Best SSD for me - SATA1 notebook

[JBalls335]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to give my Mid-2009 15" Macbook Pro a performance boost, and i know replacing my 7200RPM HDD with an SSD is just about the best way to do it.

Thing is, it runs on the SATA1 standard. I've done some research and read great things about drives like the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830, but can't help but think that i might be better off going with a lower tier, lower priced SSD drive and saving some money instead, given the SATA1 bottleneck.

Would be grateful for any help and advice.

Thanks!

 

[themillak]

don't forget you can always take it out again later an reuse it.

i haven't tried it out yet, but i'd look at the crucial v4. sata2 and a bit less expensive.

 

[tcsenter]

You're gonna save $20 or $30 and substantially increase the risk of problems? Intel, Crucial, and Samsung aren't the most recommended because of their performance, strictly.

 

[hhhd1]

some people reported that the crucial v4 performs horribly bad, I wouldn't think of it specially since it is not that much cheaper when compared to crucial m4

 

[VirtualLarry]

I wouldn't get the Crucial V4, it's still a bit unproven.

I would hop on the Intel X25-M (Gen2) SATA2 SSD deal at TigerDirect for $59.99 with a $20 rebate.

 

[Coup27]

I didn't know you could still buy X25-M G2's but if you can for a good amount less than a current model drive then I would get one of them.

Failing that, the only other drive I would consider would be a Samsung 830. The prices have dropped so much that there is no other drive other than the above I would go down to, for reliability and quality reasons.

Anand has also mentioned how well Samsung drives work in OSX due to Apple and Samsung's close relationship.

 

[Cerb]

Thing is, it runs on the SATA1 standard. I've done some research and read great things about drives like the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830, but can't help but think that i might be better off going with a lower tier, lower priced SSD drive and saving some money instead, given the SATA1 bottleneck.

Does it support AHCI (my 2006 Thinkpad does, so...)? If so, you can take good advantage of random access speeds on faster SSDs.

Does it not support AHCI (well, NCQ)? Then, you really want an SSD with good QD=1 random performance.

On one hand, the sequential transfer rates are all, "too fast," for you, but that's not where most of the real performance gains are. They're in random accesses of anywhere from a few KBs to a few MBs.

With the 150Mbps limitation, the differences between the better SSDs are basically meaningless, but don't go for a low-quality SF or JMicron drive, or a V4. Check out Hot Deals two or three times a day, and pounce when you see a good one. Or, spend full price .

 

[blastingcap]

Avoid Crucial v4 as that is using a Phison controller that isn't as tested... I would not want to bank on that controller's reliability.

There was a sale on Intel 34nm (read/write endurance is higher than 19-25nm NAND and should last many, many years and probably more than a decade even with a lot of use) SSDs recently, at $40 after rebate for 80GB X25-M G2 (yes it has TRIM). Read speed is near the max for SATA 3gbps, write speed 70 MB/s which is acceptable, and most importantly, random I/O is excellent, so good that it's hard to tell whether you're booting from a X25-M or a M4 or 830. I would get something like that. In fact, the drive is still on sale till 10/20: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...041&CatId=5300

Even if you are stuck at SATA1, the important part is random I/O, not sequential transfer speed. Read this for more info: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/2

Hi guys,

I'm looking to give my Mid-2009 15" Macbook Pro a performance boost, and i know replacing my 7200RPM HDD with an SSD is just about the best way to do it.

Thing is, it runs on the SATA1 standard. I've done some research and read great things about drives like the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830, but can't help but think that i might be better off going with a lower tier, lower priced SSD drive and saving some money instead, given the SATA1 bottleneck.

Would be grateful for any help and advice.

Thanks!

 

[Burner27]

I upgraded a friends 2007 macbook with a samsung 830 128GB SSD and it's been working fine ever since.

 

[JBalls335]

Thanks for the tip in the x-25, blastingcap. However, I'm leaning towards a 256gb sized drive so it may not be enough.

I think I'll bite the bullet and go with an 830, the future proofing and reliability factor seems appealing now.

Good advice all around, thanks all.