SSD question

[gerald7]

Hi Guys!

Im in the process of building my first hackintosh and was looking for info in SSD. Specifically G.Skill Phoenix 3 120gb SSD (FM-25S3-120GBP3) is this drive compatible with hackintosh build or it would be safer to go with Intel Series 330 SSD ?

So far I have purchased

Gigabyte GA-Z77P-D3
Gigabyte GV-640OC-2GI
Intel Core I7 3770K
Enermax NAXN82+ 550W PSU

Probably get a Corsair vengeance 4GBx2 kit.

Any one tried using the G.Skill Phoenix3 for boot ? Thanks in advance!

Regards
Gerald

 

[Going Bald]

I don't like the Sandforce controller on the G.skill.

The Samsung 830/840 or the Crucial M4 is much to be preferred IMHO.

 

[gerald7]

I don't like the Sandforce controller on the G.skill.

The Samsung 830/840 or the Crucial M4 is much to be preferred IMHO.

Any particular reason or experience? I'm on a slim budget after getting the 3770k.. was offered a fair price for the g.skill ssd... is there any extra steps when installing the OSX with SSD? Will look into the Samsung and the Crucial SSD

 

[ggeorge]

Any particular reason or experience? I'm on a slim budget after getting the 3770k.. was offered a fair price for the g.skill ssd... is there any extra steps when installing the OSX with SSD? Will look into the Samsung and the Crucial SSD

The make/model of a 2.5" SSD is not typically an issue with regards to compatibility. The one caveat is that firmware updates may or may not be do able under OSX. In any case the necessity of firmware updates is something that is typically more important when a new SSD controller is introduced.

SSDs do not need any special steps to install to them. Though you might need to check the "enable trim" option in Multi-beast, some SSD's performance can degrade sharply over time without it. That is something you'll need to check on the specific drive you are looking at. Just google a review of it. They should mention that.

The Sandforce based drives (which are most of the low cost and some not so low cost) are basically fine. They do have one major limitation in that they perform poorly when dealing with highly compressed data. This is because they depend heavily on compressing the data before it is written to the flash memory chips (less data to write = higher "write" speeds). So if the data is already heavily compressed and thus won't compress further, their "write" speed drops substantially.

Video is the most common kind of highly compressed data.

The other major area where SSD are differentiated is the kind of flash ram they use. The best kind is called Toggle mode, the less expensive drives don't generally use this and the very cheapest drives may vary wildly as to the actual type they use.

Drives from Crucial (the M4) and the Samsung 830 are the best choices if performance is important and you will be working with compressed data, since they work differently and don't compress the data.

I wouldn't be afraid to buy a sandforce SSD though. You just need to understand their limitations.

It IS a very good idea to google reviews for any specific SSD you are looking at purchasing though. Since there can be some very particular quirks to them and their performance, especially with a low cost SSD.

 

[gerald7]

I see thanks guys for the information. I didnt know SSD need to update firmware. I tried to search for reviews about the G.Skill drive mostly can find old reviews so was quite curious about it. I kinda fell behind the following of tech progression after i got my iMac back in 08. And have been happily using that till now. My purpose of the build is so I can speed up my work on video. As the source footage recently got more high resolution my old imac is really at its limits or Im at my limits of my patience.

And the best thing is in my area, I cant find Samsung SSD. So I guess im looking at vertex 4 or m4... I was under the impression the hackintosh only works w/ 60, 120, 240 etc etc ??? Had I misread something ?

 

[ggeorge]

And the best thing is in my area, I cant find Samsung SSD. So I guess im looking at vertex 4 or m4... I was under the impression the hackintosh only works w/ 60, 120, 240 etc etc ??? Had I misread something ?

No there are no such limitations in terms of requiring the capacity to be in multiples of 60 like that. Those are just common capacities with sandforce based drives for a couple of technical reasons.

 

[gerald7]

No there are no such limitations in terms of requiring the capacity to be in multiples of 60 like that. Those are just common capacities with sandforce based drives for a couple of technical reasons.

I see ! thanks a lot for clearing that up for me !