SSD recommendation for a 2012 Macbook Pro 13"

[bxbomb1983]

I just purchased a new Macbook Pro 13" 2.5 i5 8GB Ram that comes with the 500GB 5400rpm HD and I was looking to upgrade the HD to a SanDisk Extreme 240GB 2.5" SATA III Solid State Drive 6GB/S (SSD) within the next month or two. I was wondering if any of you have had good/bad experiences with Sandisk SSDs on a Mac?

This particular one is $220 on buy.com which is not a bad price in my opinion, instead of paying Apple $450 for a 256GB SSD. I am looking to dual boot Windows on it so I wanted to something faster than a standard HD with 5400rpm.

Any other suggestions for a SSD? brands?

 

[runtohell121]

Samsung 830 256gb - $220-$280
Cruical M4 256gb - $180
Intel 330 180gb - $135 (after rebate)
Sandisk Extreme 240gb - $180 (a few days ago it was that price)

 

[doh123]

Crucial M4s run great.

 

[bxbomb1983]

Thanks guys, I was wondering about sata III but I don't think it is a problem. I will check out the Crucial SSD since it is at a good price.

 

[boomhower]

Pretty much any you listed will serve you well. I went with Crucial for $/performance.

 

[the3rdParty]

Pretty much any you listed will serve you well. I went with Crucial for $/performance.

1. Can you give me the exact Crucial Part number of your SSD and firmware that its running. I want to make this upgrade (to SSD) but have read about extended beachballing when reading/writing large files.

2. Did you do the upgrade yourself? Any special tools required (like a 3 wing screwdriver....)

thanks

 

[Sairo]

1.
2. Did you do the upgrade yourself? Any special tools required (like a 3 wing screwdriver....)

thanks

Philips #00 & torx 6

 

[boomhower]

1. Can you give me the exact Crucial Part number of your SSD and firmware that its running. I want to make this upgrade (to SSD) but have read about extended beachballing when reading/writing large files.

2. Did you do the upgrade yourself? Any special tools required (like a 3 wing screwdriver....)

thanks

This is the drive I ordered. Came with the 000F firmware. As mentioned above 00 philips and T6 Torx driver.

 

[InlawBiker]

This is the drive I ordered. Came with the 000F firmware. As mentioned above 00 philips and T6 Torx driver.

Same here, came with the same firmware. No beachballs!

 

[mageus]

2. Did you do the upgrade yourself? Any special tools required (like a 3 wing screwdriver....)
thanks

Just to reinforce:

The Torx 6 is needed for a non-ghetto install. It's a tiny driver, and probably not something the average geek has around the house. (Fortunately, I am an above-average geek with a precision driver set hiding in the garage)
That said, 3M foam tape will work just fine.

 

[boomhower]

Just to reinforce:

The Torx 6 is needed for a non-ghetto install. It's a tiny driver, and probably not something the average geek has around the house. (Fortunately, I am an above-average geek with a precision driver set hiding in the garage)
That said, 3M foam tape will work just fine.

Not hard to find though, I got mine at Lowes. That said, if your not in a huge hurry I'd spend $15 and order the set from OWC. The magnetic tips will make your life a lot easier.

 

[Ravag3r]

How about this OCZ Vertex 4 ?

 

[the3rdParty]

thanks for all the feedback!

crucial M4 ordered

garage full of geek stuff, vintage macs and inventive toys..... torx 5 through to 140 in the tool chest

 

[magbarn]

How about this OCZ Vertex 4 ?

I know it's anecdotal, but after 2 failed OCZ drives and their infamous 'bait-n-switch' they pulled a year ago (they put cheaper/slower chips in their SSD's without telling anyone, until benchmarkers found out), I avoid them like the black plague. I'm not alone in this opinion either.

thanks for all the feedback!

crucial M4 ordered

garage full of geek stuff, vintage macs and inventive toys..... torx 5 through to 140 in the tool chest

Excellent choice!

 

[the3rdParty]

update

I completed this upgrade, installed a 256GB crucial M4 ssd, and the results are very good.

I managed to complete everything inside an hour, but probably via a circuitous route. I had an iMac, and a USB external drive chassis to hand but a very slow internet connection, so downloading the lion installer and dong a clean install wasnt an option:

0. Repair permissions

1. connected the MBP to the iMac by firewire and restart the MBP in target disk mode. This mounts the HD as a vloume on the iMac.

2. Put the new SSD in the USB external drive chassis and connect to the iMac, formated the SSD to Mac OS Extended Journaled using diskutility and then used SuperDuper (in free mode) to clone the existing HD in the MBP to the SSD

3. Unmount / disconnect / power down everything, remove the HD from the MBP and replace with the SSD.

4. Start up and all is good but then discovered that the process didn't create the Recovery Volume on the SSD. Not only may this be useful in the long run, but also for some reason you need to have this for "where's my mac" to work.

5. Managed to create the Recovery volume using Carbon Copy Cloner (also in free mode), which has the ability to do this with ease. Details here

6. To ensure speedy start up make sure that you set the start up disk in the system preferences. Failure to do this means that the machine will take extra time at startup looking for all possible startup volumes .


The result is little short of spectacular, especially startup, login and launching software - for reference using the 32 bit version of Geekbench my MBP (13" mid 2012, 8GB, 2.9Ghz i7) now scores at 7960

 

[markus843]

I have a crucial m4 ssd 256gb and the read/write speed are as advertised. Great ssd and only $180 usd and my cmbp 2012 i5 boots up in 15 seconds. I would go for the crucial ssd if I were you


Edit: I just read you got an ssd

 

[The Unseen]

i tried the OCZ VERTEX 4 for some days (it was not mine) on my macbook pro 13'' 2012 i5 2.5ghz 8gb RAM and it was simply stunning.