What SSD?

[TickleMeElmo]

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.

The price is low because Micron (of which Crucial is the consumer arm of) is one of the top NAND manufacturers in the world. They have a joint venture with Intel and produce arguably the best NAND in the world. The Marvell Controller on the M4 is also very mature and likely doesn't cost them much.

The M4 may have slower write speeds but for client workloads it is at least 75% about the reads. The read speeds on the M4 are great especially when you take into account that it does not slow down if you deal with a lot of incompressible data like the Sandforce drives do.

The Samsung is generally about the same speed, has better writes and arguable deals with high workloads not as well as the M4.

 

[jcpb]

Most non-SandForce SSDs don't care what kind of files you write into it, they are all written in the same way. SandForce ones write very fast with uncompressed files and slow down a lot when you feed it with multimedia files. As an OS drive, either works well. As a primarily storage drive, stay away from SandForce - if you continuously fill it with MP3s and videos, write speed takes a permanent hit.

As far as "why not OCZ" go... I'd gladly trade in higher read/write speeds for more reliability. OCZ just doesn't offer that. Firmware issues, drive issues, hardware issues, the company has a lot of these on the plate. The best part is, OCZ changes the internal hardware but keeps everything the same, down to packaging inserts - wait, if you change the hardware parts, doesn't the performance change as well?

http://forums.ncix.com/forums/?mode...492306&msgcount=41&subpage=1&product_id=67559

http://blog.macsales.com/9438-not-all-ssd’s-are-created-equal-the-story-continues#more-9438

If the SSD is unreliable, frankly it doesn't matter how fast it can possibly be, because then the drive is worthless. Using OCZ SSDs is akin to playing Russian Roulette with at least half of the bullet chambers armed.

Crucial M4's have poor write speeds relative to the competition, but pricing and reliability are both very good.

Samsung 830's have poor idle GC relative to the competition, but it's only relevant on systems without TRIM. Since TRIM can be enabled manually in OS X with any non-Apple-branded SSDs, poor GC isn't an issue.

 

[Ifti]

Agreed - OCZ had drive issues in the past, but these on the most part have been sorted with firmware updates.

I still wouldn't touch the Vertex 4 with its issues etc, but the Vertex 3 issues go back quite a while and the firmware updates have addressed them.

When it comes to the Vertex 2 drives, and the links you have provided, I have first hand experience with a Vertex 2, which I have been using for well over a year completely problem free. I guess I was lucky then?

I'm still tempted to stick with Vertex and go for a Vertex 3 since, as I said, the firmware updates and fixed the issues from the past in the most part.


On another note, how do you switch on GC using OSX then? I'm sure I read somewhere that it wasn't very reliable though?

 

[jcpb]

Enabling/disabling TRIM does not affect GC on the SSD's controller.

 

[Ifti]

Enabling/disabling TRIM does not affect GC on the SSD's controller.

So which would you choose at this point in time? The Samsung 830?

The reason why I tend to like Sandforce is that they handle all the GC vry well with no interaction needed.
Although the Sammy 830 seems to be a highly rated drive, my concern is the poor GC.....

 

[jcpb]

830 without a shadow of doubt and if price is no object; M4 if price is a concern. Other than an Intel 520 (again, reliability to me is more important, YMMV), I wouldn't consider using SandForce drives on Macs.

 

[Ifti]

830 without a shadow of doubt and if price is no object; M4 if price is a concern. Other than an Intel 520 (again, reliability to me is more important, YMMV), I wouldn't consider using SandForce drives on Macs.

The 830 is actually cheaper then the Vertex 3.
If apple use these Samsung drives why doesn't OSX natively support TRIM on these drives?

 

[jcpb]

Samsung PM830 is the OEM version of the retail 830, and Apple writes its own firmware for the SSDs it gets from both sammy and Toshiba. OS X by default only enables TRIM with Apple-branded SSDs, that's the SSD option (or default for MBA/MBPR) when you order from Apple stores.

The retail 830 is considered a non-Apple-branded SSD drive and thus TRIM is disabled by default in OS X.

 

[Ifti]

Samsung PM830 is the OEM version of the retail 830, and Apple writes its own firmware for the SSDs it gets from both sammy and Toshiba. OS X by default only enables TRIM with Apple-branded SSDs, that's the SSD option (or default for MBA/MBPR) when you order from Apple stores.

The retail 830 is considered a non-Apple-branded SSD drive and thus TRIM is disabled by default in OS X.

Learn something new every day! Lol
Thanks.

 

[Urban Spaceman]

The 830 is actually cheaper then the Vertex 3.
If apple use these Samsung drives why doesn't OSX natively support TRIM on these drives?

As jcpb says, Apple take the Samsung drive and replace the firmware with their own; or more likely, Samsung provide a modified version of their standard firmware where the manufacturer's ID has been changed from "Samsung" to "Apple" so that Apple can enforce their "TRIM only works on our drives" policy.

Also @OP: Get the Samsung 830

 

[ballsop]

Samsung PM830 is the OEM version of the retail 830, and Apple writes its own firmware for the SSDs it gets from both sammy and Toshiba. OS X by default only enables TRIM with Apple-branded SSDs, that's the SSD option (or default for MBA/MBPR) when you order from Apple stores.

The retail 830 is considered a non-Apple-branded SSD drive and thus TRIM is disabled by default in OS X.

Where could I get a Samsung PM830 then? Or enable TRIM?

 

[Prime85]

I am currently using a Samsung 830 SSD and it has been very fast and reliable. I also have a Crucial M4 coming in the mail for my optibay. I hope that will be just as reliable!

Ill take reliability over speed

----------

Where could I get a Samsung PM830 then? Or enable TRIM?

To enable TRIM on a non-Apple SSD such as the Samsung 830 use a program called TRIM enabler. You should be able to find it for free by goggling it.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[cbb77]

Not sure if already mentioned, but the Samsung 830 256GB can be had on Newegg right now for $200. Not the cheapest it's been but currently only $30 over the Crucial M4. For $30 difference I bought it. Was harder to justify the price difference when it was $250 but the $30 does give you better performance and reliability from what I've read throughout the forums. I'm sure if you wait longer the price will drop even further.

 

[Prime85]

Not sure if already mentioned, but the Samsung 830 256GB can be had on Newegg right now for $200. Not the cheapest it's been but currently only $30 over the Crucial M4. For $30 difference I bought it. Was harder to justify the price difference when it was $250 but the $30 does give you better performance and reliability from what I've read throughout the forums. I'm sure if you wait longer the price will drop even further.

I wish i would have known earlier, just this morning i ordered the M4 from tiger direct. I would have gone with the 830 instead because of the great experience i have had with it being my main drive.

Thanks for the info though.

 

[cbb77]

I wish i would have known earlier, just this morning i ordered the M4 from tiger direct. I would have gone with the 830 instead because of the great experience i have had with it being my main drive.

Thanks for the info though.

Well since you just ordered it, you may still have time to cancel. I would check to see if it shipped yet. Even if so, you may be able to return since it would not be opened. I assume you would have to pay return shipping charges If you don't want to go thru the hassle the M4 is still a good drive.

 

[ballsop]

back again

It's almost been a year on now since i started this discussion and in the end the high prices of the SSD's were too unappealing to me.

I have just bought 16gb of ram (up from 8gb) and i'm waiting for that in the post as i type.

I was wondering if anyone could give me an update or educate me further on RELIABLE, fast SSD's with a 500GB+ capacity.

Thanks!

 

[jmdMac]

It's almost been a year on now since i started this discussion and in the end the high prices of the SSD's were too unappealing to me.

I have just bought 16gb of ram (up from 8gb) and i'm waiting for that in the post as i type.

I was wondering if anyone could give me an update or educate me further on RELIABLE, fast SSD's with a 500GB+ capacity.

Thanks!

Well last year it was the samsung 830, now it's the 840. Using one right now and have multiple friends doing the same. Great SSD for the price.

470+ reviewers can't be wrong....
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Elect...e=UTF8&qid=1367268096&sr=8-3&keywords=840+ssd

Good luck!

 

[johnnnw]

It's almost been a year on now since i started this discussion and in the end the high prices of the SSD's were too unappealing to me.

I have just bought 16gb of ram (up from 8gb) and i'm waiting for that in the post as i type.

I was wondering if anyone could give me an update or educate me further on RELIABLE, fast SSD's with a 500GB+ capacity.

Thanks!

For 500GB Samsung and Crucial are very reliable. Obviously always keep a backup as you never know.

The Samsung 840 (Non Pro) is always going on sale for around $300. I watch slickdeals.net SSD page and I see it often.

There is also the Crucial M500 series that was just released. Crucial has a history of reliability. So look into those.

 

[XoFu]

I installed a Vertex 3 120G in my 2009 13" MBP over a year ago and has been running like a charm. No issues at all, but in my case it runs at SATAII speed (2009 machine). I think the past issues with the firmware are completely solved.

 

[a-m-k]

I'm not sure if the question was answered or not... it didn't look like it. SDD is Solid Disk Drive and HDD is Hard Disk Drive.

 

[cdarlington1]

Samsung 840 512 in 2.66 quad-core macpro

Just wondering if these SSD's will work in a 2.66 quad-core macpro...

 

[paul-n]

They usually should, but not at maximum performance.
You only need one SATA port.