working. No problems. Good choice and congratulations on your research. I am amazed at people who jump into buying a SSD based on the manufacturer's hype and then are upset because they have problems. If they had done their research and checked various forums for problems, they would have made better choices.
Been using a 64GB Samsung for about 6 months now with absolutely no problems. I downloaded the beta trim enabler hack for Lion and it shows that it is working. No problems. Good choice and congratulations on your research. I am amazed at people who jump into buying a SSD based on the manufacturer's hype and then are upset because they have problems. If they had done their research and checked various forums for problems, they would have made better choices.
I reached a similar conclusion. When researching, I considered many manufacturer brands. I even asked Anandtech to give me a recommendation on a good SSD for Mac and he recommended the Vertex 3. I was going to buy based on his recommendation, but I just couldn't pull the trigger. In the end, I purchased the Samsung because of their reliability as an OEM. From what I've read, Apple uses the same controller as the 470 in their some of their systems with customized firmware.
I've been an SSD enthusiast for a few years now. I have SSD's from OCZ and Intel that have been running stable and with no major issues. But what lead me to the Samsung was all the issues with the Sandforce/Marvel controllers (Vertex 3, Crucial M4, Intel 5xx, etc.). Even Intel has had issues with their latest generation of SSD's. Specifically, I had considered the 320 series, but up until recently, they had an unresolved bug that caused the drive to appear as 8MB in the BIOS.
I am a newbie here on the forum, but not new when it comes to technical expertise. I build my own computers, modified even laptops switching out components to squeeze out max performance.
Here's my two cents. I chose Samsung 470 256GB based on two important conclusion. You may gain a few ms or even seconds here and their in your daily computing, but to me reliability is more important any benchmark numbers. If you have to RMA your drive even once, it's not worth it. Think about the time and hassle you have to bear in switching out the drive, putting your backup drive and even potentially losing precious data that was not backed up. I intentionally skipped SATA III for this reason, and have no regret.
I've been using 470 for about a month, and has not seen a single beach ball since the upgrade. My battery life went from 6.5 to 9 hours running LION (at least on the menu bar). From day to day task, I don't know how my 2011 laptop could run faster. Everything is instantaneous except for processing big RAW files in Photoshop and Lightroom. As one of the previous poster mentioned, Samsung is also very well balanced between read and write speed. Many suggest here that SSD is good only for faster boot up time and application opening. That is simply not true. Even during web browsing, Safari is constantly writing small random files.
So take your pick. I know several people who went with SATAIII Sandforce and had to RMA their drive for beach balling and random hiccups. Is it worth the marginal speed gain?
In building or buying computer, I always stuck to one philosophy. Reliability first, speed second. Give Samsung a try. You won't regret like most of us.
Here's my two cents. I chose Samsung 470 256GB based on two important conclusion. You may gain a few ms or even seconds here and their in your daily computing, but to me reliability is more important any benchmark numbers. If you have to RMA your drive even once, it's not worth it. Think about the time and hassle you have to bear in switching out the drive, putting your backup drive and even potentially losing precious data that was not backed up. I intentionally skipped SATA III for this reason, and have no regret.
I've been using 470 for about a month, and has not seen a single beach ball since the upgrade. My battery life went from 6.5 to 9 hours running LION (at least on the menu bar). From day to day task, I don't know how my 2011 laptop could run faster. Everything is instantaneous except for processing big RAW files in Photoshop and Lightroom. As one of the previous poster mentioned, Samsung is also very well balanced between read and write speed. Many suggest here that SSD is good only for faster boot up time and application opening. That is simply not true. Even during web browsing, Safari is constantly writing small random files.
So take your pick. I know several people who went with SATAIII Sandforce and had to RMA their drive for beach balling and random hiccups. Is it worth the marginal speed gain?
In building or buying computer, I always stuck to one philosophy. Reliability first, speed second. Give Samsung a try. You won't regret like most of us.