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SSD Upgrade

teknikal90

teknikal90

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 28, 2008
3,436
2,204
Vancouver, BC
Hi all,

Look I know this has been discussed many many times but I've just spent an hour in the search bar, Google and I'm getting lots of conflicting answers!

My situation:

I have a late 2011 15" MBP. 2.4Ghz Version
I want to get an SSD
The Crucial M4 seems really cheap and well regarded, I want it. Is this still the case - 6 months on? Or should I really be looking into other options. I want reliability over anything else as I know that once you get to SATA3 SSDs, performance differences are negligible.
I know it has built in Garbage Collection. Should I still enable TRIM? NO definite answer in threads that I've seen yet.


Thank you all for your help :)
 
OCZ Vertex 4 512GB Results

I'm five days into use of my OCZ Vertex 4 512GB and I'm thrilled. No issues with 15+ cold boots, numerous warm restarts and sleep/awakes and I'm getting Blackmagic tested speeds of 430/425 MB/s :D

early 2011 15"MBP 2.2 Ghz
 
teknikal90 said:
no recommendations/insight on TRIM?

Thanks for the replies so far ! Appreciate it :)
Click to expand...

I have an OCZ Vertex 2 and enabled TRIM on it. It shouldn't have needed it because it has a Sandforce controller and built in garbage collection. But after about 6 months of usage it was noticeably slower that it used to be. Once I enabled TRIM it was good as gold again. Maybe Sandforce isn't that great after all?
 
In my opinion the Samsung 830 is about the most reliable SSD available. My second choice would be the Crucial M4. The 830 costs a little more than the M4 but if you shop around I've seen it for as low as $219. Either of those would be a solid purchase you would be happy with.
 
I have the M4 in my early 2011 2.0. I installed it the day the Refurbished computer arrived 4 months back. I have had no issues and I even updated from 309 to 000f firmware on my Mac. Something you can't do with the 830. I don't have access to Windows so that was the deciding factor for me between the 2. You can update firmware on a Mac with Crucial but not Samsung 830, you need Windows.

I started out with Trim then I disabled it a month back. Either way I seen no slow down or no problems what so ever. Trim enabler is subjective so I wanted to give it a go with out. It's been very good to me and would recommend the M4. I have the 256GB 260's Write and 490's Read.
 
IngerMan said:
I have the M4 in my early 2011 2.0. I installed it the day the Refurbished computer arrived 4 months back. I have had no issues and I even updated from 309 to 000f firmware on my Mac. Something you can't do with the 830. I don't have access to Windows so that was the deciding factor for me between the 2. You can update firmware on a Mac with Crucial but not Samsung 830, you need Windows.

I started out with Trim then I disabled it a month back. Either way I seen no slow down or no problems what so ever. Trim enabler is subjective so I wanted to give it a go with out. It's been very good to me and would recommend the M4. I have the 256GB 260's Write and 490's Read.
Click to expand...

He's absolutely correct regarding the firmware update issue. Don't know if it's possible using BootCamp on a Mac. I have access to a Windows machine so it was not a problem for me.
 
is there any particular reason I'd have to upgrade the firmware on the 830?

I'm now considering it for the new MBP.
 
What I'm wondering is how does one determine which one is more reliable? I know the Samsung is a bit faster, but I'm opting for the M4 because it's cheaper and I don't think the slightly higher speed is even noticeable. But if it's somehow proven through statistics or evidence that the Samsung is more reliable, I might get that instead.
 
New2MacMBP said:
I'm five days into use of my OCZ Vertex 4 512GB and I'm thrilled. No issues with 15+ cold boots, numerous warm restarts...
Click to expand...

Why so many cold boots and restarts in a five day period? My Macs almost never get powered off or rebooted. Usually it only happens because of software updates.
 
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