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SSD Buying Guide

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Thanks! This helps a lot! I just can't decide whether I should upgrade my 2011 macbook pro or if I should wait until I get a new macbook pro in a couple years when I have a better laptop. Right now my macbook pro has an i5 processor and 8gb of ram.
 
macuser1232 said:
Thanks! This helps a lot! I just can't decide whether I should upgrade my 2011 macbook pro or if I should wait until I get a new macbook pro in a couple years when I have a better laptop. Right now my macbook pro has an i5 processor and 8gb of ram.
Click to expand...

Upgrade now. You'll see a huge boost in performance.
 
latestmonkey said:
Upgrade now. You'll see a huge boost in performance.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks! Yeah I just upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion and I am enjoying it. The only bad thing that has happened so far was a freeze a little while after I installed it that caused me to have to reboot. Other than that it's awesome. Do you think I should be worried about that freeze?
 
I wish it wasn't as expensive to pay $500 for an extra 256GB SSD. I'll save the money to buy a usb 3.0 external hard drive. Going to order my retina soon 🙂
 
Hi guys, seeing as my early 2011 17" MBP is one of the last 🙁, I have decided to soup it up properly and run it into the ground 😛.

Am looking to run a dual HDD + SSD set up.

My optibay is only SATA II (3Gb/s), whilst the hard disk bay (with stock 750GB HDD) is the full SATA III (6Gb/s).

Now, I intend to run Mountain Lion and have a partition for a Windows 7 boot as well off the SSD. So I think I need ~128GB.

From what I gather, it is advantageous to utilise the SATA III for the SSD. So I am planning to move the HDD to the optibay and put the new SSD in the HDD bay. Does this make sense? Anything I should be concerned about with this plan?

Secondly, which SSD would you recommend? I have heard wildly fluctuating reports of SATA III issues which I would obviously like to avoid. Is it wiser (and cheaper?) to just stick to a SATA II in the optibay?

Many thanks in advance!
 
I'd like my 2008 macbook pro to last a little longer and boost its performance.
It does what I need and i'm thinking of installing a Crucial M4 256GB just to give it a boost.

Do you think its worth upgrading an older MAC?

Cheers Phil
 
keeper said:
I'd like my 2008 macbook pro to last a little longer and boost its performance.
It does what I need and i'm thinking of installing a Crucial M4 256GB just to give it a boost.

Do you think its worth upgrading an older MAC?

Cheers Phil
Click to expand...

I just put an m4 into a 2008 mac. It works wonders. This will allow me to hold onto this mac until the 2nd gen rMPB.
 
New to MacRumors! I'm getting a 2012 Macbook Pro before returning to university this fall. As a photographer, I need speed and space - apparently people tend to put their OSX on a SSD (just learned of these things yesterday). I already have a secondhand 1TB external HDD from last summer, plus the original drive in this MBP.

1) Is it true that OCZ's are usually good while Crucial's are more reliable?
2) What SSD's are recommended with my $200 budget, or should I just stick with a $100?
 
JGoings said:
New to MacRumors! I'm getting a 2012 Macbook Pro before returning to university this fall. As a photographer, I need speed and space - apparently people tend to put their OSX on a SSD (just learned of these things yesterday). I already have a secondhand 1TB external HDD from last summer, plus the original drive in this MBP.

1) Is it true that OCZ's are usually good while Crucial's are more reliable?
2) What SSD's are recommended with my $200 budget, or should I just stick with a $100?
Click to expand...

OCZ's uses a sandforce controller, which can possibly cause issues. OCZ's reliability is not nearly as good as a OEM manufactuer such as crucial.

Crucial is Microns consumer product. Micron and Intel share the same nand and it comes from the same plant, which is Micron nand. You will find SSD's from Micron in dells, HP's, Acer, etc. Micron has the C400 SSD oem. Which is the same as the Crucial M4 which is their consumer product. The Crucial M4 is the consumer name for the Micron C400, same SSD, one is for the consumer and named as such. The M4 also has update-able firmware via OSX, which is a plus. The only SSD with such capability I am aware of.

Micron also provides Ram for Apple products, a few were in my imac, and a few macbook pros. Their Ram is also OEM spec. Crucial Ram is their consumer product of Ram, same ram different branding.

Samsungs 830 SSD is the same SSD Apple uses in their macbook pros. Same controller. Also OEM spec, they make consumer SSD's. Their OEM SSD is the PM830, which is the same as their consumer 830 SSD. They also provide the majority of the Ram for the 2012 Macbook pros. Samsung is also a OEM supplier. Like Micron(Crucial).

Intel is another one. Stick with OEM if you can. I would get the Crucial.
 
 
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recommendations on install

Just purchased a mid12 cMBP (being delivered tomorrow). I have a new Samsung 830 already delivered.
This is my first MBP
Here is my current plan/questions.
1. upgrade 830's firmware to current via windows desktop.
2. should I clone factory HDD to SSD? or virgin internet install ML? (if virgin install, can I just install and turn on with command-R?
3. what should I do regarding TRIM/SSD/ML?

any help will be appreciated.

thanks
dan
 
SSD Questions!

Well, it looks like the time has come for me to bite the bullet and upgrade my Mid-2010 MBP (6,2) with a shiny new SSD! I've searched a round a bit on the forums but see that people seem to be using this thread to post any SSD-related queries that they may have so figure i'd give it a shot here!

1: I am aware the first post lists the Intel-320 Series as my ideal option. Given that the post has not been updated in over a year, is this still the case? How about the slightly newer Intel-520 series?

2: Currently I am using 220GB of my 470GB OSX Partition. The remaining 30GB (Though this is likely to be increased soon) is a Bootcamp partition running Windows 7. I have not decided on SSD-Capacity yet; I think initially I will simply replace the mechanical HDD, then look at an Optibay solution if more storage is required. Given that my space requirements are unlikely to change, could anyone suggest the most cost-effective route for me to go in regards to storage space? Somewhere between 260-320GB?

3: I use my MBP for work each day (mainly Windows 7, but have been known to jump into OSX) so can't really afford to have much downtime when switching over drives. What's the best solution for transferring all my data across to the new drive, including everything on the Bootcamp partition? Is this doable in 1 night?

4: Currently 'System Information' lists my link speed as 3 Gigabit, with a negotiated link speed of 1.5 Gigabit. I'm assuming this is a limitation of the drive (TOSHIBA MK5055GSXF) however, out of curiosity I had a look on Google and noticed that people have seen a similar issue on SSD's that support the full link speed. Is this likely to be a problem? Will I even notice the difference? I'm not even entirely sure what a negotiated link speed is, so perhaps someone could explain?

Apologies for the length, I do have a tendency to ramble on during posts.

Thanks!
 
??

I went ahead and ordered the samsung 830 ssd in 512gb for my early 2011 13" i5 mbp with 8gb ram. since my hd is damaged, how would i install mountain lion after i install the new ssd? any help would be appreciated, thanks
 
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CausticPuppy said:
According to Crucial, enabling TRIM is not necessary on the M4 drives. You just need to leave your system idle (without sleeping) from time to time so that the active garbage collection can work.

Read this:

http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-...D-performance-why-is-it-important/ta-p/100276
Click to expand...

Weaselboy said:
This is illustrated in tests of other drives with the Marvell controller, like this test. Just leave it be and performance will recover.
Click to expand...

I've enabled it now. Should I disable it?
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I have another somewhat related problem:

So I installed an Optibay clone and put my HDD there so that my SSD could go in the HDD's place.
I'm now finding the fans in my MacBook are spinning at a higher rpm, more often than before, for unknown reasons.

A few stats:

Start from cold boot:
HDD 25C
CPU 65C
Fans 2000rpm

Using Safari, Pages and Numbers:
HDD 35C
CPU 75C
Fans 3800rpm (can go up to 6000rpm)

It seems that the fans cannot slow down when needed, they seem to spin up when required but then just stay at a high rpm, even when the MacBook is idle.

If I put the Mac to sleep for a few seconds until the fans stop, when I waken it, the fans are back at 2000rpm, which proves that the cooling is not needed.

Is this a ML problem or maybe a hardware problem?
 
Yesterday I ordered the 240GB Intel 520 SSD for my early 2011 base 13" MBP and I would like to know if there are are issues with this SSD with the MBP?
 
gregpod9 said:
Yesterday I ordered the 240GB Intel 520 SSD for my early 2011 base 13" MBP and I would like to know if there are are issues with this SSD with the MBP?
Click to expand...

I'm using the 120 GB 520 Intel with a 2012 13" Macbook pro, no issues so far. Please post up your xbench scores when you get your SSD in thanks.
 
With regards SATA II/SATA III...

My MBP is SATA II. IF I were to get a SATA III drive, would it still work? If it did, I would be hobbled by the SATA speed on the mobo obv., but at the moment, a SATA II 512Gb drive is more expensive than the SATA IIIs.

So... clearly it's worth buying the faster drive over the slower drive on the basis of cost alone, but would there be any compatibility issues there? For example, data errors if the drive failed to notice it was a SATA II bus and was flinging more data at it than it could cope.
 
Tonsko said:
With regards SATA II/SATA III...

My MBP is SATA II. IF I were to get a SATA III drive, would it still work? If it did, I would be hobbled by the SATA speed on the mobo obv., but at the moment, a SATA II 512Gb drive is more expensive than the SATA IIIs.

So... clearly it's worth buying the faster drive over the slower drive on the basis of cost alone, but would there be any compatibility issues there? For example, data errors if the drive failed to notice it was a SATA II bus and was flinging more data at it than it could cope.
Click to expand...

You shouldnt have a problem with using a SATA III with a SATA II link. They are backwards compatible, so your SATA III will just operate with SATA II speeds.
 
Perfect, thanks 🙂

The Intel 600Gb (SATA II) is over £600, but the Samsung 830 512Gb (SATA III)is around £420. Guess I will go for that one then!

One more question though - I currently have a 512Gb Samsung XT in there. If I were to slap in the 512Gb Samsung 830, could I clone my current main drive to the new SSD and off we go? Or would I be more advised to rebuild from fresh?
 
t0nez said:
I went ahead and ordered the samsung 830 ssd in 512gb for my early 2011 13" i5 mbp with 8gb ram. since my hd is damaged, how would i install mountain lion after i install the new ssd? any help would be appreciated, thanks
Click to expand...

anyone? did i make the right choice on getting the samsung 830?
 
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