What brand/model SSD comes with BTO MBPs?

[Ruahrc]

These new Macbook Pros have thrown me for a loop. Previously considering waiting it out until a quad core iMac came along, then eventually snagging a future mythical Apple tablet/netbook type device, I find myself mysteriously drawn into the 13" Macbook pro.

Because I shoot photography, the improved screen (most importantly) and relatively compact size, are draws for me to use it as a field computer, allowing for downloading and holding photos when on trips. It would also be able to handle editing of my photos at home paired with my 22" LCD desktop monitor.

One could envision this computer being the lighter portable one, and I still wait until a better iMac comes along to upgrade to a better home setup with big 24" LCD and 22" secondary display. The MBA is certainly a more portable alternative which is very tempting too but with only 2GB of RAM I feel its performance will be hampered especially in the future. I edit photos on my current computer (1.33GHz PBG4 15" w/2GB RAM) and I frequently run over 2GB usage.

Anyways, I wanted to know if anyone knew the brand/model of the SSDs included in BTO MBPs. The reason is, since the HD is user-upgradeable in the MBPs, I can get a Corsair P128 128GB SSD from Newegg for $300. Supposedly this is a pretty good model, being based on the Samsung chipsets. However, with the educational discount, the SSD in the BTO option is $315.

Considering that there may be warranty/AppleCare issues with installing a new HD yourself, it may be worth the $15 for me to just buy the Apple one as BTO instead of doing it myself, provided the performance of the drive will be the same or very close to the Corsair SSD from newegg. If the SSD included as BTO is going to be a lot slower, then I may as well just install my own.

What do you think? Anyone know the brand of SSD included in the BTO MBPs? Or at least how they perform compared to some of the aftermarket drives? I did some reading but couldn't really definitively tell because most of the info I was able to dig up concerned Macbooks from like 2 years ago, or also I find a lot of information on the MBA SSD which is a 1.8" PATA and not a standard 2.5" SATA?

Thanks

Ruahrc

 

[voidref]

Samsung Drives

According to the holy grail of SSD articles, it is absolutely not worth it to buy the stock SSD in the MPBs, get the stock drive and replace it with the 180 GB Intel X25 G2

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=19

 

[Unprocessed1]

According to the holy grail of SSD articles, it is absolutely not worth it to buy the stock SSD in the MPBs, get the stock drive and replace it with the 180 GB Intel X25 G2

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=19

Totally agree, Apple overcharges for their SSD's. For the same price you can get an Intel, or get the same quality/size SSD

EDIT: This post is OLD

 

[Technologist]

According to the holy grail of SSD articles, it is absolutely not worth it to buy the stock SSD in the MPBs, get the stock drive and replace it with the 180 GB Intel X25 G2

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=19

That Samsung test was completely messed up and they probably had a controller mismatch or set the cluster size wrong. I'm getting 10X those 4k speeds on my Quadcore. Here is a Test on my 2009 17" Macbook Pro 5.2 2.8ghz

226MB/Sec Reads and 180+ MB/Sec Writes are sweet.

SAMSUNG MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB:

Capacity: 256.06 GB (256,060,514,304 bytes)
Model: SAMSUNG MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB
Revision: VBM1801Q
Serial Number: YFB020S913SY*******
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
256GB:
Capacity: 255.72 GB (255,716,540,416 bytes)
Available: 137.6 GB (137,598,386,176 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

 

[Davidkoh]

That Samsung test was completely messed up and they probably had a controller mismatch or set the cluster size wrong. I'm getting 10X those 4k speeds on my Quadcore. Here is a Test on my 2009 17" Macbook Pro 5.2 2.8ghz

226MB/Sec Reads and 180+ MB/Sec Writes are sweet.

SAMSUNG MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB:

Capacity: 256.06 GB (256,060,514,304 bytes)
Model: SAMSUNG MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB
Revision: VBM1801Q
Serial Number: YFB020S913SY*******
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
256GB:
Capacity: 255.72 GB (255,716,540,416 bytes)
Available: 137.6 GB (137,598,386,176 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

Why don't u show ur Random 4k scores then? Them being 10x as good

 

[Technologist]

Why don't u show ur Random 4k scores then? Them being 10x as good

I don't have that drive in my Quad Core PC so I can't tune it to my Controller. It's in my MacBook now so you can get a comparison of a Brand New 500GB Apple drive Compared to the Samsung 256GB. Note the anandtech article only uses smaller 64GB-160GB SSD hard drives and does not compare any large SSD drives like the 256GB Samsung. If you want a tiny drive then go for it but I'll have my 256GB full pretty soon.

Here is the Stock 500GB Apple Drive out of a 3 day old 2009 Macbook 17" Pro 2.8GHz 5.2

Here is a beat up (used in 5 different computers) Samsung 256GB SSD installed in the same 3 day old 2009 Macbook 17" Pro 2.8GHz 5.2

Note the Scale is triple on the Samsung and peaks at 215MB/Sec not 70MB/Sec like the stock 500GB drive. The samsung is triple the speed of the stock drive in almost every test. Plus it will move Large files at 226 MB/Sec regardless of what part of the disk the data is on.

Also the Samsung has a .1ms Access time compared to 14ms so it will move scattered and fragmented files much faster then these tests show.

Also look at the random reads in Blue. Hard drives tend to do much more reading then writing and the Samsung is about 10x-20x faster then the stock drive on random reads up until 256K files. Where it drops off to about 4 times the speed.

 

[Davidkoh]

Here is a beat up (used in 5 different computers) Samsung 256GB SSD installed in the same 3 day old 2009 Macbook 17" Pro 2.8GHz 5.2

Note the Scale is triple on the Samsung and peaks at 215MB/Sec not 70MB/Sec like the stock 500GB drive. The samsung is triple the speed of the stock drive in almost every test. Plus it will move Large files at 226 MB/Sec regardless of what part of the disk the data is on.

Also the Samsung has a .1ms Access time compared to 14ms so it will move scattered and fragmented files much faster then these tests show.

I dont see any 10x numbers They got 4.4 MB/s in 4k random reads and you get around what? 10? And their 4k random write seems spot on with yours.

 

[Technologist]

I dont see any 10x numbers They got 4.4 MB/s in 4k random reads and you get around what? 10? And their 4k random write seems spot on with yours.

I missed your handle. You're that little geeky guy that argues with everyone on this forum. LOL

Have fun with your older slower limited capacity baby mac.

 

[Davidkoh]

I missed your handle. You're that little geeky guy that argues with everyone on this forum. LOL

Have fun with your older slower limited capacity baby mac.

No thanks, I got the X25-M 160 Gb SSD which is way faster then your drive The guy you responded to never suggested the OP should use the stock drive, he said the guy should take the money Apple charges for the Samsung SSD and buy a Intel X25-M instead. And since the Intel is running circles around the Samsung, it seems like a good idea.

And yeah I argue with people who are too thick headed to use simple logic, logic is the most important thing is life.

 

[Technologist]

And yeah I argue with people who are too thick headed to use simple logic, logic is the most important thing is life.

The tiny flaw in your Logic is that you're arguing with someone that makes more in a year then you've made in your entire life in the very area of expertise you're arguing about.

 

[trismeplz]

I just got my new BTO macbook pro 17" and it came with a 128GB Toshiba SSD