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SSD Buying Guide

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Paratriplel said:
I was convinced to go for the non-Pro and that I previously just tried to find a reason to buy the Pro without having the need for it.

But if this is the case I'm not sure anymore. Dammit. I was just about to order!
(I only have 8 GB Ram but still..)

And as I said I record music, not a lot but pretty much in periods.
And well.. a wav might usually not be that big, but when you record and do a lot of takes I guess it builds up to a pretty big amount of space.

Just checked one of my recent recordings (1 song) and it's over 800 MB and that's just the files that I've saved.

Maybe I should go for the Pro anyway?
This is my last doubt! I will go with whatever the next person in this thread says. Just want to order, relax and feel I've made a good decision!

I really appreciate all help I'm getting btw.
And even though I said that I probably want to keep my computer for 2 years, I might keep it longer if it suits my needs, otherwise I might sell it (with the SSD in it if I don't find another use for it)
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I think you'll do fine with the non-Pro version. Look again at the chart that Weaselboy posted above and you'll see that if you're able to write 10GiB per day, everyday, the SSD will statistically last you at least 7 years.

I doubt you'll even come remotely close to having that many writes per day, or any day. Save you some cash and stick with the non-Pro.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
I think you'll do fine with the non-Pro version. Look again at the chart that Weaselboy posted above and you'll see that if you're able to write 10GiB per day, everyday, the SSD will statistically last you at least 7 years.

I doubt you'll even come remotely close to having that many writes per day, or any day. Save you some cash and stick with the non-Pro.
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Do you have any insights with the sleep image with having 16gigs of ram?
 
dukebound85 said:
Do you have any insights with the sleep image with having 16gigs of ram?
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No, not much. Searching around I found a couple of things that can mitigate the need for or reduce the amount of writes to the SSD

To move the sleep image to an external HDD (provided there is one connected regularly) Use this Terminal command I found:

Code: 
sudo pmset -a hibernatefile /Volumes/OtherVolume/sleepimage

And these comments from this site:

Whether you choose to keep Safe Sleep on or not is a matter of personal preference, but if your machine is generally plugged in and you don't run the battery down below 20%, you are never actually taking advantage of the feature. If you want to chew up the drive space and take the time for the sleep image to write anyway, that's up to you. On SSD-equipped machines, the image save time is inconsequential but the loss of storage space is even more acute.
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I am quite confident that Hellhammer can expound on this topic, with authority, far better than I can, and I'd be interested to hear it too. :)
 
A Samsung 840, 500 GB ordered for $398/304€/2 558 SEK.

Thank you for the patience you had with me while you explained to that it was the right choice if I didn't want to pay the double for (about) the same.
 
Choose SSD for my MB Pro 15 Mid 2010 MC372, between the Samsung 840 and Intel 520. But some say that Intel will have problems because of NVidia MP89, and others say that 840 (not Pro) uses a TLC flash, which is slower and has a smaller number of write cycles relative to MLC (i520).
who to believe and what to do?
 
dukebound85 said:
If you have 16gigs of ram and you want to keep a sleep image, does this mean that if you sleep your computer 2x a day, you will be greatly exceeding that 10GB a day estimate? By my math, two sleeps a day (common for me) writes out 32gigs to the hdd currently.

This is on top of whatever else I would be using/writing throughout the day
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dukebound85 said:
Do you have any insights with the sleep image with having 16gigs of ram?
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As I understand this, the sleep image is not written each time the machine sleeps. The sleep image that is saved to the drive is only written during "safe sleep", which is not the same as a normal sleep when you close the lid. Safe sleep is when your machine is in use and the battery drops below a certain level, an image of what is in memory is saved to the sleep image so it can be recovered if the battery dies.

Short answer is normal sleep does not cause sleep image write cycles.

If someone knows better, please pop in and set me straight. But this is my understanding of how it works.

I recall seeing a forum post from a user that deleted the sleep image then restarted and slept a couple times and found (with Terminal commands) that the sleep image was recreated but it was zero size (or close to zero).
 
I can get an 840 pro 256gb for $253 after tax (got gift cards)
should i pull the trigger or wait it out for the m500?
256GB sucks but I guess I can manage...I guess... Would love a 512gb drive though

Late 2011 MBP here...

EDIT: reliability is key for me.
 
teknikal90 said:
I can get an 840 pro 256gb for $253 after tax (got gift cards)
should i pull the trigger or wait it out for the m500?
256GB sucks but I guess I can manage...I guess... Would love a 512gb drive though

Late 2011 MBP here...

EDIT: reliability is key for me.
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Nothing against the M500... but if your key requirement is reliability, that would nudge me toward the 840 that has been out a bit and is a known quantity. It does seem like most vendors have released new drives only to require a firmware bug fix shortly after release. At least with the 840 you would know it is past that stage.
 
Currently looked at a deal for a Samsung 840 Pro, it's 229. Should I pull the trigger? Seems like an okay deal for the pro I guess.

I haven't seen it much lower.
 
johnnnw said:
Currently looked at a deal for a Samsung 840 Pro, it's 229. Should I pull the trigger? Seems like an okay deal for the pro I guess.

I haven't seen it much lower.
Click to expand...

If you're seeing the 840 Pro for $229, you'd better scoop it up before the supply runs out!
 
Bought Samsung 840 256 Pro from Amazon.... My mac is screaming fast! It boots up in 13 seconds after a clean install.... Amazing! IMHO there is no need for a 13 retina if my 2 years old Mac can score these results...
 
srsub3 said:
Bought Samsung 840 256 Pro from Amazon.... My mac is screaming fast! It boots up in 13 seconds after a clean install.... Amazing! IMHO there is no need for a 13 retina if my 2 years old Mac can score these results...
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It is nice isn't it? I just rejuvenated my 2010 iMac with a 500GB 840 and its so much nicer now with the added speed.
 
Speed bump is incredible and installation is easy! it took only 5 minutes.... now i get 440 MB/s in writing and around 515 in reading... I think is ok, isn't it?
 
I'm interested in buying an SSD drive for my computer, but all this tweaking and worrying about sleep images and such makes me wonder if it's really worth it.

Let's say I have a 13" cMBP and I want to install a 256GB SSD drive in it. All goes well and I now have OSX running on it. How does this 3rd party solution differ from MacBook Airs or rMBPs, because I never read anything about tweaking them.
 
skeleb said:
I'm interested in buying an SSD drive for my computer, but all this tweaking and worrying about sleep images and such makes me wonder if it's really worth it.

Let's say I have a 13" cMBP and I want to install a 256GB SSD drive in it. All goes well and I now have OSX running on it. How does this 3rd party solution differ from MacBook Airs or rMBPs, because I never read anything about tweaking them.
Click to expand...

The only tweaks that don't apply to rmbp's or mba's is enabling trim

Everything else I would think is as equally valid for these machines
 
skeleb said:
I'm interested in buying an SSD drive for my computer, but all this tweaking and worrying about sleep images and such makes me wonder if it's really worth it.

Let's say I have a 13" cMBP and I want to install a 256GB SSD drive in it. All goes well and I now have OSX running on it. How does this 3rd party solution differ from MacBook Airs or rMBPs, because I never read anything about tweaking them.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about any of these tweaks. None of them are necessary. Even TRIM is optional and no harm will come if you don't do it.

The real need for any of these would be if you were trying to squeeze 118GB of data on a 120GB SSD, and deleting say a sleep image was a way to achieve this. Other than that scenario, none of these tweaks are necessary.
 
skeleb said:
I'm interested in buying an SSD drive for my computer, but all this tweaking and worrying about sleep images and such makes me wonder if it's really worth it.

Let's say I have a 13" cMBP and I want to install a 256GB SSD drive in it. All goes well and I now have OSX running on it. How does this 3rd party solution differ from MacBook Airs or rMBPs, because I never read anything about tweaking them.
Click to expand...

Just as the other two above me noted, there really isn't any necessary tweaks you need to do. Though I do recommend turning on TRIM which is just a simple download and a click of a button to turn it on, then you just forget about it and use your computer. :)
 
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Weaselboy said:
Don't worry about any of these tweaks. None of them are necessary. Even TRIM is optional and no harm will come if you don't do it.
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Yup. I put an M4 in my late 2008 quite some time ago. No "tweaks". The only setting I changed was to not go to sleep after 15 mins. I increased it to 30 to allow the drive's native garbage collection to run. Crucial won't disclose their 'secrets', so one doesn't know if GC runs after 2 min, 5 min, 10 min, or whatever of idle time... so i just give it 30 mins to do its thing and call it a day.
 
Atrin1 said:
i shopping around for an SSD. i don't have a macbook pro and i couldn't find a guide in the "macbook" section.

i have a white A1342 7,1 2.4ghz macbook. i believe it was the last year they produced them.

i'm looking at this SSD:

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-256GB-2-5-Inch-Solid-CT256M4SSD2/dp/B004W2JL2A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363130005&sr=8-2&keywords=crucial+ssd+macbook

can anyone tell me for certain that it will work with my machine?

thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Yep. That drive will work just fine in your Macbook. Many here have used it.

Only thing is, your Macbook has a SATA II drive connection and not SATA III like the M4 SSD. It is not a problem as SATA is backwards compatible, but your peak speeds will be limited to 300Mbps by the SATA II connection. Even then, you will notice a big difference in normal usage.
 
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Weaselboy said:
Yep. That drive will work just fine in your Macbook. Many here have used it.

Only thing is, your Macbook has a SATA II drive connection and not SATA III like the M4 SSD. It is not a problem as SATA is backwards compatible, but your peak speeds will be limited to 300Mbps by the SATA II connection. Even then, you will notice a big difference in normal usage.
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Yeah I saw that in the specs of the drive. I can't convince myself of upgrading to a MacBook Pro yet since my white is working so great.

Thanks for your response!
 
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