User profile for user: m3adi3c
m3adi3c Author
User level: Level 1
14 points

Crucial M500 vs Samsung 840 EVO

Hello,


I hesitated quite a lot before starting this discussion, thinking that people are already sick and tired of SSD comparisons, but I really haven't found my answer and would greatly appreciate your opinions.


So, I have a Mid 2012 13" MBP which I want to upgrade with a SSD to replace the 5400rpm HDD and I'd like to buy one before Mavs comes out, so that I will use it for a fresh install of Mavs.


I'm aiming for a 500GB-ish drive and the two finalists for me are Crucial m500 480 GB and Samsung 840 EVO. Of course, I would consider the 840 Pro or non-pro if you think it's better, but please, no OWC, Corsair, Intel, SanDisk or other recommendations.


I am leaning towards the M500, mainly because of what professional reviews say (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-m500-1tb-ssd,3551.html), that although it's a tad slower than the 840 EVO, it's more robust, it has better security and, overall, more reliable. Moreover, I think about Apple's increasing number of fights and lawsuits with Samsung, which could eventually result ins ome disadvantages for Samsung product users in Macs. I'm thinking about future firmware updates from Samsung (which could be hard or impossible for Mac users), or even that Apple could implement some features in a future OSX release or some app which could not work for Samsung products.)


On the other hand, Crucial is not a competitor for Apple and it is known that many people love it in their Macs. Moreover, the slightly better speeds in the Samsung I doubt that they will be noticeable in a daily use. What could they mean: 2-3 sec difference when booting up or 5-10 sec when copying (say) a 10GB file? I think I'm okay with that 🙂


So, what are your opinions?


Thanks a lot!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 14, 2013 1:11 AM

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User profile for user: gri3g0
gri3g0
User level: Level 1
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Dec 2, 2013 9:26 AM in response to m3adi3c

Hello, I want to upgrade my macbook pro 13" early 2011 with a ssd m500 120GB, but I have read about someone who had problems with this model (120 GB) in the same macbook model as me (it was by June 2013).


I don´t know very much about ssd and although I have read that your units work fine in your macs, I haven´t read anything about the 120 GB model in an early 2011 mbp. Can anybody confirm that it works well?


Thank you

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User profile for user: clintonfrombirmingham
clintonfrombirmingham
User level: Level 7
30,106 points

Dec 2, 2013 11:20 AM in response to gri3g0

I've been monitoring the Crucial user communities for quite some time now and have not read of any problems with M500 120GB SSDs with MacBook Pros - even with Mavericks.


I'm a big Crucial fan - they're not the fastest drives on the market but they're ridiculously reliable!


Clinton

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User profile for user: m3adi3c
m3adi3c Author
User level: Level 1
14 points

Jan 21, 2014 11:52 PM in response to Paulie81

I'm sorry I can't answer your question, because my experience is scarce with SSDs, that's why I started this topic.


IMO, you'll be fine with either one of them, but to be sure, you could ask your local Apple Store / retailer, their specialists should be trustworthy. 🙂


Good luck!

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User profile for user: clintonfrombirmingham
clintonfrombirmingham
User level: Level 7
30,106 points

Jan 22, 2014 12:17 AM in response to Paulie81

The only bad thing about putting any SSD in your 2008 model is that you won't be able to take advantage of the SATA III (6.0Gbps) speed as your model only supports SATA II (3.0Gbps). Nonetheless, you will enjoy a tremendous speed increase.


Personally, after months of research, I went with the 960GB Crucial M500... I already has a 512GB Crucial M4 and had no problems with it. I'm quite impressed with the speed of the M500 - 400+/500+ write/reads.


And, as Lex says, the Marvell controller is the best around.


Clinton

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User profile for user: Stealth68
Stealth68
User level: Level 1
9 points

Feb 6, 2014 2:34 PM in response to m3adi3c

I just installed the Samsung EVO 500 along with 16GB of Crucial 1600 Mhz DDR3 RAM into my 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 MacBook Pro running Mavericks version 10.9.1... At this point, all components seem to be working great.

I have to admit I am concerned by all of the negative comments I have seen in these forums on the Samsung EVO but I have had no issues thus far. I would like to know if I should try to enable TRIM or if turning on my Time Capsule will hurt performance. I use the Adobe Creative Collection quite extensively (Actually I shunned using it before this upgrade as I often ran into beach balls and other excrutiating caveats)


I am loving the performance and hope it lasts...

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User profile for user: tastsinn
tastsinn
User level: Level 1
0 points

Feb 8, 2014 5:11 AM in response to m3adi3c

I have to point out that the Samsung 840EVO 1TB drive had serious problems with my both MacBook Pros (Unibody Mid 2009):

  • It does NOT WORK AS STARTVOLUME.
    • I mirrored the internal startvolume (by firewire800 connection to a second MBP in target mode with the SSD) using SuperDuper.
    • The booting process with the mirrored system on the SSD ended up in the fatal bad minded Mac symbol with the question mark ("no startvolume available")
  • The writing SPEED is often POOR and far from that I would expect from an SSD.
    • About 20MB (!!) per second is far too slow, even for copying many small files.
    • 8,5 hours for mirroring the 800GB startvolume by a firewire800 connection is too much.


Fortunately, my dealer refunded the fee. Now I'm facing the question if Crucial's M500 960GB is the better alternative.

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User profile for user: LowLuster
LowLuster
User level: Level 6
12,105 points

Feb 8, 2014 5:11 AM in response to tastsinn

It is not the drive. It is the cable going from the drive to the logic board. This is a known fault on 2009 MBPs.

Do a search for Seagate XT disaster for details.

tastsinn wrote:


I have to point out that the Samsung 840EVO 1TB drive had serious problems with my both MacBook Pros (Unibody Mid 2009):

It does NOT WORK AS STARTVOLUME.

  • I mirrored the internal startvolume (by firewire800 connection to a second MBP in target mode with the SSD) using SuperDuper.
  • The booting process with the mirrored system on the SSD ended up in the fatal bad minded Mac symbol with the question mark ("no startvolume available")

The writing SPEED is often POOR, only sometimes as fast as expected.

  • About 20MB (!!) per second is far too slow, even for copying many small files.
  • 8,5 hours for mirroring the 800GB startvolume by a firewire800 connection is too much.

Fortunately, my dealer refunded the fee. Now I'm facing the question if Crucial's M500 960GB is the better alternative.

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User profile for user: clintonfrombirmingham
clintonfrombirmingham
User level: Level 7
30,106 points

Feb 8, 2014 5:15 AM in response to tastsinn

tastsinn,


Since I started documenting EVO "failures" in MacBook Pros, it seems that approximately 20% of folks using them have some sort of problems - that vary - with them.


So I decided to buy the Crucial 960GB M500 and in the little time that I've had it have had no problems at all with it - I can highly recommend it.


Clinton

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Crucial M500 vs Samsung 840 EVO

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