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The Samsung 840/840 Pro SSD thread

vbrad26 said:
Nope! I'm pretty sure I only had the one tab open with macrumors. Firefox iTunes activity monitor and mail were the only applications open.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm on my MBP at the moment and it's registering 100F which is normal. Later on I'll check my iMac and see what's running at.
 
So I guess a new update came out for the Samsung 840 Pro?

I finally got bootcamp so I was able to get Samsung Magician and looked at the update area and it said there is one.

Is this new? Should I get it? Anyone have experience with this? I wasn't aware there was an update. When I installed it in Jan there wasn't one I don't think.

Screenshot

update.png
 
johnnnw said:
So I guess a new update came out for the Samsung 840 Pro?

I finally got bootcamp so I was able to get Samsung Magician and looked at the update area and it said there is one.

Is this new? Should I get it? Anyone have experience with this? I wasn't aware there was an update. When I installed it in Jan there wasn't one I don't think.

Screenshot

Image
Click to expand...

That is current as of May 2013 on the Windows side of the firmware.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads.html
 
johnnnw said:
Would you bother if you rarely used the Windows bootcamp partition? I only did it because I got win 7 for free through my school.

So it has no effect on the Mac side of things and my firmware is current for that?
Click to expand...

You should do it. The firmware doesn't have anything to do with the OS. The version is only different because of the delivery method via the OS.

If my thoughts are correct, when you boot back into OS X, you'll see the firmware displayed as DXM04B0Q.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
You should do it. The firmware doesn't have anything to do with the OS. The version is only different because of the delivery method via the OS.

If my thoughts are correct, when you boot back into OS X, you'll see the firmware displayed as DXM04B0Q.
Click to expand...

Ahh okay. So just different OS handle the updates different. I just thought since technically it's up to date on the mac side if I shouldn't bother.

I'll boot into Windows and do it

Thanks for the help :)
 
SandboxGeneral said:
I found a Windows app for testing SSD speed. Here is my 840 256GB:

AS SSD Benchmark

Image
Click to expand...

I'll go download the update and this program and report back on mine.

You did the Windows update to your SSD I'm assuming?

Your non-pro seems to be running pretty good compared to my pro. Not sure what's wrong with the 4K and access times -_-

as_ssd_bench_Samsung_SSD_840_7_17_2013_11_49_00.png
 
Last edited:
johnnnw said:
You did the Windows update to your SSD I'm assuming?
Click to expand...

This one is on my office Dell Optiplex 990 PC. But I also have an 840 in my iMac and an 830 in my MacBook Pro.

I updated the firmware on the two Mac's via the Samsung Mac utility and on the Dell, used the Samsung Magician software.
 
My late 2007 17" MBP has SATA 1.5Gb/s controller and it is hard to find SATA I or II SSDs nowadays. Would it be worth for me to get a 840/840 Pro 256GB? Will I note a real performance boost?
 
sofianito said:
My late 2007 17" MBP has SATA 1.5Gb/s controller and it is hard to find SATA I or II SSDs nowadays. Would it be worth for me to get a 840/840 Pro 256GB? Will I note a real performance boost?
Click to expand...

Yes you will still see a marked difference going from a HDD to an SSD even with SATA II speeds. I have an 840 in an iMac with SATA II and it screams past the HDD I took out of it. It boots to a usable desktop in 23 seconds.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
Yes you will still see a marked difference going from a HDD to an SSD even with SATA II speeds. I have an 840 in an iMac with SATA II and it screams past the HDD I took out of it. It boots to a usable desktop in 23 seconds.
Click to expand...

Isn't SATA II speed 3Gb/s? Mine is SATA I 1.5Gb/s... Still worth?
 
sofianito said:
Isn't SATA II speed 3Gb/s? Mine is SATA I 1.5Gb/s... Still worth?
Click to expand...

Worth it, depends on your opinion of performance vs cost. That aside, the typical HDD at 7200 RPM can achieve a sustained disk to buffer rate of a little under that SATA I speed. However, you need to consider latency times, servo head locations when seeking for sectors, durability, heat, HDD head crashes etc.

With an SSD, even at SATA I speeds, I think you'll notice an improvement in performance, plus you'll have the added benefit of no mechanical drive to crash, build up heat and wear out. The random seek times of the SSD vs the HDD is also going to be better.

And your laptop HDD is probably 5400 RPM's anyway which is even slower yet.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
Worth it, depends on your opinion of performance vs cost. That aside, the typical HDD at 7200 RPM can achieve a sustained disk to buffer rate of a little under that SATA I speed. However, you need to consider latency times, servo head locations when seeking for sectors, durability, heat, HDD head crashes etc.

With an SSD, even at SATA I speeds, I think you'll notice an improvement in performance, plus you'll have the added benefit of no mechanical drive to crash, build up heat and wear out. The random seek times of the SSD vs the HDD is also going to be better.

And your laptop HDD is probably 5400 RPM's anyway which is even slower yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks :)

Fortunately mine is 7200 RPM, but I see a lot the beach ball in Mavericks... :eek:

Is it worth to get the 840 pro instead of the normal one?
 
sofianito said:
Thanks :)

Fortunately mine is 7200 RPM, but I see a lot the beach ball in Mavericks... :eek:

Is it worth to get the 840 pro instead of the normal one?
Click to expand...

The main reason one would need to get the Pro is if they are in an enterprise or production environment and doing excessive writes daily. The regular 840 if written to each day with 10GiB will last at least 7 years. So I think you'd be better off saving a few bucks and getting the regular version.
 
sofianito said:
Thanks :)

Fortunately mine is 7200 RPM, but I see a lot the beach ball in Mavericks... :eek:

Is it worth to get the 840 pro instead of the normal one?
Click to expand...

If I were you I wouldn't get the Pro. Not worth the extra cost if you're only running sata 1.5

Just get the 840, you will for sure see the difference.
 
Samsung is coming with a new drive for the 840 line. It's named EVO

While it's badged as a starter model, the 2.5-inch SATA drive carries up to 1TB of storage, or twice as much as the regular SSD 840. Thanks to both 10nm-class flash memory and a multi-core MEX memory controller, the EVO range is also faster than you'd expect from the category. Depending on the model, sequential write speeds have doubled or tripled versus the original series, peaking at 520MB/s; the flagship 1TB edition can read at a similarly blistering 540MB/s.
Click to expand...

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/17/samsung-ssd-840-evo/
 
T'hain Esh Kelch said:
So, markedly faster than the 840 non-pro. Will be interesting to see the price!
Click to expand...

Sequential writes are much better than the 840 non pro, but only a small bump in 4K random read/writes, which to me are more important.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7150/samsung-launch-the-840-evo-up-to-1tb-and-faster-writes-for-120gb

Price info in the link above. The 1TB model appears to be more expensive than the Crucial 960GB (official price USD $600 when you can get it), but in the 240GB class, the new Samsung appears to be a better deal. The 1TB model appears to be the first SSD with 1GB cache (or perhaps there are others?).

Meanwhile Crucial are looking to use 16nm MLC NAND in 2014.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7147/micron-announces-16nm-128gb-mlc-nand-ssds-in-2014
 
I posted this question in the general SSD vs HDD sticky thread, but then realized this thread perhaps was a batter place to put it. Hope it's okay.

I have an early 2011 13" Macbook Pro, i5, 4 gb ram and Intel HD 3000 GPU.
I'm considering replacing the HDD with a 250 gb SSD (Samsung 840 regular model). The cheapest I found in my country (Denmark, expensive as ¤&%& because of VAT) is 345 dollars, inclusive installation by authorised apple service providers. Thus I will not lose my warrenty (although it expires in a couple of months.

I have an iMac as well as my primary workstation. In rougly a year I will start studying again and I will use my Macbook Pro for that.
I want a SSD no matter what, but I can't decide if I should wait that year or just do it now. I have the money, but will I be better of waiting till just before the semester starts? I'm using the Macbook now and then and everytime I condemn how slow it is (compared to the flash drive in the iMac).

TLDR: Should I wait 1 year before I buy a SSD+installation 345 dollars for studying, or should I do it now?
 
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