Dead SSD - suggestions for a new one?

We've been using Crucial SSDs in our Macs without any issues. The MX500 series is a good choice, but stay away from the BX500 series as it is a very basic economy drive which can be as slow as a spinning hard drive.

I've used some OWC drives over the years with mixed success. I really don't like how the current OWC SSDs do not have all their SMART Attributes listed.

Another important consideration when choosing an SSD is whether the manufacturer provides an OS independent firmware updater. Many of the SSD manufacturers will only provide a Windows executable or require a Windows only app to manage the SSD including firmware updates. Crucial and OWC both provide .iso images which can be flashed onto USB drives. I believe Samsung also provides such updaters. Unfortunately SanDisk does not publicly list their OS independent firmware updaters on the support site. Sometimes you can find the download link on the SanDisk forums, but it is not always easy to discover or maybe they don't provide an independent updater for all their SSDs.

I like how Crucial will list what the current firmware update will address so I know whether it is worth risking the firmware update. OWC does not list what the firmware update addresses.

While an SSD does have spare blocks it is always advisable to not completely fill an SSD. The more unused blocks an SSD has, the easier it is for the SSD to manage the wear level when writing data and garbage collection. You may want to consider using an app or script to monitor your free space and alert you when it drops below a certain threshold.

If you do not enable TRIM on an SSD, then you may want to consider unchecking "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" in the Energy Saver preferences. This will allow the SSD's internal garbage collections routines more time to run whenever the drive is not being used instead of putting the SSD to sleep. If the system never sleeps then this probably isn't necessary. We haven't needed to enable this ourselves, but it is something to consider if the performance drops when TRIM is not enabled.

If the SSD is going to be written heavily, you may want to consider an enterprise grade drive or a drive which is rated for high endurance. You may want to check out the Micron SSDs (Crucial is a division of Micron).

Many believe that the SSDs from OWC are the best:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/lineup

Personally, I have used Sandisk and Toshiba and have had great

success. The may not be the fastest on the market but have worked

just fine for me.

As a matter of fact, I have a 256 GB Sandisk Ultra II in my 2011 Mini Server

that I am now using as a home media center. I also installed a 1TB Ultra II

in my late 2013 27" iMac and is working quite well. The Ultra II series has been

replaced by the Ultra 3D series and I just recently installed a 500 GB in

an old 2011 13" MacBook Pro and works great and I got it for $59.

I owned several OWC stuff. I'm using 2 SSD from OWC: so far so good. Looking to get a third one.

Don't know whether they are the best or no. Overall I had good experience (a couple of enclosures died in the past – not disks, didn't lose data). They aren't the most affordable SSD, though.

Speaking of TRIM, they declare that their SSD are immune to it: https://blog.macsales.com/21641-with-an-owc-ssd-theres-no-need-for-trim/

I've read good reviews about Crucial too. Never tested personally.

My 2011 Mac mini is still running the 120GB OCZ Vertex SSD that I put in it as soon as I received it. That is almost 8 years of use and still going strong. That particular SSD details indicated that after it filled half-way, a different controller algorithm, and lower performance kicked in. Also, TRIM built-in to the drive controller.

I have recently purchased a 1TB Crucial MX500 SSD ($130USD). The read is rated at 560 Mbps and Write at 510 Mbps. This drive is functioning as my Time Machine drive for the 250GB SSD in my iMac. I also purchased a 500 GB Sandisk Ultra 3D SSD with the same read speeds as the Crucial, and slightly faster (530Mbps) writes. This drive houses my El Capitan Parallel's guest, and two VirtualBox guests. Either drive has faster I/O than what OWC offers, and both drives have a limited 5-year warranty. The Crucial drive also has integrated power loss immunity protection to secure data on power loss.

My vote would be to use the largest Crucial MX500 for your budget.

Personally I've had very good experience (luck if you like) with PNY SSDs.

Our 2010 Mac Mini still gets used every day and it has been running the same 320GB PNY SSD for almost 6 years.

We also have 2 2012 Mac Mini's, one running dual 480GB PNY SSDs and the other running a 960GB PNY SSD.

In addition, I've upgraded 7 other Mac Mini's, plus 4 iMac's for other folks with (you guessed it) PNY SSDs.

To this day, everyone is extremely happy with both the PNY SSD speed and longevity.

https://www.pny.com/mega-consumer/shop-all-products/solid-state-drives