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SSD Buying Guide

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Hey guys, I have a Mid-2010 MacBook Pro and want to swap the Super Drive with a SSD (boot drive) to run along side the current HDD. What would be the best brand to go with? I'm thinking of going for a 240GB SSD. I'm also in Australia if that help with anything.

Thanks ! :apple:
 
thanks folks.

I just ordered the Samsung 830. Hopefully it will come with the new firmware and I don't have to worry about upgrading it.
 
NewEgg Qiuck Draw deal for people who get their deal mailer....
I got mine on order :)
Samsung 830 256G $189 - 24hr or till sold out
 
Last edited:
propower said:
NewEgg Qiuck Draw deal for people who get their deal mailer....
I got mine on order :)
Samsung 830 256G $189 - 24hr or till sold out
Click to expand...

I was trying to decide whether to go with a Plextor M3, Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 for a 2012 MBP. Once I saw that promotion earlier today, I jumped on it without thinking twice.
 
couldn't wait anymore for the optibay to come, so i installed my new Samsung 830 256GB in my 2009 MBP 13" 2.53GHz C2D, OSX 10.6.7, 8GB

wow, there is really big difference, everything much more faster, even if its not working full speed (sata2), and much more quieter :)
the read\write speeds im getting with it -
read - 247.5
write - 196
is it ok for my old 2009 sata2 MBP ?

on the way while i opened the MBP, i saw how much dust i've had inside and around the fan, so i toke it out and cleaned it... im using it for playing live sets (outdoor & indoor parties), so it was time to clean it from inside as well...

since i've installed the SSD, i've started to hear this 'electric-static' noises coming from the SSD... is that normal for SSDs, or something wrong with mine... ??? or maybe its from the MBP, but never heard it till now... ???
:confused:
 
Crucial M4 512GB with Firmware 000F runs flawlessly in my MBP 2012 15" 2.6GHZ (non Retina). Same SSD in my former late 2011 13" MBP..... couldn't even get to the Desktop and booted forever.
 
I want to buy a ssd for my 15" late 2011(2.4Ghz) MBP but i don't know which one to take. Im looking at the Crucial m4 256gb or the Samsung 830 256gb. I read a lot of stories but i can't make up my mind which one is better or faster. Money doesn't matter that much because it's only a different of 20 bucks. I'm looking for the fastest and most stable one. Can you guys help me?
 
Timmet said:
I want to buy a ssd for my 15" late 2011(2.4Ghz) MBP but i don't know which one to take. Im looking at the Crucial m4 256gb or the Samsung 830 256gb. I read a lot of stories but i can't make up my mind which one is better or faster. Money doesn't matter that much because it's only a different of 20 bucks. I'm looking for the fastest and most stable one. Can you guys help me?
Click to expand...

Out of those, go for the Samsung if you want speed. The Plextor M3 Pro or OWC Mercury Extreme Pro are excellent options as well.
 
OCZ Vertex 4

Hi guys,

I'm new here but I've participated of many other forums/discussions about SSD and Macs.

On one forum in Brazil I read a lot of comments telling the OCZ SSDs are the best, though here I have seemed none comments about it. The Vertex 4 is a good option for a MBP 13" Late 2011? Crucial M4 is better for macbooks?

PS.: I'm going to travel to US next month and I'd like to buy the SSD as soon as I get there :D

tks
 
Timmet said:
I want to buy a ssd for my 15" late 2011(2.4Ghz) MBP but i don't know which one to take. Im looking at the Crucial m4 256gb or the Samsung 830 256gb. I read a lot of stories but i can't make up my mind which one is better or faster. Money doesn't matter that much because it's only a different of 20 bucks. I'm looking for the fastest and most stable one. Can you guys help me?
Click to expand...

Sammy.
 
geta said:
couldn't wait anymore for the optibay to come, so i installed my new Samsung 830 256GB in my 2009 MBP 13" 2.53GHz C2D, OSX 10.6.7, 8GB

wow, there is really big difference, everything much more faster, even if its not working full speed (sata2), and much more quieter :)
the read\write speeds im getting with it -
read - 247.5
write - 196
is it ok for my old 2009 sata2 MBP ?

on the way while i opened the MBP, i saw how much dust i've had inside and around the fan, so i toke it out and cleaned it... im using it for playing live sets (outdoor & indoor parties), so it was time to clean it from inside as well...

since i've installed the SSD, i've started to hear this 'electric-static' noises coming from the SSD... is that normal for SSDs, or something wrong with mine... ??? or maybe its from the MBP, but never heard it till now... ???
:confused:
Click to expand...

update 1 -
looks like the noise coming from the mac not the SSD...
update 2 -
got today the optibay, i've installed it with my old HDD... but now, after working only with the SSD for couple days, i wish i had second SSD to put inside the optibay instead of the HDD... again im having this HDD noises, it was so nice without it...
 
Okay guys, I am new to this so I don't hope that I ask the same question (that you have answered over and over again), but I think that when it's clear for me I can really understand what is going on about the SDD and Sata.

I bought my new MBP (2.2GHZ i7, 500GB, 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3, 10.7.4) a week ago and I am slowly sinking in the deep Mac fangroup. But there are a couple of things that I don't (yet) understand.


If I am right, you can upgrade your work-memory with SSD. Now I have 4GB and I can bring it up to 8GB (or higher to 16?) to make the MBP work quicker and start apps much faster. (is this right?)

At the other hand we have the SATA (the writing disk, but fragile) that can be upgraded to 160GB, somewere in the 200GB or even higher to make him faster(?) and have more memory capacity?

So, what I think is, with SSD you can make more work-memory so the MBP will be faster and you don't have the risk of braking like the SATA. With SATA you can bring up your work-memory (for example, now I have 4GB, then you can bring it up to .. ?) and you can have more memory space with SATA. So I won't have 500GB anymore but much more.


For me upgrading from 4GB to something higher is just that it will make my MBP a little faster. The main reason I use my MBP is for normal use, university, my own business etc. Beside that I do have creating a photoshop-interest lately and with my photo's I take with my big Canon I will try to do some Photoshop work in the future. Beside this I hope I am a little close to the answer :D
 
read some other threads saying corsair ram & samsung 830 are a bit hit & miss when put together.

i know it hasn't happened to everyone but would i be safer you think getting the m4 instead?
 
Argh. I need at least 512GB. I think I'm going to take my chances with the M4 but the prices have all jumped up around the net again. I wonder if they were just trying to get rid of some extra stock? Darn. Missed out on the lower prices. I hope they dip again soon. Would be nice of the 830 512 would drop to 400 or so.
 
DutchAmerican said:
If I am right, you can upgrade your work-memory with SSD. Now I have 4GB and I can bring it up to 8GB (or higher to 16?) to make the MBP work quicker and start apps much faster. (is this right?)

At the other hand we have the SATA (the writing disk, but fragile) that can be upgraded to 160GB, somewere in the 200GB or even higher to make him faster(?) and have more memory capacity?

So, what I think is, with SSD you can make more work-memory so the MBP will be faster and you don't have the risk of braking like the SATA. With SATA you can bring up your work-memory (for example, now I have 4GB, then you can bring it up to .. ?) and you can have more memory space with SATA. So I won't have 500GB anymore but much more.


For me upgrading from 4GB to something higher is just that it will make my MBP a little faster. The main reason I use my MBP is for normal use, university, my own business etc. Beside that I do have creating a photoshop-interest lately and with my photo's I take with my big Canon I will try to do some Photoshop work in the future. Beside this I hope I am a little close to the answer :D
Click to expand...

- You have quite a lot of things totally backwards and some names mixed up. I'll try to help.

First of all, no you cannot upgrade your RAM (which you call "work-memory") from the existing 4 GB by installing an SSD. RAM is totally different from an SSD. You have 4 GB RAM. RAM takes care of temporary caches in your workflow (handling multiple files in Photoshop for instance). So the more RAM the more you can do at once (to put it simply). For most people 4 GB is enough, 8 GB is better and 16 GB is unnecessary. You will see in my signature that I have 4 GB and I get by just fine.

SATA has nothing to do with storage space. SATA is the interface that is used to connect your hard drive or your SSD to the rest of the computer. The size of your hard drive or SSD has no impact on performance.

If you were to install an SSD it would replace your 500 GB hard drive. The benefit of the SSD is that it is much faster than a hard drive (in some cases up to 10 times as fast), which means that applications will launch more quickly, file transfers will be faster and starting your computer will be faster.

I hope this has helped with your understanding of all this.
 
corsair 120gb series 3

whats up guys,

I just installed a corsair 120gb series 3 sad on my macbook pro mid 2012, and I ran Blackmagic disk speed test and my results are disappointing as my read is 200mb/s and my write is only 137mb/s

I enabled trim and thats it. running osx 10.7.4

can you please tell me if this is normal?
 
Has anyone got the OCZ Agility 3 in their MBP? It's very cheap at the moment at £70 for 120GB (vs £85 for the M4 and £78 for the 830). Just wondering what read/write speeds and reliability are like, etc.
 
Last edited:
igiboi said:
whats up guys,

I just installed a corsair 120gb series 3 sad on my macbook pro mid 2012, and I ran Blackmagic disk speed test and my results are disappointing as my read is 200mb/s and my write is only 137mb/s

I enabled trim and thats it. running osx 10.7.4

can you please tell me if this is normal?
Click to expand...

did you check if the drive is using the latest firmware that might have had some kind of a fix for this?
 
Dangerous Theory said:
Has anyone got the OCZ Agility 3 in their MBP? It's very cheap at the moment at £70 for 120GB (vs £85 for the M4 and £78 for the 830). Just wondering what read/write speeds and reliability are like, etc.
Click to expand...

Just installed one today in my 2010 MBP 13" and its defiantly faster, but my read/write speeds on black magic are not impressive, so trying to figure out why!?

currently getting 87MB/s Write and 193MB/s Read with or without TRIM enabled.

Any idea's people?
 
Mikey86uk said:
Just installed one today in my 2010 MBP 13" and its defiantly faster, but my read/write speeds on black magic are not impressive, so trying to figure out why!?

currently getting 87MB/s Write and 193MB/s Read with or without TRIM enabled.

Any idea's people?
Click to expand...

Does the 2010 have sata2 or 3? Because if it's 2 then that might be reasonable
 
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