Do you guys follow typical after-market Mac SSD "guides"? (Early 2011 Macbook Pro)

[scootermaster]

I bought a 500gig Samsung 840 for my 15" MBP with 10.8.3.

I already used Trim Enabler, but do any of you do any/all of the other things from the guide here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1505922

Some of those seem like a hassle/needless.

Question 1). Do you guys actually do any of that stuff (other than TRIM, of course)?

Also, I've seen videos of people with, like, 20 second (or less) boot time videos when I google "Samsung 840 macbook pro" (etc). My boot time is around double that. I *think* it's faster than my old spinning drive, but it certainly doesn't seem as fast as I thought it'd be. Now, it's possible those were 840 Pros, and my 2.0ghz i7/16 gigs of Ram isn't as fast as these other systems, but my system is nowhere near as fast as I thought it'd be.

Question 2). Do SSDs take awhile to, um, optimize? I doubt it, but I just thought I'd ask.

Question 3). Any other newbie tips for a guy with an Early 2011 15" Macbook Pro and his first SSD?

PLEASE NO DISCUSSIONS OF HOW THE 840 SUCKS COMPARED TO THE 840 PRO AND HOW TLC NAND IS HORRIBLE AND WILL GIVE YOUR GRANDMA CANCER. I'M SORRY ABOUT YOUR GRANDMA, BUT THIS IS THE DRIVE I CHOSE. THANKS

 

[TheStu]

I bought a 500gig Samsung 840 for my 15" MBP with 10.8.3.

I already used Trim Enabler, but do any of you do any/all of the other things from the guide here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1505922

Some of those seem like a hassle/needless.

Question 1). Do you guys actually do any of that stuff (other than TRIM, of course)?

Also, I've seen videos of people with, like, 20 second (or less) boot time videos when I google "Samsung 840 macbook pro" (etc). My boot time is around double that. I *think* it's faster than my old spinning drive, but it certainly doesn't seem as fast as I thought it'd be. Now, it's possible those were 840 Pros, and my 2.0ghz i7/16 gigs of Ram isn't as fast as these other systems, but my system is nowhere near as fast as I thought it'd be.

Question 2). Do SSDs take awhile to, um, optimize? I doubt it, but I just thought I'd ask.

Question 3). Any other newbie tips for a guy with an Early 2011 15" Macbook Pro and his first SSD?

PLEASE NO DISCUSSIONS OF HOW THE 840 SUCKS COMPARED TO THE 840 PRO AND HOW TLC NAND IS HORRIBLE AND WILL GIVE YOUR GRANDMA CANCER. I'M SORRY ABOUT YOUR GRANDMA, BUT THIS IS THE DRIVE I CHOSE. THANKS

OMG, TLC SUX!!!

Honestly, if you're pulling 40 seconds boot times, there is something amiss.

 

[Tegeril]

Having never put a SSD into a Mac that didn't ship with one, I can only provide this insight:

I just clocked my rMBP with its 830 from hitting the power button to the completion of the desktop background scale-up animation and it is 14 seconds +/- 1s. You really should be seeing better than 40s boots.

Edit: Did you clone onto the SSD or do a fresh install?

And I have local Time Machine snapshots disabled. None of that other business.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I have a mid-2009 13" MBP with a 2.53GHz C2D and 8GB RAM, and a 512 GB Crucial M4. It boots in less than 15 seconds. Honestly in normal usage I don't find it a ton faster than it was with my old 500GB Seagate Momentus XT, but it does work well overall.

 

[Rakehellion]

I got a crappy 256GB SSD for $100 and I love it. It's five times the speed of my HDD, which sits alongside it in my MacBook.

Some of those suggestions, like enabling TRIM, need to be done while others, like moving your home directory to the HDD are overkill and probably the opposite of what you want.

 

[scootermaster]

Wow. So I just timed this. 58 seconds to get to the user login page. Freakin' 20 seconds just to get to the Apple!

So, what the heck is going on here?

I did a "sorta" new install of ML. Which is to say, it was a new install (the drive was empty) but it was hanging off my current install on a USB dongle.

I just repaired permissions, and had some errors there. Other thing I've noticed is my fan seems to be running more lately (although I noticed this for about 2 months, so that's not because of the SSD).

Any ideas? Do a fresh install now that the SSD is installed physically? Something else hardware based? Anything else settings-wise the great Internet wants to see to offer advice?

It sucks, because I've spent the better part of the last 2 days getting this thing set up (especially my virtual machines and stuff) but I'll do it all over again if needed.

Is it possible garbage collection hasn't kicked in, or something? I didn't realize, but I already have about 300+ gigs on this 500 gig drive (Which is more than enough headroom, but is it possible that with that much data written in a short period of time, the layout is suboptimal? I really have no idea. I'm just grasping at straws here).

BUt yeah. 60 second boot times for a 2.0ghz i7 with 16 gigs of ram and ANY SSD, much less a reasonably fast one like a 500gig Samsung 840 is ridiculous, right?

Here's some system info. Anything wrong?

 

[Tegeril]

Write performance is typically what dies first with a garbage collection issue. Reads still typically stay higher. 60s is still way too slow. What do you get with this? https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550?mt=12

830: ~400 write / ~430 read

 

[scootermaster]

Write performance is typically what dies first with a garbage collection issue. Reads still typically stay higher. 60s is still way too slow. What do you get with this? https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550?mt=12

830: ~400 write / ~430 read

330 write / 500 read.

I checked my console logs...there were a bunch of errors including one maybe related to iCloud?

3/18/13 11:04:17.304 PM configd[17]: network changed: v4(en1+:192.168.1.106) DNS+ Proxy+ SMB
3/18/13 11:04:17.323 PM UserEventAgent[11]: Captive: en1: Not probing 'Blahblah' (protected network)
3/18/13 11:04:17.327 PM configd[17]: network changed: v4(en1!:192.168.1.106) DNS Proxy SMB
3/18/13 11:04:17.383 PM UserEventAgent[123]: cannot find useragent 1102
3/18/13 11:04:17.994 PM ntpd[36]: proto: precision = 1.000 usec
3/18/13 11:04:18.000 PM kernel[0]: Sophos Anti-Virus on-access kext activated
3/18/13 11:04:18.792 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:18.792 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 9)
3/18/13 11:04:19.550 PM awacsd[71]: InnerStore GetWakeInfoForZone: no external port for 1418350087.members.btmm.icloud.com.
3/18/13 11:04:19.666 PM awacsd[71]: InnerStore GetWakeInfoForZone: no external port for 1418350087.members.btmm.icloud.com.
3/18/13 11:04:19.000 PM kernel[0]: utun_ctl_connect: creating interface utun0
3/18/13 11:04:21.795 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:21.795 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 8)
3/18/13 11:04:22.672 PM awacsd[71]: InnerStore GetWakeInfoForZone: no external port for 1418350087.members.btmm.icloud.com.
3/18/13 11:04:24.797 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:24.797 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 7)
3/18/13 11:04:27.800 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:27.800 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 6)
3/18/13 11:04:30.802 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:30.803 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 5)
3/18/13 11:04:33.805 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:33.805 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 4)
3/18/13 11:04:36.808 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:36.808 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 3)
3/18/13 11:04:39.811 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:39.811 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 2)
3/18/13 11:04:42.814 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Could not get the user record from OpenDirectory.
3/18/13 11:04:42.814 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 1)
3/18/13 11:04:49.688 PM com.apple.usbmuxd[41]: _heartbeat_failed heartbeat detected detach for device 0x1-192.168.1.124:0!
3/18/13 11:05:03.868 PM SecurityAgent[130]: User info context values set for Blahblah
3/18/13 11:05:04.129 PM SecurityAgent[130]: Login Window login proceeding
3/18/13 11:05:04.378 PM loginwindow[59]: Login Window - Returned from Security Agent
3/18/13 11:05:04.409 PM loginwindow[59]: ERROR | ScreensharingLoginNotification | Failed sending message to screen sharing GetScreensharingPort, err: 1102
3/18/13 11:05:04.429 PM loginwindow[59]: USER_PROCESS: 59 console
3/18/13 11:05:04.490 PM airportd[148]: _doAutoJoin: Already associated to “BlahBlah”. Bailing on auto-join.

It spends 45 seconds on whatever it's trying to do when it sleeps 3 seconds and tries again. I don't know if that's iCloud, or some other network service or what. Ugh.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Macbook with a 500HDD and a 240GB Corsair Force 3. (OMGSandforcesux!!!)

Turn off local Time Machine snapshots [laptops only]

Unnecessary because I use a Time Capsule.

Turn off hibernation [laptops only]

Didn't need to. Works fine.

Set noatime flag

Didn't bother.

Move user home directories to HDD [SSD+HDD only]

Didn't do that. I did redirect/symlink my Downloads and Movies folders, but didn't bother with the rest. (If you don't have at least one user account with a ~/ on the boot drive, you're SOL if the secondary drive fails.)

Use RAM disk or HDD for temporary files

Well, I use the HDD for Downloads. But other temp files, I want them to be faster. No RAMDisk - I only have 4GB to begin with.

Turn off sudden motion sensor [SSD+HDD only]

HDD in original HDD bay, needs sensor.

Turn off hard drive sleep [SSD+HDD only]

Left sleep enabled; no problems. (And wouldn't that kill your battery life?)

A lot of that "disable hibernation/sleep" FUD is specifically for old Sandforce drives w/ outdated firmware, and doesn't really apply to the new kit.

 

[TheStu]

Macbook with a 500HDD and a 240GB Corsair Force 3. (OMGSandforcesux!!!)



Unnecessary because I use a Time Capsule.



Didn't need to. Works fine.



Didn't bother.



Didn't do that. I did redirect/symlink my Downloads and Movies folders, but didn't bother with the rest. (If you don't have at least one user account with a ~/ on the boot drive, you're SOL if the secondary drive fails.)



Well, I use the HDD for Downloads. But other temp files, I want them to be faster. No RAMDisk - I only have 4GB to begin with.



HDD in original HDD bay, needs sensor.



Left sleep enabled; no problems. (And wouldn't that kill your battery life?)

A lot of that "disable hibernation/sleep" FUD is specifically for old Sandforce drives w/ outdated firmware, and doesn't really apply to the new kit.

What's your reboot time? That's a big part of OP's problem.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

What's your reboot time? That's a big part of OP's problem.

37 seconds from power button to desktop. (Startup chimes at 6.5 seconds, Grey Apple appears at 15 seconds. Auto-launched applications start bouncing at 37 seconds.)

So the OS is loading in 21 seconds or so. (?) The rest is firmware/POST. And my SSD is only running at SATA-1 speeds because of the nVidia chipset / Sandforce Firmware issue (which Apple fixed for some machines, but not all, and OCZ fixed for some drives, but not all, and Corsair ignored completely.)

I'll time a warm reboot and get back to you.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I'll time a warm reboot and get back to you.

56 seconds, including 22 seconds of grey spinny shutdown stuff. (Cache flush and Periodic scripts, I think - it doesn't actually run every time, the last shutdown was <5 seconds of grey spinny thing but I wasn't timing it.)

That is one thing I don't like about Macs in general - you can have consistent sub-X-seconds boot/reboot/shutdown/whatever, but every now and then the machine will just decide to take it's sweet time, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Doesn't seem that slow for a 2009, 2.13GHz C2D Macbook hobbled by SATA-1. *shrug*

 

[dave_the_nerd]

What's your reboot time? That's a big part of OP's problem.

I'd also posit that most of the other tips OP linked to are intended to minimize write to the SSD by storing data on an HDD instead, which would in turn make the machine slower, and could only hurt boot times.

 

[Tegeril]

Yeah those tips are largely crap now that we're not dealing with first gen SSDs. I stopped local Time Machine backups because my external drive isn't always connected and it was bringing my internal drive to <20% free space when it should be around 50% free >.<

ScooterMaster, why is your system failing looking for data with OpenDirectory? (or looking at all). Two suggestions via Internet searches are:

1. Turn on auto-login for your primary account
2. Create a new account on the system and see if the problem goes away (whether you sign into that account or not)

Edit: Is this configured to join a company's network / why Sophos AV?

 

[gpse]

in system preferences is the new SSD set as the start-up disk?
for me the only thing I did was enable trim using this method:
http://digitaldj.net/2011/07/21/trim-enabler-for-lion/
and I moved my home folder to my mechanical drive, I get very fast boot times, and haven't had any issues.

 

[Tegeril]

There's no reason to put the home folder on a mechanical drive anymore either.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

ScooterMaster, why is your system failing looking for data with OpenDirectory? (or looking at all). Two suggestions via Internet searches are:

1. Turn on auto-login for your primary account
2. Create a new account on the system and see if the problem goes away (whether you sign into that account or not)

Oh, I missed the OD bit. You should try disabling any network account servers. (Users control panel, under "Login Options.") Just log into a local account.

(I'm actually authenticating to an AD domain.)

 

[Zaap]

My bootup time on an HP Probook running 10.8.3 with 128GB Samsung 840 SSD : 29 seconds to desktop; includes a slight delay in Chameleon and time for me entering my password.

Beyond TRIM support, I don't bother with anything on that list except for "Set noatime flag", not because it really speeds anything up, but because it simply makes sense to turn it off and avoid unnecessary writes. I've never seen any downside to doing this.

 

[scootermaster]

Yeah those tips are largely crap now that we're not dealing with first gen SSDs. I stopped local Time Machine backups because my external drive isn't always connected and it was bringing my internal drive to <20% free space when it should be around 50% free >.<

ScooterMaster, why is your system failing looking for data with OpenDirectory? (or looking at all). Two suggestions via Internet searches are:

1. Turn on auto-login for your primary account
2. Create a new account on the system and see if the problem goes away (whether you sign into that account or not)

Edit: Is this configured to join a company's network / why Sophos AV?

Okay, a couple of things:

1). I enabled automatic login. Seems to cut the time down to about 30 seconds. I'll check. This is a problem though, because for security reasons, I'd much prefer a login/password when my computer boots (but I don't see why this should kill my boot speed). And yes, I realize that isn't particularly secure, but for people who don't know anything, it'll work.

2). I am not trying to log in to anything fancy. My home network is an Airport Extreme, with a hidden 5ghz network and WPA2. That's about as crazy as it gets.

3). I chose Sophos because I thought it might be 64 bit (apparently it isn't) and I wanted to try something other than the Norton that my work hands out. It probably doesn't matter one way or the other.

There's some other weird shit going on. For example, activity monitor (and disk utility, and I'm guessing all other things in the utilities folder) don't show up in spotlight when I search for them.

I didn't migrate applications, but migrated "settings" and "documents" from my user folder, and I got all these lovely question marks in the dock and apps in launchpad that aren't there. Not a big issue, but still weird.

I'm thinking a fresh install might be in order. This where getting TLC Nand sucks though, because I've already written like 300gigs to this drive in 3 days, and I'm going to do it all over again.

Sigh.

The point of this, I think, is that migration assistant sort of sucks. I Dunno.

Any other tips? I really just don't want to do all of this over again, disable automatic logic, and have the same shit happening.

 

[Tegeril]

I've had really good luck with migration assistant from an old MacBook to a new Air and it really made the entire process seamless, but I also let it move everything (and boot performance was amazing)

I agree with the fresh install though. And still have never run Antivirus software on a modern Mac.

 

[scootermaster]

I've had really good luck with migration assistant from an old MacBook to a new Air and it really made the entire process seamless, but I also let it move everything (and boot performance was amazing)

I agree with the fresh install though. And still have never run Antivirus software on a modern Mac.

I didn't want to copy over everything because I'd accumulated a lot of cruft. I thought what I did copy over worked perfectly (my mail and settings were all there, my logins from Safari, etc), but apparently not.

Blah.