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SSD Intel X25-M and MBP: any tips ?

R

ratus67

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 24, 2009
12
0
Hi,
I just have bought a X25-M for my MBP (mid 09).
I wondering what tips might improve performance or at least prevent "aging" (I am a bit worried of the non-support of TRIM).
I have seen some disable Spotlight, safe sleep and enable noatime.
For those of you who have been using this SSD for a few weeks:
have you seen any decrease in performance ?
have you tried the above "tweaks" ?
Best
 
Intel seem to be regarded as the best at present.

I've heard mixed reports on the battery life. The majority view is that the lack of moving parts means it will help battery life but I've heard it said that it doesn't power down as efficiently as a mechanical drive and so battery life is around the same.

My experience is that it has had no discernible effect on battery life.
 
I have 2 X25-M in RAID 0 in my MBP :)
I figure if i get 3 years max out of the drives, thats all I will need. Intel will come out with new drives by then, and then its time to upgrade. I also do a clean install of the OS usually every 6 months just to keep everything clean.

I had a single intel SSD for 3 months with no slow downs. Now that i'm on two, its insane : O 488MB/s read and 180MB/s write

Even better, my score on xbench was about 40 times better than my old seagate 500gb 7200rpm. In some of the test I even reached 400x the speed of the reg HD :p
 
civictron said:
I have 2 X25-M in RAID 0 in my MBP :)
I figure if i get 3 years max out of the drives, thats all I will need. Intel will come out with new drives by then, and then its time to upgrade. I also do a clean install of the OS usually every 6 months just to keep everything clean.

I had a single intel SSD for 3 months with no slow downs. Now that i'm on two, its insane : O 488MB/s read and 180MB/s write

Even better, my score on xbench was about 40 times better than my old seagate 500gb 7200rpm. In some of the test I even reached 400x the speed of the reg HD :p
Click to expand...

Since cost was obviously not an issue, how come you didn't go with the SLC versions?
 
Gabriel GR said:
Since cost was obviously not an issue, how come you didn't go with the SLC versions?
Click to expand...

Didn't want to spend 1600 in hard drives alone, plus another 100 for the optibay. Throw in the MBP, and i might as well buy a mac pro again.

besides, i got the x25s for cheap.

the first was 250cnd and the second was about 129cnd :) The optibay was more than my second x25m
 
civictron said:
I have 2 X25-M in RAID 0 in my MBP :)

I had a single intel SSD for 3 months with no slow downs. Now that i'm on two, its insane : O 488MB/s read and 180MB/s write

Even better, my score on xbench was about 40 times better than my old seagate 500gb 7200rpm. In some of the test I even reached 400x the speed of the reg HD :p
Click to expand...

I'm the same. 2 of them in my 17" MBP as Raid 0. As noted - the transfer speeds are amazing.

One reason I went for it, other than I demand the speed increase - is for security.

If my MBP is stolen - firts I have the firmware password installed. Then login password. Then FileVault.

So - If they remove either of the drives from the machine - the data on them will be absolutely useless. That is a big concern for me.

But - I went the Optibay route. I XBenched the Samsung SSD that was included in mine and it was like 1/4 of the speed of a single X-25M.

Battery life? I don't know. I haven't used a computer with a hard drive in it for years since the MB Air came out....
 
civictron said:
Didn't want to spend 1600 in hard drives alone, plus another 100 for the optibay. Throw in the MBP, and i might as well buy a mac pro again.

besides, i got the x25s for cheap.

the first was 250cnd and the second was about 129cnd :) The optibay was more than my second x25m
Click to expand...

As I see. Great setup still.

At work I swaped the two raptors in a server with two 80GB X25-E's. The difference in database performance was simply mindblowing.
 
Gabriel GR said:
As I see. Great setup still.

At work I swaped the two raptors in a server with two 80GB X25-E's. The difference in database performance was simply mindblowing.
Click to expand...

I would love the Es, but can't justify the cost. I know intel is going to come out with another set of SSDs soon, and drop the price yet again. Seagate and a couple others are coming up with drives with similar speeds to the intel Es. You have to know intel won't let that stand, and will have to go with something better than everyone else.
 
McGilli said:
I'm the same. 2 of them in my 17" MBP as Raid 0. As noted - the transfer speeds are amazing.

One reason I went for it, other than I demand the speed increase - is for security.

If my MBP is stolen - firts I have the firmware password installed. Then login password. Then FileVault.

So - If they remove either of the drives from the machine - the data on them will be absolutely useless. That is a big concern for me.

But - I went the Optibay route. I XBenched the Samsung SSD that was included in mine and it was like 1/4 of the speed of a single X-25M.

Battery life? I don't know. I haven't used a computer with a hard drive in it for years since the MB Air came out....
Click to expand...

Samsung SSD speeds is quite poor. I wish apple would get off their ass an offer a real SSD in their laptops. The amount they charge for the OEM one, its highway robbery.

as for battery life, i haven't lost any life with a current gen MBP 15" (rated at 7 hours). Currently with 93% battery, the indicator is telling me i should have 6:46 hours left.
 
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