SSD upgrade advice for late 2009 27" iMac

[ZeD X]

Never tried that...

 

[discofuel]

If you do run it I'd be interested to know the different in speeds compared to my internal 7200 drive.

I get Read/Write speeds of 120 MB/s and according to Intel specs the SSD gets 270 MB/s read and 130MB/s write speeds.

 

[ZeD X]

Which setting is the best one to test the speed?

 

[discofuel]

Default settings but File Size 1GB usually gives the most accurate results

 

[ZeD X]

Ok, but I got applications running, and my system uptime is more than 2days, so I dont know if the speeds are the maximum possible.

Here are the results:
(write/read)

iomega Minimax 2TB (Firewire): 71mb/s / 73mb/s
Stock 1TB HDD: 76mb/s 100.9mb/s
Intel 320 Series: 134.8mb/s 237.mb/s

 

[discofuel]

Thanks for running the tests!

The SSD seems pretty fast. Almost twice as fast read speeds as my internal.

Interestingly your stock 1TB drive runs much slower than mine. Maybe due to fragmentation as mine is currently my system drive so has 850GB of free space!

 

[ZeD X]

Some files (torrents, music, videos) are on the HDD, and are aways running on my machine, it may slow down the speed.

What is your internal hdd speed?

 

[discofuel]

Ah, that could be why.

I get 120 MB/s both read and write.

Do you know whether the improved performance of an SSD is simply about read/write speeds or are there other advantages such as caching?

 

[ZeD X]

It's about everything.

It's solid, not disk running at a high speed.

Your seek time, lantency, etc are also much faster than HDD. It's now only about the read/write time, but it is one of the factor that shows a perceptive difference, of course, but as I've said, not only. The major, I think yes, but not the only.

 

[discofuel]

Great! Well I'm convinced

Going to order the parts shortly and will report back after installation.

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[ZeD X]

Just rebooted, I still running some stuff, but the results changed a bit:

iomega Minimax 2TB (Firewire): 71mb/s 70.9mb/s
Stock 1TB HDD: 127mb/s / 133mb/s
Intel 320 Series: 136.5mb/s / 247mb/s

 

[discofuel]

Nice, that makes more sense, especially regarding the stock 1TB internal.

Just ordered the Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD - $219 free shipping from Amazon and the WD Caviar Black HDD, plus the caddies you recommended

I almost went for the Intel 510 series because when I checked the specs on the website, even at SATA 3Gb/s the write speed is double, but read a lot of comments saying that other factors specifically the Random I/O Operations per Second (IOPS) mean it doesn't perform nearly as well as the 320 for a system drive, and that overall the 320 is a much better drive. Obviously write speed is only useful if you're writing large files to the drive which I won't be doing!

Excited!!

 

[ZeD X]

The 510 Series only makes sense on servers. Here they will be excellent, as they are made to be running full load 24/7.
On personal use you don't get same loads as servers that they where intended to (like web servers that access driver every time).

 

[discofuel]

My SSD arrived today

I enabled Trim support in OS X then I connected the SSD via a SATA->USB converter and currently cloning internal drive to the SSD.

Except for the fan control for the HDD is there anything else I need to do before or after installing the drives?

 

[discofuel]

Arrgh! After installing that Trim Support my entire internal has become corrupted. Can't repair the disk because of invalid node structure... can't even boot into OS X now!!

 

[discofuel]

Booted from a clone on my external and neither Disk Utility or Disk Warrior can repair it.

I can't even mount or access the drive from my external installation to backup my files...

 

[ZeD X]

I must ony enable Trim on drives that uses trim.

You must restore the kext without trim.

 

[discofuel]

Oh right! No worries - I restored my drive from a CCC image. Caddy should be arriving on Monday

 

[ZeD X]

Wow, too many errors on las message:

You must only enable Trim on drives that uses trim. - But I think you understood that haha

When you boot on your SSD, them you enable trim.

 

[discofuel]

Kinda sounded like you were writing lines... I should probably do that!

I must only enable Trim on drives that uses trim
I must only enable Trim on drives that uses trim
I must only enable Trim on drives that uses trim

But yes I understood

Sure, makes sense. Wish this caddy would hurry up!

 

[Baunkjaer]

Xbench @ 160GB Intel 320 SSD...

 

[tsangstagangsta]

Optical Bay Screw Holes?

$135 is too much.

1) You MUST put the 2TB on the HDD bay, it dont fit the optical one.

2) 3.5 for the 2TB, 2.5 for the SSD

3) buy this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300532945500&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

4) sure, why not?

5) Intel or OCZ Vertex 3

6) You can do it by yourself and save $135. It's easy.

Hey ZedX I bought the caddy you recommended but I can't seem to find any screw holes on the sides to attach it to the original optical bay slot.... is this going to be a problem?

thanks