To SSD or not to SSD?

[yousifabdullah]

Hi!

There are plenty similar threads out there, but none so far has been able to answer my question: if I were to install an Apple SSD pulled from another configuration into my MacBook Pro, will OS X identify it as an Apple SSD and subsequently enable TRIM, or does Apple work its magic at the factory to enable TRIM prior to sending out configurations with SSDs?

I'm only wondering if it's a matter of buying the correct SSD to have a hassle-free installation. I know there is TRIM Enabler, but for some reason I'm not comfortable with the thought of relying on a 3rd party application for something as crucial as TRIM. Also, while on topic, is it true that an SSD with a SATA II (3 Gbps) interface connected to a SATA III (6 Gbps) bus will operate at only SATA I (1.5 Gbps) speeds?

Lastly, is it a good idea to buy the Intel 320 now, or should I wait? I have a MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2011), which supports SATA III, but the Intel 510 with a Marvell controller doesn't look as promising. Neither does the recently released Intel 520 with SandForce. Since Intel has essentially recycled its own controller since the very first Intel X25-M, I'm not sure if it's worth to wait for a newer, SATA III compatible controller from Intel. The other option would be to invest in reliability, which is where the Intel 710 kicks in. Thoughts? (You can probably tell that I'm almost fanatic about Intel SSDs, even though I've never owned an SSD. The other brands just do not look as enticing as Intel does.)

Thank you and sorry for yet another SSD thread.

 

[throAU]

Even without TRIM support, an SSD will totally smoke any hard drive you may have in your MBP.

If you can afford it to get the amount of space you need, do it. Or even better, get an OWC data doubler as well....

 

[yousifabdullah]

Even without TRIM support, an SSD will totally smoke any hard drive you may have in your MBP.

If you can afford it to get the amount of space you need, do it. Or even better, get an OWC data doubler as well....

I was more looking into a small SSD for OS X and applications, coupled with NAS for personal files and media. I'm considering an enterprise-grade SSD like the Intel 710 for my purposes, as I need about 80GB tops. It was my understanding that TRIM not only helps performance, but also longevity.

If it helps, I'm an audio and video enthusiast, and I work with large amounts of media every day. For video, I cut and edit 1080p footage from my DSLR and tape. Audio is less demanding, but both workflows rely on other parameters more than just disk I/O. I'm fairly confident that I will not need a large SSD, but if the price is right, I might look into it.

 

[dusk007]

You can enable Trim yourself if you really want to. It is known to sometimes cause problems and actually decrease performance on OSX with some drives.
Just search for Trim enabler with google.

As a consumer you really don't have to worry about nand longetivity. It is just about impossible to wear it out in any meaningful timeframe without server workload or some really heave workstation kind of workload. It is much more likely that the controller or some other whole chip dies an unexpected death long before you use up all the write cycles of your nand flash cells, or that you use something new in a couple years with more space and more speed.
I wouldn't enable Trim for that. It helps with keeping write speeds up. Enable it with trim enabler or disable it in any case the drive will still be much faster than any hdd even if it only relies on its own garbage collection.
Most consumers also don't cause the workload that really causes a ssd to deteriorate in performance. The biggest writes on most peoples drives are movie files, mp3s, big archives all these big sequential writes clean the drive in their own way. Small random writes need trim but those aren't that frequent and don't write to a big portion of the drive.

 

[TYPEII]

With an Apple OEM SSD, it automatically enables TRIM... My bro did this, bought one off Ebay, installed it. Checked the system report and TRIM said "Yes"...