Should I still apply these SSD "hacks"?

[sneak3]

Hello!

I have a mid-2012 15" macbook pro.

Crucial M4 SSD on main bay.

I found this page here telling me to apply these SSD tweaks.

http://www.yourdailymac.net/2012/01...-an-ssd-in-your-imac-macbook-pro-and-mac-pro/

Should I still follow all of those, even nowadays?? Or maybe none at all?

 

[yjchua95]

Hello!

I have a mid-2012 15" macbook pro.

Crucial M4 SSD on main bay.

I found this page here telling me to apply these SSD tweaks.

http://www.yourdailymac.net/2012/01...-an-ssd-in-your-imac-macbook-pro-and-mac-pro/

Should I still follow all of those, even nowadays?? Or maybe none at all?

TRIM is an absolute must, to preserve the SSD's lifespan. The rest is all optional.

 

[MCAsan]

Trim yes, the rest look like a waste of time.

 

[sneak3]

Hmm I never really understood the concept behind this TRIM thing.

I ran HDD Tune and HDD Sentinel while on bootcamp, windows 7 and it told me TRIM was enabled.

So Im guessing thats something related to the OS?

And how do I know it's not enabled in OSX by default?

ANNDDD if I put and SSD in the optical bay, do I have to enable TRIM for that one too?

 

[yjchua95]

Hmm I never really understood the concept behind this TRIM thing.

I ran HDD Tune and HDD Sentinel while on bootcamp, windows 7 and it told me TRIM was enabled.

So Im guessing thats something related to the OS?

And how do I know it's not enabled in OSX by default?

ANNDDD if I put and SSD in the optical bay, do I have to enable TRIM for that one too?

In OS X, TRIM is disabled for non Apple-branded SSDs. Every time an OS X update (e.g. from 10.9.2 to 10.9.3) is applied, TRIM is disabled, so you must re-enable it manually after an update.

If your Mac came with an SSD installed already, OS X will enable TRIM by default.

 

[sneak3]

In OS X, TRIM is disabled for non Apple-branded SSDs. Every time an OS X update (e.g. from 10.9.2 to 10.9.3) is applied, TRIM is disabled, so you must re-enable it manually after an update.

If your Mac came with an SSD installed already, OS X will enable TRIM by default.

So by using that "TRIM Enable tool", I can enable it for the optical bay SSD as well?

And are there any downsides at all to enabling TRIM?

 

[yjchua95]

So by using that "TRIM Enable tool", I can enable it for the optical bay SSD as well?

And are there any downsides at all to enabling TRIM?

There's only advantages, no disadvantages to enabling TRIM.

And yes, you can enable TRIM in the optical bay as well.

 

[itsamacthing]

Sandforce

A lot of SSD's have built in TRIM via their controller chip. You should research your SSD and find out if it has built in TRIM.

 

[brdeveloper]

I expect that modern SSDs don't use my precious CPU cycles for its own garbage collection. I didn't see any problems with my Samsung EVO even with trim disabled (I run Blackmagic's speed test periodically).

 

[whitedragon101]

As others have said. Yes enable TRIM.

Quote from Anandtech
"Without TRIM the m4 can degrade to a very, very low performance state."
"If you're running an OS without TRIM support, then the m4 is a definite pass." (i.e don't even bother using it if you don't enable TRIM )
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4253/the-crucial-m4-micron-c400-ssd-review/2

TRIM is slightly different from on SSD garbage collection. TRIM is where the OS communicates with the SSD to tell it when a file has been deleted.

 

[The Mercurian]

Hey do OSX updates disable TRIM on 3rd party drives ?

I thought I enabled it ages ago but just discovered it was disabled on my drive - only reason I can think for this is that ipgrading to Mavericks might have disabled it again.


Yay! Unexpected performance boost!

 

[Yaboze]

Yes, I have a non-Apple Samsung and going from 10.9.1 to 10.9.2 disabled Trim again. There were some other updates a few weeks ago, but they didn't affect the Trim setting, so it just seems that an OSX revision will do it.

 

[alex0002]

1. Enable TRIM support.
Yes, perhaps not for some old Sandforce SSDs, but a modern SSD should work better with TRIM. This includes the Crucial M4, M500 and most others.
2. Disable sudden motion sensor.
Yes, the sudden motion detector performs no useful function with an SSD. You don't want the SSD powered down when there is vibration, especially not if you work in music production, or use the Mac on bus, train, aircraft or similar environment.
3. Disable sleep.
Yes, the article didn't appear to mention the steps, but I used these commands in the Terminal:

sudo pmset -a disksleep 0

4. Disable memory dump in sleeping mode SSD.
Yes, unless you are in a habit of sleeping your MacBook and letting the battery drain to zero.
Saves some disk writes and saves precious SSD space. What I did took a few seconds.

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage
sudo touch /private/var/vm/sleepimage
sudo chmod 600 /private/var/vm/sleepimage
sudo chflags uchg /private/var/vm/sleepimage

5. Setting up noatime.
No, at least for me it seemed like more trouble than it was worth.
Can someone comment if the MBA and the rMBP SSD use noatime as part of the default config?
6. Remove unwanted unnecessary languages.
No, big SSDs are much cheaper than they used to be, so not worth it.

 

[Yakibomb]

You could also think about turning off local Time Machine snapshots.
Just start up Terminal and run the following command: sudo tmutil disablelocal to revert back to normal run sudo tmutil enablelocal. I personally don't use it, but some friends swear by it