Need more info on OWC and other SSD's for Macbook pro use

MrKay · Dec 22, 2010

Hi,

i am one of those Macbook pro users who hasn't been able to bring themselves to buy a Macbook Pro (or other) with an SSD. I got a lot out of the OWC SSD review, but am not sure I got everything I need regarding garbage collection and long term use degradation when using such a drive on a Macbook pro

The main question I have is:

Will I get garbage collection (not necessarily 'Trim', but I assume there are other techniques) with any of the available SSD drives when used with a Macbook pro (I am willing to pay up for an enterprise class drive if that is what it takes)?

thanks

s2odin · Dec 22, 2010

MrKay said:
Hi,

i am one of those Macbook pro users who hasn't been able to bring themselves to buy a Macbook Pro (or other) with an SSD. I got a lot out of the OWC SSD review, but am not sure I got everything I need regarding garbage collection and long term use degradation when using such a drive on a Macbook pro

The main question I have is:

Will I get garbage collection (not necessarily 'Trim', but I assume there are other techniques) with any of the available SSD drives when used with a Macbook pro (I am willing to pay up for an enterprise class drive if that is what it takes)?

thanks

OWC drives are specifically designed for Mac OS X and protect against degradation of the SSD.
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD Serial ATA 2.5" Solid State Drives using High Performance SandForce Processor solution
You can read more about it there. Scroll to the bottom of the page to read reviews.
Or if you're that worried, you could always e-mail, call them, or do their live chat.

MrKay · Dec 22, 2010

Hi,

just read that Snow Leopard native SSD support is thin and GC/TRIM is non-existent is this true ?

s2odin · Dec 22, 2010

MrKay said:
Hi,

just read that Snow Leopard native SSD support is thin and GC/TRIM is non-existent is this true ?

SL does not support TRIM this is true.
Just get the Mercury from OWC as it is specifically designed for Macs. Buying a different SSD with TRIM is pointless (like Vertex 2, Phoenix Pro, etc) since Snow Leopard does not support it.

MrKay · Dec 22, 2010

Does snow leopard support garbage collection or do they not support that as well

chscag · Dec 22, 2010

Snow Leopard does not support TRIM so the answer is no. Garbage collection is not supported. Chances are (we don't know for sure) that the next major upgrade of OS X (Lion) will have support for TRIM built in.

harryb2448 · Dec 22, 2010

Mac SSD performance and TRIM in OSX | bit-tech.net

It may well be Snow Leopard does not require TRIM. Have a look through th above link particularly page 7 Analysis "Does Mac OS X need TRIM?". Use an OWC SSD and very impressed with its performance but if anyone goes this way a clean install is essential as cloning makes the drive as slow as a normal hard drive.

mdfuller · Dec 22, 2010

s2odin said:
OWC drives are specifically designed for Mac OS X and protect against degradation of the SSD.
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD Serial ATA 2.5" Solid State Drives using High Performance SandForce Processor solution
You can read more about it there. Scroll to the bottom of the page to read reviews.
Or if you're that worried, you could always e-mail, call them, or do their live chat.

Hey s2odin. Thanks for making me spend money I don't have! You folks are a bad influence.

MrKay · Dec 22, 2010

@harryb2448

thanks for your reply and thanks to all you guy's as well am gonna go for the owc mercury extreme pro ssd 60gb and let you guy's know how it is

chscag · Dec 22, 2010

harryb2448 said:
Mac SSD performance and TRIM in OSX | bit-tech.net

It may well be Snow Leopard does not require TRIM. Have a look through th above link particularly page 7 Analysis "Does Mac OS X need TRIM?". Use an OWC SSD and very impressed with its performance but if anyone goes this way a clean install is essential as cloning makes the drive as slow as a normal hard drive.

Interesting article harry. Thanks for linking to it. It does raise more questions though doesn't it? Some other food for thought.... the new Air machines use Flash storage. How is that affected? Or is it the same as an SSD?

cwa107 · Dec 22, 2010

Great thread, I have some of the same concerns over long-term viability. I notice that there's been a lot of articles out there about tuning different applications to prevent SSD issues. In particular, moving caches for applications like a web browser over to a RAM disk in order to avoid constant writes and re-writes. There seems to be some sound reasoning associated with these recommendations.

Maybe I'm being a nervous nelly, but I'm having a hard time parting with $400+ even though I REALLY want a 256GB SSD based on some of these comments.

MrKay · Dec 22, 2010

Just wanted to let you guy's know that i have installed a kingston SNV425S264GB bought it used and installed it on my macbook pro 13in mid 2009 2.26ghz 4gb ram 64gb ssd drive and only have the snow leopard on it and few apps have 45.77gb left and my boot time is 18.3sec & shut down time is 3.8sec and firefox opens in that's after the google screen is 3.4sec and all my movies,animes,music are on a external hard drive hopefully once i get the owc ssd after xmas it should hopefully boot up in 10sec

len0475 · Dec 22, 2010

Q: What is different about OWC's Solid-State Drives that separates them from the rest of the market to earn the "Made for Mac" title?

s2odin · Dec 22, 2010

len0475 said:
Q: What is different about OWC's Solid-State Drives that separates them from the rest of the market to earn the "Made for Mac" title?

The controller inside is specifically designed for Mac OS X. Plus it can potentially read/write faster.

len0475 · Dec 22, 2010

s2odin said:
The controller inside is specifically designed for Mac OS X. Plus it can potentially read/write faster.

I guess I was looking for a more technical answer. OWC uses a SandForce SF-1200 controller. This very same controller is also used in Corsairs and OCZ SSDs.

s2odin · Dec 22, 2010

len0475 said:
I guess I was looking for a more technical answer. OWC uses a SandForce SF-1200 controller. This very same controller is also used in Corsairs and OCZ SSDs.

Then e-mail them, lol. I don't own one so I don't know the tech specs, just going off of what people say. And since OS X doesn't support TRIM it doesn't behoove anyone to buy a Sandforce based SSD's. Plus Intel is releasing their X3's soon so those will be good and push the current ones down in price.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro Solid State Drive (SSD) Solutions - High Performance, Reliability, and Endurance

From OWC's site. I'm pretty sure they aren't the same Sandforce controllers.

MrKay · Dec 22, 2010

No the controller is the same as ocz vertex 2

As long as you stick with sandforce controller based drives your performance should be good and i noticed that ocz is offering the vertex 2 in both 28% and 7% over-provisioning versions the only difference in these 2 drives are the owc is only a bit fast at write times

MrKay · Dec 22, 2010

s2odin said:
The controller inside is specifically designed for Mac OS X. Plus it can potentially read/write faster.

s2odin said:
Then e-mail them, lol. I don't own one so I don't know the tech specs, just going off of what people say. And since OS X doesn't support TRIM it doesn't behoove anyone to buy a Sandforce based SSD's. Plus Intel is releasing their X3's soon so those will be good and push the current ones down in price.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro Solid State Drive (SSD) Solutions - High Performance, Reliability, and Endurance

From OWC's site. I'm pretty sure they aren't the same Sandforce controllers.

You should not post something that you don't know it's not good

len0475 · Dec 22, 2010

The new MacBook Air's uses a rebranded Toshiba controller.

Although it's speed is mediocre, it could still be used.

I was under the assumption that you can use any SSD with any controller provided it A. Plugs-In and B. Physically Fits inside the MacBook.

The different controllers just dictates the performance. The SandForce controllers are one of the newer controllers trailing behind the Marvell in performance. It will out-perform most of the Intel, Indilinx, JMicron, Samsung, or Toshiba controllers.

s2odin · Dec 22, 2010

But the Intel are probably the most reliable.

MrKay said:
You should not post something that you don't know it's not good

I don't know 100% of the tech specs behind them, but I know they are good for Macs.

If you look at my other posts, I recommend Intel X-25, Vertex 2, etc.
Believe me, I know generally what is good and what isn't.
And it's not a question of if I know if it's good or not, he's asking tech specs, which I don't know 100%. I'm sure you don't know 100% about the things you talk about, but you base them on certain things. And as far as you getting a new SSD, that's dumb. It can potentially write faster, but it's not guaranteed.
Good luck.

Need more info on OWC and other SSD's for Macbook pro use

MrKay

s2odin

MrKay

s2odin

MrKay

chscag

Well-known member

harryb2448

mdfuller

MrKay

chscag

Well-known member

cwa107

MrKay

len0475

s2odin

len0475

s2odin

MrKay

MrKay

len0475

s2odin

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