Solid State Drive Upgrade
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- kalkal0
Most SSDs that fail, don't fail because they hit the limit of writes, they usually fail because the controller is crappy, mostly on older sandforce based models.
If you're only using it for your programs, it will last many years.
Smaller ones (like 128gb) can usually hold 3000-4000 full writes (and all writes to an SSD are as random as possible), so you're looking at writing hundreds of terabytes until it dies, and like I said, if you're only installing your apps on it, you're not going to be writing anything close to that any time soon.
- mg330
Holy damn this thing is fast now! Had some issues using a Time Machine backup to restore to a new SSD, but used Carbon Copy Cloner and everything worked well.
Ran benchmark tests of my original SSD against the new one:
Old Read / Write numbers were each in the mid 100s.
New Read / Write numbers are in the upper 400s and above 500.Considering I have 16 GB of RAM in this, I don't think there's anything I can do to make it any faster. Awesome.
- mg330
Someone in the past posted a link to a great article on the proper method of moving a time machine backup to a new SSD. Anyone know what that article is?
I've got a new SSD arriving today to upgrade from my 128GB SSD to 256 GB SSD. Just need to make sure I follow the best method of migrating a backup from Time Machine so everything is the same on the new one.
Thanks.
- sem0
This is what I got in my MBP
http://www.ebuyer.com/353112-ocz…Great size and speeds for decent price. There is a cheaper version with better rating though (just lacks IOP performance) http://www.ebuyer.com/583285-ocz…
- OCZ went bankrupt btw, might want to be careful about warranty issues.zarkonite
- http://arstechnica.c…zarkonite
- Thanks for the heads up. I backup well though so should be ok.sem
- I have one of those sitting on my desk. Bricked ,out of no where with no warning. I hold onto it with the hope that one day we can resurrect it like walt disney.dorkKn1ght
- mg330
I'm probably going to upgrade my 2011 MBP 128GB SSD to a larger one in the next couple of weeks. Can't find the exact specs on that one, but I know that newer ones have even faster read/write speeds, and Crucial has a 240GB drive for around $140. Doubling the space will be nice.
I use a 1 TB external drive (My Passport Studio) and it'd be convenient to move some things to the computer to have available all the time.
- boobs0
I got an SSD for my Mac when the original hard drive was starting to go fuckity. I installed it myself, and it works great!
Definitely a worthwhile upgrade. Especially noticeable when using Logic Pro and Native Instruments! Big improvement there!
- nb0
For anyone questioning SSD:
I dropped an SSD in my machine a while back, and now the system starts up and shutdowns in about ten seconds. So great. I've really noticed a huge improvement in my relationships with family and friends with those extra four minutes of free time each week.
- Same here, since getting an SSD I found I have more friends in life and lost weight!sem
- sem0
For anyone questioning SSD
Boot Times:
Loading Apps:
- sem0
Bare in mind, sometimes your Mac won't notice the new SSD on boot options. This is because sometimes you have to update the drives firmware first.
Also, if using two drives inside a MacBook Pro like I said above. A good tip is to move your itunes folder to the 1tb drive to save space on the SSD (esp if you have many game apps etc) you can also move any other big folders to the 1tb and make an alias (with the same name) to trick OSX into using the storage drive rather than the SSD.
If that makes sense to you, you'll have tons of space on your SSD for OS and Programs.
- ernexbcn0
SSDs have improved a lot, I think they are as reliable as magnetic media now.
If you are not on SSD yet do it, the difference is night and day. Put your main OS on an SSD and large media on traditional drives.
- yurimon0
So if ssd's have limited write capacity? So how does virtual memory use effect ssd's lifespan? better to put all temp files or uses on another hd non solid state if you want to be more particular?
- nocomply0
Once you go SSD you'll never go back! It's way faster.
I upgrading to an SSD on my old windows laptop about 2 years ago, installed windows 8, and my startup/shutdown times were less than 10 seconds. Apps like photoshop open within 5 or 6 seconds.
I bought a macbook pro with an SSD about a year ago and have noticed similar performance, but believe it or not windows still starts up and shuts down faster.
I use the SSD for my OS and all apps, and store all of my work files, music, movies, etc... on a USB 3.0 external HD. It's a system I've been doing for many years now and it works for me.
- Windows takes forever to shut down compare to Macs. It has a shutdown screen and all. Macs just turn off instantly.monospaced
- Sometimes. Since Mountain Lion, shutdowns have been a little funky for me.nikdaum
- Windows 7 on bootcamp via SSD shuts down perfectly fast for me?sem
- Windows 7 shuts down slower than Mavericks for me on my new iMacmonospaced
- I was referring to boot up / shut down times in Windows 8, which has been really quick for me with SSD.nocomply
- ernexbcn0
I have a Mac Pro (early 2008).
I added an SSD drive to it, I put it under the DVD drive and attached it with a SATA cable to a spare port that the mainboard has, it was a bit of a pain in the ass to pass the cable from the mainboard to the area where the DVD drive is.
It won't go at its full speed since the port is SATA 2 but it's way faster than normal drives.
I didn't want to use a special case for it or use any of the 4 hard drive slots.
- wagshaft0
Thank bitches. This was more than helpful.
- sem0
Also, get yourself a 2.5 caddy and replace your MacBook Pro dvd drive with ANOTHER Hard Drive.
I have a 250gb SSD where the original drive was, and 1tb HD where my DVD Drive (Superdrive) was. So the OS and apps boot up on the SSD and there is 1tb for storage.
Make sure you buy the correct caddy on eBay though as I warned about on here a good while ago http://www.qbn.com/topics/679745…
- sem0
- why not?monospaced
- More reliable, faster, quiet etc. Why would you not want that?sem
- SSD BootDrive 4 evadetritus
- < preachsem
- mekk0
^ and this is where theory vs. practice kicks in. the remaining 20% of the disk is what you use then for daily operations so this part of the SSD is faster 'dead' than the part that isn't touched. And yes, I forgot a zero in my calculator and you're right. it's almost 700 years.
No matter how you turn it, the lifespan of the cells itself is not critical in my opinion. The controller of the drive will break down way before them.
- drgs0
I dont get it
25 days * 10.000 cycles / 365 = 687 yearsthis assumes that whole disk is available for rewrite at any time
if say 80% of your disk is in use (movies or whatever), with 50 GB available free space you write 10 GB a day = 136 years
- mekk0
"Planned obsolescence" or lifespan of an SSD (theory):
One cell has a lifespan of 10.000 - 100.000 writes before it dies. When it dies, it becomes read-only, so your data is safe.
So a 250GB HDD x10.000 writes capacity can write 2.500.000 GB of data before it dies completely. When you write 10GB a day, you need 25 days to write just one of the 10.000 (to 100.000) cycles before it dies. You'll end up writing the ssd for almost 70 years (25days * 10.000 cycles / 365) before it dies. This calculation is based on the minimum lifespan of an consumer SSD.
So in theory yes, the SSD dies one day you may be able to calculate. But expect an SSD to have a longer life than a HDD.
- BarryEvans0
I don't think the OWC Mount Pro fits inside a 2008 mac pro, I used one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/produ… with a samsung SSD and it went in fine