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SSD woes....a ~250gb SSD that actually works

M

mac jones

macrumors 68040
Apr 6, 2006
3,257
2
I have the Vertex 3 240GB. ( No trim hack), and no issues for a month now.

BTW, it sort of freaks me out how fast this is. Occasionally, just for giggles, i'll run the Xbench, which it finishes in a few seconds.

Some drives take for ever.

But really, this is just a bench and in normal usage I can't tell the difference between any of these decent SSDs. But it's nice to have the headroom if I ever need it (which I really haven't so far).
 
A

amroc

macrumors member
Feb 13, 2010
36
9
revelated said:
Question is, does your SATA connection show 6/6 (6 for the SSD, 6 for the optical) or 6/3? If you're having no issues you very well may be a 6/6, in which case there is definite changes to something in the later MacBook Pros. Unfortunately, unless I CTO it and wait for it to be shipped to me, I'll not be able to take advantage of it, and the risk of having it still be wrong and having to wait to get my ~$3000 back is just unacceptable.

For now I'm going to investigate the Intel 320 for my current 17". I hate to settle for less, but I appear not to have any choice in the matter.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's 6/6. I meant to post that in the previous link. Still had no problems at all. I ordered my macbook middle of April.

I suspected after reading around that it's the case that very early MBP's just have a broken sata3 controller, and it looks like Apple are just ignoring it. Although, it's puzzling how they seemed to work fine in BootCamp, you would have thought then it was just an OSX Software issue.

Hopefully if there's some noise about it Apple will admit to the error (most likely quietly), and they can replace your machine with a new one. I mean, this is half the reason we pay the premium price for MacBooks right? To avoid problems like this.

RHYTr.png
 
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Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,128
15,593
California
Kariya said:
I would avoid this drive (OWC 6G) like a plague.
Click to expand...

Macsavvytech said:
Why?
Click to expand...

Read over the Anandtech review. Crippled firmware and a rewire job on the internal board to fix a PCB board flaw (although there are those that will argue this does not matter).

If you want to buy a SATA III Sandforce controller based drive like the OWC 6G, you can get a Vertex 3 for less money than the OWC SSD.
 
N

nostoppin

macrumors newbie
May 22, 2011
4
0
HighSeasCaptain said:
I have an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G in my 2011 MBP 17", and I am one of the unlucky few to have dreaded beachball/hangs with SATA III :(

As far as I can tell, since I can't successfully install Windows 7 through Boot Camp without a failure, it appears to be an issue with the MBP, not the drive. It works fine in the optibay, but how I hate having to cut its speed in half :mad:

I bought my MBP at Best Buy just 2 and half weeks ago. I have a Premiere Silver membership, so I have a 45 day return window. Does anyone think I should go through the trouble of an exchange? If I do, I'll be sure to run the serial number of each model in stock to find one with the latest production date.
Click to expand...

there's a known problem with the new 17" MBP and the sata cable. google around for it, there are aftermarket cables being sold that clears this up.
 
revelated

revelated

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2010
994
2
amroc said:
Yeah it's 6/6. I meant to post that in the previous link. Still had no problems at all. I ordered my macbook middle of April.

I suspected after reading around that it's the case that very early MBP's just have a broken sata3 controller, and it looks like Apple are just ignoring it. Although, it's puzzling how they seemed to work fine in BootCamp, you would have thought then it was just an OSX Software issue.

Hopefully if there's some noise about it Apple will admit to the error (most likely quietly), and they can replace your machine with a new one. I mean, this is half the reason we pay the premium price for MacBooks right? To avoid problems like this.

Image
Click to expand...

No, I mean check your optical drive. Does it read as 6Gbps?
 
Macsavvytech

Macsavvytech

macrumors 6502a
May 25, 2010
897
0
Weaselboy said:
Read over the Anandtech review. Crippled firmware and a rewire job on the internal board to fix a PCB board flaw (although there are those that will argue this does not matter).

If you want to buy a SATA III Sandforce controller based drive like the OWC 6G, you can get a Vertex 3 for less money than the OWC SSD.
Click to expand...

OWC have reported they are making a firmware upgrader for Mac, I personally have many computers I could hook it up to, to update it and the desire job is internal, it doesn't matter as long as it works. I have read the anandtech review and there are no issues that they point out that are actually big. Finally where i live in Australia i couldnt get a vertex 3 for less then $360, so the OWC is actually cheaper.
 
revelated

revelated

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2010
994
2
amroc said:
Ah ok. No, link speed on optical is 3Gbps, and negotiated link speed is 1.5Gpbs.
Click to expand...

So the mystery doth continue. People getting 6/6 randomly, recent builds with 6/3 but the SSD at least works for them. None of the in-store stock has the perfect internals which means I'd be forced to do CTO - and I really don't want to sit and wait for that machine to get to me. Absolutely frustrating, it is.

If I could just find someone who had a brand new 2010 that was selling it for a reasonable price...this 2011 would be out the door in a heartbeat.
 
B

Beethree

macrumors newbie
May 19, 2011
19
0
revelated said:
So the mystery doth continue. People getting 6/6 randomly, recent builds with 6/3 but the SSD at least works for them. None of the in-store stock has the perfect internals which means I'd be forced to do CTO - and I really don't want to sit and wait for that machine to get to me. Absolutely frustrating, it is.

If I could just find someone who had a brand new 2010 that was selling it for a reasonable price...this 2011 would be out the door in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

I had gotten a 6/3 direct from Apple. I returned it - full refund, no restocking fee and they paid the shipping. So they do know of it.
I subsequently bought the top of the line 15" w/ anti-glare from a brick and mortar apple store that is 6/6.
 
A

amroc

macrumors member
Feb 13, 2010
36
9
I don't understand. Why is 3gps for the optical drive port a problem? I always though that the 2011 macbook pros were only ever meant to have one Sata 3 port, where the main HDD/SDD goes.
 
awer25

awer25

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2011
1,100
327
amroc said:
I don't understand. Why is 3gps for the optical drive port a problem? I always though that the 2011 macbook pros were only ever meant to have one Sata 3 port, where the main HDD/SDD goes.
Click to expand...

It's never a problem, it just doesn't allow one to run a SATA3 SSD at full speed in the optical spot (which means no RAID-0 or 1TB drives). From the article above though, the point may be moot anyway.
 
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