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SSD Buying Guide

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Guys Quick question.

About to go buy OCZ Agility 3 240GB (OCZ Technology AGT3-25SAT3-240G) .

.My system is

Macbook pro (Mid 2007)
Duo Core 2
2.33 Ghz
4 GB RAM (3GB Max)
running lion osx

I am thinking about putting a cady and remove my optical. I will be installing SSD in the regular HD slot and cady with 250 HD on the optical bay area.

DO you guys think this is a good SSD? I have been waiting for a while to price to come down and I am getting it for $170.00

Please tell me

thanks
 
Just wanted to report back with my SSD installation success report.

MacBookPro early 2011 2.2 Ghz i7

Just picked up Crucial M4 128 GB.

Installation: Install was as easy as could be, I recommend following OWC's install videos as they could not make it any clearer.
*Note: I had a tough time screwing the torx pins in to the M4 and had to use some serious elbow grease to get them in far enough so the drive would lay flush in the bay. Also, they strip easily. I didn't strip them, but nearly did.

Once it was in and everything put back together, I popped in my homemade Lion usb key, booted, formatted, installed (SOOO fast), and have been going great since.

*The only Odd behavior I've seen was twice the fans sped up to maximum, then calmed back down. I read something to the effect that it has to do with temp sensor for the hard drive, and it obviously doesn't get a reading from the SSD. Either way, I set fan speed to Medium with iStat, and it hasn't happened since.

Read/Write speeds reported by blackmagic app were consistent 200 MB write / 500 MB read. Sweet.

Overall, performance has been perfect. Steller. Stunningly fast. Only downside is that I probably should have sucked it up and got the 256 GB instead, but oh well. This will have to be good enough.

Loving the Crucial M4!!!
 
new1macuser said:
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
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late response. Glad to hear that you got it working. As for doing the update with a PC, the process is simple.

1. Remove SSD from Mac (obviously)
2. Connect to a Windows PC internal SATA port on the motherboard, making sure to connect both the data and power cables (very important. The update CANNOT be done if the drive is connected externally using USB, Firewire, etc. The drive must be connected internally using a SATA port)
3. Run firmware update using bootable CD using instructions from Crucial for Windows PCs
4. Reinstall SSD in MBP.

One thing to note, for past firmware updates the BIOS needed to be set to IDE mode (not AHCI) and the drive needed to be connected to a SATA II 3Gb/s port (as opposed to a SATA III 6Gb/s port) however from what I have read on the Crucial forum these are no longer necessary with others having reported successfully updating to firmware 0309 while connected to a SATA III port in AHCI mode. If you need to use a friend's PC there is a good chance they know how to change the BIOS and which SATA ports are II and III so it shouldn't be a problem. The update could also easily be done using a Mac Pro, again using one of the internal SATA ports.
 
I just started a thread about SSD's and someone's pointed me here so I'll continue to ask my questions on this thread.

I don't understand the terminology etc. People are talking about 3Gb SATA and 6GB SATA, what exactly is this and how does it affect performance?

I'm looking at buying the current base model 15" MBP (ie the one with 2.2Ghz CPU and 512MB GC) and will be upgrading the RAM to either 8GB or 16GB (i've been informed by crucial that the current MBP's are compatible with 16GB and this can be confirmed by Apple, even though it doesn't say this on their website. I'm trying to find this out from Apple). Anyway, my options are to upgrade from the 500GB 5400rpm HDD to the 750GB 7200rpm HDD for £120 ($188), or to a 512GB crucial SDD drive http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpa...04&AID=10273954&PID=4169666&SID=13ipswxcu2rxn for £522 ($818). Is the SDD going to be massively faster than the 7200rpm HDD, or is it going to be marginal? I'm not interested in gaming, but do amateur video editing using full HD AVCHD, and music editing (will probably use reason and cubase as i already have these, although am considering swapping to Logic). Boot time isn't that important as I very rarely boot my laptops, usually I just close the lid and put them to sleep.
 
syedrizvi21 said:
Guys Quick question.

About to go buy OCZ Agility 3 240GB (OCZ Technology AGT3-25SAT3-240G) .

.My system is

Macbook pro (Mid 2007)
Duo Core 2
2.33 Ghz
4 GB RAM (3GB Max)
running lion osx

I am thinking about putting a cady and remove my optical. I will be installing SSD in the regular HD slot and cady with 250 HD on the optical bay area.

DO you guys think this is a good SSD? I have been waiting for a while to price to come down and I am getting it for $170.00

Please tell me

thanks
Click to expand...

I would go with Crucial M4 instead. Agility 3 is a SandForce based drive and hence not really known for reliability. Plus the Crucial is actually slightly cheaper.

Mardos said:
Hi,

I have a late 2010 Macbook Pro 17"
Looking to buy a SSD since the HDD died in mine.
Will this work ? Will it fit?
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=547840&CatId=5300
Thanks for all your help
Click to expand...

Couple of thing: That drive is only 64GB. After over-provisioning and OS X install, you would most likely have around 50GB of free space. That's very little given that it would be your primary storage. I would get at least 128GB.

Moreover, Patriot drives are very hit&miss. That specific drive uses Phison controller and to be honest, this is the first time I've seen that name. It promises decent speeds but it may also mean incompatibility and poor reliability. I would stick with known controllers.

snerkler said:
I don't understand the terminology etc. People are talking about 3Gb SATA and 6GB SATA, what exactly is this and how does it affect performance?
Click to expand...

Serial ATA (or usually just SATA) is the interface used by most internal hard drives and SSDs. The difference between SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 6Gb/s is their speed: SATA 3Gb/s is good for up to 3 Gigabits per second while SATA 6Gb/s is good for up to 6 Gigabits per second. When 8b/10b encoding is taken into account, we are looking at ~280MB/s and ~580MB/s in real world.

In a nutshell, SATA 6Gb/s is twice as fast as SATA 3Gb/s, However, keep in mind that the actual bandwidth is determined by the SSD and its controller, NAND configuration etc. SATA 6Gb/s SSD is not automatically twice as fast as SATA 3Gb/s SSD.

I'm looking at buying the current base model 15" MBP (ie the one with 2.2Ghz CPU and 512MB GC) and will be upgrading the RAM to either 8GB or 16GB (i've been informed by crucial that the current MBP's are compatible with 16GB and this can be confirmed by Apple, even though it doesn't say this on their website. I'm trying to find this out from Apple). Anyway, my options are to upgrade from the 500GB 5400rpm HDD to the 750GB 7200rpm HDD for £120 ($188), or to a 512GB crucial SDD drive http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpa...04&AID=10273954&PID=4169666&SID=13ipswxcu2rxn for £522 ($818). Is the SDD going to be massively faster than the 7200rpm HDD, or is it going to be marginal? I'm not interested in gaming, but do amateur video editing using full HD AVCHD, and music editing (will probably use reason and cubase as i already have these, although am considering swapping to Logic). Boot time isn't that important as I very rarely boot my laptops, usually I just close the lid and put them to sleep.
Click to expand...

I've said this before but SSD is the biggest upgrade you can make today. It's not just marketing speech, it really makes a difference. How much it's worth is another question, though. I would look into the Optibay solution as 512GB SSDs are really expensive. Optibay allows you to have both SSD and HD inside your MBP at the expense of the optical drive. That way even a 128GB SSD should be more than fine, which cuts the cost a lot.
 
Hellhammer said:
I would go with Crucial M4 instead. Agility 3 is a SandForce based drive and hence not really known for reliability. Plus the Crucial is actually slightly cheaper.



Couple of thing: That drive is only 64GB. After over-provisioning and OS X install, you would most likely have around 50GB of free space. That's very little given that it would be your primary storage. I would get at least 128GB.

Moreover, Patriot drives are very hit&miss. That specific drive uses Phison controller and to be honest, this is the first time I've seen that name. It promises decent speeds but it may also mean incompatibility and poor reliability. I would stick with known controllers.



Serial ATA (or usually just SATA) is the interface used by most internal hard drives and SSDs. The difference between SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 6Gb/s is their speed: SATA 3Gb/s is good for up to 3 Gigabits per second while SATA 6Gb/s is good for up to 6 Gigabits per second. When 8b/10b encoding is taken into account, we are looking at ~280MB/s and ~580MB/s in real world.

In a nutshell, SATA 6Gb/s is twice as fast as SATA 3Gb/s, However, keep in mind that the actual bandwidth is determined by the SSD and its controller, NAND configuration etc. SATA 6Gb/s SSD is not automatically twice as fast as SATA 3Gb/s SSD.



I've said this before but SSD is the biggest upgrade you can make today. It's not just marketing speech, it really makes a difference. How much it's worth is another question, though. I would look into the Optibay solution as 512GB SSDs are really expensive. Optibay allows you to have both SSD and HD inside your MBP at the expense of the optical drive. That way even a 128GB SSD should be more than fine, which cuts the cost a lot.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. I don't want to lose the optical drive to be honest. With the money I'm going to save by not going for the higher spec MBP it will go a long way to paying for a 512GB SSD

As for the speeds, I understand they are transfer speeds but why do they list 2 speeds, eg 500mbps /6GBps? Obviously there's a lot of difference in these speeds. Also, am I right in thinking that the MBP will only run at 3Gbps anyway?
 
I have another query. forgive me if this has been answered already but I got tired after trawling through the many pages and haven't looked at them all.

I'm pretty sure I'll be putting in a 512GB Crucial M4 SSD into a 15" MBP I'm planning on buying in the very near future. Does Lion now support TRIM for all 3rd party SSD's (or if not all, at least the crucial one) or is it still only those with 'factory fit' SSD's?

Do current SSD's, in particular the crucial one, still slow over time even with TRIM enabled, or does this now stop this and so SSD's don't slow like the early ones did?
 
snerkler said:
I'm pretty sure I'll be putting in a 512GB Crucial M4 SSD into a 15" MBP I'm planning on buying in the very near future. Does Lion now support TRIM for all 3rd party SSD's (or if not all, at least the crucial one) or is it still only those with 'factory fit' SSD's?
Click to expand...

Apple does not support TRIM with third-party SSDs. Drives will still slow somewhat, though newer drives tend to have better "garbage collection" than in the past. However, there are still the various online methods for enabling TRIM for third party drives if you want TRIM.
 
KPOM said:
Apple does not support TRIM with third-party SSDs. Drives will still slow somewhat, though newer drives tend to have better "garbage collection" than in the past. However, there are still the various online methods for enabling TRIM for third party drives if you want TRIM.
Click to expand...

I read somewhere that TRIM was enabled for certain aftermarket SSD's, but obviously I've been misinformed.

As I'm new to SSD's do they really slow that much? Are there particular programs that tend to slow the SSD more quickly, such as Logic and Final Cut? I guess how quickly it slows depends on usage?

Do the crucial M4 SSDs tend to slow quicker than others, or are they pretty good at keeping there speed?

Do you need to enable TRIM from day one for it to be affective or can you decide to enable it at a later date if you find it running slowly and then it will speed it back up again? Or once it's slow is there no recovering it?

Are there any risks with using 3rd party Trim enablers?
 
KPOM said:
Drives will still slow somewhat
Click to expand...

It's not just TRIM and garbage collection. When NAND wears out, erasing will become slower because higher voltages need to be applied (and for longer time) in order to find the correct voltage to erase the cell. At the same time, programming will become faster because there is already some voltage in the floating gate. To put this in perspective, erasing a block takes around 2ms. Programming takes only about 0.75ms so the increase in erase time will outweigh the decrease in programming time. Eventually this leads to slower performance and block retirement.

snerkler said:
I read somewhere that TRIM was enabled for certain aftermarket SSD's, but obviously I've been misinformed.

As I'm new to SSD's do they really slow that much? Are there particular programs that tend to slow the SSD more quickly, such as Logic and Final Cut? I guess how quickly it slows depends on usage?

Do the crucial M4 SSDs tend to slow quicker than others, or are they pretty good at keeping there speed?

Do you need to enable TRIM from day one for it to be affective or can you decide to enable it at a later date if you find it running slowly and then it will speed it back up again? Or once it's slow is there no recovering it?

Are there any risks with using 3rd party Trim enablers?
Click to expand...

No aftermarket SSD has TRIM enabled. Apple uses drives that are available in the market but Apple's drives are equipped with custom firmware. In most cases, this whole performance degradation thingy is overhyped. Most people will never notice the difference. If you write dozens of GBs of data everyday, then it can become an issue because garbage collection is usually done during idle time. Crucial M4 has okay garbage collection, although SandForce drives have better (but are worse in other ways).

You can enable or disable TRIM at any point you want. I would try without TRIM first and activate it if you notice a decrease in performance.
 
Hellhammer said:
It's not just TRIM and garbage collection. When NAND wears out, erasing will become slower because higher voltages need to be applied (and for longer time) in order to find the correct voltage to erase the cell. At the same time, programming will become faster because there is already some voltage in the floating gate. To put this in perspective, erasing a block takes around 2ms. Programming takes only about 0.75ms so the increase in erase time will outweigh the decrease in programming time. Eventually this leads to slower performance and block retirement.
Click to expand...

When we talk about SSD's slowing, are we talking only by speeds that software can measure, or will you find as a user that your pulling your hair out waiting for programs to open/run?

I'm guessing it will take a year or 2 for it to start slowing though with 'average' use? If so SSD's might have crashed in price and so it won't be abig deal replacing them?

Edit: Ignore this as you've just answered it. Thanks

----------
Hellhammer said:
Crucial M4 has okay garbage collection, although SandForce drives have better (but are worse in other ways).
Click to expand...

The reason I'm looking at Crucial is they're the only ones I can find other than buying from overseas or places like amazon. A friend of mine has mentioned mercury SSD's but I've only found these in the US and the import duties from the US to the UK are horrendous :eek:
 
snerkler said:
90GB isn't a whole lot of storage, hence the price. Crucial seems to be the best place in the UK that I've found for SSD's and RAM. A lot of people have said good things about their products and the warranty is very good.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/lis...tel Core i7 (15-inch DDR3) Early-2011&Cat=SSD
Click to expand...

i want to put my 250gb hdd in the dvd drive area with an optibay
and use the ssd purely for osx, thats why size wise it doesnt bother me really
the write speeds seem a little slow on those crucial ssd's?
 
barebackbadger8 said:
i want to put my 250gb hdd in the dvd drive area with an optibay
and use the ssd purely for osx, thats why size wise it doesnt bother me really
the write speeds seem a little slow on those crucial ssd's?
Click to expand...

There is nothing slow about 200 MB per seconds. (Crucial M4 128 GB here).

Just get it. Don't spend too much time debating whether 200 or 270 MB per second makes a difference.

It will still blow away a HDD.
 
pmz said:
There is nothing slow about 200 MB per seconds. (Crucial M4 128 GB here).

Just get it. Don't spend too much time debating whether 200 or 270 MB per second makes a difference.

It will still blow away a HDD.
Click to expand...

Does the Crucial M4 need TRIM enabled, or is it fine without? I know some manufacturers such as mercury are saying that their SSD's don't need TRIM these days.
 
snerkler said:
Does the Crucial M4 need TRIM enabled, or is it fine without? I know some manufacturers such as mercury are saying that their SSD's don't need TRIM these days.
Click to expand...

None of them need it. As already stated, unless you write dozens of GB per day, you are unlikely to ever see a performance drop. If you did see such a drop, TRIM enabler 2.0 is a simple GUI that can be turned on and off an will to TRIM things up.

The only reason we don't recommend using it right off the bat is that 1. Not needed, and 2. It's modifying the kext, which should be fine, but ya never know for certain.

Great review here to further explain: TRIM enabler 2.0 for Lion
 
pmz said:
None of them need it. As already stated, unless you write dozens of GB per day, you are unlikely to ever see a performance drop. If you did see such a drop, TRIM enabler 2.0 is a simple GUI that can be turned on and off an will to TRIM things up.

The only reason we don't recommend using it right off the bat is that 1. Not needed, and 2. It's modifying the kext, which should be fine, but ya never know for certain.

Great review here to further explain: TRIM enabler 2.0 for Lion
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll just buy the SSD and stop worrying :)
 
Transfer Help

So i finally took the plunge on an SSD, a 64gb Crucial M4.

It came with the data transfer cable and software,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148447&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Solid%20State%20Disk-_-Crucial-_-20148447&AID=10440897&PID=3026717&SID=87523__2_9__1_c

I apologize if this has been covered but there was quite a few posts on this thread to skim through.

My current drive is 320gb, that I'm planning to move to the optical drive bay for media storage. Whats the best way to get the Operating system and select programs onto the SSD? I have a external w/ time machine back-ups but can't image using one of those would work since the SSD is only 64gb.

Thank you for your time.
 
530farm said:
So i finally took the plunge on an SSD, a 64gb Crucial M4.

It came with the data transfer cable and software,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148447&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Solid%20State%20Disk-_-Crucial-_-20148447&AID=10440897&PID=3026717&SID=87523__2_9__1_c

I apologize if this has been covered but there was quite a few posts on this thread to skim through.

My current drive is 320gb, that I'm planning to move to the optical drive bay for media storage. Whats the best way to get the Operating system and select programs onto the SSD? I have a external w/ time machine back-ups but can't image using one of those would work since the SSD is only 64gb.

Thank you for your time.
Click to expand...

I was interested to know what the data transfer kit was as it doesn't say on the UK site. According to that link you've posted the data transfer kit provides everything you need to transfer OS, software, settings etc, basically cloning you're hard drive. Be warned though, by the time you've transferred the OS and a few bits of software there'll be very little space left on a 64GB drive :(

Some people say you're best running a new fresh install of the OS rather than cloning a drive as the OS runs better, but I'm only passing on info I've heard so can't comment further. There's some good videos on YouTube on how to create a recovery OS lion and then installing this on a new drive as a fresh install. This is what I plan on doing and then transferring files via an external HDD. I haven't got my MacBook yet and will be buying a SSD straight away so I won't have software and user settings to transfer.
 
snerkler said:
I was interested to know what the data transfer kit was as it doesn't say on the UK site. According to that link you've posted the data transfer kit provides everything you need to transfer OS, software, settings etc, basically cloning you're hard drive. Be warned though, by the time you've transferred the OS and a few bits of software there'll be very little space left on a 64GB drive :(

Some people say you're best running a new fresh install of the OS rather than cloning a drive as the OS runs better, but I'm only passing on info I've heard so can't comment further. There's some good videos on YouTube on how to create a recovery OS lion and then installing this on a new drive as a fresh install. This is what I plan on doing and then transferring files via an external HDD. I haven't got my MacBook yet and will be buying a SSD straight away so I won't have software and user settings to transfer.
Click to expand...

I'll look into making the OS Lion recovery, hopefully its free. I still have my snow leopard disk, is it possible to install that then re-update to lion for free?

If i do take the route with a fresh Lion install, can I just plug my original HD into the optical bay and then transfer what programs I want from that hard drive to the SSD?

Edit: It looks like you can install lion on multiple computers w/ your Apple ID. So I imagine I'll just plug in the SSD, install 10.6 via disc, then upgrade to lion via app store. After that can i just plug in my origina HD in the optibay, delete the copy of OS on that, and transfer apps to the SSD as I wish?
 
Last edited:
530farm said:
I'll look into making the OS Lion recovery, hopefully its free. I still have my snow leopard disk, is it possible to install that then re-update to lion for free?

If i do take the route with a fresh Lion install, can I just plug my original HD into the optical bay and then transfer what programs I want from that hard drive to the SSD?

Edit: It looks like you can install lion on multiple computers w/ your Apple ID. So I imagine I'll just plug in the SSD, install 10.6 via disc, then upgrade to lion via app store. After that can i just plug in my origina HD in the optibay, delete the copy of OS on that, and transfer apps to the SSD as I wish?
Click to expand...

Here's a video showing how to make a Lion recovery and install a SSD. Looks pretty straight forward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kdenB6gKo4&list=FLZOYvqhBuwsU9fg093BloCQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video

As for programs, if you still have the installation CD's then just use these to reinstall, or if it's downloaded software hopefully you saved the executable files and then installed the software from these? If you have an external HDD or USB drive then copy the .exe files over to the new computer and install them using this.
If you have loads and loads of programs and it's going to be too time consuming, or you don't have the software installation files then I guess cloning is your best bet. There's plenty of videos on youtube on how to do this, and by the info on the link you posted you should get everything you need to clone with your data transfer kit.
 
Okay, I'm looking to replace my HDD, which seems to be dying/dead:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=14332270

Which SSD should I purchase, for $200-$300 usd? Do you guys still recommend the Intel 320 Series, as stated in the first post of this thread? My Macbook pro is a 13" purchased june 2010.

And that Intel series is recommended for SATA 1.5Gb/s or SATA 3Gb/s. How do I know what I have? I know is says pre-2011 should be that, but I just want to make sure.

I'm much more interested in reliability of the product than I am speed/storage space. Thanks :)

someone on another website suggested:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/
 
Last edited:
So I just installed 8GB of RAM about a week ago. Gave a bit of a performance boost but with a staff discount I couldn't pass it up. I just recently got a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD. Put it in about 45minutes ago. Wow the performance boost is crazy. Best purchase I've made in a long time :apple:. Using my old HD as a backup now with Time Machine.

BTW I got a 2011 13inch 2.7ghz i7 MBP and it feels like a brand new computer.

:D

SSD FTW haha.
 
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