Best SSD drive for MBP

[Haywood]

I have an i7 Core 15" MBP and looking at replacing the HD with a SSD. I've read several reviews, but most benchmarks are on PC's. Can I get some feedback on anybody who has upgraded and what their experiences are? The Kingston SSDNow V+100 seems like a good drive, but don't know how well it works with a MBP.

Thanks

 

[ubercaffeinated]

for osx, that drive is the best you can get at the moment. it's a toshiba drive with the same controller used in the current generation macbook airs, but with updated firmware - anand reviewed it quite thoroughly - it has more aggressive garbage collection than the current sandforce controller, but also costs more - but i believe the price is worth it. i'd def get it over a vertex 2 or similar offering from owc.

 

[silverpig]

I bought an OCZ Summit (samsung controller that was in the apple SSDs at the time) for my 13" MBP about 1.5 years ago. It was quite nice even though it wasn't the best one at the time. Definitely an upgrade over the mechanical drive.

I just recently bought a Vertex2 for it and put the Summit in my hackintosh. It doesn't feel much faster on the laptop with the Vertex2 over the Summit. The Summit is MUCH faster than the 74 GB raptor I had in the hackintosh though. It's night and day.

I guess my answer is that it probably doesn't matter that much because even a "crappy" Summit is loads faster than a 10k rpm mechanical drive.

 

[Kaido]

I bought an OCZ Summit (samsung controller that was in the apple SSDs at the time) for my 13" MBP about 1.5 years ago. It was quite nice even though it wasn't the best one at the time. Definitely an upgrade over the mechanical drive.

I just recently bought a Vertex2 for it and put the Summit in my hackintosh. It doesn't feel much faster on the laptop with the Vertex2 over the Summit. The Summit is MUCH faster than the 74 GB raptor I had in the hackintosh though. It's night and day.

I guess my answer is that it probably doesn't matter that much because even a "crappy" Summit is loads faster than a 10k rpm mechanical drive.

Yeah I want from a Vertex to a Sandforce 1200 (probably 170 MB/s to 250 MB/s) and it wasn't as big of a bump as it was going HDD -> SSD. It was definitely noticeable, but not as much as ditching the mechanical boot drive. But I won't do anything less than a SF-1200 these days for a boot drive...it's terrible, once you've tried it you can't go back 😀

 

[Kaido]

for osx, that drive is the best you can get at the moment. it's a toshiba drive with the same controller used in the current generation macbook airs, but with updated firmware - anand reviewed it quite thoroughly - it has more aggressive garbage collection than the current sandforce controller, but also costs more - but i believe the price is worth it. i'd def get it over a vertex 2 or similar offering from owc.

Hmm good to know. My 50GB was $229 last summer, so it's nice to see prices dropping at least a little bit, even if its only ~$50.

 

[silverpig]

Hmm good to know. My 50GB was $229 last summer, so it's nice to see prices dropping at least a little bit, even if its only ~$50.

I just got a 60 GB Vertex2 from ncix on sale for $99. Well, $114 + $15 rebate.

 

[Kaido]

I just got a 60 GB Vertex2 from ncix on sale for $99. Well, $114 + $15 rebate.

Still a pretty awesome price though. While my 50-gig was expensive, I don't regret a single cent...it's made my computing life so much better on a day-to-day basis, just being able to boot up fast, open apps fast, have fast virtual memory available, open and save files quickly - nom nom nom. I really want to pick up a 240GB G.Skill model now that they're down to $424, but I just can't justify spending that much on one drive - I could build a whole Hackintosh for that! 😀

 

[amdhunter]

I bought a Microcenter branded Sandforce drive. I like it because it does all the garbage collection without needing trim from the OS.

So far so good. It made a massive difference in OSX.

 

[Emulex]

microcenter g2 with upgraded firmware checkin' in here. so far the only sandforce that doesn't crash on sleep. with the newest firmware loaded myself.

 

[amdhunter]

microcenter g2 with upgraded firmware checkin' in here. so far the only sandforce that doesn't crash on sleep. with the newest firmware loaded myself.

Details on the firmware? 🙂 Plzzzzzzzzzzzz
Although I am having like zero problems with mines. 😀

 

[Haywood]

Thanks, guys. I might wait a month to see if the price of the 256gb comes down. It's going to be hard getting most of my data on a 128gb drive. I know that I can take most of my videos, pictures, and music and put it on an external drive, but it's more of an inconvenience.