2 OWC Mercury SSD's died within 2 months?!?!

[musicguy7]

I got a new 2010 2.8 Quad in August, and used a OWC Mercury SSD as the boot drive. It died within a month. Got a replacement, and it died today. That's 2 SSD's dieing within a month.

First question, is it something I'm doing? I have 2 other WD Caviar Black drives for media. My usage of the SSD only involves running apps, music ones such as Logic, and then reading and writing media to the 2 WD Caviar drives, so I would think the "stress" on the SSD is optimized and minimal. The thing has always had 90% capacity left. I cannot figure out if it's my fault??? I use the program Onyx frequently and it's Cleaning-System option before I shutdown, is that something that could possibly mess with the SSD? Just a wild guess because I'm completely at a loss here...

Second question, is there something wrong with my mac pro board that could be causing my SSD to drive twice within 2 months?

Third question, are SSDs just not that reliable compared to the spinning drives? Am I better off using another WD Caviar Black as my boot and app drive?

Should I just ask for a refund instead of a replacement this time? This to me if its the drive's fault, is really unacceptable, with me having to pay and wait for shipping replacements back and forth.

 

[powerless]

Bad luck me thinks! In saying that I've had two SSD's fail in my 2010 Mac Pro, one OCZ (lasted about 2 mins) and one OWC which lasted just over a month.

Which bay are you putting them in? Both of mine failed whilst in bay one. I now have it (the replacement from OWC) in bay 4.

 

[musicguy7]

Both in Bay 2? Would it really matter haha? Anyway to test a "faulty bay" without sacrificing plopping a WD drive in there..

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

When the Mac Pro was first released five years ago, it was suggested by power users leaving Bay 1 empty. This, in theory, allowed more air to be drawn into the machine via the front fan which sits directly in front of that bay. This is the fan that seems to gather the most dust.

 

[musicguy7]

Ok, I will rearrange it then. If the SSD took about a month to die in bay 2 twice, this wouldn't indicate actual impairment of bay 2 or the logic board right?

 

[VirtualRain]

Sorry to hear of yet another OWC failure but I'm not surprised. It's the Sandforce controllers used in OCZ and OWC drives that's the problem. They are notorious for premature failure and lock ups. People here (including me) have been cautioning people from buying Sandforce drives for months as this has been a longstanding issue even with the prior gen controllers. It's not a reflection of SSD reliability in general. Get something with an Intel, Marvell, or Samsung controller, and you will get something far more reliable.

 

[musicguy7]

, and you will get something far more reliable.

relative to what? I've had laptop drives abused for years that last...

Do you think OWC will refund me for the drive at this point? 2 failures in 2 months, not liking my odds for the future...

 

[Blue Sun]

relative to what? I've had laptop drives abused for years that last...

Do you think OWC will refund me for the drive at this point? 2 failures in 2 months, not liking my odds for the future...

Very strange.

Do you have the 6g OWC SSD? I've got the 120GB 3g Mercury Extreme Pro, its been running perfectly for 9 months now.

It seems as though if SSD's are to fail, its likely to be within the first 3 months.

 

[musicguy7]

I have the 3G 115 gb version. Yeah using SSD's just don't feel stable to me anymore. The replacement they sent back probably wasn't new, the package was open and the drive had marks. Frustrating.

 

[derbothaus]

2 OWC 6G's here. One on MBP and one in Mac Pro. No problems at all for 7 Months. I am waiting for it though. Fully prepared to have them go down in flames. Or not.
OP:
You only bought the Sandforce SSD's. That should be no reason to say ALL SSD's are untrustworthy. Intel have amazing stability and the lowest defect to any storage device HDD or SSD. I'd switch controller manufacturers.