Firmware update and SATA II hard drive (continued)

Thanks everyone for the responses. I'm definitely going to make the move to the SSD for my mid-2009 13 inch Macbook Pro. However, it looks like there might be another option with the Samsung 830 where I might not have to downgrade to EFI 1.6. I just need to do a bit more research on the Samsung option....then I'll pull the trigger and give it a go!

Hi ifraaank.....thanks for the input on the Samsung 830. I just checked and see that this one is a SATA III drive (ie instead of Sata II). I'm assuming this is okay? I just want to make sure I'm looking at the correct SSD. Here is a link to the 128GB version of the 830:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=897029&is=REG&Q=&A=detail s

You can look at this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=729883&page=32 That's where i found it. Others got the same result as me, just look at the last couple of pages.

The SSD you linked to is a Samsung 840 SSD, which I belive is the newer version. I'm not sure how that would perform though. If you can find a 830, that is the one I would have bought if I were you. 🙂

I just wanted to give an update for those that might be interested:

I was able to pick up and install a Samsung 840 256GB SSD into my mid 2009 13 inch Macbook Pro 5,5 (2.26 Ghz, 8GB RAM). I am on EFI 1.7 and did not downgrade to EFI 1.6. After the install, Link speed and negotiated link speed are both 3 gigabit.

So far, so good with regards to performance. I haven't seen any of the EFI 1.7 ill effects (ie no beachballing, freezes, etc....). However, I'm just doing basic surfing, e-mails and nothing intensive....so not sure what types of activities typically cause the problems.

Using blackmagic speed test utility, I'm getting Writes speeds of averaging 190 mb/s and read speeds averaging 260-265 mb/s. I'll have to check this against my old hard drive, but seems to be a significant performance jump in general (everything feels snappy).

Just a couple of questions I wanted to ask:

-Are the performance figures I'm seeing good for SATA II?

-Could I do better with the Samsung 830? or the 840Pro versions? Or, given that my Macbook Pro is limited by SATA II, are the figures I'm getting with the 840 about as good as I'm going to see?

One thing I'm noticing is the battery life seems to be taking a bit of a hit with the SSD as compared to the hard drive. Is this normal?

Thanks,

Just a bit more info:

Just compared the read/write speed tests against my hard drive (Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 7200 RPM, 16MB cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s). The read/write performance readings on this drive were approx 90 mb/s each. So, just going by these figures quite a jump.

I am having one issue with the SSD. Boot up and shut down times very slow. On boot up with the SSD it takes approx 35 seconds before the apple logo appears....this is almost instantaneous on my Hitachi hard drive. Once it the logo appears (on the SSD), it takes another 10 seconds to come up.

Shut down time on the SSD takes about 22 seconds. The Hitachi takes about 1/2 that time to shut down. Once the SSD is up and running, everything is quicker than the Hitachi drive.

I used disk utility to clone/restore my Hitachi drive onto the SSD. Could this be the issue? Just curious if anyone can suggest anything to try to fix the boot up/shut down performance with the SSD?

Reset the PRAM and seems to have solved the boot up performance issue. I now boot up to the logon page in about 15 seconds vs 38 seconds with the Hitachi hard drive......all seems good with the Samsung 840 SSD.

dstofel,

Glad you are seeing results! I didn't see earlier that you are talking about an 13" Mid-2009 MacBook Pro. This changes the ballgame as they say. My posts and issues were with the 15" model. Different mainboard, different issues. I have a suspicsion that the issues are less common on the 13" model, but that is an anecdotal assumption.

Sorry if this seems like a threadjack, but I started a new thread because of the sudden proliferation of EFI 1.6 / Mountain Lion 10.8.3 issues that people seem to be having. I'd like to get the discussion of that particular configuration / combination in once place. My thread, which describes my issue in detail, is here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4921455

If you run the EFI 1.6 and have had issues since the 10.8.3 update, please let me know your thoughts there...

Thanks,

Alex

hi i have also a mbpro 5,5 13" mid 2009

i have now a ssd samsung 840 pro 256 my speeds are now 192 write and 260 read

is that normal for the stata II 3gb or do i have upgrade to the efi 1.7 where every body is talking about

i have tryed to install the efi 1.7 but osx say this system needs no upgrade..

so i stopped .. and came on this forum.

maybe you can help with this...

thanks.

thanks great tip .. i have tryed this one also and the starting time was 35 sec like you and now very short ...

Sorry for the lot of questions but what did you do with the trim enable software or don't you use it...

thanks...

I beleive your Macbook Pro must already be on EFI 1.7 or you wouldn't be getting the read/write speeds you are getting (ie 260 192 respectively). I think if you were still on EFI 1.6, you would be limited to SATA I speeds (ie max 150 MB/s).

You can check if you are already on EFI 1.7 a couple of ways. First, if your negotiated link speed is 3 Gigabit (your on SATA II and EFI 1.7). You can also check your boot rom version. If you see the boot rom version listed below, you are already on EFI 1.7. I've pasted a link on how to check your EFI firmware version below.

I'm getting the same read/write speeds as you are getting. While probably not the fastest, they are very fast and at $149 (at B&H) for this 250 GB SSD, it looks like a great value to me. Glad you got the boot up speeds to decrease from 35 seconds.

Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237

No problem....

I didn't do anything with the trim. I think it's off. I didn't use any of the software that came with the disk.

no trim is not coming with the disk osx support it for the one's the prefure .

so you can use other software to enable it.

these are the setting from me.

Modelnaam: MacBook Pro

Modelaanduiding: MacBookPro5,5

Processornaam: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processorsnelheid: 2,26 GHz

Aantal processors: 1

Totale aantal cores: 2

L2-cache: 3 MB

Geheugen: 2 GB

Bussnelheid: 1,07 GHz

Opstart-ROM-versie: MBP55.00AC.B03

SMC-versie (systeem): 1.47f2

Serienummer (systeem): W8940HW366D

Hardware-UUID: 50F64429-876E-5A60-8147-C0AE478C8BA7

Sudden Motion Sensor:

Status: Ingeschakeld

maybe you can see what's mine is...

thanks