MacPro 4,1 + Vertex3 = Freezes from time to time

[sakaguchinet]

Hello,

just added a OCZ Vertex 3 120GB to my MacPro 4,1 (Slot Nr 4). For the first 3 hours everything went good. But now I have more and more temporary freezes (for approx 30s). When performing xbench there are the following results:

Results 24.28
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.7 (10J869)
Physical RAM 12288 MB
Model MacPro4,1
Drive Type OCZ-VERTEX3
Disk Test 24.28
Sequential 12.26
Uncached Write 341.20 209.49 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 396.11 224.12 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 3.14 0.92 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 447.86 225.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 1225.72
Uncached Write 1392.18 147.38 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 706.98 226.33 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 3425.98 24.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 1192.24 221.23 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Currently the score varies from 10 points to 40 points (in the first 3 hours I had 380 - 410 points!). It is not possible to boot from the Vertex3 anymore.

It seems that there is any problem between my MacPro and the Vertex 3. Maybe a conroller incompatiblity? Can anyone post his own experiences with any SATA3 (6GBps) SSD?

 

[philipma1957]

Hello,

...
Uncached Read 3.14 0.92 MB/sec [4K blocks]...

the above number from your test means one thing RMA time.


Maybe OCZ has a fix on the forums of their site.


I have had bad luck with OCZ vertex in my mac minis. I consider them to be unacceptable gear. I have spent hours fixing OCZ ssds and they are not reliable for me. I will say I only owned three. One was doa the other two needed a lot of tinkering to get to a decent setup all were vertex2 models.




I will say one more thing buying a sata 3 drive for a sata 2 machine makes no sense at all. Now if you put it in a macbook pro 2011 that would at least make sense.


In a minute I will post my xbench for my intel series 320 300 gb purchased for 519 from buy dot com on ebay. edit I just posted the intel the same score is 51MB/sec vs your ssd's .92MB/sec. your ssd is dead until that gets fixed. I am not an intel shill but why are people buying anything but intel series 320 ssd's for mac pros?

I am talking installed in one of the 4 sleds or the optical bay. Not with exotic setups. here is a link to an intel 160gb the 300gb is sold out

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-SSDSA...e_Internal&hash=item231006f940#ht_2545wt_1189

cost is 306 what was the vertex 3 120gb price ? to answer the question the vertex 3 on amazon is 308

http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology-Vertex-2-5-Inch-VTX3-25SAT3-120G/dp/B004Q81CKY

so for 2 dollars less you get a dependable intel with a 3 year warranty that is 40gb bigger. It also has a known controller and for mac pro users is the best choice on the market.

Simply because at sata 2 hookups it does not lose out in any tests by any margin of significance .



One thing I will say OCZ forums did help with the RMA and getting my other two ocz ssds to be okay for use they are you BEST chance to Fix your broken SSD.

 

[Transporteur]

I will say one more thing buying a sata 3 drive for a sata 2 machine makes no sense at all.

Yes it does! You still get the faster random reads/writes from a 6Gb/s drive as opposed to a 3Gb/s drive, which is what accelerates the OS and applications. Sequential speeds (which will be capped to ~275MB/s) are nice for cache or data drives, for the OS, however, they are almost completely useless.

Second thought; DON'T use XBench! The software is 5 years old and never made to bench SSDs. The results you get are horribly unreliable!

Other than that, I agree, time for RMA. And I also agree that OCZ drives are kind of unreliable. Personally, I put reliability above performance. I simply don't have the time to tinker with the computer. If you want reliability, buy Intel. That being said, no matter which drive you buy, none provides 100% reliability, so backup your data. A bootable clone via CCC gets you working again in no time in the incident of a drive failure.

 

[philipma1957]

Yes it does! You still get the faster random reads/writes from a 6Gb/s drive as opposed to a 3Gb/s drive, which is what accelerates the OS and applications. Sequential speeds (which will be capped to ~275MB/s) are nice for cache or data drives, for the OS, however, they are almost completely useless.

Second thought; DON'T use XBench! The software is 5 years old and never made to bench SSDs. The results you get are horribly unreliable!

Other than that, I agree, time for RMA. And I also agree that OCZ drives are kind of unreliable. Personally, I put reliability above performance. I simply don't have the time to tinker with the computer. If you want reliability, buy Intel. That being said, no matter which drive you buy, none provides 100% reliability, so backup your data. A bootable clone via CCC gets you working again in no time in the incident of a drive failure.

yeah he needs to clone the ssd and rma it.


as for sata 3 ssds crucial has a nice one it has been pretty good after they fixed the firmware and it is a bit quicker then the new intel.

But the intel has a 99 percent plus reliable rate (based on the gen2 data with the same controller) and it makes it worth the small speed difference at sata 2. Now sata 3 in a new macbook pro the differences are huge over the intel series 320. How that will apply in practice i don't know As i am not in the market for a laptop I may not test it out.