Best COMPATIBLE ssd for NVidia MCP79 chipset?

Hey JDW1 when you get your SSD and set it up as a raid 0 if you are going to let me know how things turn out to be.... Glad that I am able to have help in your research just as much as I got help from others by doing my own research about adding SSD to my system....

I wonder how is that you and I have the same model computer and you have a nvidia chipset and I ended up with a intel, maybe because mine were the first ones to leave the factory in china. I order mine in Dec 31 2009 and I did not get it till February, it was backed order for 1 month I remember these were a hot sale.... Back then

here are some info on the Samsung Trim if you want to know some more JDW!

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/us/html/whitep aper/whitepaper04.html

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-el-capitan-opens-door-to-trim-support-o n-third-party-ssds-for-improved-performa…

all about trim

I apologize if my lack of clarity confused anyone on the topic of chipset, but my personal iMac at home is an 11,1. That iMac does NOT have the NVIDIA chipset. It has Intel. So there is no fear of a drop to SATA-I (1.5Gb/s) even with a SandForce 6G OWC SSD in my machine. But my iMac at the office is an early 2009 24" 9,1 which DOES have the NVIDIA chipset. We are thinking about upgrading that one too with an SSD. And the iMac9,1 is just like the MacBook Pro 5,5 in that they have the NVIDIA chipset which is problematic with SandForce controllers on 6G SSDs.

Another difference between the iMac9,1 and 11,1 is that the 11,1 requires OWC's thermal sensor in order to keep fans running normal (without software hacks) after you swap the internal HDD for an SSD. No such thermal sensor is required for the iMac9,1.

I've not yet made my decision about my iMac at home because of economics. I live outside the USA so I have to pay more than some of you folks for the same SSDs, sensors, and so on. And as much as I would love to RAID two 1TB SSDs inside my iMac11,1, my wife would likely have my head. But once I do made the upgrade, yes, I will of course post XBENCH 64 and 32 speed tests, as well as Black Magic and others.

Thank you for the information on TRIM, Switch900. I appreciate it.

Bad news iMac9,1 owners (with NVidia MCP79 SATA chipset). I just purchased a Samsung EVO 850 (500GB capacity) for my iMac at the office. I formatted it with a 2015 Retina iMac using an external Drive Dock and installed El Capitan on it. I then installed that Samsung SSD into a 2.5 to 3.5 bracket and installed it inside the iMac9,1. It boots faster than the old spinning platter drive did, but my heart sank when I installed Black Magic Disk Speed Test and let it run. The fastest speeds I get are:

110MB/s — write

136MB/s — read

Those are SATA-I speeds.

(SATA-II (3G) speeds should be upwards of 275MB/s. And of course SATA-III (6G) speeds are about 500MB/s.)

Here's the exact SSD I purchase from Amazon Japan:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B00QIH3RUY/

And so, reports claiming the Samsung EVO 850 SSDs (6G) can run inside the iMac9,1 at 3G (SATA-II) speeds are flat out lies.

Supposedly this "slowdown-to-SATA-I" problem should NOT happen on my late 2009 iMac11,1 (also 3G) at home, which has the Intel SATA chipset instead of the stupid NVidia, but I must admit I am a bit spooked now. The X-FILES motto of TRUST NO ONE is certainly correct. I'm depressed.

**** dude well look at the bright side our iMac would run SATA 2 on the optical bay and in the HDD bay and you could run a raid 0....

I am sorry about the Nvidia chipset I mean I never told you about this chipset because I don't own a mac with this chipset, all I could say for the intel chipset. I am sorry that the nvidia chipset brings down the speed. I think the reason why these mac had the nvidia was because of that time, it must be because of the technology, We have to be lucky for those who have the intel chipset up till now. Because there is no bottle neck compatibility with the intel chipset controller, there is a wide compatibility with the Samsung and other SSD.... One thing is for sure that HDD disk create a huge bottle neck for any mac performance.

Just to let everyone know, I have an iMac at the office which is an early 2009 iMac9,1. That's what I spoke of in my previous post. That one has the NVidia SATA chipset. But my late 2009 iMac11,1 at home has the Intel chipset, like Switch900 describes. The slightly older 9,1 is different, and sadly, like I said, despite the numerous reports I read on the internet saying SAMSUNG EVO 850 SSDs work PERFECT at SATA-II (3G) speeds on the early 2009 iMac9,1, they all are lies.

I have not yet upgraded my iMac at home.

And sadly, Switch900, our other discussion about RAIDing 2 SSDs was blocked by you know who. (It now says "Unauthorized" when you try to access it.)

Now, as to TRIM, the link I posted earlier in this discussion is the easiest to understand. Here it is again:

http://www.howtogeek.com/222077/how-to-enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds-on-mac-o s-x/

But here's an even easier summary:

To enable TRIM for all SSDs attached (inside and out) to a given Mac, Open Terminal and type:

sudo trimforce enable

To disable it, you swap "enable" for the word "disable" — but why you would want to is anyone's guess.

yes I definitely know who we are talking about that person was very annoying anyway yes you would not have a problem if you have an iMac 11.1, and putting it in Raid 0 you would get the maximum out of your iMac insane speed and you could edit videos pretty fast with FCPX, I think that dude was pretty jealous about wanting to make a point.... My point is clear I just want to help others upgrade their system who wants to get the maximum out of their almost 6 year iMac...

I ended up choosing the Samsung 850 EVO for my MacBook Pro mid 2009 (with the NVidia MCP79 chipset).

I can confirm that I am getting a "Negotiated Link Speed" of 3Gbps (SATA II).

Blackmagic shows the following speeds:

210MB/s - write

267MB/s - read

The machine is performing much better now after replacing the HDD with the SSD. Boot-up and apps launch a lot faster. CPU usage is lower.

My only question is that the drive shows TRIM Support as "NO" in System Information. Does that mean I cannot enable TRIM?

I am currently running Yosemite but planning to upgrade to El Capitan.

Well you must be one lucky dude can we see your screen capture of black magic and your system report..... From what I heard the nvidia is not compatible with Sata 3 to be used with Sata 2 but anyway if you want trim enable write this in terminal

sudo trimforce enable.

that will boot into trim for the rest of the life of your computer.

Thanks. Is TRIM required? Can I disable it later if I don't want to use it anymore.

Screenshots attached. I see some "x" marks in the Blackmagic test. What does it mean?

it means that your computer has no idea what it will take to render those files at those speed..........

you might want to read up and research about trim, what it does it frees up space when you delete them with trim activated it acts immediately to delete files not being used by the NAND blocks in the SSD for memory storage.

I was getting similar speeds when I did not set up my computer as a RAID 0 but once I got two SSD in Raid 0 I manage to triple the amount of speed