Best SSD drive for the buck out there that is macbook pro compatible?

Are there any good deals out there yet? Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

Size?

In general, Crucial M4 is a safe bet for cost, performance, AND reliability.

 

Anything that is at least 60GB. Again looking for the best $ per GB + mac compatibility.

 

Macs are still computers... we're not really comparing "apples" and oranges here.

 

Yeah I think pretty much any SSD is mac compatible. Its just a hard drive. The only thing though is I've heard you don't get the OSX version of "trim" support except in the Apple professionally installed SSDs.

 

actually trim support is only standard on apple sold SSDs.

But I would just go and download the hack that allows for trim support.

and I would grab a samsung, crucial, and kingston SSD. The first 2 are one of the most realiables companies, and the latter is one of the cheapest.

 

Thanks for your help everyone, I think I got my answer.

 

TRIM hack in Lion. It's stupidly easy.

 

Agreed I changed the 500GB standard HD in a MBP 2.7GHz 2011 13 inch and it rocks with a Crucial M4 512 SSD - upgraded the firmware from 2.0 to 9.0 after I had installed it and it is great. No hangs and only beach ball I get is when on App store and checking for updates but this was the same even with the std HD but slower. Getting full SATA 3 speeds even though TRIM not enabled.

 

And completely unnecessary. Garbage Collection algorithms in and good SSD does all that you need.

 

thats only good if you dont happen to have a sandforce controller in it

 

Not trying to sound snarky, but proof please? Every indication is that you only stand to gain by using the TRIM hack and everything to lose if the Garbage collection algorithms aren't good enough. If you could link me to some reading material that says otherwise, I'd be glad to read it. I'm getting slightly weary of reading advice from both "camps".

Additionally, turning off last access time would seem like a good idea, as there's really no need for OS X to keep writing the last time it accessed each and every file in your file system onto an SSD.

 

I've used an Intel X-25M G2 and now an Intel 320 series drive in my MBP on Lion, and while both are TRIM capable, you have to enable it in Lion:

Grant Pannell — TRIM Enabler for Lion
In OS X Lion how do you enable TRIM support for SSDs? - gdgt

I'd recommend the two mentioned drives above, and the Crucial M4. I ordered one and I'm going to put it in my MBP and put the 320 drive back in my ThinkPad X220. Any of these drives are going to be great in a Mac, and with TRIM enabled, you should see very little performance degradation.

 

I got a brand new Samsung 470 series 256gb for 300$, can't beat it.

 

A Samsung 470 is the brand they are buying directly, they (Apple) owns 40% of the fab that makes them. I have found that the Crucial M4 and the Intel 510 series are the most stable and reliable. The controllers are the same and it is the same controller Snow Kitty and The Cowardly Lion are written for. Corsair has a new GT series coming our that the video editors in the group will find nice for speed.

 

Remember guys don't get a SATAIII drive unless you one of the newer MBPs or you will be wasting your money. Since most have SATA 3gbs and you need SATA 6gbs.

If your curious about your machine goto:

Apple > About this Mac > click "More Information" > click on tab "Serial ATA"

At the top, you can see the "link speed".

Whats funny is some of the MBPs come with a 6ghz SATA on their optical drives

 

Intel is still the gold standard when it comes to performance and RELIABILITY.

I've read too many horror stories about people with these fancy new Crucial/OCZ/whatever SSD's dying, stuttering and all other kinds of things. Intel is nice and steady. I've had mine for almost 3 years and never had a hitch. It's easily the best computing purchase I've made in a long time.

 

Agreed, but remember most of those problems stem from outdated firmware. It does suck though, since OCZ pretty much gave up everything but SSDs, but I really haven't had to much problem with OCZ other then I needed to do a secure erase on the drive first.

 

Except that Intel recently had issues with their newer SSDs resulting in OS hangs, BSODs, and various other problems. They were the golden standard during their last generation of SSDs but not anymore since they too are experiencing technical problems (the fiasco of people buying 250GB drives only to plug them in and have their OS report a total of 8MB of usable storage comes to mind but there have been a few others). So Intel is currently on the same level as OCZ, Crucial, and others. They are experiencing problems and released firmware updates and various other fixes.

 

as they did in the past when other serious problems aroused

 

So you said all that...then casually mention that a firmware update fixes all the issues?

 

Only reason I picked up a Crucial M4 (a SATA III drive) was because of price and performance (especially with the 0009 FW). I'm not too worried about the 3Gbps bottleneck in my 2010 MBP, since I got the drive at a great price ($170 on NewEgg shell-shocker).

 

I never said that their firmware update fixed all the issues. I said they released firmware updates and various other fixes, that is a far cry from "Intel had one issue and fixed it so everything is A-OK." My point was that Intel is having their problems this go around just like everyone else and that there isn't a perfect SSD choice for the current generation. Each ones has a series of compromises and a laundry list of people that have issues. I was showing that Intel is now a far cry from that golden standard they were the last go around when things went a lot smoother for them.