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SSD for MBP...which brand?
- Thread starter Cosmos666
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I think the brands OCZ, OWC, and Crucial are a little out there when it comes to modesty and reliability. For that reason I recommend Samsung and Intel drives, which are good, come from huge manufacturers, and mate very well with Mac hardware. The SATA chipsets in Mac computers are made by Intel and the SSDs the Apple uses are frequently Samsung. Those two seem to be the most compatible. A lot of people choose OCZ and Crucial and they get them to work most of the time. They are certainly legitimate options.
I did a little reading up on one for future reference the other week and a lot of people suggested the Samsung 470 SSDs. Fast, reliable, and the prices are in line with every other manufacturer (200 for 128gb).
Thanks for your replies. I was indeed looking at OWC/OCZ myself, but I haven't found 1 thread where no-one had a problem with those. I don't mind tweaking a little, but I'm new to Mac anyways, so I want stuff to work right from the start.
If I'd go with the Samsung 470, how about Sata 2/3? I'm planning on buying a MBP 15" next week and want to get as much out of it as possible.
And another thing: if Apple uses those anyways, should I just be upgrading it in the Apple store? Or should I buy separately?
If I'd go with the Samsung 470, how about Sata 2/3? I'm planning on buying a MBP 15" next week and want to get as much out of it as possible.
And another thing: if Apple uses those anyways, should I just be upgrading it in the Apple store? Or should I buy separately?
Yes. Apple charges 250 on top of the machine to put a 128gb SSD inside the MBP. Take into an account that you are NOT getting the stock hard drive as well, they replace it.
You can simply go and get a 470 128 from Samsung for 228 AND you get to keep your internal drive.
http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-5PA128/US
Buying anything other than stock from Apple that can't be upgraded yourself is really throwing money away.
I concur with treestar 100000000000000%
I have two Intel SSD's in my 2011 15 inch MBP. One 120 gb 320 and one 250 gb 510. Fast, silent, no heat...
Exactly!!!! I bought a base 2010 MBP with a 320gb 5400 rpm drive. I replaced it with a WD Scorpio Black 750gb 7200rpm drive as I needed the space. Anway, earlier this week I sold my Hitachi 320gb stock drive on ebay for $35 plus shipping - it actually sold within an hour. So save money on the base stock drive, upgrade to what is best, then either keep the stock as a backup drive or sell it to defer the cost.
Very sadly, users with 15" and 17" MBPs aren't getting SATA III speeds. People haven't fully diagnosed the problem but there might be a problem with the SATA cables or chipsets in the two larger MBPs. Users usually only get the drives to negotiate at 3 Gbps when they should negotiate at 6 Gbps. There are a lot of insane remedies such as wrapping your SSD in aluminum foil and buying replacement SATA cables. It's a mess. SATA II drives are not as fast but they are significantly more reliable than about all the new SATA III SLC and Marvell drives.
It looks like sapporobaby got an Intel 510 to work and possibly negotiate at 6 Gbps.
I have gotten a lot of use out of my stock HDDs from Apple after upgrading to SSDs. It's generally worth it to do the upgrade yourself.
Uh huh; that's what I'm going to do this Christmas; of course, it's worth noting that you should keep the original HD as if something goes wrong, Apple tends to want all of the stock parts in the machine before they fix it.
So what you are saying is that I shouldn't bother looking at Sata-III drives then? I thought that the M4 and OWC drives are Sata-III and work fine?
It matters less the brand of the SSD and more the brand of the controller chip inside the SSD.
OCZ "top end" SSDs and OWC's SSDs use the first and second generation Sandforce controllers. These are highly regarded as the fastest and least dependent on TRIM as they do on-the-fly compression in order to lower the amount of data actually written to the NAND chips.
Intel makes their own controller for the G2, and then recycled it for the 320 series. For the 510 series, they went with Marvell's controller, following in the footsteps of Crucial's C300. (I've talked with somebody from Intel research about this, it's kinda amusing.)
Crucial's earlier SSDs use a variety of controllers, but starting with the C300, they've been using Marvell's controller with custom firmware. The m4 is again the same controller, different firmware.
Samsung makes their own.
Toshiba has a heavily customized JMicron. (much much better than the stuttering 601/602 controllers)
The idea of pairing macs with samsung and intel because they're big and well-known holds no water. I wouldn't be surprised if TRIM on OSX is only available to Apple certified SSDs partly because Intel released a firmware for their highly-regarded G2s where TRIM deleted the wrong block of data. You can't expect ALL owners to know how to do a firmware update written for PCs on a Mac, so those who have the bad firmware on the G2 installed in a Mac, probably still have it. So the only solution is to play it safe. Slow, but safe.
Every SSD generation, OCZ(brand)/JMicron(controller), Intel/Intel, Intel/Marvell, Crucial/Marvell, OCZ/Sandforce, OWC/Sandforce, etc, has had reports of some mysterious deaths or scary firmware bugs. Or both. Nevertheless, as long as you're making good backups and can afford the drive in the first place, the speed is totally worth it.
With that said, I'm using a C300 256GB. It's awesome.
Friend has a Kingston V100+ on a first gen MBP, he loves it too.
According to Hardmac.com (http://www.hardmac.com/news/2011/03/17/about-the-ssd-sata-iii-problem-in-the-2011-macbook-pro), the 15" is least likely to have the SATA3 problem.
With that said, it's up to you.
I'd get the Crucial m4 or OCZ Agility 3 drives cuz they're on sale right now. $160 for 120GB is pretty awesome.
If it doesn't work, either:
1) return it for a SATA2 drive
2) run the LPM hack
3) replace the SATA cable in your MBP.
Not to mention, if you are getting an Optibay, it does not support SATA3. Only SATA2, but again, this is still faster than an HDD.
I have a Vertex 3 on my 2011 17" MBP and I can assure you, I'm getting SATA III speeds.
Having said that, I spent a lot of wasted time trying to get a Crucial C300 to work, including replacement cables and shielding, all to no avail. The Vertex was rock solid from the get go.
We have tons of issues with SSD's in regards to encryption, especially if your company forces you to use PGP. Once you get the bootguard error its all downhill from there. 