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What SSD?

ballsop

ballsop

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2011
156
24
I have a 2.2 15 inch early 2011 MacBook pro with 500gb 7500rpm HHD. I've come round and decided I want an SSD to take full advantage of the fast graphics, processor and ram etc.

so far I'm looking at:

OCZ vertex 4 512gb
OCZ Vertex 3 480gb
Samsung 830 series 512gb

I'd like to go for the vertex 4 because it's the upgrade to the 3 but I'm reading a lot about firmware updates and all that lark but I just want to get an SSD and never have to worry about it again.

Does that mean the 3 is best for me right now?

The Samsung is only in there because I've heard good reliability reviews on it.

Thoughts?
 
Man can't wait till Samsung 512GB drops down to $250. I'm snatching that thing up ASAP :D
 
kdoug said:
Considering they're going for well over $600, how many years are you planning on waiting?
Click to expand...

15 years? jk.

The Crucial 512GB's were going for $350 a while ago. I don't see how Samsung can keep it at that price.

The 128GB Samsung 830 is going for $88 right now. Think about it, 128x4=352. It's bound to drop to $350 soon.

The sweet spot for most people is 256GB.
 
Samsung 830.

OCZ... well, look no further than its product return rates relative to everyone else.
 
Save your money and go with a SATA II SSD

I installed the Samsung 830 series SSD in my 2011 iMac (with the help of owc's upgrade kit). It is super fast.

That being said, It might be a little overkill. You see, up until the most recent 2012 upgrades, Apple laptops use SATA II Hard drive controllers. I believe my Samsung SSD would be even faster if it was installed in a new Macbook Pro because the newest generation MBP uses SATA III hard drives.

SATA II SSDs are not quite as fast as their SATA III counterparts, however, they perform extremely well and are also cheaper.
 
tanker5 said:
You see, up until the most recent 2012 upgrades, Apple laptops use SATA II Hard drive controllers. I believe my Samsung SSD would be even faster if it was installed in a new Macbook Pro because the newest generation MBP uses SATA III hard drives.
Click to expand...

Wrong. Any 2011 Mac with Sandy Bridge will support SATAIII in the hard drive slot.

For example, I have an Early 2011 MBP and it supports SATAIII.

In the optical slot, that's another question. Some people say it's hard to get it to work in SATAIII.

Also it doesn't make sense getting SATAII SSDs. They are hard to find than new ones, unless you find a used one.
 
tanker5 said:
I installed the Samsung 830 series SSD in my 2011 iMac (with the help of owc's upgrade kit). It is super fast.

That being said, It might be a little overkill. You see, up until the most recent 2012 upgrades, Apple laptops use SATA II Hard drive controllers. I believe my Samsung SSD would be even faster if it was installed in a new Macbook Pro because the newest generation MBP uses SATA III hard drives.

SATA II SSDs are not quite as fast as their SATA III counterparts, however, they perform extremely well and are also cheaper.
Click to expand...

2011 MBP Machines had SATA 3 controllers in both bays but the optical bay wiring can't handle the throughput at SATA 3 speeds in the 15" and 17" machines. The 13" works fine.

I've not seen much evidence that SATA 2 SSD's are cheaper than their SATA 3 counterparts I'm afraid.
 
wow

thats a large majority with the samsung so far.

how come?

i really had it in my head i'd go for the vertex 3/4 but this has made me rethink.

i've also seen a fair bit about the "proper" way to upgrade in respect of data. i want everything on my HHD on the SSD.

does it matter if i:
1.clone the drive
2.clean install (mountain) lion and restore from a back up.

i dont have an external hard drive so to restore from a back up would be far more costly.

also,

thank you all
 
Im gonna be different!

I would go with the Vertex 3.

I have had a Vertex 2 for the past 2 years of so and its been spot on - no slowdowns, no problems, excellent! Its still running strong till this day.

Vertex 3 is now SATA III - Im thinking of buying one shortly as all the reviews state its a brilliant drive as long as you get 240GB or above. As I said, Ive had no slow downs etc with my Vertex 2 and the SandForce controller in this unit is supposed to hadle the garbage collection etc much more efficiently.

Vertex 4 has had many issues and returns. The controller has been changed to Indilinx, and reviews arent so great.

The Samsung 830 - I know this is rated quite highly and Apple use it in most of they machines also, but I read a review where they stated the Garbage Collection is poor - it doesnt kick in as often as it should and results in the drive slowing over time. Otherwise they said it was a great drive.
I'll see if I can find the link to the review again (it was a highly respectable site) and post it up.

Edit: This was it:
http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index...sort=0&page=6&slug=the-samsung-ssd-830-review
 
Ifti said:
Im gonna be different!

I would go with the Vertex 3.

I have had a Vertex 2 for the past 2 years of so and its been spot on - no slowdowns, no problems, excellent! Its still running strong till this day.

Vertex 3 is now SATA III - Im thinking of buying one shortly as all the reviews state its a brilliant drive as long as you get 240GB or above. As I said, Ive had no slow downs etc with my Vertex 2 and the SandForce controller in this unit is supposed to hadle the garbage collection etc much more efficiently.

Vertex 4 has had many issues and returns. The controller has been changed to Indilinx, and reviews arent so great.

The Samsung 830 - I know this is rated quite highly and Apple use it in most of they machines also, but I read a review where they stated the Garbage Collection is poor - it doesnt kick in as often as it should and results in the drive slowing over time. Otherwise they said it was a great drive.
I'll see if I can find the link to the review again (it was a highly respectable site) and post it up.

Edit: This was it:
http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index...sort=0&page=6&slug=the-samsung-ssd-830-review
Click to expand...


thanks for this. i think i am going to go for the vertex 3. the 4 has too many issues and i can't risk losing my lappy and i bought the laptop with a view to keeping it for a while so i can't have it slow on me.


thanks again everyone

----------
ballsop said:
thats a large majority with the samsung so far.

how come?

i really had it in my head i'd go for the vertex 3/4 but this has made me rethink.

i've also seen a fair bit about the "proper" way to upgrade in respect of data. i want everything on my HHD on the SSD.

does it matter if i:
1.clone the drive
2.clean install (mountain) lion and restore from a back up.

i dont have an external hard drive so to restore from a back up would be far more costly.

also,

thank you all
Click to expand...



i would still like advice on this though....
 
For me it was between the Crucial or the Samsung.

It came down to price was the major factor. But I remember reading somewhere that the Samsung can only have the Firmware updated through a Windows Machine. While the Crucial can be updated on the Mac itself.
 
ugp said:
For me it was between the Crucial or the Samsung.

It came down to price was the major factor. But I remember reading somewhere that the Samsung can only have the Firmware updated through a Windows Machine. While the Crucial can be updated on the Mac itself.
Click to expand...

my beef with the crucial m4 is the slow write speeds compared to the competitors. and the price seems too low i.e you pay for better quality.
 
Apple used Samsung drives before, and is using an 830-based drive now.

I would stay away from OCZ at all costs. Bad products. The 128GB Vertex 4 has big issues as well:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vertex-4-ssd-write-performance,3235-2.html

You might want to consider a Sandforce drive like the ones OWC sells, they do garbage collection on their own, which is nice since OS X doesn't natively support TRIM unless it's an OEM drive.

Intel is also a good buy - they are rock-solid even if not the fastest drives you can buy. But any SSD is going to be much faster than a hard drive.
 
ballsop said:
thanks for this. i think i am going to go for the vertex 3. the 4 has too many issues and i can't risk losing my lappy and i bought the laptop with a view to keeping it for a while so i can't have it slow on me.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that in most tests the 830 is slightly faster then the Vertex 3 - by slightly I mean you probably wouldnt notice the difference during day to day usage, and its used by Apple in most of their laptops I think - hence why alot of people go for it. However, for me personally, it was that review I linked to above and the issue with slow garbage collection that did it for me. I want my drive to have more efficient garbage collection, especially since the MAC doesnt do it anywhere near as well as Windows7 does. With Win7 the OS supports it fully, whereas with MAC I dont think the OS does a very good job, hence like to rely on the SandForce controller and its on-the-fly trimming - and with that the Vertex 3 is a winner IMO.

I know there have been issues with reliability etc, but the newer firmware fixed the issues, and most of the drives shipped now will have the newer firmware on them anyway.

When it comes to swapping drives out - I just used SuperDuper to clone the HDD to the SSD around 2 years ago - never had any issues with that at all - hence can conclude that its fine to clone the drive across.
If you have an external HDD (FW800 preferred for speed), you could always do a Time Machine backup, then restore that backup on the new drive using Migration Assistant as well......

----------
robvas said:
Apple used Samsung drives before, and is using an 830-based drive now.

I would stay away from OCZ at all costs. Bad products. The 128GB Vertex 4 has big issues as well:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vertex-4-ssd-write-performance,3235-2.html

You might want to consider a Sandforce drive like the ones OWC sells, they do garbage collection on their own, which is nice since OS X doesn't natively support TRIM unless it's an OEM drive.

Intel is also a good buy - they are rock-solid even if not the fastest drives you can buy. But any SSD is going to be much faster than a hard drive.
Click to expand...

The vertex 4 deffo has issues, but bear in mind they decided to use the Indilinx controller for this model rather then the SandForce - so I personally do not think it can be compared with their previous models. The Sandforce controller in the previous models was MUCH better due to the garbage collection, like you suggested. However, I wouldnt rule out all OCZ drives because of issues with the latest drive, or because of issues with a firmware which has now been resolved.....personally Im still going for a Vertex 3 240GB - the Samsung looks like a brilliant drive - and for Apple to use them for so long there is deffo respect there, but the delayed garbage collection hits me too hard - I want my SSD to stay fast throughout and have been perfectly happy with the OCZ products Ive used in the past.

Agree that Intel is also a good buy - I read that their controllers are also very god with garbage collection.

Intel or Sandforce = cant go wrong with them IMO!
 
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