MP 1,1-5,1 My first SSD

[geo88]

Hi all. I've a Early 2009 Mac Pro I'm updating. I've got a new video card and updated to Mojave. Next up, I want a pair of 1TB SSDs to put in the sATA drive bays. I'm more interested in reliability than extreme performance. Essentially, I use this machine as a HTPC.

The Crucial MX500 1TB ($108) seems to be selling for less than the Samsung 860 EVO 1TB ($139). I'm leaning towards the Crucial. Thoughts?

 

[MarkC426]

Both are very good ssd’s.
Personally all mine are samsung, but that’s my preference.
Maybe wait a week for black friday deals......

 

[AidenShaw]

I'm more interested in reliability than extreme performance. Essentially, I use this machine as a HTPC.

If you are interesting in reliability, going for the lowest price might not be advisable.

Note that SSDs by design will eventually fail. The flash cells have a high, but limited, number of write cycles. Drives have a TBW (Total Bytes Written) warranty. Regardless of time in service, the warranty expires when the TBW is reached. (The drives usually continue to work after the TBW limit, but may fail without warning. In particular, running an SSD nearly full, or without active TRIM, accelerates the wear.)

For the Crucial 1TB, the spec is: 360TB Total Bytes Written (TBW), equal to 197GB per day for 5 years

For the Samsung 860 EVO, the spec is: Warrantied TBW for 860 EVO: 150 TBW for 250 GB model, 300 TBW for 500 GB model, 600 TBW for 1 TB model, 1,200 TBW for 2 TB model and 2,400 TBW for 4 TB model. 5-years or TBW, whichever comes first.

For the Samsung 860 Pro, the spec is: Warrantied TBW for 860 PRO: 300 TBW for 256 GB model, 600 TBW for 512 GB model, 1,200 TBW for 1 TB model, 2,400 TBW for 2 TB model and 4,800 TBW for 4 TB model. 5-years or TBW, whichever comes first.

So, the endurance of the 860 EVO is about twice that of the Crucial, and the 860 Pro twice that of the EVO.

However, like most electronics - infant mortality and other random failures do occur. An SSD is not a replacement for a good backup strategy.

ps: I'm also a Samsung fan, all of the individual drives that I purchase are Samsung. OEM drives are whatever the builder chooses.

 

[geo88]

Thanks MarkC246 & AidenShaw for sharing your personal experience with Samsung drives. That makes two votes for Samsung.

Good advice on having a backup plan. Although, it's hard to imagine myself down the road dealing with warranty service on a $100 computer part. This Mac Pro is not exactly a mission critical piece of gear. Right now it's booting off a Seagate BarraCuda ES 750GB that is 10 years old! Heh

I figure it will cost about $700 total to do the video card, storage, RAM, and CPU upgrades. To me, that's not an insignificant amount of money to be putting in this aging relic. So, saving $50 or $100 is something I do take into consideration.

 

[MarkC426]

If you are interesting in reliability, going for the lowest price might not be advisable.

Note that SSDs by design will eventually fail. The flash cells have a high, but limited, number of write cycles. Drives have a TBW (Total Bytes Written) warranty. Regardless of time in service, the warranty expires when the TBW is reached. (The drives usually continue to work after the TBW limit, but may fail without warning. In particular, running an SSD nearly full, or without active TRIM, accelerates the wear.)

For the Crucial 1TB, the spec is: 360TB Total Bytes Written (TBW), equal to 197GB per day for 5 years

For the Samsung 860 EVO, the spec is: Warrantied TBW for 860 EVO: 150 TBW for 250 GB model, 300 TBW for 500 GB model, 600 TBW for 1 TB model, 1,200 TBW for 2 TB model and 2,400 TBW for 4 TB model. 5-years or TBW, whichever comes first.

For the Samsung 860 Pro, the spec is: Warrantied TBW for 860 PRO: 300 TBW for 256 GB model, 600 TBW for 512 GB model, 1,200 TBW for 1 TB model, 2,400 TBW for 2 TB model and 4,800 TBW for 4 TB model. 5-years or TBW, whichever comes first.

So, the endurance of the 860 EVO is about twice that of the Crucial, and the 860 Pro twice that of the EVO.

However, like most electronics - infant mortality and other random failures do occur. An SSD is not a replacement for a good backup strategy.

ps: I'm also a Samsung fan, all of the individual drives that I purchase are Samsung. OEM drives are whatever the builder chooses.

Interesting figures.
I have just purchased Micromat’s new Lifespan app, which tells you how much life is left in your ssd’s.
I was pleasantly surprised that all my drives are either 99 or 100% life........
I think my 1tb is about 3-4 years old so very pleased, but I literally never delete anything (just keep adding additional storage).
The joy of an expandable mac.

 

[AidenShaw]

Thanks MarkC246 & AidenShaw for sharing your personal experience with Samsung drives. That makes two votes for Samsung.

Also, it's likely that an HTPC system will have a fairly low write load - and writes are what kill SSDs (particularly if they don't have much free space).

And the Crucial spec is for "197GB per day for 5 years" - that's a boatload of movies - roughly writing 4 full BD movies per day.

I've had good luck with Samsung - but the Crucial is likely fine for an HTPC load.