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SSD with native TRIM support

oneMadRssn

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Original poster
Sep 8, 2011
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Since enabling TRIM on third-party SSDs is now more of a pain and requires messing with some PRAM settings when running Yosemite, I was was interested to see this company sells SSDs that allegedly have native TRIM support in OSX, no messing or fussing required.

http://www.angelbird.com/en/prod/ssd-wrk-for-mac-929/

Has anyone had experience with this drive, or this company before?
 
oneMadRssn said:
Since enabling TRIM on third-party SSDs is now more of a pain and requires messing with some PRAM settings when running Yosemite, I was was interested to see this company sells SSDs that allegedly have native TRIM support in OSX, no messing or fussing required.

http://www.angelbird.com/en/prod/ssd-wrk-for-mac-929/

Has anyone had experience with this drive, or this company before?
Click to expand...

Never heard of it, but thanks for posting. Very curious to hear if anybody has used them.
 
oneMadRssn said:
Since enabling TRIM on third-party SSDs is now more of a pain and requires messing with some PRAM settings when running Yosemite, I was was interested to see this company sells SSDs that allegedly have native TRIM support in OSX, no messing or fussing required.

http://www.angelbird.com/en/prod/ssd-wrk-for-mac-929/

Has anyone had experience with this drive, or this company before?
Click to expand...

Don't the samsung ssd's work out of the box
 
They somehow found a way to have the SSD report to the system as an Apple SSD then.
 
oneMadRssn said:
Since enabling TRIM on third-party SSDs is now more of a pain and requires messing with some PRAM settings when running Yosemite.
Click to expand...

Not on my machine it doesn't.. everything still looks super. :cool:
no pain.. and definitely no messing with PRAM required.

Mac mini mid 2011 2.3 with Samsung 256 840 pro and 8Gb ram.

spzgELb.png
 
Last edited:
The potential trouble with TRIM and kext signing is the only reason I deleted Yosemite and went with Mavericks. There were some other minor OS issues, but nothing as bas as the TRIM issue for me. I stuck with Snow Leopard untill a week ago and I'm fine to stay with 10.9 just as long or until there is no more TRIM issue. Anyway, 10.9 seems to run smoother than 10.10 for me on my 2011 Mac mini server.

This reminds me of when Apple prevented iMovie and iDVD from working with any burner other than an Apple one.
 
Albert Siegel said:
TI stuck with Snow Leopard untill a week ago and I'm fine to stay with 10.9 just as long or until there is no more TRIM issue. Anyway, 10.9 seems to run smoother than 10.10 for me on my 2011 Mac mini server.
Click to expand...
You might want to try Mountain Lion (10.8.5) which IMO is the last great, non-Social feature, OSX. Definitely as robust as Snow Leopard.
 
eutexian said:
Not on my machine it doesn't.. everything still looks super. :cool:
no pain.. and definitely no messing with PRAM required.

Mac mini mid 2011 2.3 with Samsung 256 840 pro and 8Gb ram.

Image
Click to expand...

Take a look here - http://www.cindori.org/trim-enabler-and-yosemite/

Trim Enabler will do everything automatically for you still, so it seems easy, but under the hood it makes a change with far-reaching effects, and this change can be accidentally or automatically undone by the OS at some point which then prevents the OS from booting and requires some terminal magic in recovery mode to fix.

Even if you plan to continue using Trim Enabler on Yosemite, it's best to bookmark that page on your iphone and become familiar with it because it is likely one day you will need it.
 
Crosscreek said:
Crucial is suppose to have trim built into their controller so doesn't have to use Apples trim control. Have no idea if it is true but I would like to see someone respond that has one.
Wirecutter recommends them because of cost compared to Samsung with a small performance hit.http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-ssds/
Click to expand...

The Crucial, like most/all SSDs, has what is called "garbage collection" that is different than TRIM. TRIM is handled by the OS.
 
Here is my understanding of TRIM vs. controller-level garbage collect - albiet it may be wrong, so if someone else is an expert please correct me.

The sort of garbage collect that is built into the SSDs looks for data which has been marked as deleted in the file system, and erases it. However, since there is nothing actively pointing it to that data, it pretty much just runs from the top to the bottom over and over again while the SSD is idle. This means that sometimes deleted data does not get noticed and taken care of for some time.

TRIM fixes this issue by adding an active signal that the OS sends to the SSD alerting it to where the deleted data is, thus it is taken care of more promptly.
 
oneMadRssn said:
Here is my understanding of TRIM vs. controller-level garbage collect - albiet it may be wrong, so if someone else is an expert please correct me.

The sort of garbage collect that is built into the SSDs looks for data which has been marked as deleted in the file system, and erases it. However, since there is nothing actively pointing it to that data, it pretty much just runs from the top to the bottom over and over again while the SSD is idle. This means that sometimes deleted data does not get noticed and taken care of for some time.

TRIM fixes this issue by adding an active signal that the OS sends to the SSD alerting it to where the deleted data is, thus it is taken care of more promptly.
Click to expand...

That's what I seem to understand from what I read. The problem with it is you can not use a third party SSD with Trim Enabler unless you disable a security level. Something about Ktext authorization. So garbage collection is the only available function?
 
Crosscreek said:
That's what I seem to understand from what I read. The problem with it is you can not use a third party SSD with Trim Enabler unless you disable a security level. Something about Ktext authorization. So garbage collection is the only available function?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say only, but essentially that is correct. Trim Enabler works by modifying an Apple kext which holds a list of Trim-compatible drivers. You can still use Trim Enabler, and it will automatically disable that kext security for you if you so wish.

That isn't the problem, as far as I understand. The problem is, unlike other OS X settings which are stored in on the hard drive, this security setting is stored in the PRAM, which can be reset either deliberately when troubleshooting another issue or can be reset unexpectedly for a number of other reasons.

If PRAM is reset, then the security setting is re-enabled, and it prevents OS X from loading the modified kext, and the user will be presented with an unbootable system displaying the do not enter sign.

This can be fixed by either unmodifying the kext or re-disabling the security feature. However, at this point, it's not easily done using the automatic Trim Enabler UI, it has to be done in the terminal using recovery mode.

----------

Also, this article summarizes the Anglebird PR pretty much:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/angelbird-mac-ssd-wrk-trim,27864.html

For now I have a 120GB Samsung 840 Pro in my Mini, but I may upgrade to one of these once prices drop a bit more.
 
oneMadRssn said:
I wouldn't say only, but essentially that is correct. Trim Enabler works by modifying an Apple kext which holds a list of Trim-compatible drivers. You can still use Trim Enabler, and it will automatically disable that kext security for you if you so wish.

That isn't the problem, as far as I understand. The problem is, unlike other OS X settings which are stored in on the hard drive, this security setting is stored in the PRAM, which can be reset either deliberately when troubleshooting another issue or can be reset unexpectedly for a number of other reasons.

If PRAM is reset, then the security setting is re-enabled, and it prevents OS X from loading the modified kext, and the user will be presented with an unbootable system displaying the do not enter sign.

This can be fixed by either unmodifying the kext or re-disabling the security feature. However, at this point, it's not easily done using the automatic Trim Enabler UI, it has to be done in the terminal using recovery mode.

----------

Also, this article summarizes the Anglebird PR pretty much:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/angelbird-mac-ssd-wrk-trim,27864.html

For now I have a 120GB Samsung 840 Pro in my Mini, but I may upgrade to one of these once prices drop a bit more.
Click to expand...

Yes, your right. I remember reading about that but forgot about it.

That SSD looks like a good choice for Macs using SATA and also good for external drives. I would like to see some feedback on that. I'm going to grab another 2012 quad core in refurb when they show up again so I might try one of those in it.
 
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