Crucial M500 vs Samsung 840 EVO

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3857094?start=0&tstart=0

The EVO is fine as start up drive. You did something wrong in the installment. Or, as Lowluster says, it is the cable.

What IS true however is the 3GB/s connection while the EVO is 6GB/s, that means that it is a bit slower than possible.

An important thing to consider next time is the type of controller (in terms of GarbageControl effectiveness and firmware update flexibility). Read Clinton's and my posts about that.

Lex

Hi Lex,

Yes I successfully installed an EVO 500 as my startup/replacement drive for the stock 5800rpm drive that was included in the original MBP 2012... So far it works flawlessly on the 6Gb bus and along with the 16 GB of RAM I can do things that I wouldn't even attempt in the past. I am concerned about the 'Garbage Control' and the ability to install the firmware updates. Does the ability to activate 'TRIM' affect 'Garbage control' as SSDs don't behave like HDDs... Please expand on your previous post.

Best,

There are several threads here where you can read more about controllers, trim, and garbage control. Some information is outdated (e.g. trim used to be a necessary "hack" for a weak GarbageControl), some is important.

GarbageControl is a SSD activity, Trim is an OS command.

There are three things to consider:

a. "Activating" a Trim command in OSX is a system hack (in an important kext deep in the OSX bowels), and in my opinion only "worth" the hack in in the OS for older SSDs.

b. GarbageControl is much more advanced in the actual SSDs and, although there is a difference in efficiency between the Sandforce based controllers and the Marvell based controllers, in the newest SSDs (also EVO 500) Sandforce based are perfectly allright without Trim.

c. A lot of free space on the SSD, say 100GB or more, makes the little advantage of Trim unimportant.

Lex

I beg to differ with your comment about TRIM. The built in garbage collection is not a replacement for TRIM.

They work together and no real SSD manufacturer has ever stated that TRIM is not needed. The only article to ever say that was one published by OWC about the Re-Branded SSDs they sell (they are not a manufacturer of SSDs).

Apple automatically enables TRIM on all Apple Branded SSDs installed in Mac computers. TRIM Enabler, newest versions, enables TRIM in the same way as Apple does. So I don't see why you say it is a hack when it is done the same way Apple does it automatically.

Please post some links to any article from any SSD manufacturers that state TRIM is not needed and should not be enabled on any of their current or older model SSDs.

If TRIM is not needed then why does Apple Auto Enable it in OS X for Apple SSDs and why does both Windows 7 & 8 Auto enable it on any system that has a SSD installed?

"

The built in garbage collection is not a replacement for TRIM."

I agree and never said that. GarbageCollection is organised and done by the Controller in the SSD. Trim is just a command from the OS that tells the SSD which files are deleted in the OS (it does not do anything on the ssd). That is the reason that Trim has more effect when the SSD is rather full, because the SSD then can react a tad faster with its own GC.

If the SSD has enough free space it is irrelevant. It is not worth it to do the "hack".

As an addition to my post I would like to expand on my "..for older SSDs..": the older SSD have to do full cleaning and writing of a 64K "blocks" with 4k blocks, the latest ones have lower size "blocks", which again makes the Trim command less "interesting".

Thank you all for posting these questions and answers.

I am going to buy the Crucial M500. However, I am confused!

I scanned my computer with Crucial's website, it recommends the following SSD:

Crucial M500 960GB 2.5-inch Internal SSD -

Part Number:CT3886498.

However, I searched on Amazon and get this SSD instead:

Crucial M500 960GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter/spacer)

Internal Solid State Drive CT960M500SSD1

Are they the same?

Here are my Late 2008 '15 MacBook Pro Specs:

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP51.007E.B06

SMC Version (system): 1.33f8

Also, any suggestions on what to do with the HD I will be removing from my macbook? Can it be used as an external hard drive?

They are the same - Amazon just has a better price. You might also want to check with Newegg - that's where I bought mine - the price was even better than Amazon.

Clinton

No difference for the SSD, the difference only is that the "amazon" offer has a spacer included (your internal HDD is 9mm thick, the M500 7mm) but you do not need that spacer.

Be very careful with the cables.

Find out Clinton's experience with Newegg.

Lex,

I'm betting that each kit comes with the spacer - my M500 960GB from Newegg did. I installed it, too, although, as you say, it's of virtually no use!

Clinton

Also, any suggestions on what to do with the HD I will be removing from my macbook? Can it be used as an external hard drive?

Sure. Just purchase an external USB enclosure (or FireWire, eSATA, what have you) and put the old drive into the enclosure. I have five enclosures that I purchased from OWC that I use for cloning my internal SSD to 1 terabyte drives. OWC make really good enclosures - some companies, not so great.

Clinton

@Clinton: Hi Clinton, I never used the spacers. Still having fun with the M500, 😀.

@Selena, indeed I use different make enclosures, one important thing is to decide whether you want USB2 or USB3: your MBP has USB2 but the late MBP models have USB3 which is much faster, in the enclosure is an adapter Sata to USB, which you can not change. Do not buy enclosures with Firewire.

Lex

Hi guys!

Sorry about my post here, it's a bit out of topic.

(apologise about my English too)

I currently thinking about to upgrade my iMac (late 2009) by replacing the DVD superdrive with SSD.

I've been looking over the internet and especially on youtube for the instructions, but haven't found the video or precise instruction for late 2009 iMacs.

Is anybody got an experience to upgrade iMacs late 2009? What additional hardware do I need to do this?

Thank you in advance!

P.S. I had a lot of experience to assemble/disassemble PCs and sort of stuff. But haven't done this for years...

ZeoS,

Here's the video for the OWC Data Doubler for iMac 2009 -> http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_late_2009_dd/.

If I were you, I would install the SSD in your normal boot drive slot and your other (older?) drive in the SuperDrive slot. I don't know if iMacs are like MacBook Pros on this, but MBPs have a preferred boot order, the SuperDrive bay being last on the list.

Good luck,

Clinton

Hi Clinton,

Thank you for fast reply.

The video, you posted is actually not really helpful. I've meant the full installation process rather then just put ssd into the thing they call "data doubler" )

I thought about to completely replace the HDD, but wasn't' completely convinced about it.

I forgot, when I've used the superdrive in my iMac last time, but the 1TB HDD is still pretty useful though.

Anyway, thank for your input!

Cheers.