SSD Buying Guide

[Hellhammer]

Sorry all for taking this long to answer, been a bit busy lately.

Considering upgrading the 200Gb 5400rpm drive in my early 2008 MBP 4,1. Is a SSD over kill? If not is an intel 320 the way to go or are other drives more reliable?

I am kicking around a new MBP/Air later this year but I plan on keeping this one around for some time.

We use the computer for web browsing, email, photo editing (iphoto) and have some large photo libraries (most of which are stored and backed up on external drives due to size). Some HD home videos and minor video editing.

I don't think SSD is an overkill for any system. It can really bring life to an old laptop because the small and slow HD is usually the bottleneck. Intel 320 is a great choice but you could pick e.g. Crucial M4 if it's cheaper (you can check the prices and report them here).

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Been reading through this thread and might I say it's a lot more informative than the marketing jibber jabber on manufacturers sites.

I'll soon be getting an Early 2011 15", and i think I want to go with a Crucial m4.

Definitely putting it in the main bay/formatting/clean installing Lion from my USB key.

Anything else I should do to get started? Is Trim Enabler worth it? Does it matter WHEN I start using Trim Enabler?

You can start using TRIM Enabler at any point. Obviously, having it disabled means that there is no TRIM but you can always enable it and that will TRIM the SSD (and you can even disable it if it causes issues).

If you have any further questions (even very technical and just out of interest), don't hesitate to ask. My job is to go through and understand that marketing jargon

Hey all,

I'm considering purchasing an Intel 320 300GB SSD to replace my slowly failing HDD, but I just wanted to confirm a few things.

First, on NewEgg, there are 4 different models and I'm not sure which one would be the one I want.

Second, I have read in this thread that the 8Mb bug has been fixed with the Intel drives. Is this something that requires a firmware update still? I have heard that this requires booting into a CD (from an ISO), but this would be an issue for me as my CD drive doesn't work in my MacBook Pro. Would this be something I can do from a USB drive/stick?

Third, is the Intel 320 the best choice for an SSD? I don't really care about a 10% difference in performance between one drive and another and I'm more worried about cost and reliability. I do need at least 300GB of storage though.

I apologize if these questions have been answered in this thread already, but I'm still in the process of reading it and I'm racing against a failing HDD.

Thanks!

Get this one. OEM models have only on year warranty, whereas the retail versions come with five years. The 8MB bug was fixed awhile back so all new SSDs should ship with the most current firmware (i.e. no update needed). I think you can boot from a USB drive as well, the ISO doesn't know where it's located and you can boot OS X from an external drive anyway.

Intel 320 is a good choice if you need ~300GB. Other manufacturers offer either 240GB/256GB or 480GB/512GB, and the price difference is huge.

I have successfully installed my new Crucial M4 128 GB in the MBP using Carbon Copy Cloner. Now the HDD is being used as the time machine.
I would like to know how to find out if the Crucial M4 SSD needs a firmware update or not? Is there a place like Disk Utility which I can check on my MBP?

I checked the Crucial webpage but did not find any information there

http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

The online chat option also did not work even though I tried to chat during their normal working hours.

Thanks for your help

System Profiler > Serial-ATA > Revision

Though I'm not 100% sure, see that first though. Other options are taking the SSD out (there is a sticker in the back with the FW revision) or booting from the updater tool.

Hey Hellhammer, have you had any hands-on time with the new Intel 520 SSD? I know that Intel has a great track record for reliability but I personally can't trust any Sandforce drives, even one that is made by Intel. Intel may write its own firmware but from what I understand after reading the Anandtech review is that Intel is only able to customize the firmware to a certain degree and that Sandforce did not supply it with all of the source code. There has been a post on the Intel forum already by a person complaining of random BSODs.

Anand reviewed the 520 so unfortunately I haven't had any hands-on time with it. I'll be getting Plextor M3 soon, which will be my first review unit.

It's hard to say anything about Intel 520 yet. It takes at least a couple of months until we know anything about its reliability. One person complaining isn't enough and it could be something else than the SSD. If you seek for reliability, Intel 520 isn't the choice, yet.

please somebody help me some advise.

i am thinking about a new 240-256gb SSD.

Which is the best? OCZ vertex 3, Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or anything else?

i want to use in MacBook Pro 17" early 2011.

Thank you for your help.

Samsung 830 or Crucial M4, take your pick. I would get the one that is cheaper.

 

[rockyroad55]

For those that didn't see the previous page's post, you can get a 128Gb Crucial m4 for about $140 plus taxes.

Info is on slickdeals: http://slickdeals.net/f/3910952-Cruc...est-Price-Ever

 

[barebackbadger8]

didnt want to create a new thread so ill ask here:
i have a MBP 2010 C2D 2.4ghz...
anyway could i buy an SSD (preferably 60gb-120gb) but put that where the current HDD is and then buy the optibay and put my current HDD in that?

what are roughly the benefits of ssd over hdd apart from speed? if it is only speed, is the speed difference noticeable?

also i live in the uk, can anyone recommend a good quality (cheap hopefully lol) ssd for my MBP?

 

[Hellhammer]

didnt want to create a new thread so ill ask here:
i have a MBP 2010 C2D 2.4ghz...
anyway could i buy an SSD (preferably 60gb-120gb) but put that where the current HDD is and then buy the optibay and put my current HDD in that?

what are roughly the benefits of ssd over hdd apart from speed? if it is only speed, is the speed difference noticeable?

also i live in the uk, can anyone recommend a good quality (cheap hopefully lol) ssd for my MBP?

There is a lot good info in the OP (i.e. the first post) but I'll quote the main parts here.

SSD vs HD - Is SSD worth it?

This gets asked a lot but there is no single answer to it. With HD, you get lots of capacity for very little $. With SSD, you pay the premium even for very little amount of storage. For the record, a 60GB SSD costs roughly the same as 1TB 2.5” or 2TB 3.5” HD at the moment. The reason why there is no one right answer is that we all have different usages. If all you need is less than 120GB for example, then 120GB SSD for ~$200-250 doesn’t sound that bad, given the huge performance increase.

So what is the performance difference then? Enormous. Hard drives have latency of several milliseconds (ms) whereas SSDs’ latency is measured in microseconds (µs). Depending on the SSD and HD, the SSD can easily have over 100 times lower latency. The latency isn’t the only thing that separates them. SSDs sport much higher read and write speeds. Regular HDs top out at around 150MB/s but the fastest SATA 3Gb/s SSDs can provide up to 285MB/s, which is the maximum of SATA 3Gb/s. SATA 6Gb/s SSDs can offer speeds of up to 550MB/s currently, over three times faster than traditional HDs. Just to show the capability of SSDs, there are some enterprise level SSDs that deliver speeds of over 3GB/s.

Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB vs Intel 320 Series 160GB
SSD vs HD - boot time

The performance difference isn't the only advantage. Since SSDs have no moving parts, they are inaudible. HDs, especially 7200rpm ones, can be quite noisy when reading or writing data. SSDs also run cooler and in some cases use less energy (there are different results on this. Some say it increases the battery life, some say it stays the same or even degrades).

A good SSD is also a lot more reliable. Most of us should be aware that HDs are very unreliable and some of us have experienced HD failures and even data loss. HDs have moving parts so sooner than later they will wear out, that is a fact. However, don't think your SSD is immortal though. NANDs lose their charge after about 10 years so that is about the maximum life span of an SSD. Of course, something else may fail sooner, for example the controller. There is also the wear out factor which will be covered later (finite amount of P/E cycles).

What does SSD speed up?

While I said the performance difference is enormous, it is still limited to certain tasks. It can’t speed your encoding times because the drive is not the bottleneck, it’s most likely the CPU. In games, it may speed up game loading times but the actual frame rate and graphics will not be improved, again because the drive is not the bottleneck.

SSD will speed up anything that involves reading or writing of the drive. Tasks like that include but are not limited to: booting, launching apps and file transfers. People say that the OS feels more responsive with an SSD, which can be true because your slow HD was the bottleneck before. If your OS is in the SSD, then the swap file will be there too so in case you run out of RAM, the system shouldn’t feel as unresponsive as with an HD because the SSD is so fast.

http://www.ebuyer.com/261753-intel-...-5-sata-ii-read-270mb-s-write-ssdsa2cw120g3k5

The 80GB version in £105 so if money is really tight, that is a good option too.

 

[new1macuser]

Sorry all for taking this long to answer, been a bit busy lately.

System Profiler > Serial-ATA > Revision

Though I'm not 100% sure, see that first though. Other options are taking the SSD out (there is a sticker in the back with the FW revision) or booting from the updater tool.

Thanks a lot. The profiler does show revision 9 and the Crucial website says version 0309. I guess then my SSD does not need a firmware update:

This is what I see in the report:

M4-CT128M4SSD2:

Capacity: 128.04 GB (128,035,676,160 bytes)
Model: M4-CT128M4SSD2
Revision: 9
Serial Number: 00000000XXXXXXXXXX
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Medium Type: Solid State
TRIM Support: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

 

[pmz]

Thanks for the reply!

Ok so I'm sure this has been covered before but...why Crucial M4 over OWC?

OWC has very compelling stuff on their site, but I don't see many people talking about their products, as I would expect if they were popular.

I'm basically between Crucial M4 256 GB, and OWC Mercury Electra 240 GB.

I want OWC's data doubler kit and super slim too, but they're irrelevant to the SSD purchase.

Thanks so much!

 

[thefizzle657]

Thanks a lot. The profiler does show revision 9 and the Crucial website says version 0309. I guess then my SSD does not need a firmware update:

This is what I see in the report:

M4-CT128M4SSD2:

Capacity: 128.04 GB (128,035,676,160 bytes)
Model: M4-CT128M4SSD2
Revision: 9
Serial Number: 00000000XXXXXXXXXX
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Medium Type: Solid State
TRIM Support: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

Your SSD appears to have firmware 0009, hence the 9 in Revision. When I updated mine it went from 9 to 309. It is easy to do and only takes a minute or so. It can be done on an MBP and isn't destructive you don't have to worry too much about data loss, although it is always recommended to back up any important data before doing a firmware upgrade.

Just follow the instructions on Crucial's site and you will be good to go. One thing to note is that it requires that you use the internal Superdrive so if you have removed it in favor of an optibay you will need to put the Superdrive back in to do the firmware update.

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks a lot. The profiler does show revision 9 and the Crucial website says version 0309. I guess then my SSD does not need a firmware update:

As said above, seems to be FW0009. The most current is FW0309 which fixes the 5000-hour bug. I would update it, especially when Crucial makes it so easy.

Thanks for the reply!

Ok so I'm sure this has been covered before but...why Crucial M4 over OWC?

OWC has very compelling stuff on their site, but I don't see many people talking about their products, as I would expect if they were popular.

I'm basically between Crucial M4 256 GB, and OWC Mercury Electra 240 GB.

I want OWC's data doubler kit and super slim too, but they're irrelevant to the SSD purchase.

Thanks so much!

OWC is in the same league as OCZ, Patriot, Kingston etc, they all use SandForce controller and firmware. SandForce just hasn't proven to be reliable in general, every controller has had issues and even firmware updates don't always fix them (BSODs still exist in some degree). It's not bad but I would rather spend my money on Crucial, Samsung or Intel, which have all been proven to be reliable.

 

[LCTN]

Your SSD appears to have firmware 0009, hence the 9 in Revision. When I updated mine it went from 9 to 309. It is easy to do and only takes a minute or so. It can be done on an MBP and isn't destructive you don't have to worry too much about data loss, although it is always recommended to back up any important data before doing a firmware upgrade.

Just follow the instructions on Crucial's site and you will be good to go. One thing to note is that it requires that you use the internal Superdrive so if you have removed it in favor of an optibay you will need to put the Superdrive back in to do the firmware update.

@bold

Can I use the superdrive on a external enclousure (with usb connection), or do I have to really put it back inside the computer?

Thanks

 

[pmz]

OWC is in the same league as OCZ, Patriot, Kingston etc, they all use SandForce controller and firmware. SandForce just hasn't proven to be reliable in general, every controller has had issues and even firmware updates don't always fix them (BSODs still exist in some degree). It's not bad but I would rather spend my money on Crucial, Samsung or Intel, which have all been proven to be reliable.

Thanks a million. This is precisely what I expected, I just needed someone with more experience to say it.

Going to order from Crucial. One last question, not that important, but why does the 256 GB Model have a higher write speed than the 128 GB? Something to do with available blocks?

*Aside: anyone have experience with OWC data doubler kit and/or super slim?

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks a million. This is precisely what I expected, I just needed someone with more experience to say it.

Going to order from Crucial. One last question, not that important, but why does the 256 GB Model have a higher write speed than the 128 GB? Something to do with available blocks?

*Aside: anyone have experience with OWC data doubler kit and/or super slim?

256GB model has more dies in it. 128GB model consists of sixteen 8GB (64Gb) NAND devices which each have a single 64Gb 25nm MLC flash die in them. The 256GB model has sixteen NAND devices as well, which means each device has two 64Gb dies in them. Reading this is a good idea if you want to understand this but in a nutshell: Having two dies per NAND allows you to perform tasks in parallel, which increases the performance in some degree. Read speed is unaffected because it's a lot simpler process (you just hammer a cell with voltages until you get a result) but writing is more complicated (there is a process called tunneling which changes the voltage of the cell).

 

[pmz]

Thanks again, you're really awesome. Definitely reading the anandtech review, lots of great learning in there.

 

[new1macuser]

Your SSD appears to have firmware 0009, hence the 9 in Revision. When I updated mine it went from 9 to 309. It is easy to do and only takes a minute or so. It can be done on an MBP and isn't destructive you don't have to worry too much about data loss, although it is always recommended to back up any important data before doing a firmware upgrade.

Just follow the instructions on Crucial's site and you will be good to go. One thing to note is that it requires that you use the internal Superdrive so if you have removed it in favor of an optibay you will need to put the Superdrive back in to do the firmware update.

Once again a big bunch of thanks for this help. I always back up my machine using Time machine and the superdrive is very much inside the MBP. I will give this a try over the weekend.

This thread has indeed become a very resourceful thread on SSD for MBP, not just on this forum but one of the best discussions on this topic in the internet world.

 

[new1macuser]

Once again a big bunch of thanks for this help. I always back up my machine using Time machine and the superdrive is very much inside the MBP. I will give this a try over the weekend.

This thread has indeed become a very resourceful thread on SSD for MBP, not just on this forum but one of the best discussions on this topic in the internet world.

It looks like my superdrive is having some issues. Whenever I insert a blank CD in it, it simply gives a few jerks and then ejects the CD out. I even tried with a music CD and the same result.

I can try to have this iso file burnt on a CD with the help from my friend, but even then my MBP will not boot from that CD. So even that may not be an option either.

Is there any other option for the firmware upgrade?

 

[Exponent]

It looks like my superdrive is having some issues. Whenever I insert a blank CD in it, it simply gives a few jerks and then ejects the CD out. I even tried with a music CD and the same result.

I can try to have this iso file burnt on a CD with the help from my friend, but even then my MBP will not boot from that CD. So even that may not be an option either.

Is there any other option for the firmware upgrade?

For some reason I can't mount optical media while Safari is open. Try quitting Safari and see what happens - that usually works (WHY?!?!?) for me.....

 

[vslist]

Crucial m4 SSD 64Gb • Crucial 8Gb RAM • MacBook Pro 2010, 17", 2.53GHz, 17", 500Gb HD

Successfully upgraded Macbook Pro 17" 2010 w/
• Crucial 8Gb RAM
• Crucial m4 64Gb SSD

ACCESSORIES:
• Hard Drive Caddy: to install SSD http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058AH2US/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details
• USB DVD Enclosure: to house DVD Superdrive (imperfect fit, but OK)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IRY3ME/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

FIRMWARE UPGRADE:
• Crucial Firmware 0309
http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx
• Applied firmware using method discussed here:
http://forums.crucial.com/t5/forums...ge-id/18985/print-single-message/false/page/1
…EXCEPT, I targeted the SSD itself instead of an external USB (seems to work...)

OSX BACKUP & REINSTALL:
• Reinstalled Lion via DVD onto SSD:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
(could've done it from the Recovery partition on the HD, but wanted to test whether the now-external Superdrive worked for me when I needed it to)
• Restored user files & applications via Time Machine backup on external drive

OS/SSD OPTIMIZATION:
• TRIM enabled as discussed in steps 1-4 here:
http://digitaldj.net/2011/07/21/trim-enabler-for-lion/
• Hibernate disabled to recover +8Gb on the 64Gb SSD, as in step #1 here:
http://poller.se/?s=optimizing+ssd&submit=Submit
• No Access Time disabled, as in step #4 here:
http://poller.se/?s=optimizing+ssd&submit=Submit

SSD SPACE MGMT:
• Symbolically linked (ln -s) & off-loaded several large folders (e.g. GarageBand, iPhoto) from SSD to HD. 35% space free on boot SSD w/ most of User Folder & Apps intact on SSD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ln_-s#Symbolic_link_creation_and_deletion

OSX CLONE:
• Carbon Copy Cloner: now copies Lion Recovery Partition, as explained here:
http://help.bombich.com/kb/advanced-strategies/the-disk-center
http://www.bombich.com/index.html

MECHANICAL DEXTERITY:
• Watch these before surgery: http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/
• Screwdriver: remagnetize the tip via contact w/ another magnet; I used those on my fridge. Otherwise, the screws are in a tight space and will get lost very easily if tip's attraction isn't sufficient.
• Bluetooth Adapter's attachment to motherboard might make it particularly difficult to get the optical drive enclosure back in. When you're wrestling out, pay special attention to EXACTLY how you're doing it.

After this multi-step odyssey, 2 weeks+ out, system is a bouyant joy to use with no hiccups so far.

Thank to the Macrumors community and bloggers everywhere for making this possible.

 

[new1macuser]

For some reason I can't mount optical media while Safari is open. Try quitting Safari and see what happens - that usually works (WHY?!?!?) for me.....

I rarely use Safari for internet browsing, my favorite is Firefox. I tried by quitting all the apps, still the superdrive does not recognize the CD.

Is it possible to put this iso file (around 3.4 MB) on a USB pendrive and then boot from it ?

 

[szarkupacka]

yesterday i bought Samsung 830 256GB. I want to use in MBP early-2011, i put it in the Optibay but when i want to install lion i got error after that i put it in the main hdd bay the lion installer wass fine everything was fine. after that i put it back to optibay and the drive dont boot. mazbe the optibay has something wrong but i van use it with hdd and i used it with ocz vertex 2. or the ssd has issues? i have lastest firmware. thank you and sorry for my english.

and one more question. do i need to enable trim or no?

 

[macchiato2009]

anyone successfully tried to install 2 SSD in the late 2011 MBP ?

 

[thefizzle657]

I rarely use Safari for internet browsing, my favorite is Firefox. I tried by quitting all the apps, still the superdrive does not recognize the CD.

Is it possible to put this iso file (around 3.4 MB) on a USB pendrive and then boot from it ?

From what I understand it is not possible to put the iso on a USB pendrive and boot from it on the MBP. Something to do with the MBP's EFI. It sounds like your Superdrive is either dirty or busted. You can try using a can of compressed air to blow into it and clean out any dust that might in there. If dust is in fact the problem it should clean it out and make it usable again (assuming that the drive itself isn't broken). Otherwise I think that your only other option would be to take the drive out of your MBP and use a friend's computer to do the update (making sure that you hook up the SSD to one of the internal SATA ports). On a PC the update can be done with a USB drive even though it isn't officially supported.

----------

@bold

Can I use the superdrive on a external enclousure (with usb connection), or do I have to really put it back inside the computer?

Thanks

You really have to put it back in the computer . It's a pain but for some reason the CD doesn't boot properly if done with a USB DVD drive at least in my experience.

 

[new1macuser]

From what I understand it is not possible to put the iso on a USB pendrive and boot from it on the MBP. Something to do with the MBP's EFI. It sounds like your Superdrive is either dirty or busted. You can try using a can of compressed air to blow into it and clean out any dust that might in there. If dust is in fact the problem it should clean it out and make it usable again (assuming that the drive itself isn't broken). Otherwise I think that your only other option would be to take the drive out of your MBP and use a friend's computer to do the update (making sure that you hook up the SSD to one of the internal SATA ports). On a PC the update can be done with a USB drive even though it isn't officially supported.

Thanks for the explanation. Tried blowing air into the drive but did not work. Looks like the superdrive is busted...

It will be nice if you can explain the alternative in steps. That way any one else having this kind of issue can also follow them

Thanks a lot for every one's help on this wonderful thread.

 

[macchiato2009]

please somebody help me some advise.

i am thinking about a new 240-256gb SSD.

Which is the best? OCZ vertex 3, Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or anything else?

i want to use in MacBook Pro 17" early 2011.

Thank you for your help.

from all the feedbacks i've read, you'd better go for either Samsung 830 or Intel 510

they work flawlessly with the Macs without any need to upgrade firmware and have 0 issues

 

[new1macuser]

Thanks for the explanation. Tried blowing air into the drive but did not work. Looks like the superdrive is busted...

It will be nice if you can explain the alternative in steps. That way any one else having this kind of issue can also follow them

Thanks a lot for every one's help on this wonderful thread.

I finally took out the SSD out of my MBP, put it in a friend's MBP and completed the firmware update. Back to revision 309 for my Crucial M4.

M4-CT128M4SSD2:

Capacity: 128.04 GB (128,035,676,160 bytes)
Model: M4-CT128M4SSD2
Revision: 309
Serial Number: 00000000XXXXXXXXX
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Medium Type: Solid State
TRIM Support: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

 

[DIMEZ]

I recommend the samsung 830....

 

[jcampbell1070]

I recommend the samsung 830....

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wow seeing speeds like that, i almost want to return my owc mercury extreme pro 120gb. i mean mine is fast but yours is faster.