SSD Buying Guide

[apisgogo]

SSD will make a big difference for your needs - opening and saving files will be much quicker. 7200RPM will make a difference, but a smaller difference. I'd suggest going for a Crucial M4, Samsung 830, or Intel 320.

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Thanks for the information and recommendation.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the opening and saving files will only be quick if i work direct on the ssd drives? if i'm using an external firewire 800 drive to open and save my working files (due to space limitation on SSD, space/price), do i still able to utilize those benefits from the ssd upgrade?

 

[Artagra]

Thanks for the information and recommendation.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the opening and saving files will only be quick if i work direct on the ssd drives? if i'm using an external firewire 800 drive to open and save my working files (due to space limitation on SSD, space/price), do i still able to utilize those benefits from the ssd upgrade?

My pleasure

That's correct. If the images are external, you won't see any performance increase on that particular operation. One option is obviously to move files onto the SSD to work on them, but this can be a bit of the hassle.

But the SSD will help you in terms of application opening, and will improve the snappiness of your system when you have a lot of applications open in the background.

On my MBP with an SSD, I've got into the habit now of never closing applications - and it causes no issues whatsoever. In fact, having disabled the little "blue indicator dots", I know don't even think of apps as being "opened" or "closed".

 

[thundersteele]

Thanks for the information and recommendation.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the opening and saving files will only be quick if i work direct on the ssd drives? if i'm using an external firewire 800 drive to open and save my working files (due to space limitation on SSD, space/price), do i still able to utilize those benefits from the ssd upgrade?

You're right. Everything that reads from and writes to external, non SSD discs will not benefit from the speed that SSDs provide.

You will still notice an overall improvement in your systems performance, also if e.g. you run out of ram for some reason - swapping to the SSD is almost non-noticeable.

Some people have suggested to copy files to the SSD for photo and video editing, and then put it back to the external disc once you're done. How much space does your work use? If 256 GB would be enough, you could wait a bit for prices to come down maybe, and avoid copying around too much.

 

[Hellhammer]

No worries, my pleasure Two SSDs in RAID 0 is an awesome setup, and it is faster.

It's only faster in sequential speeds though, random performance does not scale up like sequential speeds do. I've only seen 10-20% increases in random performance when using RAID 0 SSDs, in some scenarios there has been no improvement. And random speeds are the speeds that really matter

RAID 0 increases your battery usage (roughly 10 to 15% worse compared with a single drive, depending on how often you are using the array) and it increases the risk of losing data.

If the array is the boot drive, then it will be active 24/7 when the machine is online. OSs tend to constantly write or read something, so it can't go into sleep mode.

Overall, I wouldn't use RAID 0 either. It doubles the risk of failure and in most cases, a single SSD is more than fast enough.

 

[park123me]

@Artagra
Dude u r amazing.....
So how does this sound?
MacBook Pro (Late 2011) high end
Crucial M4 SSD (recommendation for size?)
Crucial 12 RAM (8GB + 4GB)
=D =D =D

 

[SayMilesAway]

I believe you are suppose to keep your ram equal in both slots ie 2gb/2gb or 4gb/4gb

 

[apisgogo]

My pleasure

That's correct. If the images are external, you won't see any performance increase on that particular operation. One option is obviously to move files onto the SSD to work on them, but this can be a bit of the hassle.

But the SSD will help you in terms of application opening, and will improve the snappiness of your system when you have a lot of applications open in the background.

On my MBP with an SSD, I've got into the habit now of never closing applications - and it causes no issues whatsoever. In fact, having disabled the little "blue indicator dots", I know don't even think of apps as being "opened" or "closed".

You're right. Everything that reads from and writes to external, non SSD discs will not benefit from the speed that SSDs provide.

You will still notice an overall improvement in your systems performance, also if e.g. you run out of ram for some reason - swapping to the SSD is almost non-noticeable.

Some people have suggested to copy files to the SSD for photo and video editing, and then put it back to the external disc once you're done. How much space does your work use? If 256 GB would be enough, you could wait a bit for prices to come down maybe, and avoid copying around too much.

I agree, copying files into working SSD (internal) from external drive would be a bit of hassle.

Currently I'm okay with 256GB, but as designer, more storage would be helpful a lot. I got 2 type of working files; current & previous (archiving). for archiving i normally use external drive.

I'm considering at dual drive setup with Data Doubler / caddy. Is SDD (128gb) +HDD (500GB momentus 7200) will be good option for my usage?

 

[macfrik]

Battery Life on Samsung 830

Hi, been following this thread forever. Thanks HellHammer

I jsut have 2 questions,
I've narrow down my 2 chosen SSDs, the first one is OWC Mercury Extreme PRo 480 GB and then Samsung 830 512 GB. Which one do you think the best for late 2011 MacBook pro 15?

Another question is I've been reading Anandtech's review on the 830 and I saw that the power consumption is the highest on 830 amongst other SSDs that Anand reviewed. Does this something that we all should be considering for? If you can see the chart that Anand put, the power consumption on 830 is surprisingly high on idle. Does any 830 users here expereince any kind of battery draining on your MBP?

Thanks guys. Been a great thread so far

 

[econgeek]

One issue I had, that I never quite was able to pin down, before my drive failed, was that it would pause for long periods of time. Sometimes 5 seconds, sometimes 30 seconds or so.

This is one thing that HDDs don't do. They may be slow, but they are consistent. SSDs are fast, except when they won't move at all for some long period of time.

I've had 3 SSDs and 3 Total failures. (1 Intel failed, its replacement is still going. 1 OWC That has failed TWICE within 6 months!)

I don't know what the cause of the long pauses is, but I think its the drive shuffling large amounts of data around. Operating systems are not meant to have their drive disappear for a half minute or even longer... it can cause serious problems, or kernel panics.

I think since drive manufacturers are still getting their act together to prevent total failures these pauses have not yet been addressed, really, since by definition they are intermittent.

But I think they are intrinsic to the nature of these super fancy controllers in the intel and sandforce based drive.

I think the reason Samsung (And maybe Toshiba) are more reliable (it seems) is that they probably are a dead simple, non-sophisticated design.

 

[jon08]

@Hellhammer: hey man, since you seem to be quite knowledgeable about SSDs.. could you please tell me if having an OS X partition + Bootcamp partition on the same SSD is good or bad for the SSD?

 

[Hellhammer]

I believe you are suppose to keep your ram equal in both slots ie 2gb/2gb or 4gb/4gb

Not necessary, you can mix RAM just fine. The only loss is that dual-channeling will only work with the first 8GB, but that's nothing to worry about.

Hi, been following this thread forever. Thanks HellHammer

I jsut have 2 questions,
I've narrow down my 2 chosen SSDs, the first one is OWC Mercury Extreme PRo 480 GB and then Samsung 830 512 GB. Which one do you think the best for late 2011 MacBook pro 15?

Another question is I've been reading Anandtech's review on the 830 and I saw that the power consumption is the highest on 830 amongst other SSDs that Anand reviewed. Does this something that we all should be considering for? If you can see the chart that Anand put, the power consumption on 830 is surprisingly high on idle. Does any 830 users here expereince any kind of battery draining on your MBP?

Thanks guys. Been a great thread so far

Samsung 830, definitely. It does draw more power, that is true but in the whole picture it's pretty meaningless. I don't know the wattage of MBP when idling but the laptop used in the Sandy Bridge review draw 12-13W at idle. It had no discrete GPU so I would estimate 15W for 15" MBP at idle. The Samsung SSD draws around 0.6W more than the average. That's 4% of the total idle power consumption. It might cause a 20 minutes or so lower battery life, but nothing I would really be concerned about.

One issue I had, that I never quite was able to pin down, before my drive failed, was that it would pause for long periods of time. Sometimes 5 seconds, sometimes 30 seconds or so.

This is one thing that HDDs don't do. They may be slow, but they are consistent. SSDs are fast, except when they won't move at all for some long period of time.

Sounds like NAND failure. When NANDs start to wear out, erasing will take longer, which eventually leads into erase error (takes too long and the block is retired). Though could be controller related too.

@Hellhammer: hey man, since you seem to be quite knowledgeable about SSDs.. could you please tell me if having an OS X partition + Bootcamp partition on the same SSD is good or bad for the SSD?

Shouldn't be any problems. Just make sure the SSD is big enough.

 

[randimonium]

Is the 512 gb SSD heavier than the 256 gb SSD?

Im going to buy a 17 inch macbook pro, and its a toss up between getting the 256gb or the 512gb. Since ill be carrying it around a lot, the extra weight might make the difference in deciding which one to get.

Thanks

 

[park123me]

Is the 512 gb SSD heavier than the 256 gb SSD?

Im going to buy a 17 inch macbook pro, and its a toss up between getting the 256gb or the 512gb. Since ill be carrying it around a lot, the extra weight might make the difference in deciding which one to get.

Thanks

The weight of the SSD shouldn't really affect the weight that much.....
If you are going to be carrying it around a lot u should get a 15 inch instead.... and 17 inch is like a mini desktop

 

[appleraj]

Alex, I installed the owc mercury electra 6g without any problem,thanks to you,but I don't see any big improvement with my speed. blackmagic speed test shows 75 write, 197 read. computer boots in like 30 seconds though. shuts in maybe 3 sec. its blazing fast on boot up and shut down.

 

[Artagra]

The weight of the SSD shouldn't really affect the weight that much.....
If you are going to be carrying it around a lot u should get a 15 inch instead.... and 17 inch is like a mini desktop

Weight difference between 256gb and 512gb SSD is tiny - basically not noticeable, even if all you hold in your hand is the SSD.

They share the same PCB, controller, casing, and the only thing different is that the 512gb has twice the NAND chips - and NAND is pretty light

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@Hellhammer: hey man, since you seem to be quite knowledgeable about SSDs.. could you please tell me if having an OS X partition + Bootcamp partition on the same SSD is good or bad for the SSD?

There were strange issues back in the day with bootcamp being on an SSD - some people could get OS X to run perfectly, but not Bootcamp. But these problems have been solved, so the advice to keep the two separate due to compatibility issues is not applicable anymore.

 

[jon08]

Sounds good, thanks! ^^

 

[Hellhammer]

Is the 512 gb SSD heavier than the 256 gb SSD?

Im going to buy a 17 inch macbook pro, and its a toss up between getting the 256gb or the 512gb. Since ill be carrying it around a lot, the extra weight might make the difference in deciding which one to get.

Thanks

Samsung is claiming 0.01lb difference between 128GB and 256GB 830 (0.13lb vs 0.14lb), so nothing dramatic.

 

[Sasha-1]

Alex, I installed the owc mercury electra 6g without any problem,thanks to you,but I don't see any big improvement with my speed. blackmagic speed test shows 75 write, 197 read. computer boots in like 30 seconds though. shuts in maybe 3 sec. its blazing fast on boot up and shut down.

Not everything will be faster. Just start up, shutdown, app launching, scratch disc performance, things like that.

When you do an Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Serial ATA, what are the Link Speed and Negotiated Speed of the controller which your SSD is attached say?

Mine are both 6 GB.

 

[appleraj]

Not everything will be faster. Just start up, shutdown, app launching, scratch disc performance, things like that.

When you do an Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Serial ATA, what are the Link Speed and Negotiated Speed of the controller which your SSD is attached say?

Mine are both 6 GB.

here's mine. but how come my blackmagic speed test show 75 write,197 read.should be more than that.

 

[Sasha-1]

here's mine. but how come my blackmagic speed test show 75 write,197 read.should be more than that.

Am I reading this right? This is a 60 GB drive? If yes, that's likely why. My understanding of how SSD works is that it achieves speed by simultaneous reads and writes to many chips at once. The more you have the faster it goes. Meaning, a larger drive will have greater speed than a smaller drive assuming they use the same density chips, which I believe they do.

 

[appleraj]

Am I reading this right? This is a 60 GB drive? If yes, that's likely why. My understanding of how SSD works is that it achieves speed by simultaneous reads and writes to many chips at once. The more you have the faster it goes. Meaning, a larger drive will have greater speed than a smaller drive assuming they use the same density chips, which I believe they do.

Thanks for clearing that, Alex. my budget is tight so got the 60g. let me thank you again for the immense help that you have been all these days. did a clean install of lion, everything went smooth. thanks a bunch.

 

[Velocity1337]

Well I decided to buy a Crucial M4 128gb (rev 0009) but I'm having a problem..

I Installed a fresh copy of Lion, and when I'm doing stuff like writing files to my computer/managing itunes, a beachball appears and goes away like after 30 seconds. The computer is unresponsive.

It's extremely annoying. Before buying this ssd, I ran the crucial scanner, and told me the M4 was compatible.

I noticed people saying to use Sata II SSD's which won't have any problems; however I noticed you recommended the Intel 320 SSD but heard people are STILL having the 8MB bug even after the new firmware update. Is this true? I really need something reliable and free of bugs.

If I can't fix this beachball issue I think I'm just gonna use a regular HD

 

[Sasha-1]

Well I decided to buy a Crucial M4 128gb (rev 0009) but I'm having a problem..

I Installed a fresh copy of Lion, and when I'm doing stuff like writing files to my computer/managing itunes, a beachball appears and goes away like after 30 seconds. The computer is unresponsive.

It's extremely annoying. Before buying this ssd, I ran the crucial scanner, and told me the M4 was compatible.

I noticed people saying to use Sata II SSD's which won't have any problems; however I noticed you recommended the Intel 320 SSD but heard people are STILL having the 8MB bug even after the new firmware update. Is this true? I really need something reliable and free of bugs.

If I can't fix this beachball issue I think I'm just gonna use a regular HD

What are your machine specs? Where did you install the drive? What is the controller and link speed?

 

[Velocity1337]

What are your machine specs? Where did you install the drive? What is the controller and link speed?

I got the late 2011 mbp 13" 2.8ghz i7. Installed it where the HD used to be. It's currently saying my link speed is 6 gigabit

Not sure where to find the controller.

Perhaps its the corsair ram I installed? It was working perfect with my hard drive so I wouldn't think so but who knows...

Oh I also installed Lion using built in internet recovery..not sure if that affects. I might make a USB install for lion. Also ran apple hardware test and all was ok.

 

[Sasha-1]

So everything is fresh. Spotlight is indexing.maybe let it break itself in for an hour. If it still does it, maybe return it. Mine doesn't exhibit those issues so I can only wonder.