Just be aware that the 64GB version is the v1, the v2 is the 60GB. Not sure what the actual difference is though.
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Who's running an OCZ SSD in their MacBook?
- Thread starter Ol!ver
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Just be aware that the 64GB version is the v1, the v2 is the 60GB. Not sure what the actual difference is though.
yes, confusing
This one is nominally 60 GB, usable space is 56 GB - still says 64 on the case. Go figure.
This one is nominally 60 GB, usable space is 56 GB - still says 64 on the case. Go figure.
I am using Mtron 64GB which is a SLC SSD and FWIW, Mtron recently drop the price by quite alot. 64GB can be had for $380+ at rocketdisk.com. I purchased mine about a year ago for more than $1000. Speed wise is not as good as Intel at 100MB/s read/write. But, I personally prefer SLC than MLC. It works really well both under OS X and Vista - no freezes whatsoever and evrything feels snappy.
Hi,
It's an absolute pleasure to use. I wish I knew why it works so well in the MacBook but nothing else, but to be honest I don't really care !
I'd love one of the Intel drives, but for the price the OCZ is great.
I'm starting to get tempted to try an SSD on the Mac. But then I'm reminded of the saying when things sound too good to be true, heh. So many people have complained about SSD stuttering/pause/hiccups with the JMicron controller that it'd be almost a miracle that it can work flawlessly on the Mac. Even on Linux I've heard they can't get rid of the stuttering problem completely.
Like I've said before, either I'm just not noticing this stuttering or everyone's made it out to be much, much worse than it is. I just can't see/feel anything.
You don't realize how badly I want to believe you because I've been dying to try out an SSD for a while now. I am actually perfectly happy with the normal hard drive on my Macbook, but you know what they say about boys and their toys
The only thing holding me back obviously is the original article on this SSD stuttering problem. The author was clear in his quote here that he experienced the problem on his Mac, from the link:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=7
"I first discovered this problem a couple of months ago when I started work on an article looking at the performance of a SSD in a Mac Pro as a boot/application drive."
These SSD are nice but as far as i'm concerned a nice 5200rpm drive is more than fast enough.
I upgraded my 5200rpm to a 7200 drive in my MBP a while back and never noticed any difference.
Now on the other hand, I have a Macbook Air and it's 4200rpm drive is a lame snail so is essential to get a SSD because there are no faster rotating drives for it.
But certainly it's nice to have things a bit snappier if the price is right.
But that's the thing, any more than $200 is a waste for the average user.
I've tried a bunch of these SSD out of curiousity (I just resell them) and it's fun to play with but totally irrational and extremley expensive.
But it the price drops enough i would kiss the old spin drives bye-bye in a heart beat
I upgraded my 5200rpm to a 7200 drive in my MBP a while back and never noticed any difference.
Now on the other hand, I have a Macbook Air and it's 4200rpm drive is a lame snail so is essential to get a SSD because there are no faster rotating drives for it.
But certainly it's nice to have things a bit snappier if the price is right.
But that's the thing, any more than $200 is a waste for the average user.
I've tried a bunch of these SSD out of curiousity (I just resell them) and it's fun to play with but totally irrational and extremley expensive.
But it the price drops enough i would kiss the old spin drives bye-bye in a heart beat
You don't realize how badly I want to believe you because I've been dying to try out an SSD for a while now. I am actually perfectly happy with the normal hard drive on my Macbook, but you know what they say about boys and their toys
The only thing holding me back obviously is the original article on this SSD stuttering problem. The author was clear in his quote here that he experienced the problem on his Mac, from the link:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=7
"I first discovered this problem a couple of months ago when I started work on an article looking at the performance of a SSD in a Mac Pro as a boot/application drive."
Is that review not the v1 though? Mine's the v2.
Is there any claim from OCZ to have fixed the stuttering issues in v2? What's actually different between the versions?
Yeah that was the V1 version in the review, but the author of it specifically states on page 8 of that review that this is a generic problem affecting all JMicron MLC controllers, and V2 still uses the same controller.
Having said that though, I did a little research into the tool the author used to come up with his results. It's a program called iometer and when I looked up the program the only version for the Mac OS available is a PPC version. Since he posted a lot of benchmarks in that article off his Macbook Pro under Vista... putting two and two together and I have to conclude he must have ran the Windows Vista version of iometer. You can't run Windows Vista on a PPC Macbook Pro so he must have had an Intel Macbook Pro and hence couldn't run the Mac version of iometer.
So the results all of you guys have been seeing on the Mac without the stutters and such do not contradict the original article.
This would be incredible news to all Mac users if this were the case. No windows user wants the MLC drives with JMicron controllers so we could pick them up for cheap when they buy them, can't stand the stutters, and unload them on ebay or craigslist, heh.
Having said that though, I did a little research into the tool the author used to come up with his results. It's a program called iometer and when I looked up the program the only version for the Mac OS available is a PPC version. Since he posted a lot of benchmarks in that article off his Macbook Pro under Vista... putting two and two together and I have to conclude he must have ran the Windows Vista version of iometer. You can't run Windows Vista on a PPC Macbook Pro so he must have had an Intel Macbook Pro and hence couldn't run the Mac version of iometer.
So the results all of you guys have been seeing on the Mac without the stutters and such do not contradict the original article.
This would be incredible news to all Mac users if this were the case. No windows user wants the MLC drives with JMicron controllers so we could pick them up for cheap when they buy them, can't stand the stutters, and unload them on ebay or craigslist, heh.
If for some reason there are no stutters on OS X this would be great news. Slightly confusing news, but great news. I think however the fact the OCZ drives have seek times of 0.35ms still makes me want to stay away. I realise that's very fast indeed, but with all other current/future SSDs seemingly managing < 0.1ms it seems silly to me to get something that is three times slower for want of waiting.
I think my dream drive is an SLC based 128GB beauty. Might have to wait some time for that to come down to an acceptable price
We'd all love to have a 128 gig SLC ssd for sure, but even Apple hasn't included that yet as even an option because even at their prices, they realize the SLC is overpriced.
I finally found some actual numbers for MLC SSD on the Mac at this link here:
http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp08.html
The random writes per second (8 transactions per second) on the OCZ SSD is a bit worrying there, considering that the hard drives get 40-50 transactions per second. Those random writes were the same thing that the Anandtech article noticed the performance problems.
So yeah, I'm even more confused now.
I finally found some actual numbers for MLC SSD on the Mac at this link here:
http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp08.html
The random writes per second (8 transactions per second) on the OCZ SSD is a bit worrying there, considering that the hard drives get 40-50 transactions per second. Those random writes were the same thing that the Anandtech article noticed the performance problems.
So yeah, I'm even more confused now.
I've no idea to be honest. I know mine's fine though. I'm not sure what I can do to show people.
I think it's at least safe to say by now that there does not seem to be any noticeable stuttering issues even with MLC SSD drives using the JMicron controller under Mac OSX. It's safe to believe everybody in this thread, and I'm gonna explain why.
I think Apple users in particular, especially ones that take the time to post in a mac forum, are a very picky bunch. Heck one slanted function key and there's gonna be a thread about it, somewhere. But I just did a google search for "mac ssd stutter" and the ONLY link where anybody complained about it was the original Anandtech article. And I described above how it's impossible for the original author to have tested iometer on the Mac OSX because he was using an Intel Macbook Pro and there is no version of iometer for the Intel Macs available (just versions for PPC Macs).
Put together the facts that Apple users are picky and the lack of any complaints about ssd stuttering under Mac OSX - every link I could find said the opposite, all users claimed no stuttering - and I think Mac OSX has managed to somehow cache all those random writes intelligently enough through the OS that it doesn't stutter even with junk JMicron controllers.
Considering that my local computer store sells 64 gig SSDs for $150 new, and the 128 gig ones for $350 new, Mac users could get some serious performance for the cheap. All you need to do is find an unhappy Windows user experiencing the stuttering problems on ebay or craigslist, convince them you're doing them a favour by taking it off their hands, save a few hundred bucks in the process, and end up happy on both ends of the deal
I think Apple users in particular, especially ones that take the time to post in a mac forum, are a very picky bunch. Heck one slanted function key and there's gonna be a thread about it, somewhere. But I just did a google search for "mac ssd stutter" and the ONLY link where anybody complained about it was the original Anandtech article. And I described above how it's impossible for the original author to have tested iometer on the Mac OSX because he was using an Intel Macbook Pro and there is no version of iometer for the Intel Macs available (just versions for PPC Macs).
Put together the facts that Apple users are picky and the lack of any complaints about ssd stuttering under Mac OSX - every link I could find said the opposite, all users claimed no stuttering - and I think Mac OSX has managed to somehow cache all those random writes intelligently enough through the OS that it doesn't stutter even with junk JMicron controllers.
Considering that my local computer store sells 64 gig SSDs for $150 new, and the 128 gig ones for $350 new, Mac users could get some serious performance for the cheap. All you need to do is find an unhappy Windows user experiencing the stuttering problems on ebay or craigslist, convince them you're doing them a favour by taking it off their hands, save a few hundred bucks in the process, and end up happy on both ends of the deal
I've thrown up a quick video of me launching a few apps on the MacBook, hope they help people.
http://www.the-iblog.com/2008/11/30/video-applications-launching-with-the-ssd/
http://www.the-iblog.com/2008/11/30/video-applications-launching-with-the-ssd/
Ol!ver have you noticed a difference in the amount the fans turn on and off with the new ssd drive? does it feel cooler than with the regular HD drive? have you noticed any battery savings with the HD drive? Thanks! (i'm contemplating picking up a Intel drive in the future whenever i pick up my black or glass book).
I've never heard the fans with either HDD to be honest, the thing's silent. As for battery life, I've not really noticed any difference, though it may be a bit longer but not by too much.
I will be preforming my OCZ ssd install tonight, if there are any request for before and after tests...
I will be preforming my OCZ ssd install tonight, if there are any request for before and after tests...
Let me know how you get on !
I will be preforming my OCZ ssd install tonight, if there are any request for before and after tests...
If you have plenty of mail in Mail.app it'd be interesting to see how quickly it loads after a boot up. It's so painfully slow to load and show the mail for me here with 62,000 emails stored on disk on a 5,400 RPM drive.