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SSD Buying Guide

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sanderscholtens said:
After reading a lot of posts and threads I've managed to narrow down my choices for an SSD to either a samsung 830 or crucial M4. However I can't get my head around two things: where to place the SSD and what to do with bootcamp.
I have a MacBook pro 8.2 with sata 3 in the main bay and sata 2 in the optical bay. I intend to put the SSD in the main bay (to make optimal use of the sata 3 / 600 speed possibilities and to prevent any sleep/wake issues I've read about) and to relocate the original disc in an optibay solution (which sacrifices the shock protection, or should I not do this?).
Currently I have my Lion and bootcamp (win 7) on this original disc, would it be necessary or advisable to reinstall the bootcamp to the SSD or can I keep it on the original disc in the optibay?
Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Personally I go for reliability above speed. Besides that - most of the apparent speed increase is because there is hardly any lag when seeking: on a HDD this is on average 10-12 mSec whereas with a SSD it is in the order of 1/100 to 1/1000 of this (measured in micro seconds, not milli seconds). Since 90% of disk activity is normally with reading 4K blocks this seek adds up in a hurry. For large sequential files there is not that large a difference between the HDD and the SSD.

I did a test recently: I have a SSD in a USB 2.0 enclosure (28 ~ 30 Mb / sec datatransfer) and internal 5400 rpm HDD. Installed Lion on both. And what surprised me was that Lion on the USB 2.0 booted faster than the internal HDD, from memory in approx 2/3rds of the time.

Just put the SSD in the bay and leave the HDD where it is but have your programs / OS X on the SSD and use that as bootdisk.
 
MJL said:
Personally I go for reliability above speed. Besides that - most of the apparent speed increase is because there is hardly any lag when seeking: on a HDD this is on average 10-12 mSec whereas with a SSD it is in the order of 1/100 to 1/1000 of this (measured in micro seconds, not milli seconds). Since 90% of disk activity is normally with reading 4K blocks this seek adds up in a hurry. For large sequential files there is not that large a difference between the HDD and the SSD.

I did a test recently: I have a SSD in a USB 2.0 enclosure (28 ~ 30 Mb / sec datatransfer) and internal 5400 rpm HDD. Installed Lion on both. And what surprised me was that Lion on the USB 2.0 booted faster than the internal HDD, from memory in approx 2/3rds of the time.

Just put the SSD in the bay and leave the HDD where it is but have your programs / OS X on the SSD and use that as bootdisk.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your quick reply!
That was my first idea however, I read about this solution causing hangs and BSOD's because the system (Lion) would want to wake from sleep from the main bay, or is this no issue any more?
 
sanderscholtens said:
Thanks for your quick reply!
That was my first idea however, I read about this solution causing hangs and BSOD's because the system (Lion) would want to wake from sleep from the main bay, or is this no issue any more?
Click to expand...

I do only have a Mac mini 2011 and only boot it up on Sunday afternoon and switch it down sometime Friday afternoon so would not know about any issues with sleep / resuming from another disk.

My thoughts on this are: For a "normal" HDD hibernation makes sense. However with the rapid booting from SSD and the cost per Mb for an SSD it makes more sense not to use hibernation (sleep).

I have a Thinkpad T61p and at one stage replaced the DVD in the ultrabay slim with a HDD caddy (9mm max) and used that HDD for backup only. It has seen only 19 hours of having been used (rest of the time it is "parked" however when I did a check last week I got SMART error messages on that disk (the main disk is in some rubber mounted). I've had some other laptops where the disk was not "shock proof" mounted and did have issues with those HDD too.

Alternatively: how about a small (40 Gb) boot SSD disk and a larger SSD in the bay for data? (two smaller SSD's may be cheaper than a large SSD)

Get perhaps some Samsung 470's on close out?

I just sold off some used HDD for more money than they cost me 3 & 6 months ago new. Must be due to the Thailand floods having created a shortage, did you take a look at HDD prices recently? So you could sell off the Apple HDD - I did put on mine a premium and got it. (just bought a pulled 128 Gb Apple Toshiba SSD on eBay from Taiwan and the sale of the HDD brought in half the cost of the SSD, the two HDD sales paid for the SSD...)
 
can someone clarify: i read somewhere in this giant thread that it is best to untick "put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible" when putting ssd's in the machine? is this for both the hd bay and the optical disk bay?
 
onions said:
can someone clarify: i read somewhere in this giant thread that it is best to untick "put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible" when putting ssd's in the machine? is this for both the hd bay and the optical disk bay?
Click to expand...

Hmmm... If you have a HDD in your machine, unchecking the box will keep it spinning, so reading/writing from it will have less of a delay. Checking the box will save idle power. Whether you have an SSD or not is irrelevant.
 
oh right, durr. makes sense now.

now the real question is do i stripe the ssds into a raid 0 or mirror them for data redundancy. on my old mbp, i had 2x 500gb hitachis to just have one 1tb volume, partially to get as much performance as i could, however miniscule, but mostly because i didn't want to have to manage my data. with ssds however, a mirrored set might come in handy in case one fails i'm not completely screwed.

decisions decisions...
 
Hi

Just installed a Crucial M4 256gb and it's very nice.

One quick question though, at the moment I have used about 100gb or thereabouts so free space is not a problem. I am thinking of enabling Filevault 2 for added security.

I could be way off the mark here but am I right in thinking that as it encrypts itself it will re-write all the data back to the drive but encrypted? So I will have a drive with ~100gb of encrypted files and ~100gb of unencrypted originals deleted but still present until the M4s (apparently relatively feeble) garbage collection sorts them out. I don't mind the unencrypted originals being on the disc (as I am using this as a security measure against casual thieves rather than governments etc) but as I understand it it's not good to have a bunch of deleted data lurking on your SSD as it can cause slowdowns.

If anyone can make sense of the rambling above I'd love it if you could shed light on the matter.

Many thanks in advance.

smbm
 
SanDisk

Hello everybody.

I've been carefully observing this thread for the past few weeks and I just came across a SanDisk 120 GB disk drive (Amazon link). I know it is not on the 4 recommend drives HellHammer gave, and it isn't what anyone else in this thread is talking about, but I've noticed that this drive doesn't have that many bad reviews. Considering the price, it looks like a pretty good deal.

I want to use this drive in a late 2008, Macbook Unibody, and I'm sure this laptop supports only up to Sata II speeds so purchasing a Sata III compatible drive isn't really an option for me. Anybody in here that has any experience with them that can share it with me?

Regards.
 
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smbm said:
Hi

Just installed a Crucial M4 256gb and it's very nice.

One quick question though, at the moment I have used about 100gb or thereabouts so free space is not a problem. I am thinking of enabling Filevault 2 for added security.

I could be way off the mark here but am I right in thinking that as it encrypts itself it will re-write all the data back to the drive but encrypted? So I will have a drive with ~100gb of encrypted files and ~100gb of unencrypted originals deleted but still present until the M4s (apparently relatively feeble) garbage collection sorts them out. I don't mind the unencrypted originals being on the disc (as I am using this as a security measure against casual thieves rather than governments etc) but as I understand it it's not good to have a bunch of deleted data lurking on your SSD as it can cause slowdowns.

If anyone can make sense of the rambling above I'd love it if you could shed light on the matter.

Many thanks in advance.

smbm
Click to expand...

You can use TRIM to TRIM the unused blocks. Then disable TRIM when you have done that.

mnemonicj said:
Hello everybody.

I've been carefully observing this thread for the past few weeks and I just came across a SanDisk 120 GB disk drive (Amazon link). I know it is not on the 4 recommend drives HellHammer gave, and it isn't what anyone else in this thread is talking about, but I've noticed that this drive doesn't have that many bad reviews. Considering the price, it looks like a pretty good deal.

I want to use this drive in a late 2008, Macbook Unibody, and I'm sure this laptop supports only up to Sata II speeds so purchasing a Sata III compatible drive isn't really an option for me. Anybody in here that has any experience with them that can share it with me?

Regards.
Click to expand...

SanDisk uses SF-1222 controller so it's in the same league as OCZ Vertex 2 for example. Not the most reliable drive as there have been quite a few issues (e.g. the hibernation issue) so I would look elsewhere if that is an option.
 
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Hellhammer said:
You can use TRIM to TRIM the unused blocks. Then disable TRIM when you have done that.



SanDisk uses SF-1222 controller so it's in the same league as OCZ Vertex 2 for example. Not the most reliable drive as there have been quite a few issues (e.g. the hibernation issue) so I would look elsewhere if that is an option.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the reply Hellhammer. I really want an SSD, and I can't consider an option under 120GB. The only thing holding me back is the price so, what is the best option for my Macbook Unibody late 2008?
 
I'm considering upgrading to SSD, but I'm concerned over lack of storage space.
My budget would probably afford me a 90gb at best at the moment.

Should I wait until next year and see where prices are at? ($0.75/gb by years end maybe!?)
Or should I just buy a 90gb now and pick up an external HD? (I'm just afraid of the inconvenience factor going this route...)
 
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mnemonicj said:
Thanks a lot for the reply Hellhammer. I really want an SSD, and I can't consider an option under 120GB. The only thing holding me back is the price so, what is the best option for my Macbook Unibody late 2008?
Click to expand...

I would go with Samsung 470 series. Apple uses it in some MBAs and it has proven itself to be very reliable. FYI, I have a 64GB Samsung 470 in my PC as well.

If it's noticeably more expensive than e.g. Samsung 830 or Crucial M4, then you can consider them as well.

danyo said:
I'm considering upgrading to SSD, but I'm concerned over lack of storage space.
My budget would probably afford me a 90gb at best at the moment.

Should I wait until next year and see where prices are at? ($0.75/gb by years end maybe!?)
Or should I just buy a 90gb now and pick up an external HD? (I'm just afraid of the inconvenience factor going this route...)
Click to expand...

Is OptiBay an option? External HD is a hassle if you have a laptop. Much slower and carrying it with you all the time isn't all that nice.
 
Bluedog54 said:
I was over at NewEgg looking at Crucial M4 128 GB SSDs and noticed that two models of the 128GB M4 SSD are available. Looks like read/write speeds are slightly different. Any recommendations as to which unit to pick up?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=crucial+m4+128gb
Click to expand...

I notice that one of the Crucial M4s has a transfer kit included. Not being a real techie I'm looking for the easiest method to transfer data off the 750 HDD to the M4.
 
I have a Samsung 470 in my Mini right now and I love it. Noticeable improvement over the hard drive and now the only noise I hear is from the fan and I have to be very close to it.
 
Hellhammer said:
I would go with Samsung 470 series. Apple uses it in some MBAs and it has proven itself to be very reliable. FYI, I have a 64GB Samsung 470 in my PC as well.

If it's noticeably more expensive than e.g. Samsung 830 or Crucial M4, then you can consider them as well.
Click to expand...

Man, I know a 64GB is the way to go for me. I'm going to use an Optibay for the drive that's already in my mac, so I think I'm set. I'm considering the Crucial M4 because the Samsung 470 is a little over my budget. I'm just a little afraid of the space, but if a lot of professionals have done it already, I'm giving it a shot.

Btw, what optibay do you recommend for my Macbook? I'm currently looking at this deal: http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/, but for that price I could actually buy a bigger SSD drive. Any good deals on Sata II Optibay's?

This deal (link) looks good, but apparently it only offers Sata I speeds.

Best regards.
 
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Hellhammer said:
Is OptiBay an option? External HD is a hassle if you have a laptop. Much slower and carrying it with you all the time isn't all that nice.
Click to expand...

I decided to go this route today.
Picked up a 120gb OCZ Vertex 3 for ~$175 (after tax + MIR).

I figure I'd just go ahead with this and enjoy it rather than wait for price drops.
The 120gb should be enough for me to boot off of and run my games/apps (I only play a couple games). The only thing I'm worried about is if it would be enough if I installed FCP Pro on it as well.

Picked up a Fenvi Optibay (from eBay) for $20 and a Super Drive enclosure for $15 (also from eBay).
I'll be putting my HDD into the Optibay since I want to take advantage of SATA III from the main bay.
 
So, I'm getting really lost in the sea of posts here.

I plan to buy an SSD and put it in my new 13" MBP (Late 2011) that will arrive tomorrow. I plan to put the drive where the default HDD is and put the normal drive in place of the optical drive. I plan to do a fresh install of Lion when I get just to make sure no garbage is coming over from the HDD (and by the time it comes I'll not have done enough worth saving on the current OS install).

I'm leaning toward the Crucial M4 (128), but the cost savings of the Intel 320 is intriguing. I can't tell if there would be an appreciable difference in performance (save for the obvious 8 GB less space on the Intel). Thoughts?
 
I have really been kicking around the idea of adding an SSD to be my early 2011 MBP and moving my HDD to the optibay. I have to say all the posts get a little confusing regarding trim etc. I saw some posts saying that Apple SSDs supported trim through OS X. Is this correct? If so could you purchase a take out Apple SSD and install it in an non-factory equipped notebook and benefit from OS X trim and other factory benefits?
 
Homer Jay said:
I have really been kicking around the idea of adding an SSD to be my early 2011 MBP and moving my HDD to the optibay. I have to say all the posts get a little confusing regarding trim etc. I saw some posts saying that Apple SSDs supported trim through OS X. Is this correct? If so could you purchase a take out Apple SSD and install it in an non-factory equipped notebook and benefit from OS X trim and other factory benefits?
Click to expand...

Yes, that is true. However, you can enable TRIM for 3rd party SSDs as well so there isn't really a need to buy the Apple one.
 
I bought the intel 320 series 80gb during the sale on newegg. Speed was great... then after a week it was dead. I had updated the firmware before using it, but apparently its a common problem. Its showing as 8.4MB. Hopefully I have better luck after a replacement.
 
I don't know why everybody is against Sandforce-based SSDs here. I have OWC Electra 6G drives running in my MBP, Mac Mini and iMac with absolutely no issues.
The sleep/hibernation problem was solved a long time ago with a firmware update.
 
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