SSD Buying Guide [part 2]

[Weaselboy]

Any ideas what the problem(s) could be that's preventing something from being released?

I don't know, but my personal opinion is they may be evaluating whether it is even worth doing at all. I mean you spend a bunch of money making a new product that has a very small potential market, then after all that Apple changes the design again the following year and you are back where you started. I think we are now up to the third time Apple has done this.

 

[tmiw]

I don't know, but my personal opinion is they may be evaluating whether it is even worth doing at all. I mean you spend a bunch of money making a new product that has a very small potential market, then after all that Apple changes the design again the following year and you are back where you started. I think we are now up to the third time Apple has done this.

Unfortunate but I get why they would be hesitant to do it again. It's getting to the point where the best advice (assuming you don't give up and buy another brand like Lenovo or Dell) is apparently to max out whatever MBP you get. I maxed out the RAM on my late-2013 but not the disk and considering that I'm less than 100GB away from running out of space I'm thinking I should have maxed out the disk too.

 

[robeddie]

Unfortunate but I get why they would be hesitant to do it again. It's getting to the point where the best advice (assuming you don't give up and buy another brand like Lenovo or Dell) is apparently to max out whatever MBP you get. I maxed out the RAM on my late-2013 but not the disk and considering that I'm less than 100GB away from running out of space I'm thinking I should have maxed out the disk too.

Agreed 1000%. It's common to talk about the 'killer' feature in new hardware. With these current generation Apple laptops, the inability to upgrade the hard drive at a later date is a 'killer' flaw. I'm right now staying with my nRMBP because I was able to easily install two Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD's inside.

Buy a new macbook pro these days, and you can probably forget about EVER getting that kind of internal space. A damn shame. If there were a way to at least upgrade the hard drive, I'd be buying a new one for sure.

 

[mechatak]

Agreed 1000%. It's common to talk about the 'killer' feature in new hardware. With these current generation Apple laptops, the inability to upgrade the hard drive at a later date is a 'killer' flaw. I'm right now staying with my nRMBP because I was able to easily install two Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD's inside.

Buy a new macbook pro these days, and you can probably forget about EVER getting that kind of internal space. A damn shame. If there were a way to at least upgrade the hard drive, I'd be buying a new one for sure.

I agree completely. I have the old MBP early 2011 13' i5 model upgraded to two 1TB drives (one Samsung SSDs and second one a hybrid drive) and 16GB ram this laptop flies. Though in processing speeds is probably slow but for everything I need it appears to be as fast as my colleague's new retina MBP.

 

[tomf]

Brilliant thread, thanks to the OP for the great info on page 1.

I'm a newbie at all this so any help would be great -

My macbook pro is a late 13" 2011 model, 750gb hdd, OSX 10.8.5, 4gb ram, 2.4ghz intel core i5

I use it mostly for Audio production work.

Over the last year or so though it has become unbearable, anytime i open the finder window i get the spinning beach ball, if i click icons in the dock (mail, safari, apps) they just sit there and bounce for sometimes up to a minute before they open. the whole thing has become very slow and sluggish, someone suggested it's probably the hdd starting to fail? Tried SMC rests, complete fresh installs, nothing seems to solve it, so i figured it's time to change the drive.

What i'd like to know is would i be better off getting 1 big SSD or a small SSD for the OS & apps and a bigger HDD in place of the optical drive?
Am i right in thinking it's better to keep all my audio files on the new HDD and keep the OS and app's on a separate drive?

Also, i'm a bit confused on which SSD's i can and can't get, SATA 1.5, SATA 3? All a bit of a grey area at the moment.

Going to upgrade the ram to at least 8gb too.

thanks for any advice and help,

Tom

 

[mechatak]

Brilliant thread, thanks to the OP for the great info on page 1.

I'm a newbie at all this so any help would be great -

My macbook pro is a late 13" 2011 model, 750gb hdd, OSX 10.8.5, 4gb ram, 2.4ghz intel core i5

I use it mostly for Audio production work.

Over the last year or so though it has become unbearable, anytime i open the finder window i get the spinning beach ball, if i click icons in the dock (mail, safari, apps) they just sit there and bounce for sometimes up to a minute before they open. the whole thing has become very slow and sluggish, someone suggested it's probably the hdd starting to fail? Tried SMC rests, complete fresh installs, nothing seems to solve it, so i figured it's time to change the drive.

What i'd like to know is would i be better off getting 1 big SSD or a small SSD for the OS & apps and a bigger HDD in place of the optical drive?
Am i right in thinking it's better to keep all my audio files on the new HDD and keep the OS and app's on a separate drive?

Also, i'm a bit confused on which SSD's i can and can't get, SATA 1.5, SATA 3? All a bit of a grey area at the moment.

Going to upgrade the ram to at least 8gb too.

thanks for any advice and help,

Tom

I had the same issue. I have a 13" early 2011 model. Everything became so slow and it was unbearable. I got a 1TB Samsung 840 Evo and moved my current HDD to the optical drive area using optibay (or you can use OWC Data Doubler). The results were phenomenal. The macbook now boots in 12 seconds and everything loads within 1-2 seconds. Super fast. Its like putting a rocket engine in your old car. I also upgraded my ram to 16GB.

Go for it you will not regret it. Samsung Evo 850 is now out so I will recommend that. I think 2011 macbook has SATA 3 in the main drivebay which allows for 6GB/s transfer rate. Should be fine with this SSD.

 

[Weaselboy]

...the whole thing has become very slow and sluggish, someone suggested it's probably the hdd starting to fail?

Yep.. what you are describing is exactly the symptoms of a failing drive. Hopefully you have a good backup.

Am i right in thinking it's better to keep all my audio files on the new HDD and keep the OS and app's on a separate drive?

Not really better, no.... just cheaper. That is the main reason people do this because they cannot afford a large SSD. So they buy a small SSD and mount a larger HDD in the optical bay for extra data. But if you have the money, having everything on the SSD is faster and easier to manage.

Also, i'm a bit confused on which SSD's i can and can't get, SATA 1.5, SATA 3? All a bit of a grey area at the moment.

The new SSDs for sale today will all be SATA III, but they will all work for you since SATA is backwards compatible. So if you had a SATA I MacBook, a new SATA III drive would still work.

 

[Tankmaze]

Just wanted to share, I never upgrade to SSD on my late 2011 MBP just because I don't want to mess with TRIM on a mac.
And I bought the 2015 Mac because my 2011 MBP GPU dead, so now I am "force" to use SSD. Been using it for 2 weeks and definitely the speed is ridiculously fast.

 

[c8rlo]

this site helped me out with researching ALL the SSD's i was shopping for... http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/

 

[Tootall67]

Just finished installing a Samsung 850 Evo 250. Trim enabled, lets hope it continues without issues...

 

[MacFrag]

Installed a Samsung 840 evo 250GB SSD into my MBP 13" mid 2012 non retina two months ago. I get speeds of R/W 500+ mb/s with OS X own native TRIM.

Had to remove it and hanged it in a normal computer and booted from the MAC user image provided by Samsumg to update the firmware:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html

The MAC user image provided by Samsung to update the firmware I could not get it to work/boot from with my MBP. Even from CD/DVD and a USB pendrive.

I did not like the hassle how to update the firmware of this SSD, other then that, works great.

 

[Giuanniello]

Hello,

great thread but way long to read it all, I have a late 2011 MBPro 15" (one of those with the failing graphic board which has gone through replacement thanks to the class action), i7 quad core with 16GB RAM and 500GB HD, it runs latest MacOS and since it got super slow and almost running out of disk space I am seriously thinking to upgrade to an SSD, I see prices of units varying a lot, I used to buy RAM from Crucial and see their options for SSD quite affordable compared to other sources, was wondering what to go for, if to replace with a 500GB or bigger from Crucial or if to look at other brands but willing to remain within 300-400 dollars range, what are your suggestions?

Grazie

 

[Weaselboy]

Hello,

great thread but way long to read it all, I have a late 2011 MBPro 15" (one of those with the failing graphic board which has gone through replacement thanks to the class action), i7 quad core with 16GB RAM and 500GB HD, it runs latest MacOS and since it got super slow and almost running out of disk space I am seriously thinking to upgrade to an SSD, I see prices of units varying a lot, I used to buy RAM from Crucial and see their options for SSD quite affordable compared to other sources, was wondering what to go for, if to replace with a 500GB or bigger from Crucial or if to look at other brands but willing to remain within 300-400 dollars range, what are your suggestions?

Grazie

The Crucial MX200 and Samsung 850 EVO are about the best bang for the buck right now IMO. I would just grab whichever you can find cheapest.

 

[MarvinHC]

The Crucial MX200 and Samsung 850 EVO are about the best bang for the buck right now IMO. I would just grab whichever you can find cheapest.

I would also look at the Crucial BX100. I have put one in my son's 2012 13" Pro and it works very well. But as Weaselboy has said, take the cheapest one out of these choices. Looks like the Samsung 850 EVO is at a very good price at Amazon Italy right now for only 173 Euro for the 500GB version:

http://www.amazon.it/s/ref=nb_sb_no...field-keywords=SSD+500gb&rh=i:aps,k:SSD+500gb

 

[Giuanniello]

Well, gotta say I didn't expect a 512GB SSD to get down to less than 200, at this point I would raise the bar and go for a 750GB one if can find a compatible one for below 300 euros.

By the way, when I compare my mid 2012 MacBookAir with i5 cpu and 4GB RAM to my late 2011 MacBookPro with quad core i7 cpu and 16GB RAM the little 11" looks like a rocket, I think it definitely is time to go for surgery and revitalize the Pro beast!!!

Thank you all

 

[c8rlo]

Well, gotta say I didn't expect a 512GB SSD to get down to less than 200, at this point I would raise the bar and go for a 750GB one if can find a compatible one for below 300 euros.

here in the US, we have several brands that run under the equivalent to 300 euros...

 

[Giuanniello]

here in the US, we have several brands that run under the equivalent to 300 euros...

Would you share some brands/models with me?

Thank you

 

[c8rlo]

Would you share some brands/models with me?

Thank you

sorry, misread a bit...you were looking for a 750gb SSD for under 300 euros. maybe during Black Friday here in the US, and even then that MAY be a stretch cause they still run over 500 euros.

 

[MarvinHC]

Well, gotta say I didn't expect a 512GB SSD to get down to less than 200, at this point I would raise the bar and go for a 750GB one if can find a compatible one for below 300 euros.

By the way, when I compare my mid 2012 MacBookAir with i5 cpu and 4GB RAM to my late 2011 MacBookPro with quad core i7 cpu and 16GB RAM the little 11" looks like a rocket, I think it definitely is time to go for surgery and revitalize the Pro beast!!!

Thank you all

If you stretch your budget a bit further, here are some options for 1TB for less than 350 euros:

http://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/s/ref=is...sd+1tb&ie=UTF8&qid=1443383994&rnid=1688663031

 

[AlexEgan]

Hello!

I have rather an odd question... I have an old (ok, ancient) Macbook Pro - the 2.33ghz core 2 duo from way back in 2006 - and amazingly it has been running quite well for a long time. I have replaced the HD a few times, upgraded the RAM, gone through a few superdrives, a load of batteries etc. etc. but it lives on, which is awesome. Yep, still running Snow Leopard!

Anyway, I currently have a 750gb HD which is on its last legs... Got the 'Finder repeatedly quitting' problem on start-up (alarm bells). Disk Utility is warning me to replace it asap. Done backing up but want to try and clone my HD onto a new SSD while I still can. So I'd like someone's advice...

I know I'm limited to SATA 1 but will this SSD drive work well with my geriatric Mac? (I'd get my current HD's used space down below 500gb before cloning of course...)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...3BTKMHPNR3J1L&psc=1&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl

Or will I not notice the benefits and should just go for a load of storage on a standard HD?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product..._act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A4URWWO54J2JE

Any help is much appreciated...

 

[c8rlo]

I know I'm limited to SATA 1 but will this SSD drive work well with my geriatric Mac? (I'd get my current HD's used space down below 500gb before cloning of course...)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...3BTKMHPNR3J1L&psc=1&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl

Or will I not notice the benefits and should just go for a load of storage on a standard HD?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product..._act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A4URWWO54J2JE

Any help is much appreciated...

most SSD's are backwards compatible with the SATA 3Gb/s & SATA 1.5Gb/s. you'll definitely notice the performance and quick boot time. Samsung SSD's have great warranties for piece of mind...

 

[AlexEgan]

most SSD's are backwards compatible with the SATA 3Gb/s & SATA 1.5Gb/s. you'll definitely notice the performance and quick boot time. Samsung SSD's have great warranties for piece of mind...

Thanks for the peace of mind, I think I'll go for the SSD then... I'm pretty curious to see how my 9 year old frankenmac will acclimatize to such speedy technology

 

[c8rlo]

Thanks for the peace of mind, I think I'll go for the SSD then... I'm pretty curious to see how my 9 year old frankenmac will acclimatize to such speedy technology

NP, keep us posted once you get it installed and share your thoughts...

 

[Made In Machines]

I'm planning on buying a Samsung 850 EVO for my Late 2008 Macbook Pro running El Capitan - am I likely to encounter and problems or issues with trim or anything? When I install a new SSD can I just mount it like I do a regular 2.5 inch SATA drive and then stick my bootable el Capitan thumb drive and do a fresh install onto the drive as it comes from the factory without reformatting etc?

Thanks

 

[Tootall67]

The SSD has to be formatted just like a regular HD, they do not come formatted. After its formatted you can use the thumb drive to install the OS. My Samsung 850 EVO, MBP mid 2012 and El C are all very happy together.