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Advice on reliable and affordable SSD for MP 5.1

polanskiman

polanskiman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 12, 2010
181
47
Hello everyone,

So have this MP 4.1 converted to 5.1 that I would like to add an SSD to. I am sick of the slow boot and waiting times on my current HDD.

I have read quiet a few topics about SSDs for MP 4.1/5.1 but haven't found yet what I was looking for, hence this topic.

The thing is, I can't afford paying all those crazy prices I see around about SSD and PCie options.

Could anyone recommend good SSD options where I could see substantial boot speed and overall speed improvements.

Also what would you guys recommend; Use the SSD solely for booting and OS or also for personal data storage?

Thank you.
 
What’s your budget? How much capacity you need for OS + apps + your own user profile + data storage?

For data storage, any large files (e.g. videos) has very little to no benefit to be stored on SSD. For very small files (e.g. thousands of small icons, thumbnails) are much better to be stored on the SSD. Something small enough and usually in large amount (e.g. photos) is your own choice. I personally suggest to store them on SSD as well.

If all you want is just fast boot, fast apps loading, significantly increase system responsiveness, and you have $300 to spend. You can get a Micon 1100 2TB SATA SSD, plug that into the optical bay’s SATA port (no adaptor require, just leave it hang there). Then you will have 2TB of low latency storage. Which should be good enough for most general usage.
 
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Thanks for the input. Seems cheap TB/USD wise but I can't cash out 300USD now. I guess that 1 TB would be enough for my needs. What is the catch though of that SSD being so cheap compared to other brands?
 
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My understanding is just because that’s new, the manufacturing cost is much lower now.
[doublepost=1534513487][/doublepost]Then just go for the cheapest 1TB SATA SSD you can get.

For your info, Inland Professional has 1TB SSD at $150 range, Crusial and SanDisk is a bit more expensive, but also below $200.
 
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something like a 500gb Samsung 850/860 evo shouldn't be too expensive, and depending on what you do, should be plenty large enough to ensure you get the majority of the performance boost you're likely to experience. Put your music, video (and photos) on spinners which are fast enough for the playback speed, etc.
 
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Samsung 860 EVO with older firmware had issues with Macs, and Crucial MX 300 are slow.

Apart from that I can recommend all Samsung EVO and Pro SSD's, and all Crucial SSD's.

For SATA SSD's I recommend the Caldigit FASTA cards (bootable via eSATA): http://www.caldigit.com/Fasta-6GU3plus/

The older Caldigit FASTA 6GU3 Pro card has two internal SATA connectors.
 
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I've been using Samsung EVO 840's, 850's and 860's in MacPro5,1 reliability for 5+ years now and would highly recommend Samsung SSDs.

Updating the Samsung firmware with a MacPro is a major pain since there were no native Mac tools to do so when I last looked, but it is possible with optical DVDs if you can boot directly into them. (You will need an EFI GPU in order to do this!) It's much easier to connect to a PC, perform firmware update, then connect to Mac, format for Mac usage, and take it from there.

You should be able to find some EVO 850's for decent prices as they're clearing out stock for the EVO 860 models right now. Some retailers had them on clearance a few weeks ago, but there are also some sales on the EVO 860's.

Have not used the new 960/970 line. Personally find the 850 PRO and 860 PRO to be overpriced for MacPro usage. If using them in newer machines or housings, would be worth looking at.

As with anything, just make sure you backup your data frequently and to multiple sources, especially if it's important. Keep a bootable clone of your primary OS SSD just in case anything happens. Carbon Copy Cloner is great for this and can basically be automated if you set it up that way.
 
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The Wirecutter has a good guide on consumer SSDs: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-ssds/

If I were you, I would buy a 1TB Crucial MX500. You can put it in your optical bay, or spend a little more money and get an adaptor to put it in one of your hard drive sleds. Either way you're going to see a huge, huge improvement in your overall system performance over an HDD.

If you *really* want to save money, you can get a 256GB SSD and create a DIY Fusion drive with a HDD, but I wouldn't recommend this if you can find a way to afford a properly-sized SSD.

Either way, I've found it's more of a pain than its worth to try to manage your boot drive and applications on an SSD and your files (documents, movies, files, etc) on a separate HDD. Either save up the cash for a large SSD, or do some research on DIY fusion drives, and accept that you wont get 100% of SSD performance (but it'll still be a ton better than the HDD you're used to!!!!)
 
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Synchro3 said:
Samsung 860 EVO with older firmware had issues with Macs, and Crucial MX 300 are slow.
Click to expand...

You're telling me :confused:

Screenshot 2018-08-17 at 22.10.49.png
 
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Any SSD, even a "slow" one, will make that HDD look like it's standing still. Just buy any 2.5" SATA SSD that has the capacity you need. If you want suggestions, I'd go with Crucial MX500 or ADATA SU800 for a decent combination of price and reasonable speed. Yes, Samsung's are faster, and unless you are doing I/O intensive stuff I defy anyone to tell the difference without a stopwatch; they aren't worth the price premium any more, not for general computing.

Oh, and put everything on it except possibly inactive / archival data.
 
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weckart said:
You're telling me :confused:

View attachment 776497
Click to expand...
Those speeds are totally expected from almost ANY SSD connected to the cMP SATA II connectors.
Only RAIDing multiple drives or a PCIe based SSD will see better speeds.

With RAID, 3 drives in RAID 0 will generally max out the controller with speeds of 650MB/s. And that currently won’t be bootable. 10.13.6 and Mojave block booting from a disk utility created RAID partition.

For greater speeds buy an AHCI based M.2 SSD and pair with an Angelbird Wings PX1 or Lycom DT-120 card.

Failing the you’ll need to research on this forum how to inject NVMe support into your cMP firmware and then buy yourself a Samsung 970 M.2, but that solution is far from ideal IMO.
 
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I did not read all the comments,
there are few options and you need to more specific for the word reliable.

the best ssd is SSUBX SSUAX PCIE SSDs (I am using SSUBX, fast speed and TRIM work OOTB)

if you want something reliable, you might mean RAID1
there are many ways you can do it.
 
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jkh911208 said:
I did not read all the comments,
there are few options and you need to more specific for the word reliable.

the best ssd is SSUBX SSUAX PCIE SSDs (I am using SSUBX, fast speed and TRIM work OOTB)

if you want something reliable, you might mean RAID1
there are many ways you can do it.
Click to expand...

2nd the SSUBX. Fast as NVMe, native TRIM, and bootable with unmodified firmware. Just need a cheap PCIe adapter for it. If you’re concerned about buying a used SSD then opt for a higher capacity 512GB or 1TB when you have more money to spend. They have higher endurance than the smaller capacities. SSUAX is slower, but cheaper and still a great choice.

Of course SATA SSDs are an easy reliable route to take. Samsung 860 EVO 1TB is a good choice.
 
jkh911208 said:
I did not read all the comments,
there are few options and you need to more specific for the word reliable.

the best ssd is SSUBX SSUAX PCIE SSDs (I am using SSUBX, fast speed and TRIM work OOTB)

if you want something reliable, you might mean RAID1
there are many ways you can do it.
Click to expand...

By reliable I mean not some cheap SSD known to have issues specially on a MAC.
 
polanskiman said:
By reliable I mean not some cheap SSD known to have issues specially on a MAC.
Click to expand...
SSUAX and SSUBX are Apple SSDs, made by Samsung, used in almost every Mac model from 2013 to 2015. BTW, if you search for them you will see that an used 512GB one costs at least US$250.

SSUAX = XP941 = PCIe 2.0 x4
SSUBX = SM951 AHCI = PCIe 3.0 x4
 
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tsialex said:
If you insert the NVMe DXE on your cMP BootROM, yes you can boot from it.
Click to expand...

Meaning a mod to the BootRom is required? Does it survive OS updates?
[doublepost=1534743416][/doublepost]
tsialex said:
SSUAX and SSUBX are Apple SSDs, made by Samsung, used in almost every Mac model from 2013 to 2015. BTW, if you search for them you will see that an used 512GB one costs at least US$250.

SSUAX = XP941 = PCIe 2.0 x4
SSUBX = SM951 AHCI = PCIe 3.0 x4
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's pretty pricy indeed.
 
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