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SSD Buying Guide

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Samsung 830 installed beautifully, just some porting questions

Hey guys!

As of last night i have installed a sammie 830 and an optibay to hold my original OS HDD. I did a fresh install on the sammie by creating a bootable partion of mountain lion on my HDD and sucessfully installed mountain lion on the SSD and it boots lightning quick.

I'm just checking in with the folks that have much more experience as to what intend to do, and whether it would work out?

Firstly, I plan to have the SSD as slim as possible(with only essential apps on it) so I was wondering if by pointing the home directory of my user acc/advanced options to my HDD's already created folder, would the data that I download on OS X(ML) be transferred to my HDD? (I kinda assume it would) Or do I have to point all the programs to DL to the HDD directory?

Secondly, if I plan to do a secure format of the HDD, I wouldn't need to do a defrag would I? Also, if I do format/erase the HDD and point the home directory to the fresh HDD without the file directories there, would the OS rebuild it in the blank HDD, or would I need to keep the file directory still intact from the old OS and paste it back into the fresh HDD?

appreciate any comments and suggestions!

Cheers!
 
Joseph Farrugia said:
Apparently it is not; the feedback comments from a MBP user are very telling of this drive's poorer performance (than on Win OS) on Mac OS X.

Wish it wasn't so, it seems much cheaper than the Sammie 830 fo 512GB; I hope the price difference is reflected in rip-off EU, where I live.
Click to expand...

I have a Plextor M3 256GB running in my early 2009 MBP and it is very fast (and stays fast with trim enabled in ML). Highly recommended!
 
This may be an old topic, has anyone resolved their Sandforce 2 chipset based SSD drives incompatibility with MBPs that run MCP97 chipsets (i.e SATA 1 speeds)?

My detailed discussion with Intel customer service reached no where despite me dumping links of OCZ's firmware upgrade on their SSD fix.
 
performance of stock 128gb SSD (13" mid 2012)

hmm are there any benchmarks of the apple ssd used in
the 13" mid 2012 macbook pro's ?
or at least a info which model is used?

i wasn't able to find something about it anywhere :/

regards
 
Just recently pulled the trigger on a 256GB Crucial M4 - It will be arriving in a few days. As a side note, I also picked up 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM, it was $210 for the both items taxed and shipped!

I plan on cleaning out the fans and internals, installing the new hardware, and doing a clean install of OS X 10.6.8 - it's going to feel like a whole different computer!

This is exciting stuff for me. =)
 
What's the general consensus on getting an SSD for a 2009 Macbook Pro, with the EFI1.7 issue? Any specific brands which has a firmware that works with it, and can run at SATA2 speeds without instability?
 
ssd voor mac mini

hi

I want to buy the intel 330 180 gig

Is this a good drive?
 
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Hellhammer said:
I have added some more info regarding 2011 Macs and their SATA problems as well as a summary of performance degradation and TRIM. Thanks to miamirulz29 for help!

MJL, thanks for those. I will add them ASAP :)
Click to expand...

hi

I did a lot of reading. I want to put a ssd in my Mac mini mid 2010 core 2 duo whit 8 gig's of ram it uses the NVidia MCP89 AHCI for the s ata. And a Momentus xt that is making me nuts. Boot up takes 2 minutes more or less. And the drive stops spinning at time's and slows everything down cause it needs to spin up again.

I want to buy the intel 330 180 gig 119 euro

I use about 150gig on my hd at the moment
I do leave the option open for the samsung 830 or the crucial m4
they cost 190 euro for 256 gig

I'm wondering if it's worth it to pay the 65 euro's extra for samsung or the crucial whit 100 gig more that I wont use.
My only concern is how reliable is the intel 330 compared to the samsung and crucial and how will it work in the mac mini?
 
I have a 13" 2012 MacBook Pro. It has a 750 GB HDD, which is nice, but I'm still thinking of switching over to an SSD because of a lot of beachballing and slowdowns. It's already maxed out at 8 GB of RAM but still has constant page-outs and almost never have free memory (mainly due to keeping a lot of tabs open).

It sounds like the new SSD everyone is looking at is the Samsung 840 Pro. Is anyone else waiting for this model to come out? Wondering how much benefit it'll have over the 830. If they're a similar price, I figure I might as well wait for the newest one since it seems like it's coming out soon. I would get a 256 GB model.

Also wondering if the only way to format the drive and install Mountain Lion is to create a USB install drive or can Internet recovery boot up with a blank drive? And is it worth enabling TRIM via the hacks I've heard about?

My last question is about whether you need to think about backing up differently with an SSD. I've never been great about backing up on a regular basis. I archive data occasionally when my hard drive starts getting full. I've never, knock on wood, had a hard drive fail, and I've always thought in the back of my head that if one mechanically failed, the data could be recovered somehow. But I'm wondering if it's different with SSDs? In what ways can they fail and if they do fail is the data less recoverable than HDDs?

Thanks so much!
 
swingerofbirch said:
It sounds like the new SSD everyone is looking at is the Samsung 840 Pro. Is anyone else waiting for this model to come out? Wondering how much benefit it'll have over the 830. If they're a similar price, I figure I might as well wait for the newest one since it seems like it's coming out soon. I would get a 256 GB model.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Anand's quote below from his review of the 840 Pro. Unless you are constantly working with very large files, I just don't think you will be able to tell the difference between the 840 and the existing Samsung 830.

There is an argument to be made the Samsung 830 is the conservative choice as it has been out a while and the firmware is mature. A known, existing reliable drive vs. a new and untested (for reliability and compatibility) drive. Just my opinion. :)

PCMark 7's secondary storage benchmark does little to show us differences between modern, high-performance SSDs as everything here scores within 5% of one another - but that's the point. For most mainstream client uses you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between two good 6Gbps SSDs. Worry more about cost and reliability than outright performance if you're considering an SSD for a normal machine.
Click to expand...


Also wondering if the only way to format the drive and install Mountain Lion is to create a USB install drive or can Internet recovery boot up with a blank drive? And is it worth enabling TRIM via the hacks I've heard about?
Click to expand...

Your machine can do either one. Just pop the new drive in and command-r boot and you will be asked to join a wifi network then the installer will download. You can then use Disk Util to format the SSD and proceed with the OS install. Just be aware that an Internet install like this will give you whatever OS your machine came with. If it came with Lion, Internet Recovery will install Lion again. If it came with ML, you will get ML.

My last question is about whether you need to think about backing up differently with an SSD. I've never been great about backing up on a regular basis. I archive data occasionally when my hard drive starts getting full. I've never, knock on wood, had a hard drive fail, and I've always thought in the back of my head that if one mechanically failed, the data could be recovered somehow. But I'm wondering if it's different with SSDs? In what ways can they fail and if they do fail is the data less recoverable than HDDs?
Click to expand...

Although logic would make one think fewer moving parts would make a SSD less likely to fail, so far that does not really seem to be the case. They sometimes just up and die for no reason just like hard drives. At least get yourself a cheap external drive and use Time Machine to backup.

Yes, SSDs are more difficult to recover "lost" data from.
 
swingerofbirch said:
I have a 13" 2012 MacBook Pro. It has a 750 GB HDD, which is nice, but I'm still thinking of switching over to an SSD because of a lot of beachballing and slowdowns. It's already maxed out at 8 GB of RAM but still has constant page-outs and almost never have free memory (mainly due to keeping a lot of tabs open).

It sounds like the new SSD everyone is looking at is the Samsung 840 Pro. Is anyone else waiting for this model to come out? Wondering how much benefit it'll have over the 830. If they're a similar price, I figure I might as well wait for the newest one since it seems like it's coming out soon. I would get a 256 GB model.

Also wondering if the only way to format the drive and install Mountain Lion is to create a USB install drive or can Internet recovery boot up with a blank drive? And is it worth enabling TRIM via the hacks I've heard about?

My last question is about whether you need to think about backing up differently with an SSD. I've never been great about backing up on a regular basis. I archive data occasionally when my hard drive starts getting full. I've never, knock on wood, had a hard drive fail, and I've always thought in the back of my head that if one mechanically failed, the data could be recovered somehow. But I'm wondering if it's different with SSDs? In what ways can they fail and if they do fail is the data less recoverable than HDDs?

Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

To answer your questions:

1) 16GB is the max you can have on a MacBook Pro in case you want more RAM.

2) I usually go for Crucial when buying RAM / SSDs but honestly I wouldn't bother waiting for new ones to come out. Current SSDs are already good enough and those new Samsung ones will probably only be a marginal improvement over the current ones.

3) You will need to have a Mountain Lion USB recovery disk in order to format and install the OS on a blank SSD. Internet recovery is only for a drive that already has OS X and a recovery partition on it.

4) TRIM is definitely worth enabling. The hack is very simple and over the long term it will give you better performance.

5) SSD cannot have data recovered as simply as a mechanical HDD since they work a lot differently so backing up is probably a good idea (It's always a good idea actually. I always back up every drive I have). Just use Time machine and get yourself a cheap external HDD.

Hope that help :)
 
jvpython said:
3) You will need to have a Mountain Lion USB recovery disk in order to format and install the OS on a blank SSD. Internet recovery is only for a drive that already has OS X and a recovery partition on it.
Click to expand...

He has a 2012 portable which supports Internet Recovery directly from the system firmware (EFI). It will work even with a new and completely blank drive. He does not need a USB key installer. Here is long and boring article about it.
 
Weaselboy said:
He has a 2012 portable which supports Internet Recovery directly from the system firmware (EFI). It will work even with a new and completely blank drive. He does not need a USB key installer. Here is long and boring article about it.
Click to expand...

Oh good to know thanks, since I have a 2012 MacBook Pro too.
 
Weaselboy said:
I have to agree with Anand's quote below from his review of the 840 Pro. Unless you are constantly working with very large files, I just don't think you will be able to tell the difference between the 840 and the existing Samsung 830.

There is an argument to be made the Samsung 830 is the conservative choice as it has been out a while and the firmware is mature. A known, existing reliable drive vs. a new and untested (for reliability and compatibility) drive. Just my opinion. :)






Your machine can do either one. Just pop the new drive in and command-r boot and you will be asked to join a wifi network then the installer will download. You can then use Disk Util to format the SSD and proceed with the OS install. Just be aware that an Internet install like this will give you whatever OS your machine came with. If it came with Lion, Internet Recovery will install Lion again. If it came with ML, you will get ML.



Although logic would make one think fewer moving parts would make a SSD less likely to fail, so far that does not really seem to be the case. They sometimes just up and die for no reason just like hard drives. At least get yourself a cheap external drive and use Time Machine to backup.

Yes, SSDs are more difficult to recover "lost" data from.
Click to expand...

jvpython said:
To answer your questions:

1) 16GB is the max you can have on a MacBook Pro in case you want more RAM.

2) I usually go for Crucial when buying RAM / SSDs but honestly I wouldn't bother waiting for new ones to come out. Current SSDs are already good enough and those new Samsung ones will probably only be a marginal improvement over the current ones.

3) You will need to have a Mountain Lion USB recovery disk in order to format and install the OS on a blank SSD. Internet recovery is only for a drive that already has OS X and a recovery partition on it.

4) TRIM is definitely worth enabling. The hack is very simple and over the long term it will give you better performance.

5) SSD cannot have data recovered as simply as a mechanical HDD since they work a lot differently so backing up is probably a good idea (It's always a good idea actually. I always back up every drive I have). Just use Time machine and get yourself a cheap external HDD.

Hope that help :)
Click to expand...

jvpython said:
Oh good to know thanks, since I have a 2012 MacBook Pro too.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for all the great information. I'm sure the Samsung 830 would be a great increase over my 5200 RPM hard drive. On my older 13" MacBook Pro I upgraded to another HDD drive that was 7200 RPM, and it's hard to say whether I saw a speed increase since I upgraded to Lion at the same time, but this new computer seems to lag more with its stock drive than my old one. Could be that it came with a bad drive, but it tests fine in Disk Utility. It also seems that my web-browsing is taking up more RAM than it used to. On your advice I checked out a 16 GB RAM upgrade from Crucial and can't believe it's only $80. For some reason I had assumed that upgrade would be many times that price.


If I do upgrade to SSD, I can definitely get a drive to do Time Machine backups. I'm starting to save my most important docs to Google Drive anyhow, so that helps as well.

Thanks again.

EDIT: Just noticed Amazon dropped the price of the Samsung 830 256 GB to $169.99 with free shipping.
 
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If someone it's looking for a deal in a SSD, I got a promo code from New Egg for a Samsung 830 256GB for $159.99 and free shipping.

It expires in 24 hours so pm me if someone it's interested.
 
Hey guys noob here looking to upgrade my mid 2010 mbp. I have been contemplating a few SSD's just curious if there is anything I need to know.

I'm considering the Crucial M4 256gb, Intel 520 256mb, OWC Mercury 6G 240gb and last but not least the Samsung 830 256gb

Do I need to enable TRIM with all these drives? Thanks for any advice
 
MattieD said:
Hey guys noob here looking to upgrade my mid 2010 mbp. I have been contemplating a few SSD's just curious if there is anything I need to know.

I'm considering the Crucial M4 256gb, Intel 520 256mb, OWC Mercury 6G 240gb and last but not least the Samsung 830 256gb

Do I need to enable TRIM with all these drives? Thanks for any advice
Click to expand...

Yes all these drives would need TRIM enabled for best long term performance.
 
I understand what TRIM is, but I don't have it enabled. I am running on 10.6.8 and to my understanding I need a third-party application in order to enable it.

What can I expect from not enabling it? Slower performance in the future?
 
For my mid 2009 macbook pro would you say that that samsung 830 is good drive for that model laptop. I am looking at the 256gig model due to price but if there are 512gig ssd's from other manufactures that are reasonably priced I could go for that. I just want to make sure that it works with my laptop and is reliable and fast.
 
Dark Void said:
I understand what TRIM is, but I don't have it enabled. I am running on 10.6.8 and to my understanding I need a third-party application in order to enable it.

What can I expect from not enabling it? Slower performance in the future?
Click to expand...

Yes unless you are running a newer version of Mac OS X and an Apple SSD you will need a third party TRIM enabler: www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37852/trim-enabler

TRIM allows the SSD to fully clear the data when you delete something. If you don't have it enabled nothing is truly deleted and as over time as space fills the SSD will be required to overwrite old "deleted data" to make space for the rest. Basically TRIM continuously does that in the background so it doesn't slow down your computer when you are trying to write to the SSD.

----------
comptr said:
For my mid 2009 macbook pro would you say that that samsung 830 is good drive for that model laptop. I am looking at the 256gig model due to price but if there are 512gig ssd's from other manufactures that are reasonably priced I could go for that. I just want to make sure that it works with my laptop and is reliable and fast.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother going for the top SSD in speeds as your 2009 model only supports SATA 2. Therefor I would recommend you take a look at Crucial SSD as they are cheaper currently than the Samsung ones and to my experience very reliable. The write speeds are slower but you will not see any difference using SATA 2.
 
jvpython said:
Yes unless you are running a newer version of Mac OS X and an Apple SSD you will need a third party TRIM enabler: www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37852/trim-enabler

TRIM allows the SSD to fully clear the data when you delete something. If you don't have it enabled nothing is truly deleted and as over time as space fills the SSD will be required to overwrite old "deleted data" to make space for the rest. Basically TRIM continuously does that in the background so it doesn't slow down your computer when you are trying to write to the SSD.
Click to expand...

I enabled TRIM via the enabler and after a restart it is reporting that it is working properly (as is System Profiler).

Thank you.
 
I wouldn't bother going for the top SSD in speeds as your 2009 model only supports SATA 2. Therefor I would recommend you take a look at Crucial SSD as they are cheaper currently than the Samsung ones and to my experience very reliable. The write speeds are slower but you will not see any difference using SATA 2.
Click to expand...

Well I will take a look a the Crucial ssd and currently the Crucial m4 ssd 256gig cost more the 256gig ssd Samsung 830. The 512 gig ssd crucial m4 is cheaper then the 512 gig ssd Samsung 830.
 
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