Non-Apple SSD upgrade of MacBook Pro and trim enabling

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Non-Apple SSD upgrade of MacBook Pro and trim enabling

Hello.

I have a question about non-Apple SSD upgrade of MacBook Pro. I was planning to go and buy an SSD in a couple of days but I have coincidentally come up with a web page mentioning trim enabling to extend SSD life on MacBook Pros. Actually the article suggested that if trim is not enabled, the SSD performance degradation will start very quickly due to a high number of writing and deletion of data to the same location on the SSD. Apple's original SSDs are really expensive, I checked that. Is there anyone who upgraded with a non-Apple SSD and did not enable trim and realize the SSD performance degradation? Is there anyone who could easily enable trim and is using his Mac efficiently with a non-Apple SSD? I will be glad if you could share your experiences. I really want to improve the speed of my Mid 2012 13 inch MBP but I have to be sure before doing that. I am also planning to buy a Samsung Evo 840 250 GB SSD.

Regards and thanks in advance,

Bugra

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Nov 1, 2013 10:47 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Nov 1, 2013 10:59 AM in response to Omer Bugra

Yes you need to install and run TRIM Enabler after your OS X is installed or reverse cloned onto the GUID/OSX extended Journaled formatted SSD from a external boot clone drive of the previous internal drive.

Also you need to run it after some OS X updates and of course upgrades, you'll notice the immediate performance drop if you don't.

It's available over at MacUpdate.com, you'll have to right or control/alt key click to "Open" it to bypass OS X Gatekeeper.

Read these user tips, you can clone your present internal drive to the new SSD using a SATA to USB adapter/Carbon Copy Cloner (not Superduper) and then reboot and hold option/alt key down on a wired keyboard to boot from it and test before making hardware switch.

Make a bootable clone of your boot drive

Upgrading Your MacBook Pro with a Solid State Drive

Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's

Of your going the fresh install or + TimeMachine restore route, then also read this

Reset your Mac

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Answer 2

Omer Bugra Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 5, 2013 8:07 PM in response to ds store

Thanks for your answer.

But I would also like to learn what you (and other users) think about the built in garbage collection firmware of SSDs. People are suggesting that Apple has its own method of garbage collection called "trim" but the SSDs, especially Samsung 840 series is recommended by some users that they could handle garbage data without causing performance drop using their internal algorithms. I read that trim is a way of garbage data handling which also optimizes SSD performance with the needs of MAC OS X but built in algorithms could give good performance without degradation and data security..

Which should I believe?

Any more experiences from different users? (Especially for amsung Evo 840 250 GB SSD without trim enabled.)

Thanks..

Bugra

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Answer 3

rfc143

Level 1

1 points

Dec 10, 2013 6:15 PM in response to Omer Bugra

I'm no expert, but I've owned an 840 pro for almost a year (and done nothing to it except use it). On a lark I ran Black Magic and noticed dismal write performance (like less than 100 mbs), not that I noticed it that much in my day to day work. I did some reading and downloaded and ran TRIM Enabler from Groths.org. One word: WOW! It works. 325 write; 500+ read.

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Answer 4

Omer Bugra Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 10, 2013 6:31 PM in response to rfc143

I performed the upgrading to SSD after writing that question and installed the Trim Enabler from Groths.org just after the upgrade. It has been more than a month and I did not feel any performance degradation. The MBP boots in 4 to 5 seconds to password screen and programs fire up like lightning. Whatever Trim Enabler is doing, it is doing it fine even without the program working at the background. As I heard from a friend, it just creates a kernel file which is run occasionally to clean the deleted file locations on the SSD and it is working great. Therefore it does not mess with the system files. Until Apple will begin to support all Apple and non-Apple SSDs, Trim Enabler will be able to serve the function of SSD cleaning, I suppose.

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Answer 5

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Dec 10, 2013 6:32 PM in response to Omer Bugra

I purchased an SSD from OWC (macsales.com) and their site states specifically that one should not and need not use TRIM enabler, so I have not. Have had the SSD for about a year without any problems.

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Answer 6

Omer Bugra Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 10, 2013 6:41 PM in response to babowa

Hi Babowa,

Did you perform any speed test on the disk recently. I have read the same things on the web before buying an SSD; there were some models with garbage collection. But some people asserted that trimming process and garbage collection were not the same. But even though the processes are not the same, they could both be serving the function of speeding the SSD up by managing the deleted files but I would like to learn the speed test results you may provide.

By the way, did you feel any improvement in the battery life? I have installed a 256 GB SanDisk Extreme SSD and the battery life extended by approximately half an hour.

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Answer 7

Dec 10, 2013 6:49 PM in response to babowa

In contrast, my son has had two different OWC SSDs in his laptop, without TRIM, and both have choked on deleted data and DIED.

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Answer 8

Dec 10, 2013 6:51 PM in response to Omer Bugra

there were some models with garbage collection.

ALL models have built-in Garbage collection -- it won't work without it.

read this article about TRIM:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRM

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Answer 9

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Dec 10, 2013 7:51 PM in response to Omer Bugra

This is the SSD I purchased:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/SSD/Mercury_Electra_3G_Solid_Sta te

So far, there has been no degradation that I can tell and no, I have not done a speed test. And no, I would not be able to tell if there has been any battery improvement as I usually only run it on battery about 25 - 30% of the time (the rest of the time it is plugged in).

@ Grant:

interesting - which SSD models did he have?

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Answer 10

Dec 10, 2013 8:19 PM in response to babowa

Same as you -- 240Gb size

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Answer 11

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Dec 10, 2013 8:29 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks; I'll file that away until/if I have a problem. As long as I'm covered by the warranty, I'm ok.

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Answer 12

Dec 10, 2013 8:37 PM in response to babowa

They replaced them under warranty.

But it has made me an insufferable advocate of TRIM. Even for those drives.

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Answer 13

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Dec 10, 2013 8:54 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I wonder if I should drop a note to OWC and ask their opinion on the TRIM Enabler; the one (and only) odd thing so far has been a necessary firmware update which I cannot use - it returns an error message which they could not even figure out and told me to simply ignore it until I had a problem.

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Answer 14

Dec 10, 2013 9:02 PM in response to babowa

Their position has always been that it is unnecessary.

OWC has been a seller of Apple modifications (such as Processor upgrades) and add-ons for a long time. They even backed XPostFacto, a very interesting life-booster for running earlier versions of Mac OS X on older PowerPC Macs. They were unable to charge money for it, because it used Apple software in the process. They tried to monetize it by charging for their support forum for XPostFacto instead.

They have been treading very close to the line of using Apple copyrighted software for making money for themselves. I expect Apple contacts them and "reminds" them not to cross that line on a regular basis.

The current batch of third-party TRIM enablers patch the Apple Driver to recognize non-Apple drives as well as the already-supported Apple drives. In my opinion, it would be near impossible for OWC to recommend a solution like TRIM Enabler (which patches Apple software).

In my opinion, OWC suggests their SSD drives "do not require" TRIM Enabler because they feel OWC as a company "do not require" Apple to sue them into bankruptcy.

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Answer 15

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Dec 10, 2013 9:16 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for the insight; I will most likely download and install TRIM Enabler. Hopefully it will work with the OWC SSD. On the other hand, why fix something that works??

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