Some quick SSD Advice? My boot drive died!

[James Steele]

Okay... need a little help. My OCW Accelsior (120GB) boot drive gave up the ghost today. Going to see if I can get it working tomorrow, but I'm not holding out hope. Fortunately I backed it up to a disk image a couple days ago when I suspected it was getting flakey, and my Home folder resides on a different drive anyway, so my email, etc. is safe.

I really don't have a budget for this right now, but I want to get up and running. I'm thinking best way to go would be to get a 250GB Samsung on Amazon for $118:

http://amzn.com/B00E3W1726

I figure I need an adapter too since it's a 2.5" drive. The OWC adapter is nearly $40, but Newer Technology has one for $15:

http://amzn.com/B005PZDVF6

I have a MacPro 4,1. I'm thinking that's all I'll need, right? Really don't want to have to ding the charge card more than I have to!

[Gravity Jim]

James, I agree. I have three Samsungs from Amazon in my computer, and they're awesome. Apple does not directly support TRIM enabling on any drives but their own OEMs, so you'll want to run a utility like TRIM Enabler to get the best long-term performance. Other than that, the Samsungs are highly rated and mine work perfectly.

Also, I used those NewerTech SSD mounting brackets. Cheap and excellent. Why pay more?

[James Steele]

James, I agree. I have three Samsungs from Amazon in my computer, and they're awesome. Apple does not directly support TRIM enabling on any drives but their own OEMs, so you'll want to run a utility like TRIM Enabler to get the best long-term performance. Other than that, the Samsungs are highly rated and mine work perfectly.

Also, I used those NewerTech SSD mounting brackets. Cheap and excellent. Why pay more?

Thanks! I have a guy on Facebook right now scaring me about the limited number of writes issue. Makes me wonder I should avoid putting my documents and emails on the SSD but continue to keep my home folder on a conventional drive? I also got the impression that it's good to leave a significant amount of empty space since eventually the drive starts losing capacity?

[James Steele]

There's also a part of me considering just bagging the SSD, and going with a decent conventional that I can pick up at Fry's tomorrow for cheap to get up and running sooner.

[frankf]

There's also a part of me considering just bagging the SSD, and going with a decent conventional that I can pick up at Fry's tomorrow for cheap to get up and running sooner.

Don't do it James unless you absolutely cannot afford SSD. I have a 250gb OWC boot drive in my MP 3,1 and it screams. The 3G is listed at $147, 6g at $229. Check your system bus speed to see if you will benefit from the 6g.
OWC states no need for Trim:
http://blog.macsales.com/21641-with-an- ... d-for-trim
But any other brand that listers here like Jim are using successfully I'm sure would be fine. Just need to check out the TRIM issue.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Limited # of writes on the SSDs? That is kind of troubling.

[frankf]

I've heard this but I've not seen the limits and don't know how they compare to a HD. OWC sells an Enterprise SSD. More $, not sure if overkill for audio

[bayswater]

From here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

"SSDs have no moving parts to fail mechanically. Each block of a flash-based SSD can only be erased (and therefore written) a limited number of times before it fails. The controllers manage this limitation so that drives can last for many years under normal use."

There is often something in the drive description that gives you an estimate of the total amount of data that can be written to the drive before a failure. It is an amount that would take a few years to get through, and the life estimate is usually longer than most of us would expect from a conventional drive.

[HCMarkus]

James, I agree. I have three Samsungs from Amazon in my computer, and they're awesome. Apple does not directly support TRIM enabling on any drives but their own OEMs, so you'll want to run a utility like TRIM Enabler to get the best long-term performance. Other than that, the Samsungs are highly rated and mine work perfectly.

Also, I used those NewerTech SSD mounting brackets. Cheap and excellent. Why pay more?

Thanks! I have a guy on Facebook right now scaring me about the limited number of writes issue. Makes me wonder I should avoid putting my documents and emails on the SSD but continue to keep my home folder on a conventional drive? I also got the impression that it's good to leave a significant amount of empty space since eventually the drive starts losing capacity?

That guy is completely full of the stuff I had to snake out of my drains yesterday morning(nice way to start the day!)

SSD endurance is an issue only if you are running an Enterprise operation and writing several drive's worth of data per day. The expected lifetime for today's SSDs is longer than for spinning drives.

Get the Samsung James. Don't worry about the adaptor, just open your Mac and place it in the Optical Bay of your 4,1. Power and SATA connectors are ready to roll. I moved my optical drive to the lower bay, where it makes a nice little shelf to rest SSDs on.

For boot uses, my research has my convinced you will not notice a difference connecting to SATA2 (as native on your Mac) or buying an adaptor card and going with SATA3. For streaming longer files, SATA3 can make an discernible difference.

[HCMarkus]

PS:

Jim is right about the TRIM thing. Download and install Cindori's TRIM Enabler and your Samsung will be very happy. Again, your Facebook friend is misinformed about drive death. Yes, leaving extra empty space is good, but all SSDs provide some built-in over provisioning, so simply avoid filling to the brim.

If you want to guarantee extra space that will be untouched, partition your new SSD with a small second partition and don't ever write to that partition.

[HCMarkus]

I googled "SSD Endurance Test"

Samsung has not given any official P/E count or TBW rating for the EVO series. On their global site they claim 10GB writes per day will make the 120GB version last for 28 years. This roughly translates to 100 TBW. Let's wear it out and see if it dies gracefully...

How many gigs of data do YOU write per day?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

On a good day? 6-ish. On a great day, maybe 60. On an average day? .010

[James Steele]

PS:

Jim is right about the TRIM thing. Download and install Cindori's TRIM Enabler and your Samsung will be very happy. Again, your Facebook friend is misinformed about drive death. Yes, leaving extra empty space is good, but all SSDs provide some built-in over provisioning, so simply avoid filling to the brim.

If you want to guarantee extra space that will be untouched, partition your new SSD with a small second partition and don't ever write to that partition.

Thanks! Well I found Fry's will match Amazon's pricing IF it's not a special sale and IF it's sold directly by Amazon, so I'm going to drive up to San Marcos (closer store doesn't have any and get one). Issue for me now is I opened up my Mac and all 4 hard drive bays are being used, which means I will need to install in the optical drive area, but there's a cover over it and I haven't figured out how you remove the cover and get in there, so I'll need to try and Google that. You said there are already the extra power and SATA connectors in the optical bay area? I don't need an adapter?

[James Steele]

So... found a link for a video:

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos ... 009_opt_h/

It appears MY carrier tray will NOT come out! The latch on the back of the computer is in the up position and I've tried with a great deal of force and it's stuck on the bottom and WILL NOT COME OUT!!! I try working the latch on the back up and down... it will not release. Video shows it just easily sliding out... not mine. Ahhh... well, maybe something wasn't quite right with this refurb after all!

[James Steele]

Wow!!! Nevermind! Finally came out of there!!!! Must have been a thermal thing and it needed to cool down a little. I see the extra connector. Looks good. Thanks for the tip, HC... I'm off to Fry's to get the Samsung and I'll just move the DVD drive down one space.