Crucial 550 vs Crucial 500 any opinions?

[kgdrum]

hi I recently got a 2012 Mac Pro and I want to set up the Mac with a 1tb SSD as a boot drive.
Last week I bought and returned the Samsung 840 Evo 1tb SSD after the reports came out about speed issues etc......
So now I'm considering one of these Crucial SSD's,for me the most important factor is reliability.
Does anyone here have good info or reasons why I should go with the 550 or the 500.........
I want reliability,I'm sure either will be faster than a 7200 hd,I need 1tb and as far as I know it's either Samsung or Crucial in the quality and bang for the buck 1tb SSD.
Please correct me if I'm overlooking a 1tb SSD from another model line or manufacturer.
Are there any other 1tb SSD's in a similar price range that you feel would be a better choice to be used as an OS drive..
Which do users think are the best SSD candidates for boot drive duties?




THANKS
KG

[HCMarkus]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7864/cruc ... els-tested

[mikehalloran]

Neither is faster. SATA II is the bottleneck.

The 550 has greater capacity as less space is reserved for overprovisioning.

For the small price difference, I'd go for the 550. If there's a large difference, the 500. When I checked recently, I found a $20 difference.

As far as I can tell, Trim makes the 'speed issues etc" a non-issue etc. on the 840 EVO. I found an 845 EVO (enterprise version of the 840) for $100 less than the Crucial so I bought it.

[supersonic]

I use the MX100. They are cheap and so far have been working very well.

[mikehalloran]

I use the MX100. They are cheap and so far have been working very well.

They are a few dollars less but the max capacity is only 512G.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8066/cruc ... 2gb-review

[kgdrum]

I actually decided to go with a Samsung 840 Pro(512gb)NewEgg had it on sale the other day for $269.
Although I would have preferred a 1tb SSD,I think a reliable 512gb SSD at a reasonable price will suffice.
Yesterday I also ordered ram from OWC they are having a sale so I grabbed 32gb for $299,now I'm trying to decide if I should go with this as is, my new (2012)Mac Pro is a 3.2 Quad or upgrade it to a 3.3 6 Core before I install and auth everything,I don't want to do this twice ,lol.

[HCMarkus]

I actually decided to go with a Samsung 840 Pro(512gb)NewEgg had it on sale the other day for $269.
Although I would have preferred a 1tb SSD,I think a reliable 512gb SSD at a reasonable price will suffice.
Yesterday I also ordered ram from OWC they are having a sale so I grabbed 32gb for $299,now I'm trying to decide if I should go with this as is, my new (2012)Mac Pro is a 3.2 Quad or upgrade it to a 3.3 6 Core before I install and auth everything,I don't want to do this twice ,lol.

Upgrading the CPU doesn't impact your O/S, Applicaitons, or Data.

Keep an eye out for the Samsung firmware patch, which is expected 10/15. No one yet knows whether the patch will require wiping the drive; although it is unlikely, you may want to wait until then to install your new SSD.

[kgdrum]

I actually decided to go with a Samsung 840 Pro(512gb)NewEgg had it on sale the other day for $269.
Although I would have preferred a 1tb SSD,I think a reliable 512gb SSD at a reasonable price will suffice.
Yesterday I also ordered ram from OWC they are having a sale so I grabbed 32gb for $299,now I'm trying to decide if I should go with this as is, my new (2012)Mac Pro is a 3.2 Quad or upgrade it to a 3.3 6 Core before I install and auth everything,I don't want to do this twice ,lol.

Upgrading the CPU doesn't impact your O/S, Applicaitons, or Data.

Keep an eye out for the Samsung firmware patch, which is expected 10/15. No one yet knows whether the patch will require wiping the drive; although it is unlikely, you may want to wait until then to install your new SSD.

If I upgrade the CPU I thought some authorizations would be affected as they see the Mac as a different machine?
The firmware patch is for Evo/TLC SSD's from my understanding the 840 Pro doesn't require this firmware upgrade as it's not a Evo/TLC SSD,am I misinformed?

[mikehalloran]

The firmware patch is for Evo/TLC SSD's from my understanding the 840 Pro doesn't require this firmware upgrade as it's not a Evo/TLC SSD,am I misinformed?

You are correct. The older 840 Pro is not affected.

Since the issue is Garbage Collection on the EVO, I'm pretty certain that Trim negates it if it can be enabled. So far, that is only via SATA, eSATA and PCIe. I have read that PCIe over Thunderbolt also works which means that SATA over TB should work, too, but I haven't read of anyone doing that. Trim over USB 3 or TB without PCIe won't work which means that Garbage Collection needs to (or you have to erase and reformat to regain speed and capacity).

I have Trim enabled for my 845 EVO over eSATA. The 840/845 EVO are the same drive but the 845 has added storage capacitors in case of a sudden loss of power making it the Enterprise version–I found a new 1T on eBay under $400 and snagged it. I installed before seeing if if the drive will need to be wiped for the firmware update (That's what Time Machine restores are for).

If someone has the SM843 at a great price, it's the Enterprise version of the 840 Pro.

[HCMarkus]

My bad KG. Mike and you are correct on the Samsung Pro. I don't think Trim negates the issues on the EVO drives though. Trim just tells the drive which data can be erased, so it would not affect old data, which is the data the EVO drives have an issue with.

I did my CPU upgrade two years ago, but don't recall having to reinstall or reauthorize any software.

[mikehalloran]

Samsung does have a firmware Updater utility for the Mac. In most instances it is not data destructive(there are some exceptions). Of course, you should always have a full backup or two before you begin.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... loads.html

[Gravity Jim]

Thanks, Mike. I hadn't even heard about this problem (I have two Samsung 840s and an 840 EVO), and just finished updating the firmware... I think.

The DOS utility from Samsung reported that the upgrade had failed on all three of my drives, but when I ran the utility a second time, each time it said that the drives had already been updated. I am assuming this means that the drives were updated just fine, but the utilities verification routine had a problem of some kind.

Would you assume the same thing? The machine is running fine... maybe even quicker disc I/O than before.

[HCMarkus]

Check for a new firmware updater Oct 15 or thereabouts.

[mikehalloran]

The DOS utility from Samsung reported that the upgrade had failed on all three of my drives, but when I ran the utility a second time, each time it said that the drives had already been updated. I am assuming this means that the drives were updated just fine, but the utilities verification routine had a problem of some kind.

Tons of reports of that issue if you do a search. The Magic utility is Samsung's updater for Windows. It also opens a command-line screen which it looks like a DOS utility. Lots of "Help, it didn't update..." followed by "Check again, it probably did..." replies on the Windows boards.

Thanks, Mike. I hadn't even heard about this problem (I have two Samsung 840s and an 840 EVO), and just finished updating the firmware... I think.

There are previous updaters. The one that everyone is discussing is for a slow write issue that affects some users. That firmware update is scheduled for release next week.

My 845 EVO is supposed to have different firmware so I have no idea if I am affected by this issue or not nor if there will be a firmware update. I'll just keep an eye out. It has a 5 year warranty.

[Gravity Jim]

Thanks some more... I'll be keeping an eye out.