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SSD Buying Guide

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elmarjazz said:
My understanding is that the SSD in the main drive position is the way to go. The question is about a HD drive in the optical bay. I know many have put their HD in the optical bay, but the main drive bay has anti-shock (how Apple has this working I don't know) and the optical bay does not. How does this effect the HD in the optical bay? Is it something to be cautious about in use? Does the provided Apple 750gb HD (late 2011) have anti-shock (as some drive do) built in so I don't need to worry?
Thanks
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Anti-shock is another matter, depending on how the drive is made.
I know for certain that some HD drives have sudden motion sensors built in and some don't, models that do often have an "S" in the model name (Seagate xxxS for example). These drive will park the heads on detecting sudden motion to prevent damage to the drive. I don't know about the 750GB drive that came with your MBP, and Apple has a habit of using several different sources for HDs, so check your system profiler (Apple Menu/About this Mac/More Info/System Report/Serial-ATA) for info on the drive installed.
There is a terminal command to disable SMS, so the system must have it built in too;
Disable Sudden Motion Sensor in the terminal using the following command:
sudo pmset -a sms 0

Again, I don't know how this works or even if it does when the HD drive is in the optical drive bay. Maybe someone who does know can pinch hit here?:D
 
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The cheap ones work just as well as the data doubler, just be sure to get one that`s in 9.5mm height.

Another question:

What is at the moment the best sub 150GBP ssd?
It will be used in my mid 2012 MBP13 with SATA 6gb.
I am looking at the Samsung 840 basic (250GB, 21nm tlc flash thats quite slow and not as durable as mlc apparently) or the Samsung 830 (128GB).
Can somebody recommend a affordable (240+GB would be nice) and fast SSD?
 
My nephew has a late 2008 MBP he wants to put an SSD in. Does anyone know if the Samsung 840 will work? It's the newer model (vs the 830 which I see will work). I don't know anything about these drives, so I'm not sure where to start.

Thanks!
 
The 840 will not do sata 2 speeds on MCP79.

Got one for Christmas from amazon and installed it in my late 2009 imac, could not get it to do sata 2 at all. Resetting pram, shutting down, updating firmware. Nothing. Emailed samsung support and no idea if or when it would be fixed.

I am sending mine back and got a amazon warehouse like new 830 256gb for $195 coming tomorrow.
 
I just ordered a Crucial M4 512GB for my Mid-2010 17" MBP. I take it it doesn't come with a transfer cable, but I have Time Machine.

Should would TM be okay or should I use a data transfer? Any other information I should know?

EDIT: After reading around, I went and ordered this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002EUCU3O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
 
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Krafty said:
I just ordered a Crucial M4 512GB for my Mid-2010 17" MBP. I take it it doesn't come with a transfer cable, but I have Time Machine.

Should would TM be okay or should I use a data transfer? Any other information I should know?
Click to expand...

Time Machine works fine for this. Just plug in the TM drive and option key boot to it. (Assuming you are on Lion or better)
 
Krafty said:
I just ordered a Crucial M4 512GB for my Mid-2010 17" MBP. I take it it doesn't come with a transfer cable, but I have Time Machine.

Should would TM be okay or should I use a data transfer? Any other information I should know?

EDIT: After reading around, I went and ordered this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002EUCU3O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
Click to expand...

The cables are nice to have around incase something goes wrong with your computer. You can still access your internal HDD on another computer.
 
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Weaselboy said:
(Assuming you are on Lion or better)
Click to expand...

Negative, still running Snow Leopard (10.6.8).

brop52 said:
The cables are nice to have around incase something goes wrong with your computer. You can still access your internal HDD on another computer.
Click to expand...

Thank you both for your replies.
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My Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW240A3K5 2.5" 240GB just came in. Installed and backed up via Time Machine. It is so fast!!! Too bad I lost my Windows 7 partition. :(
 
Great thread, I've learned a lot.

I'm on a budget, but my computer is going quite slow and I'd like to make the most of it.

I have a mid 2012 13" MBP and I'd like around 500GB of SSD storage. What is the cheapest, but obviously a good SSD that I could buy for my needs?
 
Macaroooon said:
Great thread, I've learned a lot.

I'm on a budget, but my computer is going quite slow and I'd like to make the most of it.

I have a mid 2012 13" MBP and I'd like around 500GB of SSD storage. What is the cheapest, but obviously a good SSD that I could buy for my needs?
Click to expand...

Probably a crucial m4. Sign up for the newegg daily deals email and review it first thing every morning. How much ram do you have in it? If you haven't done so already, going from 4 gb to 8 or 16 is a good start, especially if you're doing a lot of multitasking or vm's.
 
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Macaroooon said:
I've had a look.. and blimey, not cheap! But I suppose that's what you're paying for! :)
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I suppose it's a matter of perspective; SSD's have DRASTICALLY come down in price during the last six months.

Sign up for the newegg daily deal email and pounce on the best price you can find on a Crucial M4, Sammy 830/840/840 pro, or Vertex 4 that you can find.

You may want to consider a smaller ssd and doing the optibay route to make a roll your own fusion drive using your current HDD. As others have pointed out, make sure you have a good time machine backup if you use this option.
 
vong said:
I thought that Time Machine backs up windows partition as well.. I was wrong lol. Oh well though, it is okay. I only used Windows for school work & gaming.
Click to expand...

Don't you still have your internal HDD you removed? Use a SATA adapter and transfer it.
 
Just threw in my new 128GB Samsung 840 Pro into my newest MBP @ 2.9GHz i7 and 8GB of RAM.

Thing is plenty fast, I know with windows there are a few things to do once installed (check TRIM, reduce page file, etc). Anything to do on the mac side?

thanks!
 
rawfuls said:
Just threw in my new 128GB Samsung 840 Pro into my newest MBP @ 2.9GHz i7 and 8GB of RAM.

Thing is plenty fast, I know with windows there are a few things to do once installed (check TRIM, reduce page file, etc). Anything to do on the mac side?

thanks!
Click to expand...

I found a good article here. That help me a lot.

My question:
I'm using windows 8 with parallels on my SSD drive. I need to optimize Windows too, or the osx is enough?
 
Hey guys.

Firstly, I apologise for my question, as I'm sure you've beaten it to death.

I have a Late 2011 13' MacBook Pro (MacBookPro8,1), and I'm currently contemplating buying a 256GB Samsung 830/840 drive and swapping it to the HD location and moving the HD to the optical drive port (turns out the MKxx65GSXF hard drives have built in SMS http://storage.toshiba.eu/cms/en/hdd/multimedia/product_detail.jsp?productid=341).

My question is, would you guys go for the 830 or 840?

Cheers.
Happy New Year :D :apple:
 
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Eddyquan said:
Hey guys.

Firstly, I apologise for my question, as I'm sure you've beaten it to death.

I have a Late 2011 13' MacBook Pro (MacBookPro8,1), and I'm currently contemplating buying a 256GB Samsung 830/840 drive and swapping it to the HD location and moving the HD to the optical drive port (turns out the MKxx65GSXF hard drives have built in SMS http://storage.toshiba.eu/cms/en/hdd/multimedia/product_detail.jsp?productid=341).

My question is, would you guys go for the 830 or 840?

Cheers.
Happy New Year :D :apple:
Click to expand...

830 or 840 PRO
 
Hi guys, im intending to get a SSD to boost up the performance of my 2010 MBP..wondering will the extra write speed be beneficial for me since im using programs like Adobe lightroom, photoshop and so on? Im looking at Crucial M4, 840 Pro or maybe the OCZ Vertex 4? Which one will eventually does the job for me.
 
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