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Upgrading MBP 15'' i5 to SSD?
- Thread starter mm1250
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I am also thinking about upgrading my hd to ssd and I have read that it is relatively simple. I would check out macsales.com and look for their upgrade drive kits. They also have how to's and other stuff, but I'm not sure if it's step by step for the os and such.
Get a drive with internal TRIM support.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce
With non SandForce controllers, you'll be manually refreshing your drive to emulate what TRIM does. (Granted, it's once every six months or so, but I'd rather not bother with the hassle if I were going SSD.)
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce
With non SandForce controllers, you'll be manually refreshing your drive to emulate what TRIM does. (Granted, it's once every six months or so, but I'd rather not bother with the hassle if I were going SSD.)
Upgraded yesterday....
I just upgraded mine. Literally took about 15 minutes. Best upgrade on any system that I have ever done. Everything opens 20x faster. iTunes, Safari, etc all open in one bounce. Startup is amazingly faster. You won't be disappointed. I used the 80gb (cost limiting) Intel G2 x25.
I bought an enclosure for my old HDD but for some reason it won't get recognized. No sure if its my enclosure problem or not.
I can't believe people actually debate on upgrading RAM vs to a SSD. (unless you run 20 different programs of course).
Enjoy...
I just upgraded mine. Literally took about 15 minutes. Best upgrade on any system that I have ever done. Everything opens 20x faster. iTunes, Safari, etc all open in one bounce. Startup is amazingly faster. You won't be disappointed. I used the 80gb (cost limiting) Intel G2 x25.
I bought an enclosure for my old HDD but for some reason it won't get recognized. No sure if its my enclosure problem or not.
I can't believe people actually debate on upgrading RAM vs to a SSD. (unless you run 20 different programs of course).
Enjoy...
I did quite a bit of research before buying an SSD for my MBP, and as long as the drive you get has the newer SandForce controller in it, you should be fine.
I used an ADATA S599 256GB SSD in my MBP, which seems to be comparable to the Apple SSD or the OWC Mercury Extreme according to the read/write tests from Xbench.
I used an ADATA S599 256GB SSD in my MBP, which seems to be comparable to the Apple SSD or the OWC Mercury Extreme according to the read/write tests from Xbench.
I STRONGLY second this. I have a Samsung SSD (which is the same SSD Apple uses). The performance degradation due to lack of TRIM is horrible. Get SandForce controller. You're fü+k3d without it...
We could really do with a guide about this. I was going to get a OCZ Vertex 2E which has the SF1200 controller. Is that good enough in terms of garbage collection? 
I've been pleased with my Kingston SSDNow V+. Just make sure that whatever SSD you'll have performs garbage collection. With that you don't have to worry about TRIM. I've seen no performance drop over the last 6 months or so. This thing will simply make your machine perform at a different level altogether. ...And yes, the swap is really easy. You can just search the thread on MR for more info.
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Go with the Intel X-25 M
I got an Intel X-25 M G2 160 Gb last October for my Macbook Pro 13". A year later, and the read speed is identical to what it was new: 255 Mb/s. Read speeds have only dropped slightly from about 95 Mb/s (new) to 85 Mb/s (old). This is still faster than a 2.5 rotating drive.
Go with the Intel X-25: you won't be disappointed.
I got an Intel X-25 M G2 160 Gb last October for my Macbook Pro 13". A year later, and the read speed is identical to what it was new: 255 Mb/s. Read speeds have only dropped slightly from about 95 Mb/s (new) to 85 Mb/s (old). This is still faster than a 2.5 rotating drive.
Go with the Intel X-25: you won't be disappointed.
I have the Vertex 2 SSD in mine . I got 2 running Raid No regrets with the the Vertex 2. You won't regret buying that one.
No regrets with the the Vertex 2. You won't regret buying that one.I've heard that the third generation of the Intel SSDs aren't that huge of an improvement...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3965/intels-3rd-generation-x25m-ssd-specs-revealed
I see and sorry I meant sata 2..
How fast can write speeds go up to from sata 2? as I want apps to load instantly on click.
Well the maximum bandwidth of SATA II is 3Gbps like I said, I don't know what the sustained bandwidth is though, SSDs are only writing and reading in the range of 200-300MB/s at the moment though.
As for apps loading instantly, it wont just depend on your SSD, you'll have main memory and CPU to consider.
Apps load pretty much instantly with current SSDs now - check this out;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCcJe_S6e8
So improved speeds (especially random read/writes), much higher size for probably similar money that the G2s cost as well as improved lifetime isn't a good enough improvement?
The Intels also seem to have more solid firmware than the SandForce stuff.