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SSD Buying Guide

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NMF said:
What's the deal with there being 3 different models of the Samsung 830? Which one is the best to get for a 2012 MBP?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147135

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147138
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- They are all the same SSD. The first and last one are Upgrade Kits (desktop and notebook, respectively). You can read about what's included on the Newegg pages.
 
I have an early 2011 13" MBP 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 and would like to upgrade to a 512GB SSD. I see talk of the Crucial M4 512, the OCZ 512 (several models) and the Samsung 830 512 seem to be the most popular upgraded SSDs used. The Samsung seems to be the most expensive. How do these seem to stand up as far as speed (rank fastest to slowest...and how much difference does the difference in speed really mean in real time usage? I am not a power user, but want the benefits to justify spending significantly more on one versus the other.

What about firmware issues...are these all able to be resolved. I am new to Apple computers and still have trouble doing things I could do on my old Windows with both eyes closed and at least one hand tied behind my back...

I am settled on getting one of the 512GB SSDs...I can afford whichever I get, but don't believe in spending money needlessly, so if the higher priced Samsung is truly worth the almost double the price of the Crucial, then I'll consider it, but if the real speed/reliability doesn't really mean much in real life (other than on speed tests), then can't see maybe spending the extra $s.

My early 2011 MBP should be able to go with the Sata III, right?

Thanks for any assistance.
 
Is it ok if i buy an intel 520 series ssd for my macbook pro early 2011 13inch ??
heard that the intel 520 series ssd had issues with macbook pro :confused:
 
PNGento said:
I have an early 2011 13" MBP 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 and would like to upgrade to a 512GB SSD. I see talk of the Crucial M4 512, the OCZ 512 (several models) and the Samsung 830 512 seem to be the most popular upgraded SSDs used. The Samsung seems to be the most expensive. How do these seem to stand up as far as speed (rank fastest to slowest...and how much difference does the difference in speed really mean in real time usage? I am not a power user, but want the benefits to justify spending significantly more on one versus the other.

What about firmware issues...are these all able to be resolved. I am new to Apple computers and still have trouble doing things I could do on my old Windows with both eyes closed and at least one hand tied behind my back...

I am settled on getting one of the 512GB SSDs...I can afford whichever I get, but don't believe in spending money needlessly, so if the higher priced Samsung is truly worth the almost double the price of the Crucial, then I'll consider it, but if the real speed/reliability doesn't really mean much in real life (other than on speed tests), then can't see maybe spending the extra $s.

My early 2011 MBP should be able to go with the Sata III, right?

Thanks for any assistance.
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I have a 2.2 GHz early 2011 MBP and got a Crucial M4 512GB last week. It runs like a dream after using my stock 5400RPM drive for a year. You're good to go with SATA III, but I think if you were to install it in an Optibay you might only get SATA II speeds... At least in the 2011 MBP.
It's wicked fast, and it came with the latest firmware already on it. Supposedly some people had problems with this version, 000f, and had to roll back to 0309, but I haven't experienced any of those. I did do a clean install of Lion for what it's worth. With Crucial, you can upgrade the firmware through an app, I believe, but with the Samsung you have to burn it to a disc and boot to it. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Here's my speeds without Trim enabled. (Hopefully it shows up. This is like my 2nd post.)
 

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@mcard yep same drive same results (crucial M4 512GB). I have used the TRIM enabler honestly it feels the same on or off. I do get a bit of a hang every once and a while. When I started onyX it said my drive needed repaired so I went into Disk Utility and ran the repair. Seems better now.. I installed Windows 8 into Parallels yesterday and it installed amazingly fast I mean within minutes. Great drive thinking about upgrading my iMac to one as well.
 
SSD in old MacBook Pro !

So I have an old macbook, core 2 duo w/ 4 MB RAM, late 2007, identifier 3.1. I wanted to upgrade to an SSD. So I placed an order for a Samsung 830 128 and the MCE optybay. I did the installation during the 4th weekend. To summarize:
1. Format the SSD drive using Disk Utility.
2. Have Lion.DMG in your regular drive and make a backup of your data into a external HD
3. Swap the drives: 3.1 SSD into the regular HD spot 3.2 "Old" HD into the optibay.
4. Boot from the optibay and run Lion Installer selecting the SSD as the target.
5. Now you have a clean install of Lion into your SSD, update Lion and proceed to reformat your old HD.
6. Run the little application from MCE to validate your now external DVD so it would work w/o any problems.
7. Install any programs into your new SSD: Office, Photoshop, iPhoto (from the Snow Leopard original CD)
8. Now that you have ALL your programs is time to import your data into the optibay from the external HD. Keep them ORGANIZE !
9. Fire up the programs and tell the were is the data: in your optibay.

I'm happy to report that my Boot up time is 17seconds and shut down is 4seconds! All the applications feels very snappy ... in love again with my trusty MacBook !:)
 

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Hi all!
I have a Macbook Pro late 2011 (8.1) i5 2.4 4gb ram 500 storage.
Best ssd for this mac? i think is sata 6. the ssds still have problems with this sata? best ssd right now with minimum 256GB?
 
I'm so tempted to get the 512GB Crucial M4, but it seems like a total lottery as to whether it'll work as advertised.

I just wish Apple would enable TRIM for all SSDs in Mountain Lion, as they did with Snow Leopard, and that Crucial could release one unanimously stable firmware version for it.
 
TiagoTT said:
Hi all!
I have a Macbook Pro late 2011 (8.1) i5 2.4 4gb ram 500 storage.
Best ssd for this mac? i think is sata 6. the ssds still have problems with this sata? best ssd right now with minimum 256GB?
Click to expand...

Samsung 830, Crucial m4 or Plextor M3.

OS X Dude said:
I'm so tempted to get the 512GB Crucial M4, but it seems like a total lottery as to whether it'll work as advertised.

I just wish Apple would enable TRIM for all SSDs in Mountain Lion, as they did with Snow Leopard, and that Crucial could release one unanimously stable firmware version for it.
Click to expand...

Strange, I haven't heard of any major issues with the m4 for months. The early firmwares had serious issues but from what I have read it's been stable for months now.

Apple never enabled TRIM for all SSDs, even SL had it for only Apple's SSDs.
 
Hellhammer said:
Strange, I haven't heard of any major issues with the m4 for months. The early firmwares had serious issues but from what I have read it's been stable for months now.
Click to expand...

The latest version - 000F - has made previously fine 0309 version drives become problematic under OS X, apparently. Slow-downs, freezes and slow shutdown times are again the issue. Crucial's forums have a few threads about it.

If my SSD was running totally fine, I wouldn't update the firmware. Even Crucial themselves only recommend an update if a user "is experiencing any of the issues the update addresses".
 
Hi guys, I have an early 2011 MBP 15" i7. I want to install an SSD, and move the HDD to the optical drive bay. Couple of questions:
Is there any difference between optibay/data doubler and the cheap ones on amazon?
What is the best SSD for my model? I'm looking for 128GB or 256GB. I read about SATAIII not working on one of the drive bays?
and lastly, I read about a problem where the HDD wouldn't have the sudden motion sensor in the optical bay, is this a problem?
Thank you a lot!! :)
 
OS X Dude said:
The latest version - 000F - has made previously fine 0309 version drives become problematic under OS X, apparently. Slow-downs, freezes and slow shutdown times are again the issue. Crucial's forums have a few threads about it.
Click to expand...
They are selling a lot though and the only people who go to that forum are a small minority with an issue I guess. I'm not reading about a large number of people here with problems either. My M4 512 is now 14 months old and still working great, and is on the latest firmware. I agree about not upgrading the firmware if it's working OK but mine was on the original firmware until a few weeks ago, and I upgraded from that straight to 000F. No TRIM enabled either, doesn't seem to need it even at 14 months old with fairly heavy use.
 
steve-p said:
They are selling a lot though and the only people who go to that forum are a small minority with an issue I guess. I'm not reading about a large number of people here with problems either. My M4 512 is now 14 months old and still working great, and is on the latest firmware. I agree about not upgrading the firmware if it's working OK but mine was on the original firmware until a few weeks ago, and I upgraded from that straight to 000F. No TRIM enabled either, doesn't seem to need it even at 14 months old with fairly heavy use.
Click to expand...

The garbage collection on the M4, from reviews I've read on Anandtech, apparently makes the drive become very slow when it's being carried out. They had concrete evidence to back that up, and they said it was unrecommendable if the drive was to be used on an OS that didn't have TRIM support. Garbage collection and TRIM are designed to work together, after all.

Of course, this was a few versions ago, and I'm not calling you a liar or anything like that, I believe yours is running great. I do think I too would have no problems at all if I were to buy one, since the reviews dealt with an old firmware version. It's just amazing how a couple of bad reviews on the net can make you really over-think things like this :p
 
OS X Dude said:
The garbage collection on the M4, from reviews I've read on Anandtech, apparently makes the drive become very slow when it's being carried out. They had concrete evidence to back that up, and they said it was unrecommendable if the drive was to be used on an OS that didn't have TRIM support. Garbage collection and TRIM are designed to work together, after all.

Of course, this was a few versions ago, and I'm not calling you a liar or anything like that, I believe yours is running great. I do think I too would have no problems at all if I were to buy one, since the reviews dealt with an old firmware version. It's just amazing how a couple of bad reviews on the net can make you really over-think things like this :p
Click to expand...
I hear what you are saying but when I read that review, they seemed to find problems where none may exist for most users, due to the extreme torture tests they did to provoke the issue. It bore no relation to any kind of typical laptop or desktop workload. In normal use for me, which includes running 2 Parallels VMs simultaneously, iMovie, Aperture, Handbrake etc, I have never seen any kind of slowdown, and if I leave the BlackMagic benchmark running it's consistently around 256 MB/s write and 512 MB/sec read. If performance did deteriorate I would enable TRIM and see what happened, but it hasn't (yet anyway). Honestly I disagree with the reviewer who wrote that particular review on Anandtech and concluded it wasn't suitable for use without TRIM. I have 14 months of use to back that up, not a few days in a lab.
 
Gaah could only find a Torx t10 screwdriver and somebody Said you could remove the screws with pliers but cant get it to work >.<

Edit: found a t7 just barely fit grrr...
 
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steve-p said:
I have 14 months of use to back that up, not a few days in a lab.
Click to expand...

Good point. When I do take the plunge on it - and if I remember - I'll get back with how I've got on with it. I'll still be whacking TRIM Enabler on, but I suppose that's just personal preference.
 
I have now installed the ssd in the macbook but when i choose "reinstall mac os x lion" and error message pops up saying "An error occurred while preparing installation. Try running this application agian. What should i do?
 
2 SSD's - which one in which bay and OSX?

Great info in this thread.

I've just bought a 2012 MBP with a 128GB SSD plus an OWC 6G Mercury Electra 240GB SSD and a drive carrier for the optical bay.

Which drive should I install in the optical bay and which drive sould I have in the hard drive bay?

Which drive should I run OSX and app's on and which one should I use for recording and libraries?

I'm a musician recording lots of audio and running plug-ins plus BFD libraries and Ableton Live libraries - so I need speed and space :)

Thanks :)
 
I knew it would be worth waiting. Seeing as the next time I upgrade my Mac, it'll most likely come with a built in SSD, then what is the best one out of these great prices models for my 2010?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/512g...mlc-flash-read-500mb-s-write-260mb-s-50k-iops
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/512g...d-mlc-flash-500mb-s-write-260mb-s-new-version
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/512g...sh-read-400mb-s-write-400mb-s-1gb-cache-85k-i

I like the OCZ but want some advice, also can you upgrade the firmware on them all? I did as earlier in this thread but I forgot the answer :confused: And also, can I run these drives under Snow Leopard or do I need to use Lion? Reason I ask is I use Lion now but I have had some hang ups and crashes so thinking of going back an OS.

These 512GB drives have hit my price point now, so glad I didn't get one before that wasn't 512 :)

Is the OCZ a safe bet? It's the new one with the new controller, it's also a bit more future proofed.
 
Just like Apolloa, I am looking for a 500gb ssd for my Macbook Pro (early 2011 with 8 gb ram)...

Right now, I narrowed it down to these two:

- Crucial M4 512GB 2.5" SATA3
- OCZ Agility 4 512GB 2.5" SATA3

Which would you guys advise?
 
I'm trying to determine which SSD is best for a unibody MacBook (late 2008).
I've read that there's trouble with the Intel 330 and other SF-based ones.

Should I try and get an Intel 320? A Crucial M4?

This SSD drive will be for Mountain Lion. Are all the TRIM and garbage collection issues solved now? Is the TRIM enabler still required?

Also, when I looked into this for Lion last year, there were problems with some SSDs and secure erase. Is this solved now?

Thanks,
 
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