Which SSD? Crucial M4 or OWC Mercury 6G?

[Florida Gator]

For ~128GB SSD, should I go with the Crucial M4 or OWC Mercury Extreme 6G?

I just spent the last 5 hours researching them and am now more confused than ever, so would appreciate any practical advice. I know there are pros and cons of each. The Crucial is going to be cheaper and arguably has a more reliable Marvell controller. The OWC is going to be probably $70 more, is supposed to be a little faster, but uses a SandForce controller, which has a higher rate of issues.

I'm really trying to see whether the $70 more is worth it in real life usage. Mostly browsing, Photoshop, email and word processing. I'm not to worried about warranties, as I figure in 3-5 years, I will have gotten a much larger, much faster, SSD anyways.

Then there is also the OWC Mercury Electra 6G, if anybody can compare that...

 

[philipma1957]

For ~128GB SSD, should I go with the Crucial M4 or OWC Mercury Extreme 6G?

I just spent the last 5 hours researching them and am now more confused than ever, so would appreciate any practical advice. I know there are pros and cons of each. The Crucial is going to be cheaper and arguably has a more reliable Marvell controller. The OWC is going to be probably $70 more, is supposed to be a little faster, but uses a SandForce controller, which has a higher rate of issues.

I'm really trying to see whether the $70 more is worth it in real life usage. Mostly browsing, Photoshop, email and word processing. I'm not to worried about warranties, as I figure in 3-5 years, I will have gotten a much larger, much faster, SSD anyways.

Then there is also the OWC Mercury Electra 6G, if anybody can compare that...

go to superbiiz.com buy 2 sticks of samsung 4gb ram and a samsung 128gb ssd. use code CHAMPS get 15 bucks off. best because it won't break it will just work. links to follow.
the CHAMPS CODE ENDS SUNDAY

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.ph...-470-Series-SATA-Solid-State-Drive-SSD-Retail



the ssd is 202 the code will work with that you get 15 bucks off total 187.


wait a week to buy the ram once you get the ssd put in they will have a new code for the ram


ram link


https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.ph...=Samsung-DDR3-1333-SODIMM-4GB-Notebook-Memory

 

[Florida Gator]

go to superbiiz.com buy 2 sticks of samsung 4gb ram and a samsung 128gb ssd. use code CHAMPS get 15 bucks off. best because it won't break it will just work. links to follow.
the CHAMPS CODE ENDS SUNDAY

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.ph...-470-Series-SATA-Solid-State-Drive-SSD-Retail



the ssd is 202 the code will work with that you get 15 bucks off total 187.


wait a week to buy the ram once you get the ssd put in they will have a new code for the ram


ram link


https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.ph...=Samsung-DDR3-1333-SODIMM-4GB-Notebook-Memory

Spam? I don't want a Samsung SSD or 4GB of RAM.

 

[theSeb]

Philipma gave you good advice and he's definitely not a spammer.

 

[Mr.C]

Spam? I don't want a Samsung SSD or 4GB of RAM.

For what it's worth it's not spam having read many of phillipma1957's other posts. He is just recommending an alternative to the ones you mentioned. Reading his other posts he seems to know what he is talking about.

No disrespect if you're not interested in other people's opinions including making alternative suggestions maybe you shouldn't post here.

It's a different story if he is a new forum member and a first time poster but he is not.

 

[tbayrgs]

Spam? I don't want a Samsung SSD or 4GB of RAM.

Easy Gator....

Don't think he was trying to spam you, just offered his opinion on his choice for a SSD and also tried to help you out saving a few bucks--the guys been very helpful on the forums as he just installed an SSD in a brand new Mini and was kind enough start a thread and post a ton of teardown pics and answer any questions.

And FWIW, if you actually took a second to check out the site, you'd see that the code he offer also would work towards buying a Crucial M4.

Here's some more good advice...

No disrespect if you're not interested in other people's opinions including making alternative suggestions maybe you shouldn't post here.

 

[walterp]

Spam? I don't want a Samsung SSD or 4GB of RAM.

It's not spam. You asked for advice on what SSD to get and whether it was worth paying $70 for a higher end model (answer: no).

He suggested you'd be better off and save money buying a Samsung SSD instead of either of the two options you presented -- a perfectly reasonable suggestion, and one you should maybe take a few seconds to consider instead of being so dumbly dismissive. He also suggested that you'd see a large performance boost from increasing your RAM to 8 GB (not 4 GB, as you misread it, because you were in such a hurry to be snotty), and that your money would be better spent there than spending +$70 on a marginally better SSD.

I think the appropriate response here would be "thank you."

How about spending five hours researching the way decent human beings interact, and then get back to us with questions (I'm sure you'll have many).

 

[Tucom]

The question was between two SSD's, and it does kind of look like it could misconceived as spam, and though it isn't, if anything I think this thread is getting spammed with defending the Samsung post, not that I care really too much, but anyone think it's possible to answer the initial question between the SSD's?


In fact, not to high jack the thread, but in conjunction with the OP's post, what's the reason to go with a Samsung SSD vs. the others. How does it stack up and is it the most reliable, best performance-over-time SSD?

 

[Florida Gator]

It just seemed as though it was spam considering 1. I didn't ask for any other suggestions 2. He didn't provide any reasoning why his suggestion was better than what I asked about and 3. He suggested 4GB of RAM when I didn't ask for RAM suggestions, the Mac Mini I'm getting comes with 4GB and I intend to install 8GB in it anyways (not that he knew that last part).

With that said, I apologize for even considering that it was SPAM. I thank him for suggestion, but still would like some feedback on my original question.

 

[DesertDog]

I went with the OWC for the mini that's on its way. It's a great drive, I have one in my MBP already. The OWC will be a bit faster, probably not noticeable difference with stuff like web browsing or email. The OWC drives are really good at performance over time. They don't drop off in speed much as they age. Some brands are bad for this. I'm not sure where the crucial drives perform on it.

The other reason I went with OWC is that they're mac guys and give good mac support. My choice was down between OWC and OCZ. I dumped OCZ because of support and pulling crap like saying you had to use a windows machine to do a firmware update. That's worth a couple bucks to me.

BTW, the samsung drive that was posted isn't in the same class as the other drives. It's a 3G drive, not a 6G like the others.

 

[RUSTYC]

Fwiw

Crucial M4 = 3 year warranty
OWC Extreme = 5 year warranty

 

[Florida Gator]

Crucial M4 = 3 year warranty
OWC Extreme = 5 year warranty

5 years ago, SSDs were tiny and expensive. By 2016, I'm figuring I can get an 128GB SSD for basically nothing, so I'm not overly concerned about that.

Anybody have any thoughts between the OWC Mercury Electra 6G versus the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD? The Electra is about $70 less, but uses asynchronous memory has about half the read rate for incompressible data. That make much of a difference?

 

[japtor]

In fact, not to high jack the thread, but in conjunction with the OP's post, what's the reason to go with a Samsung SSD vs. the others. How does it stack up and is it the most reliable, best performance-over-time SSD?

It appears to be one of the more reliable drives out there. Not the fastest (it's a 3Gbps drive), performs similarly to the Intel 320 drives, but in actual use I doubt most people could tell the difference.

...unless your actual use is drive benchmarking.

 

[chiefsilverback]

Off topic - I also read Philipma's post as some kind of spam given that he provides no intro or info as to why the OP might want to consider a Samsung drive and instead goes straight into instructions on where/how to buy a product the OP didn't ask for! I think some of Philipma's support network should apologise to Gator...

On topic - I'm looking to upgrade my 2008 2.4GHz 24" iMac with an SSD and I too am looking between one of the OWC Mercury/Extreme drives and the Crucial M4.

Given the age/spec of my iMac I'm guessing it might not have all the right technologies to extract the maximum performance from one of the Mercury Extreme drives but I'd welcome any insight there?

 

[philipma1957]

Off topic - I also read Philipma's post as some kind of spam given that he provides no intro or info as to why the OP might want to consider a Samsung drive and instead goes straight into instructions on where/how to buy a product the OP didn't ask for! I think some of Philipma's support network should apologise to Gator...

On topic - I'm looking to upgrade my 2008 2.4GHz 24" iMac with an SSD and I too am looking between one of the OWC Mercury/Extreme drives and the Crucial M4.

Given the age/spec of my iMac I'm guessing it might not have all the right technologies to extract the maximum performance from one of the Mercury Extreme drives but I'd welcome any insight there?

wow this is very simple samsungs work well and cost less.

if you want me to pick between the owc and the crucial take the owc. ( Why OWC gives fast returns when gear does not work)


if you want a long reason why i don't want the crucial or the owc here goes. the 2010 mac minis had a lot of trouble with crucial /micron ram. I installed more then 40 sticks of ram into 2010 mac minis. more 200 sticks into 2009 minis.

samsung were 100 percent good. 6 crucial sticks from different venders did not work at all in 2010 mac minis they work in 2009 mac minis and they worked in a 2009 imac. I do lots of installs and up until 2010 all crucial ram was good.


Since I open tons of minis up I see that oem ram of samsung, hynix then micron/crucial are in most minis. The only bad oem ram I get when I get new/refurbished sealed minis to mod has been micron/crucial again only the 2010 minis. So I know that crucial/micron had some issue with minis.. I also know that crucial ram chips and ssds are made in the same factories. since I have no knowledge of the reason this problem has happened with minis I am now avoiding crucial for Mac minis.

I like owc I also know that if you open an owc ssd up it has micron chips. I think toms hardware had a photo.

Since I am trying to stay away from micron for the time being this leaves me with two or 3 ssds I would use ;
Intel, samsung or toshiba. Samsung has had some good prices and they are reliable. So I picked samsung my post also had the ram as an after thought not as a solid pick, but the owc is 120 gb for 279 and no ram.

My pick gets both the samsung 128gb ssd and 8gb ram for under 279.



http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDMX6G120T/ 279


The op asked for "any practical advice" so I told him you can get a 128gb ssd and 8gb ram for less then the same price of your pick of just the owc ssd.


I still say that would be considered practical advice.

look at the screen shot .


BTW I said 2 sticks of 4gb ram not 4gb ram.

so my advice would give you an ssd for 187 and a pair of 4gb ram sticks for 70 a total of 257 dollars a savings of more then 20 cash for more gear that is know to be reliable.

Does that fit your definition of : " any practical advise" ?

The answer is no at least your reply was that I spammed you.

I would like to give you some more practical advice;


This is a forum where people really like to be helpful lots of problems have been solved here.

If one person gives you an answer you don't like just move on to the next answer try not to insult the person giving an honest thought out answer that they spent time to research and write up for you.

 

[Nanker/Phelge]

Not sure if it will help but the two the OP originally asked about use different controllers. The OWC is Sandforce, not sure what the Crucial is. Either way, not sure you'll notice a difference in performance.

 

[Bob Coxner]

Thanks Philipma! Great advice.

There are hundreds of threads on the MBP and MBA forums discussing ssds. The general consensus there is that Samsung is the most reliable aftermarket ssd.

 

[chiefsilverback]

if you want a long reason...

Makes for an interesting read, thanks.

 

[japtor]

Not sure if it will help but the two the OP originally asked about use different controllers. The OWC is Sandforce, not sure what the Crucial is. Either way, not sure you'll notice a difference in performance.

It's some Marvell controller running Micron's C400 firmware/platform. They should be good, although I'm a bit paranoid cause the C300 had stuttering issues. C400 had some recent update that appeared to fix something for many so they might be ok now.

Anandtech's closing words in their review is a little concerning too (at least as long as OS X doesn't have official third party TRIM support):

My remaining concerns with the m4 are really not that different from those I had with the C300. Crucial's very late garbage collection allows the possibility for some very poor write speeds over time. If you're running in a configuration without TRIM support, I'd say this is enough to rule out the m4. Sure performance should recover with sequential write passes, however if your workload isn't sufficiently sequential then this could pose a problem. If you do have a TRIM enabled OS I'm not entirely sure how the m4 will behave over time. TRIM should keep things running smoothly but that will largely depend on workload. Again, I think that for most desktop/notebook users the m4 will do just fine but it's tough to say for sure without months of testing under my belt. In other words, like any other brand new SSD—approach with caution.

 

[philipma1957]

Not sure if it will help but the two the OP originally asked about use different controllers. The OWC is Sandforce, not sure what the Crucial is. Either way, not sure you'll notice a difference in performance.

Thanks Philipma! Great advice.

There are hundreds of threads on the MBP and MBA forums discussing ssds. The general consensus there is that Samsung is the most reliable aftermarket ssd.

Makes for an interesting read, thanks.

Frankly I guess I was a bit tired and should have written a more concise answer the first time.

I don't like fighting on forums and coming off as a know it all. I know a little bit more most about some macs and some parts that they use. I can be a bit lazy if I am tired and I rushed to answer. I pushed Intels as the most reliable for years but this has changed to samsung for me.

For apple ram hynix samsung micron/crucial chips seem best except the 2010 minis have had problems with micron chips.


To the op I don't want you to be upset. Please accept my apology if my answer was upsetting to you. I was really giving you what I would do with your needs in computer gear.

 

[handheldgames]

Frankly I guess I was a bit tired and should have written a more concise answer the first time.

I don't like fighting on forums and coming off as a know it all. I know a little bit more most about some macs and some parts that they use. I can be a bit lazy if I am tired and I rushed to answer. I pushed Intels as the most reliable for years but this has changed to samsung for me.

For apple ram hynix samsung micron/crucial chips seem best except the 2010 minis have had problems with micron chips.


To the op I don't want you to be upset. Please accept my apology if my answer was upsetting to you. I was really giving you what I would do with your needs in computer gear.

+1 on samsung.... Running the Samsung 470 256 in my MacPro.. Couldn't be happier. No crashing.. Beachballing... Drive locked up in safe mode.. Etc.. Customers on NewEgg are a good pulse of what to expect...

 

[indiekiduk]

The OWC Vertex 3 is a bit faster than the Crucial M4 but it's $600 vs $420 but this review demonstrates the extra speed might not be worth the large difference in price:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...x-iops-240gb-ssd-review-crystal-diskmark.html
I def wouldn't get that Intel though.

 

[Florida Gator]

The OWC Vertex 3 is a bit faster than the Crucial M4 but it's $600 vs $420 but this review demonstrates the extra speed might not be worth the large difference in price:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...x-iops-240gb-ssd-review-crystal-diskmark.html
I def wouldn't get that Intel though.

While they are similar, I believe it's the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS. OWC is a different company.

 

[brangates]

I went with the OWC extreme Pro 120GB, it is more expensive than most other SSDs, but OWC claims that there drives do not need TRIM. They actually said it is bad to have TRIM running on their SSDs. I have read its a pain to get TRIM going on after market SSDs, but maybe it is easy, just nice not having to worry about it. I added the SSD and 8 GB of RAM to my 2011 Mac mini instead of upgrading to the 2012 and it is so fast, I couldn't be happier with my decision.

 

[ycsmb]

philipma's a spammer

philipma probs created multiple accounts to vouch for samusung looollll get a life