Does brand of SSD or hard drive matter?

Hello!

im currently in the process of building the current Mini Deluxe. Do far I've purchased everything from the list except the Samsung SSD and the ram. The big question I have is does it really matter if I buy drives from other manufacturers? Ultimately aren't the drives all built to established standards? If it does matter, can someone explain why?

Thanks for your help and for this awesome site!

Sean

No issue for Osx, it is like Windows any SSD will work.
In the market some are manufacturer of the components some are only assembling (some non-manufacturers as OCZ have very bad reliabilty records).
Disk Controllers making compression are not recommended for system (avoid Sandforce). OCZ is also using Sandforce.
The price are very variable according to country. I am in France, for example Intel which are very good are by far too expensive.
Samsung EVO are special case because they are using 3 level memory cells (not 0-1), TLC techno.
Advantage is less cells for same capacity. When cells are wearing the voltage levels are moving and controller cannot any longer make difference between the voltages. It will come faster with 3 levels (for the same range). In addition, 3 levels are slower and Samsung is using some cells with 2 levels as buffer (buffer is wearing faster as it is always used)
The SSD will wear faster. Difficult to know what will be the effect, it will depend of use.
Takeaway is that Samsung EVO are cheaper in term of construction but at same price and with shorter life. This is not the case of PRO series at 2 levels (DLC Techno) but the price is prohibitive.
In France, best deals are Crucial MX100 and Sandisk Ultra II.

Thank you for the information. After doing some research I ended up going with a Samsung 850 PRO 120GB.

Sean

MarcelBidon said:

...avoid Sandforce...

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That's not true! Do your homework (lots of info on the 'Net)! SandForce controllers are highly rated and are known for not needing TRIM because of their excellent "garbage collection". I'm using the original OCZ Vertix 2&3 and Agility 3 (3 years old), SanDisk Extreme (2 years old) and now the Kingston V300 SSDs (new) w/o using TRIM. Other SSDs need TRIM, like the Samsung 840 EVO, but it's SSD model dependent. So, do your homework.

The tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide has recommended SSDs listed in it's System Drives section. The Kingston V300 series will be added next update.

See this ZDNet article for a simple explanation of the use of "garbage collection" vs. TRIM.
OS X Yosemite and third-party SSDs: Here's what you need to know

Stork said:

That's not true! Do your homework (lots of info on the 'Net)!

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TRIM should be used on any SSD.
Sandforce controllers are provoking problems with memory paging due to compression (firmware errors). This is giving erratic blue screens under windows (BSOD). Just google BSOD + Sandforce (OCZ in option).
OCZ is poor in term of reliability. Hardware.fr is publishing the returns under warranty of the main French distributor in 2013 H1 (vs 2012 H2)
- Samsung 0,05% (contre 0,48%)
- Plextor 0,16% (N/A)
- Intel 0,37% (contre 0,45%)
- Crucial 1,12% (contre 1,11%)
- Corsair 1,61% (contre 1,05%)
- OCZ 6,64% (contre 5,02%)
N/A = was not sold enough by the dealer. Kingston and Sandisk are not ranked due to low sales (too expensive).
Recently Sandisk decreased drastically the prices and is now a bestseller.
Nice to learn that your are happy with OCZ.
Last advice is to avoid SSD based on TLC techno like Samsung EVO (lifespan). Pro (DLC techno) are excellent but expensive.

MarcelBidon said:

TRIM should be used on any SSD.

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You should have said, "TRIM may be used on any SSD." If the controller's firmware (f/w) has good garbage collection, then TRIM is not needed. However, since Windoze provides TRIM on every SSD, then you can turn it on. But, on well written f/w (garbage collection), TRIM can shorten the life of the SSD will it's constant activity on the SSD. For most people, this will not be a problem. BTW, most trusted hardware review sites test with TRIM because of Windoze use of it.

MarcelBidon said:

Sandforce controllers are provoking problems with memory paging due to compression (firmware errors). This is giving erratic blue screens under windows (BSOD). Just google BSOD + Sandforce (OCZ in option)...

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This was a problem which was cured by SandForce issuing a f/w update on 2281 controllers (late 2011) and earlier. Here's a quote from a February 2012 AnandTech article (since you failed to provid reference(s) for your assertions).

...Back in October [2011] SandForce announced that it had discovered a firmware issue that resulted in unexpected BSODs on SF-2281 drives on certain platforms. Why it took SandForce several months to discover the bug that its customers had been reporting for a while is a separate issue entirely. SandForce quickly pushed out the firmware to OCZ and other partners. Our own internal testing revealed that the updated firmware seemed to have cured the infamous BSOD...

...Indeed most end user reports of SF-2281 BSODs went away with the fixed firmware, but we've still heard of isolated issues that remain unresolved...

The BSOD is caused by a bug in SandForce's power state logic that ultimately results in the drive disconnecting from the system while it's running. It turns out that Windows isn't a fan of you hot un-plugging the drive it's running on, which results in the BSOD. We had two systems that exhibited the BSOD, both of which were fixed by the update last October [2011]...

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Again, the above article was written in February 2012. In early 2012, I applied the firmware fix to my SandForce controller SSDs. They are running as well as can be desired, even my old OCZ Vertex 2.

Well, it's now November, 2014. Reviews of SSDs with SandForce controllers, which are now the 2282 and 3700 series, have indicated no problems with BSOD issue. So, the bottom line, is to do your homework - check the reviews and comments and look on the manufactors' forums. The SSDs in the tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide are the ones we use after research and our testing.

Stork said:

The SSDs in the tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide are the ones we use after research and our testing.

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The recommendation is Samsung:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/building-customac-buyers-guide-november-2014.html#System_Drives
as far as I understand.

MarcelBidon said:

The recommendation is Samsung:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/building-customac-buyers-guide-november-2014.html#System_Drives
as far as I understand.

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Yes, currently, they have the most "bang for the buck" in our opinion. There are other good SSDs, too. You just have to do your due diligence. A lot of the time, a choice is a combination of preference to a specific brand, cost at the time of the need and past performance. I'm using SanDisk Extreme & Ultra II SSDs as well as a Samsung EVO SSD, a Crucial M500 SSD, several Kingston V300 SSDs and an Intel 530 SSD. All good, solid SSDs.

BTW, speaking of TRIM, see MacMan's recent post > http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/149663-crucial-ssds-trim.html.

Thanks for your posts Stork, all. They've been very helpful for me as a newbie trying to wrap my head around all this (lots of acronyms to familiarize myself with, haha). But I feel confused about one major point. If we can't use TRIM on the latest Mac OS, unless we disable it, and disabling it compromises the security of the drive, and the Samsung 840 EVO dives use TRIM than why is the site recommending them? After reading the articles you recommended, it seems that tonymacx86 would be recommending the OWC drives that use SandForce technology. No?


I'm kind of in the same position as BigMeaty. In my eagerness to get going on my build I bought the Samsung 850 pro, assuming it was similar enough to the recommended Samsung 840 EVO, that I would be fine. Now I'm afraid I've made a mistake. I'd rather not have to disable TRIM if I want to use this drive. Should I return it?