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Best SSD for Mac Pro?

It really depends what you want to do with the drive. If it's just for OS/Apps, maybe consider the Crucial C300 as it has read speeds of up to 355MBs but it's write speeds are 75MBs.
 
MacFanUK said:
It really depends what you want to do with the drive. If it's just for OS/Apps, maybe consider the Crucial C300 as it has read speeds of up to 355MBs but it's write speeds are 75MBs.
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I don't know where you have these numbers from from? They are completely wrong. I just ran AJA, and:

Write (128MB) - 217.4MB/s
Write (256MB) - 216.6MB/s
Write (1GB) - 211.2MB/s

Using Xbench I find:

Sequential Uncached Write - 184.49MB/s (4K)
Sequential Uncached Write - 203.89MB/s (256K)
Random Uncached Write - 114.19MB/s (4K)
Random Uncached Write - 212.52MB/s (256K)

And, this was slow, as I am in the midst of downloading a massve BD at the same time, so the two apps did not run alone.

LB
 
Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV425-S2BD

Has anyone used these and are they any good? Buy Com has them for 200.00 after rebate figuring this will do for now. There's just so many SSD out there don't know which one to get.

Thank's
 
MacFanUK said:
The speeds I quoted were for the 64GB C300 (as given by Crucial) but yes, the larger drives are much faster in write speeds.
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Yes those are the quoted speeds and as AnnandTech shows here it can at least achieve close to those numbers on synthetic sequential read tests.

Sadly for mac owners those speeds won't be possible until :apple: puts some SATA 6 ports in the machines... I'd guess it'll be 3 years from now judging on their blu-ray adoption timeline :rolleyes:
 
I did a bunch of research before getting SSDs for my mac pro. For price and overall performance I went with an 80GB intel X-25m. There are better performers out there but the price was right and this is a consitant performing drive with a solid history of reliability which some of the better performing drives were lacking.

The biggest thing for me was access time and NOT sequential write speed. I know it comes in handy for large file transfers but I have several RAIDx0 and RAID 5 setups in my pro for doing that. What I wanted was the access time advantage when opening apps etc. which pretty much all SSDs excel at.

I do have a second 80GB SSD not being used right now and have been thinking about putting the Raidon Pro Drive PD2520 in my mac just to put the second drive to use.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Raidon/PD2520/

I know with two SSDs I will bottle neck at the controller, but again sequential read/writes are not my main priority, nice yes, but access time I see as the biggest advantage for what I do and the Pro Drive would essentially give me a single 160GB SSD that can operate at or close to the controller speed while saving space. Again I am only considering this because I had purchased a second SSD that I originally intended to use in another machine which didn't end up happening. A single 160GB X-25m would be cheaper than two 80GB drives plus the PD2520, although the two drive RAID setup would likely perform better than the single 160GB. If I end up getting the controller I will post info on the results.
 
Altimeter88 said:
I know with two SSDs I will bottle neck at the controller, but again sequential read/writes are not my main priority, nice yes, but access time I see as the biggest advantage for what I do.
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Assuming that you're going to use soft RAID you should be well within the limit with 2 drives. I think the ICH10R chipset tops out around 600MB/s and the best you'll get out of those is 220-250MB/s reads. I did soft RAID for a while and it worked well, plenty fast depending on what you need it for.
 
frimple said:
Sadly for mac owners those speeds won't be possible until :apple: puts some SATA 6 ports in the machines... I'd guess it'll be 3 years from now judging on their blu-ray adoption timeline :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Didn't Steve just say there won't be official Blu-Ray support in OS X at all? He wants you to rent/buy online from iTunes.
 
FWIW: When I got my MP4,1 recently I opted for the OCZ Agility 2 based on the Anandtech info at the time and have been very happy with it (it simply sits in the 2nd ODD bay). I tried to get a Colossus to work with the MP1,1 I replaced and it was not recognized by Disk Utility so it was returned. Others have also had issues trying to get a Colossus to work.
 
The speed of my RealSSD is not only faster than my "old" Samsung F1 Raid0 array, it is FASTER FASTER. The RealSSD has the new interface, but though the MP of course does not, I cannot believe it matters right now.

On the bus I have the RealSSD (OS, and Appl.), I have a Raid0 array (Samsung F1s), with Data and Images, and I have the original WD HD in the last bay, which I use for BUs.

With that much storage, and a NAS for films, music, and pictures, I can only upgrade for speed, which is why I upgraded from the Raid0 to SSD.

New interface or not, my MP cannot get any faster for me. I am sure that artificial tests will be able to show an improvement if I upgraded to the 2009/2010 MP, if if I elected for 4 SSDs in Raid0, if I upgraded to 32GB RAM, or if I upgraded.......... But, a boot time of 10 seconds, instant start of Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere, and a decoding time of films plenty fast enough, I am happy:D
 
I'm also looking to upgrade to SSD for my boot drive but what are the options for those of us in the UK? The OWC drive looks great but not available over here unfortunately, is it worth risking shipping from the US?
 
bobbydaz said:
I'm also looking to upgrade to SSD for my boot drive but what are the options for those of us in the UK? The OWC drive looks great but not available over here unfortunately, is it worth risking shipping from the US?
Click to expand...

As there are no moving parts in an SSD, I think it wouldn't be risky concerning shipping. Don't know about warranty though.
 
Buy it from the USA

Compared prices for the Crucial RealSSD 128 gb:
Amazon UK £274
OWC USA $299 or £192 after conversion, even with 20% customs tax that is £45 cheaper.

Rip-off Britain strikes again, if I take the plunge into SSD it will be via the good ol' US of A and some import charges.....

Having dealt with OWC before under warranty their 3 year replacement is valid in Europe too but you will have to pay the carriage to return it.
 
I'm looking to get an SSD, to put in a 2008 MP. I can get the OCZ Vertex 2 E 60GB for £140 here in the UK. Its about as much as I want to spend right now, and it does well in the Anandtech Benchmark results (well the 100GB is listed there, I'm guessing the 60GB will perform similarly).

Firstly it come with a 2.5 - 3.5 adaptor. Will this mean I can put it in a MP sled?

And secondly my problem is that my current boot drive is a Raid 0 array of 2x500GB SATA drives, of which I've used 700GB. My User folder is most of that (573GB) and I am happy to keep that on the Raid Array instead of the SSD but my Applications, Library and System folders comes to 114GB. Most of that is the library folder at 84GB. Most of the library folder is Final Cut Studio files (DVD studio templates, motion templates) and iLife support files like audio and idvd). How would I go about (selectively) cloning what I need from my boot drive to the 60GB SSD without a) my user folder and b) all the /Library files that would put me way over the 60GB limit. Would I have to uninstall FCS, and iLife and reinstall them after I've set up the SSD and choose to install all those files to the array?
 
I've got the OWC 120GB on order. I first heard of it at diglloyd (an over the top review, which made me a wee bit suspicious, and then I noticed all the OWC sponsored ads, another red flag). But OWC (aka macsales) has a good history at ResellerRatings. Some other reviews have identified OWC as a legitimate player in the SSD market.
 
I currently have a 120GB OWC SSD in my cart at OWC. Once I order my new MP I will order that too and put it in the empty optical bay. An article I read talks about the new Sandforce controller on the OCZ Vertex 2 and why it makes the SSD better than the Intel x25-m. OWC SSDs also use this same controller, which means their drives are also considered better than the intel x25-m.
 
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