Where to buy a hard drive

[mikehalloran]

Let me put it this way: I have yet to find a drive, SSD or platter, by any manufacturer that someone has not stated absolutely sucked. Ya' takes yer chances...

I couldn't agree more.

The 3G drives from OWC have a very good reputation, despite the constant concerns voiced on these and other boards. 3 year warranty - a year more than many mechanical drives nowadays. (I know, some still have 5 but 2 or even 1 year is becoming standard).

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal ... olid_State

For Time Machine, no reason not to go large and slow. A 2,3 or 4T WD Green drive is fine. Time Machine sort of eliminates my concerns re data loss. Unfortunately, CCC and SuperDuper will allow you to clone to drives that TM reports as bad - 100% of the time, TM was right and I was able to clone the backups to known good drives.

6G SATA drives on a Mac Pro offer no benefit as the SATA bus is 3G. However, OWC and others offer PCIe solutions that get 6G speeds on a Mac Pro - at a greater expense. If you have a need for the fastest HD out there (until the MP upgrades to Thunderbolt and 6G SATA), here it is:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/PCIe ... lsior/RAID

Having paid $1,200 for a 1G drive and earlier a 20MB drive - both of which went south during warranty, I like the current offerings. Using a professional diagnostic tool suite such as TechTool Pro lets my identify problem drives that Disk Utility says are still good.

[gavspen]

Let me put it this way: I have yet to find a drive, SSD or platter, by any manufacturer that someone has not stated absolutely sucked. Ya' takes yer chances...

You are absolutely correct.

[emulatorloo]

For what it is worth, MacMall has the Samsung 840 series 250GB SSD "on sale" right now for $150.00.

Samsung 250GB 2.5-inch SSD 840 Series (MZ-7TD250BW)
http://www.macmall.com/p/Samsung-Portab ... dp.iacibgh

They have the 500gb version on sale as well, for $280.00:

http://www.macmall.com/p/Samsung-Portab ... dp.iaeefcb

Tempted by the 250gb . . .

[HCMarkus]

Good reviews on the Samsung drives, and that's a fair price. Emu, are you gonna' use your new SSD as your system/applications drive? If you offload docs, downloads and miscellany from your system drive, you may not need 250 gigs... My Snow Leopard system (which includes Mail) is under 50 gigs in size.

From what I read, it sounds like it's a good idea to leave at least 20% spare area on SSD's. This allows garbarge collection and Trim to do their thing unhindered, resulting in longer-term user happiness.

[zandurian]

The theory is when using SSD you should avoid using with files that will be edited a lot.
Sample drives and boot drives don't generally have tons of files that are edited.

HC if I remember correctly doesn't think it's as big of an issue as it once was.

I just started doing projects on an SSD and they seem to do fine. What is the down side?

[kgdrum]

The theory is when using SSD you should avoid using with files that will be edited a lot.
Sample drives and boot drives don't generally have tons of files that are edited.

HC if I remember correctly doesn't think it's as big of an issue as it once was.

I just started doing projects on an SSD and they seem to do fine. What is the down side?

$$$

[HCMarkus]

Some have expressed concern that multiple write cycles will wear an SSD out. SSDs used as OS drives or data drives for sample libraries are seldom written to, so should last forever.

My reading suggests longevity concerns are not grounded in truth, as long as one doesn't run his SSD into a corner by overfilling it. Use Trim (Google "Trim Enabler") with non-SandForce drives (like the Samsungs). Still figuring out if SF drives should be trimmed regularly, or just left alone.

I'm using an SSD as my work drive for projects now. OS and Samples are on additional SSDs. So far, so good. Backups, longer-term storage and Time Machine are on rotating drives.

[emulatorloo]

Emu, are you gonna' use your new SSD as your system/applications drive? If you offload docs, downloads and miscellany from your system drive, you may not need 250 gigs... My Snow Leopard system (which includes Mail) is under 50 gigs in size.

Yes, the plan is to use an SSD for boot drive. If I get all my data (movies, downloads, photos, docs, logic audio samples) off my current Lion boot drive, I am just shy of 100gb.

FWIW the cost of the Samsung 120 at MacMall is $93.99. So may as well spend the extra $50.00 for twice the storage.

I am noticing the Samsung 250 is showing up for $160.00 at a couple of vendors. Ass-uming this means Samsung is going to be putting out new drives soon.

From what I read, it sounds like it's a good idea to leave at least 20% spare area on SSD's. This allows garbarge collection and Trim to do their thing unhindered, resulting in longer-term user happiness.

I've seen similar recommendations.

I always have to research everything to DEATH, came across this blog which has a lot of interesting things to say about SSD and Macs in general. SSD specific article, if you guys haven't seen it before:

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage- ... rview.html

At this time, I think I am gonna wait a bit more. However, I did go ahead and order all the stuff needed to install a couple drives in my lower optical bay of my '08 - OWC multi mount, and sata cables and power splitter from newegg. Have a extra 3.5 SATA drive that I can put to use there, and will keep a spot open for an SSD.

[HCMarkus]

I've seen that article Emu... Mr. Chambers offers a lot of good information, but his unbridled support for all things OWC (which sponsors his site) leaves me a tad suspicious of some of his recommendations. That said, I have taken the SandForce route, going with Intel 330 series SSDs, largely because I found them at great prices back around the Holidays... $140 for 240GB.

[emulatorloo]

Yes, I rolled my eyes at all the hyperbolic OWC SSD boosting . Not very subtle, is he?

[zandurian]

My Mac guy picked me up a couple of 500 GB Samsung 840 series for around $320.00 each. He missed an ebay sale where a guy sold hundreds in one day for $250.00!!!

I did a little study about limited write cycles in SSDs and though they are getting better it's scary enough to make me want to keep using standard HDs for my project files and keep the SSDs just for bootup and sample storage. In that capacity they are said to now outlast their magnetic media counterparts as well as the computers they are installed in.

What do you guys think?

[HCMarkus]

Zandurian, I think that, regardless of how you use 'em, you will be very happy with your SSDs!

[dpg4macman]

I am very partial to G-Drives ( http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm ) I have four of them (500g + 3_160g) I use 160g drives for my media. They've been great - Will most likely buy another when the need arises.

mvh