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SSD Buying Guide
- Thread starter Hellhammer
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To anybody interested, Crucial has posted on their forum that they are working on a firmware update to correct the problem that people have been experiencing with the M4 BSODing after around 5000 hours run-time. The problem doesn't seem to be OS related. They are targeting the week of Jan 16 for the new firmware release.
http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/BSOD-Crucial-M4/td-p/79098
http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/BSOD-Crucial-M4/td-p/79098
My answer was targeting the difference between using only a HDD, and using both a HDD and SSD. As the power/performance settings differences are going to be dominated by the HDD, whether the computer ALSO has an SSD in it or not is irrelevant.
Having only a SSD is a separate issue.
The power consumption by HDDs and SSDs is very similar, both in-use and idle. The main benefit of SSDs come because they are faster and thus spend less time being used.
As far as I am aware, idle for SSDs just means not reading or writing. Idle for HDD means not spinning. Therefore a HDD does not have to be in use to not be idling, and wasting power.
They are generally close in measured current draws between idling and in-use, but the major differences are in the start up of a HDD compared to the SSD and the head movements. The spin up of a HDD draws a large current getting the motor to speed, whereas the SSD has none of this draw as no moving parts exists. Once the HDD reaches speed the circular momentum helps to hold the speed and thus requires little assistance from the power source but then you have the head movements to account for.
@ erasmus, squeakr
I realized the reviews I had in mind were mostly from 2008 - in those comparisons SSD performance was all over the place, and power consumption was comparable or above HDDs in most cases.
SSDs have improved since then, and now really benefit from the advantages that both of you explained.
I realized the reviews I had in mind were mostly from 2008 - in those comparisons SSD performance was all over the place, and power consumption was comparable or above HDDs in most cases.
SSDs have improved since then, and now really benefit from the advantages that both of you explained.
Idle = Running but not used (i.e. spinning)
In use = Running and reading or writing
Powered off = No spinning
Your hard drive doesn't stop spinning when it's idling. It's possible to let it power off itself after certain period of idle time but that only applies to secondary disks (boot disk is always running as the OS is constantly reading/writing).
Power consumption is heavily dependent on the controller and NAND configuration. See the graphs below:
Ah, those were the graphs that I was not able to find yesterday.
It's somewhat surprising that the 256 GB intel 510 SSD has three times the idle power consumption and twice the active power consumption of the 120 GB version.
Anyone have experience with the new(ish) Corsair Performance Pro Series? There's a sale on the 256GB version and I'm thinking about throwing this in a 15" MBP. It'll be used both in Win 7 boot camp and OSX, so I was concerned about the lack of TRIM support for OSX, which apparently this drive corrects for somewhat.
Here's a link to the drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233227
Reviews seemed very positive, but I'm only concerned about compatibility issues with OSX.
Any feedback is appreciated.
Here's a link to the drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233227
Reviews seemed very positive, but I'm only concerned about compatibility issues with OSX.
Any feedback is appreciated.
At $399 I'd rather go with the Crucial M4 256gb (which they just dropped to $364 today right after I ordered it this morning... hope they price adjust my order)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443
+1! Also an OWC Mercury user. They are outstanding. Paid a little extra, but drives are assembled in the US and have that 3 year warranty.
Actually, after the mail in rebate and discount code, it's $330 for the Corsair.
Also, any particular reason why you'd rather have the Crucial? The Corsair seems to be faster and I've always had excellent experiences with their customer service and RMA process. Just curious.
any freeze with the corsair or the crucial ?
or is this already fixed with their latest firmware ?
or is this already fixed with their latest firmware ?
Finally made the jump and installed a 120 gig SSD and moved the stock HDD to the superdrive spot.
It seems to me that there were some guides posted here about the best way to set things up on the software side, specifically with aliases and such, to best "map" my user folder (or what would be in my user folder other than the Applications folder) over to the HDD.
I just can't seem to find them anymore.
It seems to me that there were some guides posted here about the best way to set things up on the software side, specifically with aliases and such, to best "map" my user folder (or what would be in my user folder other than the Applications folder) over to the HDD.
I just can't seem to find them anymore.
I don't really understand how some of you guys get such high speeds with Blackmagic disk test. I've got an OWC 6G SSD and only get about 185 MB/s Write and 460 MB/s Read speed with Blackmagic test.
However, with QuickBench I get cca . 490 MB/s Read and Write speeds....
Could you run QuickBench as well and report back?
OCZ Vertex 3 SSD
After careful consideration reading threads here, AnandTech and over at the OCZ forums I decided to get a Vertex 3 240 Gb for my early 2011 15" MBP. It came with the latest (2.15) firmware and after several days of use sleep/wake cycles I am happy to report that I have none of the problematic behavior some have reported... I have also decided NOT to enable TRIM and do any of the other hacks some have suggested. I can tell you that the drive is super fast boot times are ~10 sec (clean install with no TM or MA used)and everything loads instantly. I will make sure to report if I run into any problems however so far I am very pleased.
After careful consideration reading threads here, AnandTech and over at the OCZ forums I decided to get a Vertex 3 240 Gb for my early 2011 15" MBP. It came with the latest (2.15) firmware and after several days of use sleep/wake cycles I am happy to report that I have none of the problematic behavior some have reported... I have also decided NOT to enable TRIM and do any of the other hacks some have suggested. I can tell you that the drive is super fast boot times are ~10 sec (clean install with no TM or MA used)and everything loads instantly. I will make sure to report if I run into any problems however so far I am very pleased.
let me try again; why are people not recommending Intel 320 / 510 series? Havent they in more or less every test scored as the most reliable SSD? I got a late 2011 MBP 13" and i do consider in the near future to upgrade to an SSD. Question though. samsung vs intel? they both seem really reliable, in case of intel, should i go with the 320 / 510 series? I read the OP but im still not really sure..
Intel 320 Series had the 8MB bug, although a firmware update should have fixed it. 510 Series had problems with Macs but I'm not sure if those are still present.
Samsung is the most reliable SSD from what I have seen, plus it has decent garbage collection while Intel doesn't.
Just curious, between Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 what would you recommend at the moment? I personally chose the Crucial for four reasons 1) When I got my MBP in late October the 830 wasn't out yet and Samsung still hadn't given a firm release date 2) I was afraid of going with a newly released drive that is somewhat untested 3) I've heard that Samsung can be difficult with RMAs and customer service in general and 4) Crucial's firmware updates are OS independent and work on Macs.
I'm not looking for a validation of my purchase as I'm already very pleased with the M4, just curious as to what your opinion is now that the 830 has been out for a little bit.
And did you ever find out more about TLC-based SSDs?
What problems? I heard that the intel 510 was more reliable than crucial M4 with the mac
I haven't opened up my new 15" MBP as yet, and I plan on ordering a 256 GB SSD tonight to put in it. Is the best way to go about this simply to wait until I get it to start up the system and install everything? Or should I boot up now and then switch over when the drive arrives?
Also, at the risk of asking a question that's been asked already, where can I get the hardware to allow me to use the Superdrive bay for the original HDD?
Also, at the risk of asking a question that's been asked already, where can I get the hardware to allow me to use the Superdrive bay for the original HDD?
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