What 512GB SSD

[BigJonMcQuimm]

Hi

I need to speed up the wife's 2009/10 unibody Macbook Pro.

I have maxed out the RAM, and am now looking for a SSD.

Any recommendations? I was looking at the Samsung 840 - but really do not know which drive would be the best.

Many thanks

[Randomthoughts]

Toshiba HG5/HG6 are solid drives.

[nyt]

I've been looking for similar.
Samsung have a good reputation, along with Intel.
The speed differential between them seems too small to be noticeable.

As prices have fallen, I'm tempted by a 1TB:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5-inch-Basic-Sol...


The only thing holding me back is news that there may be an imminent and significant speed-up in SSDs which probably won't be back-ported.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/183162-new-me...

[paranoid airbag]

Out of interest, anyone know why this (admittedly "only" 480GB):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT480M500SSD1-2-5-...

seems significantly cheaper than similarly sized SSDs?

[nyt]

paranoid airbag said:

Out of interest, anyone know why this (admittedly "only" 480GB):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT480M500SSD1-2-5-...

seems significantly cheaper than similarly sized SSDs?

I think that it's a superseded drive - still perfectly good and reliable, just not the latest and greatest

[Randomthoughts]

As above, M500 has been replaced by the M550. M500s are still very good, very quick drives; just not as quick as their replacement.

[Esseesse]

I have a 2009 17" MBP with a 512GB Samsung 840 Pro. Can't comment on any others, but had it for about a year with no problems at all.

[Jaldi]

paranoid airbag said:

Out of interest, anyone know why this (admittedly "only" 480GB):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT480M500SSD1-2-5-...

seems significantly cheaper than similarly sized SSDs?

Blimey, I paid around £250 for my one! That was Dec 2013 though.
Can't fault it so far.

[nyt]

Another price drop: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IRRDHVW/

[Du1point8]

use camelcamelcamel to keep track of them

http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Crucial-CT512M550SSD...

[Foliage]

Have a look on tomshardware and see which one reviews the best and fits your needs the best.

[lestag]

read
http://techreport.com/review/26523/the-ssd-enduran...
I use the 840 and like it

[gaz1234]

i assume raiding ssd is fine?

[Vaud]

gaz1234 said:

i assume raiding ssd is fine?

Yes.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-bench...

[cornet]

There have been plenty of threads on this.

My view is always this:

• Pretty much any SSD will be orders of magnitude faster than a regular hard disc.
• Ignore the speed specifications - you are highly unlikely to notice any real world difference for normal laptop/desktop use.
• The only consumer drive to have power loss protection is the crucial M5XX range.

For a laptop the latter isn't actually as important as for a desktop since most laptops will power down gracefully when the battery gets very low. However I see no reason to risk it.

TL;DR : Get the Crucial M500 or M550

[Esseesse]

cornet said:

There have been plenty of threads on this.

My view is always this:

• Pretty much any SSD will be orders of magnitude faster than a regular hard disc.
• Ignore the speed specifications - you are highly unlikely to notice any real world difference for normal laptop/desktop use.
• The only consumer drive to have power loss protection is the crucial M5XX range.

For a laptop the latter isn't actually as important as for a desktop since most laptops will power down gracefully when the battery gets very low. However I see no reason to risk it.

TL;DR : Get the Crucial M500 or M550

Well a 2009 MBP is Sata 2 anyway IIRC.

[mmm-five]

Crucial MX100 - almost the same performance of the M550 at the M500 (which it replaces) price point (i.e. £150 for the 512gb).

[Riff Raff]

mmm-five said:

Crucial MX100 - almost the same performance of the M550 at the M500 (which it replaces) price point (i.e. £150 for the 512gb).

I've just put one of these in my MacBook. The installation kit - a bit of wire to connect the SSD to a USB port made the job of cloning the SSD to the old hard drive a doddle. The only hard thing about the installation was trying to work out if I needed the drive spacer or not

[Vaud]

Riff Raff said:

I've just put one of these in my MacBook. The installation kit - a bit of wire to connect the SSD to a USB port made the job of cloning the SSD to the old hard drive a doddle. The only hard thing about the installation was trying to work out if I needed the drive spacer or not

And? Did you?

[Riff Raff]

Vaud said:

And? Did you?

After trying with and without, I left it out. The SSD is a shade thinner than the old hard disk, but the SSD plus the spacer would have been too thick by a couple of mils.