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Trying to decide which Solid State Drive to get for my Macbook Pro.

fel10

fel10

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 2, 2010
2,337
3,918
Woodstock, GA USA
I'm thinking about upgrading my hardrive from a 7200RPM to a SSD drive and I'm kind of torn between three SSDs!

My first choice would be the "Intel 80GB X25M". Yeah, it doesn't have a lot of space, but I use an external hardrive to store all my files anyways. Plus its not a bad price.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Mainstr...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1284698781&sr=8-1

My second choice would be the "OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series". It has more GBs, 120GB, and it is only $64 more than the Intel.
http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technolog..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1X0WJEC6DA2ZFYSRW640

My third choice would be the "Intel 2.5-Inch 160 GB X25-M". I've heard really good things about Intel's SSDs, but I don't know if its worth spending $419.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-2-5-Inc...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1284699103&sr=8-4

So for the people that really know their SSDs, which one should I go for???
 
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as of now, the vertex 2s are the fastest out of those

the 120gb one was like $185 after rebate the other day on newegg
 
When these SSD's boot up, you don't hear anything do you? I'm sort
of used to hearing a little beep or a whirl when I turn the computer on.
 
If you are used to a PC, the POST (power on self test ) beeps 1 once to let you know everything is A-OK. However, I'm sure I will be corrected, mac's made after 99 use beeps only to alarm its users that there is an issue that needs to be looked into, and most times will not boot. so if you are hearing a beep, its bad news bears. The Chime is something that notifies you that everything is ok. Chime = Yay it works, Beep = Ahhh hell

And yes SSD's are 100% silent as they have no moving parts. just the fan's and optical drive would make noise. Ohh and the sound of your hear going pitter-patter after you fall in love with your new found speed:D.
 
I can't comment on any of the drives you have mentioned, but I have a Crucial C300 in my MBP and have no complaints.

There are 128 and 256GB models, priced at $300 and $600 respectively.
 
I have the X-25M G2 160GB drive, and it's been great. The newer Sandforce based drives may do better garbage collection (this is the Vertex 2 or the OWC Mercury Extreme line) than the X-25M, and they are a bit faster as well.

The Intel drive has long been the gold standard for SSDs on a Mac though. It's rock solid and does still give really nice performance.
 
Current Intel's mainstream SSD line (X25-M) aren't good. They've got a nice sequential/random read speed, but their write speed is just bad.
Look for reviews of them (2nd generation X25-M line) on Google and you'll see a lot of comparisons with other SSDs (OCZ, Corsair etc.). You'll notice how bad the X25-M line is with write speeds.

If you want a good Intel SSD, go for the X25-E line, they've got great read/write speeds.

By the way, I'm using an OCZ Vertex Turbo (it's in EOL stage). It has TRIM support (altough OS X doesn't currently support it) and has a very good read/write speed.

As for the thread starter, I'd go for the Vertex 2. :D
 
Thanks guys, I think I decided on the "OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series". One quick question. Kind of a noob question. How do u install a SSD drive? Is it the same way u install the HDD?
 
fel10 said:
Thanks guys, I think I decided on the "OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series". One quick question. Kind of a noob question. How do u install a SSD drive? Is it the same way u install the HDD?
Click to expand...

It's just like any other hard drive. Pop it in and then install OS X or clone your old drive to it.
 
fel10 said:
Thanks guys, I think I decided on the "OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series". One quick question. Kind of a noob question. How do u install a SSD drive? Is it the same way u install the HDD?
Click to expand...

Yes same way.

You should look on the OWC Mercury 120GB and Corsair F120, they are both the same drive as the OCZ, so go with the cheapest.
 
cluthz said:
Yes same way.

You should look on the OWC Mercury 120GB and Corsair F120, they are both the same drive as the OCZ, so go with the cheapest.
Click to expand...

Corsair is the cheapest in NewEgg, 236$ with rebate. That's a smoking hot deal as OCZ is 260$ and OWC is 299$
 
Hellhammer said:
That's a bad deal, it's not even SandForce based. Look at the read and write speeds, only 200MB/s while OCZ and other SF based drives have 285MB/s. This is the drive I was referring to, 236$ with mail-in rebate
Click to expand...

Thanks bud, I'm a total noob when it comes to SSDs. I'm going to check it out.
 
My 2 cents...

I just bought a 240GB OWC SSD. While it IS fast- for $600 it's just not worth it to me. I mean really- I have to wait only a few more seconds to boot and load apps. That's it. I will state tho that I don't use CAD or anything- just virtualization and wanted to know what all the SSD fuss was about. Thinking about sending it back to macsales and getting the 30 day refund. We'll see...
 
Get the OCZ Vertex 2 series. It's one the best/fastest drives on the market, and it has the controller that helps premature failure of the drive.

They are silent (as are all SSDs), work great, and are very fast. Easy to install, just like any 2.5" drive.
 
There is no guarantee that prices will drop a lot for a while.

Demand keeps prices high.

there is one negative about the intel NAND thats on the way.

i read that capacity is doubled but write life is halved down from 5000 to 2000-3000 writes per cell.

So while it may cost you less it could cost you the same over the life if the drive.
 
Just installed 64gb OCZ SSD2-1ONX64G in 2010 MBP i7

Swapped the internal 500 GB SATA drive into an external enclosure (USB for now, plan to upgrade to FW800).

Even though the specs for the drive say the write speed is a paltry 70MBps, I couldn't be happier. After installing Snow Leopard & running sw update, everything is running swimmingly.

Achieved my goal of "instant on". System boots from dead off in about 22 sec. Boots from sleep (closed lid) in < 5 sec. Even with faster R/W speeds, I doubt I could shave much more off those times. (Yes, I actually timed it with a stopwatch several times.)

And the best part -- after spending $2500 for a new 15" MBP i7/500GB HD/4GB RAM/Hi-res antiglare screen (+Applecare + tax) on Saturday, I got the SSD for $119 less a $20 MIR at Micro Center. That's $99!!

Not sure if this drive has any of the problem chips detailed in early posts on this thread, but so far no problems whatsoever.
 
Definitely OWC models. Those guys have been bringing solutions to Mac users for decades, and it's really important to have a company that you can get support as a Mac user.
The SSDs they offer are SandForce based drives which are the fastest on the market. Besides that they are concious about the lack of TRIM function on OS X platforms, and they brought in top of the notch block management and Wear Leveling to compensate for no TRIM. They guarantee that their RE drives will have no speed degradation for 5 years. That's top class in my world. :apple:
 
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