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SSD Buying Guide

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What do you all think about Intel 520 SSD as a boot/application drive? Is it suitable?
 
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M0esmac said:
Which one is most popular and worth trying? OCZ Vertex or Crucial?
I had a look in this thread and It seems that I will hold of the Samsung 840.
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"Popular" depends entirely on who you ask. This thread has a definite bias towards the Samsung, but I disagree and would never buy anything from that company. All of the major brands have their fans. In my opinion, get the largest SSD you can afford choosing from, Intel, Crucial M4, OCZ, OWC or any other brand that has the capability to use a Mac-based firmware updater. The Samsung SSDs cannot be upgraded on a Mac. I have had good performance with the Intel 335, use it for boot drive, some storage and daily work on a late 2011 MBP. Solid, no issues whatsoever, with Trim enabled. 😎 Most of the SSDs available today are very stable. What MBP are you going to install your SSD in?
 
The SSD that can challenge the Samsung 840 Pro right now is the OCZ Vector, but I really anticipate the Crucial m500, which looks pretty good on paper, especially at under $0.60 per GB.
 
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davidlv said:
"Popular" depends entirely on who you ask. This thread has a definite bias towards the Samsung, but I disagree and would never buy anything from that company. All of the major brands have their fans. In my opinion, get the largest SSD you can afford choosing from, Intel, Crucial M4, OCZ, OWC or any other brand that has the capability to use a Mac-based firmware updater. The Samsung SSDs cannot be upgraded on a Mac. I have had good performance with the Intel 335, use it for boot drive, some storage and daily work on a late 2011 MBP. Solid, no issues whatsoever, with Trim enabled. 😎 Most of the SSDs available today are very stable. What MBP are you going to install your SSD in?
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Thanks for all this and for sure, I always want to have all the newest firmware, all the trims and such.

What would you recommend me according to Amazon.co.uk? As I said, I need all trims and software updates accessible on my Macbook which is Early 2011, i7 2.7GHz and 8GB ram. I really think i7 is faster than it performs now, thats why I want and SSD and I don't think there is much diference between 420MB/s and 520MB/s in SSD's for my situation.

Giuly said:
The SSD that can challenge the Samsung 840 Pro right now is the OCZ Vector, but I really anticipate the Crucial m500, which looks pretty good on paper, especially at under $0.60 per GB.
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Is this Kingston HyperX any good?
 
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M0esmac said:
.... my Macbook which is Early 2011, i7 2.7GHz and 8GB ram.
Is this Kingston HyperX any good?
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The Kingston drive should work fine, but it is rather small at 120GB.
Suggest you be patient, save up your money and then buy a 240-256GB model. I have only a few videos on my MBP, a medium sized iTunes library at 30 GB, and still use about 90GB of SSD space. That 120GB will fill up fast. 😱
 
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I have the late '09 13" MB and hoping to do the SSD in the next 2-3 months. My drive space is filling up and I have had my eyes set on the Crucial M4 512GB for quite a while.

I only understand the basics of SSDs, but one thing I continue to be confused about is "trim." Some say enable it, others say don't bother. Another thing that gets me is being sure to get a drive that I can update the firmware through thru mac (not sure if I said that right?). What exactly do these two things mean?

And finally, in your experiences is the M4 a decent brand to go with? Would love to hear thoughts on this. Thanks.
 
slynger said:
I have the late '09 13" MB and hoping to do the SSD in the next 2-3 months. My drive space is filling up and I have had my eyes set on the Crucial M4 512GB for quite a while.

I only understand the basics of SSDs, but one thing I continue to be confused about is "trim." Some say enable it, others say don't bother. Another thing that gets me is being sure to get a drive that I can update the firmware through thru mac (not sure if I said that right?). What exactly do these two things mean?

And finally, in your experiences is the M4 a decent brand to go with? Would love to hear thoughts on this. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have a Crucial M4 and its definitely a great drive. Reliable and fast. The firmware can be updated on your Mac too.
And for TRIM, I would recommend you enable it for better long term performance.
 
I've seen it said repeatedly that with Bootcamp, we can update the firmware on a drive like the Samsung 840, which can't be updated in OS X. But I don't understand why. If I have an OS X partition and a Windows partition (XP, to be exact), doesn't the firmware update apply only to the Windows partition? I called Samsung today and the tech support person I spoke with confirmed this.
 
SantaRosa07 said:
I've seen it said repeatedly that with Bootcamp, we can update the firmware on a drive like the Samsung 840, which can't be updated in OS X. But I don't understand why. If I have an OS X partition and a Windows partition (XP, to be exact), doesn't the firmware update apply only to the Windows partition? I called Samsung today and the tech support person I spoke with confirmed this.
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand what firmware is. You're confusing firmware and drivers. Firmware is a piece of code the OS runs. It's the very base code managing the SSD. For all I know you could run Linux or anything and it would still be the same.
 
It appears that I don't understand what firmware is? Well, you've got me pegged there. It sounds like I can update whatever it is on the SSD as long as I have Windows on Bootcamp or a bootable USB drive with Windows, so I should be good.

I've narrowed my choices down to a Samsung 840 non-Pro or a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe, in the 256 GB range. Both are backwards compatible with speeds of 1.5 GB, get good reviews, and are fairly well priced. An older or slower drive would be fine, but I can't find one whose savings are worth it. I'm currently getting speeds of ~40 - 50 MB/s with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. It'll take me a couple of years to run into space issues and by that time I'll be ready for my next MBP. I'm leaning toward dealing with the TRIM issue with terminal commands rather than with TRIM Enabler. I hope I haven't missed anything. This thread has been really helpful.
 
Does anyone know how to use the built-in hardware encryption on the 840 Pros? I asked in the 840 Pro thread and noone seemed to know.
 
hi guys!

just ordered a samsung 840 120 gb SSD for my mid 2009 macbook pro 13''
has anyone installed the 840 (not the 830) in this particular machine?
if so: is it working properly? I know I'm stuck on SATA II.
I did some research online but could only find people who had the 830 installed.

best regards and many thanks
 
If I'm planning on getting a Crucial M4 in 2-3 months, would I be better off and just wait a bit longer for the M500? I don't know much, but from what I have been gathering it seems to be headed in a positive direction, plus it looks to be a bit cheaper per/GB as well.
 
I noted that the original post is over a year and a half old now. Are there any updated posts?

Also, I have a Mid-2010 macbook pro and am looking to get a ~256GB (+/-10-15 gigs, basically models in that area above 200gb) SDD. Which would be the most reliable in the long term that I should be looking at?

As of now I have the Vertex 4 and Intel 330 as options (the Intel 520 is an option too, but do the extra costs justify getting that over the 330? What about the OCZ Vector 256 GB over the Vertex 4?)

The main thing I am looking for is reliability, speed is not that big of an issue since I will be going from my 5400 RPM HDD. Also, the drive that degrades less over time (as in, the one whose performance remains the highest over time) is a great thing too.

Thanks!
 
What do you think, which one of the upcoming SSDs will be faster? Crucial M500 960GB or Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 960GB? Which one would you prefer?
 
Went with a Crucial M4 512gb, I had it for a month and a half until it failed without warning on Saturday!

I think although I'm part of a small minority (some reviewers on Amazon with a similar problem) I'd suggest spending a little more and getting a different brand if reliability is a concern to you.

That said they do come with a three year warranty, but always always keep a back up!
 
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I'm looking for a big external SSD for my way to big Aperture library, what would you guys advice?
OWC USB3 case with 2,5" SSD drive or is there a thunderbolt case/drive that's better?
 
I wanted to go with the OCZ Vector, but the Samsung 840 is on sale on eBay today, the 250GB for $150 so I ordered that. Can't wait, I miss my MacBook with the ssd a hdd just seems so slow now😀.
 
Hey everyone if someone could kindly help me that would be greatly appreciated.

So, basically I bought a Crucial M4 256GB SSD CT256M4SSD2
I will be putting it in a 2012 Macbook Pro 13 inch.

I know how to put it in physically and all that. But I have a few questions.

First, do I have to do anything before or after I freshly reinstall OSX Lion?

Second, do I have to turn on any settings or anything for the SSD to perform and last longer/faster?

Lastly, I know there's lots of opinions out there but if someone could give me some honest answers regarding what I have to do after putting the SSD in the Macbook that would be great.
 
YungMoola94 said:
Hey everyone if someone could kindly help me that would be greatly appreciated.

So, basically I bought a Crucial M4 256GB SSD CT256M4SSD2
I will be putting it in a 2012 Macbook Pro 13 inch.

I know how to put it in physically and all that. But I have a few questions.

First, do I have to do anything before or after I freshly reinstall OSX Lion?

Second, do I have to turn on any settings or anything for the SSD to perform and last longer/faster?

Lastly, I know there's lots of opinions out there but if someone could give me some honest answers regarding what I have to do after putting the SSD in the Macbook that would be great.
Click to expand...

There's an app to enable TRIM if your SSD supports it. I think that's about it. I actually came here wondering about TRIM enabler, I'd like to know what SSDs it supports and if there are any 3rd party SSDs that support TRIM natively yet?
 
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