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SSD Buying Guide

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Hello,

I want to upgrade my MBP 5.1 late 2008 with an SSD.

I have searched and read so many things:
- SATA3 SSD Sandforce are problematic with NVidia MCP79 controller.
- The problem with the SATA link speed set to 1.5Gb/s.

Someone suggest buy a SATA2 SSD to avoid problems but they are now very rare and expensive (samsung 470), I have limited budget.

So I´m asking you guys if can post SSD models that will work with MBP 5.1?
 
Hey guys ive been doing alot of reading on upgrading to a 6gb SSD and it seems the Intel 520 and all Sandforce based ssd's are having issues. Since Apple use Samsung SSD's im thinking about getting the Samsung 830, any thoughts, do these have many issues?
 
I have a Macbook Pro 6,2 (mid2010) with Lion. I Need to upgrade my failing hard drive to an SSD. Which of the two following will be more reliable and compatible with my Macbook model (both 240GB) :
Vertex 3
Intel 520

Thanks!
 
POX said:
Hello,

I want to upgrade my MBP 5.1 late 2008 with an SSD.

I have searched and read so many things:
- SATA3 SSD Sandforce are problematic with NVidia MCP79 controller.
- The problem with the SATA link speed set to 1.5Gb/s.

Someone suggest buy a SATA2 SSD to avoid problems but they are now very rare and expensive (samsung 470), I have limited budget.

So I´m asking you guys if can post SSD models that will work with MBP 5.1?
Click to expand...

I've read that Samsung 830 performs well will older Macbooks..

uisats said:
I have a Macbook Pro 6,2 (mid2010) with Lion. I Need to upgrade my failing hard drive to an SSD. Which of the two following will be more reliable and compatible with my Macbook model (both 240GB) :
Vertex 3
Intel 520

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Reading through this thread, it seems like Intel is the better choice out of the two.
 
Hi all. I got the Macbook Pro 17" ( MD311LL/A). I'd like to buy a SSD for it. I've seen some different SSD's like CT256M4SSD2CCA, CT256M4SSD2 , CT256M4SSD1.... 6GB...M4...etc...

Could you guys tell me what is the correct one for my MBP?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-Tec...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item3cc73fffb3


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-Tec...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item3cc73fffb3



http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Crucial...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item3cc6ebbf45

If I want to choose another brand, what configuration should I look for?


Regards
Ricardo
 
RICARDOVASCO said:
Hi all. I got the Macbook Pro 17" ( MD311LL/A). I'd like to buy a SSD for it. I've seen some different SSD's like CT256M4SSD2CCA, CT256M4SSD2 , CT256M4SSD1.... 6GB...M4...etc...

Could you guys tell me what is the correct one for my MBP?

If I want to choose another brand, what configuration should I look for?


Regards
Ricardo
Click to expand...

if you're buying in united states, then just buy from newegg. i recommend the 7mm m4, as it could probably be a better investment for a future slimmer profile laptop that could require a slimmer hard drive, though from what i've read, either the 9mm or 7 will work with current systems.
 
definitive said:
if you're buying in united states, then just buy from newegg. i recommend the 7mm m4, as it could probably be a better investment for a future slimmer profile laptop that could require a slimmer hard drive, though from what i've read, either the 9mm or 7 will work with current systems.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I've seen also that one is SATA I and the other is SATA I, III.

Are they 2 compatible to my laptop?



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261035376453


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-Tec...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item3cc73fffb3
 
Does anyone have any info on upgrading the HDD on the spec-bumped MBP's that were released yesterday? I'm kind of new to the whole upgrading thing but would like to know more before I buy a non-retina MBP so I can upgrade to a 256GB SSD after purchase of the base model.

Are the same recommended SSD's going to work for the 2012 non-retina MBPs?
 
Ive bought the 240GB
Mercury Electra™ 6G SSD
2.5" Serial-ATA 9.5mm Solid State Drive
For my new macbook pro 13 (mid2012)
Hope will fit ;)
Somebody experience?
 
Hey guys, I am going to soon buy the MBP updated 13" top-range model (2.9GHz i7 750 GB HDD) and plan to buy the stock configuration and then fork out on an SSD in the future and keep the HDD as a second drive in the optical drive slot.

What SSD drives would you recommend?
The size range I want is from 256-500GB or so.
Price range <$500
Considering the SanDisk G25 Extreme at the moment
 
Pinning @Hellhammer..

I'm between this 3 SSD for my late 2008 MBP:

Samsung 830

Corsair Force GT

Crucial M4

I already know you recommend both the 830 and the M4. What are your thoughts on the Corsair?
 
mickryebee said:
Does anyone have any info on upgrading the HDD on the spec-bumped MBP's that were released yesterday? I'm kind of new to the whole upgrading thing but would like to know more before I buy a non-retina MBP so I can upgrade to a 256GB SSD after purchase of the base model.

Are the same recommended SSD's going to work for the 2012 non-retina MBPs?
Click to expand...
The updated MBPs are exactly the same as the old versions, when it comes to upgrading the harddrive.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Power Consumption

I have a late 2011 15" MBP with the 7500rpm 720Gb drive.

I want to put an SSD into it - preferably a 512Gb one to have a windows partition.

One thing I'm looking at is the power consumption of the reevant options - its seems the crucial M4 does very well on this - particularly idle power consumption at 0.66 W

But my question is - what is the power consumption of my existing 7500rpm drive ? I've searched but can't find it
 
Hello.

I have the Macbook Pro media 2010 with the Core i5 2,4 ghz and the 330m nvidia card.

I am thinking of getting a SSD for my mac instead of the stock hitachi.

the hitachi reads and writes with about 55 mb/s. (is this normal?)

I have seen benchmarks of the samsung 830 around 400-500 mb/s.

Can my MBP get the same speed or is it limited by the sata interface?
And is it the best SSD to get right now?

I'm also thinking of getting the Crucial M4.

Which one would be the best for my system? If I can't take advantage of the full speed of the SSDs, which of them uses the least power then? I guess they will perform similar?

Thanks.
 
Is this article correct when it says that the new 13" MBP (non-retina) throttles read/write speeds, therefore it is not worth upgrading to SSD? Hoping I am misunderstanding (or the author of the article is)...

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=c6684b5502fa2a415a104d824988c196&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.macrumors.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D15029835%23post15029835&v=1&libid=1339617118015&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.allvoices.com%2Fcontributed-news%2F12371841-2012-macbook-pro-13inch-ivy-bridge-release-handson-review&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.macrumors.com%2Fsubscription.php%3Fdo%3Dviewsubscription&title=How%20Easy%26Expensive%20to%20upgrade%20a%2013%22%20Macbook%20Pro%20Hard%20drive%20to%20a%20SSD%20-%20MacRumors%20Forums%23post15029835&txt=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.allvoices.com%2Fcontributed...handson-review&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13396171360481
 
Last edited by a moderator:
not2secure4u said:
What is a good SSD to buy for my new macbook pro (late 2011) ? I want a good 128 GB SDD ?
Click to expand...

Samsung 830. Crucial m4 is good too, although a bit slower.

mickryebee said:
Does anyone have any info on upgrading the HDD on the spec-bumped MBP's that were released yesterday? I'm kind of new to the whole upgrading thing but would like to know more before I buy a non-retina MBP so I can upgrade to a 256GB SSD after purchase of the base model.

Are the same recommended SSD's going to work for the 2012 non-retina MBPs?
Click to expand...

We won't know for sure until a teardown or review pops up, but most likely standard 2.5" drives are used. Hence any SSD that worked with previous gen should work. Again, Samsung 830 or Crucial m4.

Cubeeless said:
Ive bought the 240GB
Mercury Electra 6G SSD
2.5" Serial-ATA 9.5mm Solid State Drive
For my new macbook pro 13 (mid2012)
Hope will fit ;)
Somebody experience?
Click to expand...

Pretty standard SF-2281 based SSD. Should work fine.

Danthesaxman said:
Hey guys, I am going to soon buy the MBP updated 13" top-range model (2.9GHz i7 750 GB HDD) and plan to buy the stock configuration and then fork out on an SSD in the future and keep the HDD as a second drive in the optical drive slot.

What SSD drives would you recommend?
The size range I want is from 256-500GB or so.
Price range <$500
Considering the SanDisk G25 Extreme at the moment
Click to expand...

Samsung 830 or Crucial m4. At least the Crucial drive should be available for less than $500 at 512GB.

kmpoboy2 said:
Pinning @Hellhammer..

I'm between this 3 SSD for my late 2008 MBP:

Samsung 830

Corsair Force GT

Crucial M4

I already know you recommend both the 830 and the M4. What are your thoughts on the Corsair?
Click to expand...

Yet another SF-2281 based SSD. I would pick Samsung 830 or Crucial m4 over it.

The Mercurian said:
I have a late 2011 15" MBP with the 7500rpm 720Gb drive.

I want to put an SSD into it - preferably a 512Gb one to have a windows partition.

One thing I'm looking at is the power consumption of the reevant options - its seems the crucial M4 does very well on this - particularly idle power consumption at 0.66 W

But my question is - what is the power consumption of my existing 7500rpm drive ? I've searched but can't find it
Click to expand...

Idle is usually around 1W

http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_scorpio_black_500gb_review_wd5000bekt

jiE said:
Hello.

I have the Macbook Pro media 2010 with the Core i5 2,4 ghz and the 330m nvidia card.

I am thinking of getting a SSD for my mac instead of the stock hitachi.

the hitachi reads and writes with about 55 mb/s. (is this normal?)

I have seen benchmarks of the samsung 830 around 400-500 mb/s.

Can my MBP get the same speed or is it limited by the sata interface?
And is it the best SSD to get right now?

I'm also thinking of getting the Crucial M4.

Which one would be the best for my system? If I can't take advantage of the full speed of the SSDs, which of them uses the least power then? I guess they will perform similar?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Your MBP has SATA 3Gb/s interface, so you can't take full advantage of SATA 6Gb/s SSDs. However, I would still recommend getting one as they are cheaper and random performance is also improved. Once again, Samsung 830 or Crucial m4.

mickryebee said:
Is this article correct when it says that the new 13" MBP (non-retina) throttles read/write speeds, therefore it is not worth upgrading to SSD? Hoping I am misunderstanding (or the author of the article is)...

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...ndson-review&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13396171360481
Click to expand...

He doesn't present any proofs so I would take it with a grain of salt. We will find out very soon, though.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Retina MBP - 3rd party SSD upgrade

We need a tiny PCB adaptor to circumvent Apple's proprietary connector. A standard female mSATA connector on one side, then the Apple PCB header (male) to go into Apple's proprietary slot. There should be left over enough space inside the RMBP to accomodate a standard form-factor mSATA SSD. For exammple the Micron C400.

I have made the suggestion to OWC. Who are well known for producing such 3rd party solutions. They claim to be actively working on a new OWC SSD. But that's not really being called for here. mSATA adaptor is a better idea. More free-market choices for 3rd party SSDs.
 
I just purchased a low end 13" MBP (w/ 8GB RAM) and ordered the Crucial M4 (512GB). Wondering if anyone has any info on firmware for this (SATA III 7mm). Will it need updated, if so can someone provide the most painless way to do so? I plan on a clean install of Lion.

Thanks!
 
I just bought a Vertex 3 240GB for my Mid-2009 17" MBP. It has the Negotiated Link Speed issue on Nvidia MCP79 SATAII. I just want to double check that I've got the whole process down. Don't want to miss anything vital.

1) Put it in my MBP!
2) Boot up OCZ Tools Boot Disk, update firmware if appropriate, perform Link Speed Fix to 3GB/s.
3) Install OSX
4) Perform TRIM enabler (is it preferable to use TRIM Enabler Tool, or just use the terminal scripts I found?)

Is that it? I heard stuff about resetting PRAM or some such. Is this necessary? At what point do I do this?

Thanks for humouring me. I've read many opinions on these threads, I just wanted to get the whole process down.


P.S. I'm also replacing the RAM (boosting from 4 to 8 gb).
P.P.S I was going to buy a new iMac... this is my alternative.
P.P.P.S I know people moan about OCZ and recommend Intel, but I wanted this bad boy and it was discounted.
 
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