Angelbird SSD

[nitromullet]

Apparently Angelbird has an SSD that has native TRIM support with signed Apple drivers.

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/31/angelbird-ssd-trim/

I'm surprised I didn't find anything here with search, but I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with one of these.

 

[Kaido]

I have a Wings card from when they first came out. iirc they were the first ones on the scene with a customizable PCIe SSD RAID card (it's basically a 4-port RAID card, but with the ports for the 2.5" SSD's on the card itself for easy loading). Worked great. I'm not sure how TRIM support actually works though. Per the article:

Exactly how Angelbird has achieved native TRIM support on Mac is unclear, as the company has not responded to requests for comment. French site MacBidouille reports [Google Translate], however, that Angelbird's SSDs appear to simply be masquerading as genuine Apple SSDs, thereby qualifying for native TRIM support. While the method appears rather questionable and likely to draw Apple's attention, the drive could still be an appealing option for users looking for the easiest possible solution for upgrading to an SSD

However, a month after that article was published, Apple disabled TRIM support on ALL third-party SSD drives:

http://www.futurelooks.com/apples-yosemite-removes-trim-support-third-party-ssds/

The only way to get it back is to either use an Angelbird SSD or to use something like TRIM Enabler & then disable kext signing on the global level (eek). Angelbird's website has a bit more info, but is sparse on details about how they actually make it work: (emulating a native Apple drive in software perhaps?)

Native TRIM on Mac

Supports TRIM on your Mac out of the box. SSDs are faster than traditional hard disk drives, but they can't keep up their quick speed forever. In order to maintain an SSD, you need the TRIM command, a garbage collection utility that is built in to the background of your Operating System. SSD wrk for Mac is the only 3rd party SSD that supports TRIM for Mac straight from the box. No driver, software or TRIM Enabler is needed!

The other catch is that they have oddly slow write speeds. The 128gb SSD has 563MB/s read, 149MB/s write. The 256gb is better with 297MB/s write, and the 512gb is best at 450MB/s write. Personally, I'd just go with either a Samsung EVO 850 or a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe.

 

[nitromullet]

Yeah, I think Angelbird somehow spoofs an Apple SSD. They aren't really giving up any details on how they do it.

I guess the main concern is whether or not Apple can/will do anything to prevent TRIM from working down the road.

As far as the write speeds go, they aren't really too out of line with the 850 EVO.

http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...SSD/global/html/ssd850evo/specifications.html

Sequential Write performance measurements based on TurboWrite technology, The sequential write performances after TurboWrite region are 150MB/s(120GB), 300MB/s(250GB), 500MB/s(500GB) and 520MB/s(1TB).

...and I assume you suggest the Mushkin due to its Sandforce controller, which apparently has some decent garbage collection, although still better with TRIM support IIRC.

The Angelbird is certainly more expensive than most options. Not sure if TRIM support is needed or worth it.