SSD Recommendation?

[steveharman]

Dear All,

Can someone recommend a solid state drive that works OK in a hackintosh build please? Ordinarily I'd have said a disc's a disc but SSD is new to me so thought it best to check.

Presumably they're mostly 2.5". Do drives of that physical size use standard SATA leads or will I need an adapter?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Sasquatch00]

From what I know you shouldn't have any issues. I hear Intel, Crucial and OCZ(but less often), are all great buys. Personally I have Intel 520's, a bit expensive, but haven't had one single hiccup.

Normal SATA cables are the ticket.

 

[steveharman]

Wonderful, thanks.

Steve

 

[tom.humphrey]

I've got a crucial c300 and a crucial m4 both 256GB in a RAID 0 config in my build. Works flawlessly is all I can say.

 

[ectoplasmosis]

I went for a 256GB Corsair Performance Pro, not only for the faster and more reliable Toggle Mode flash chips that it uses, but for the Marvell controller which performs brilliantly with incompressible data (unlike Sandforce drives) and the excellent firmware which has very effective hardware garbage collection.

The last point is especially important when using OSX which doesn't natively support TRIM with 3rd-party drives. The hardware garbage collection is very good and keeps performance as-new even without TRIM: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storag ... html#sect0

You can use TRIM Enabler, but I'd rather not mess around with edited .kexts and 3rd-party utilities.

 

[SincerelySaint]

Was literally about to start another post with the same question. I'm also considering an SSD but I've been reading the newegg reviews and watching things on youtube that make me feel like they're slightly unreliable? Yet there's also a couple video reviews on youtube that claim SSD's should last a good 20yrs before they fault. So I just want good input on that and which one performs well with Lion.

 

[Dschijn]

Good SSDs: Samsung 830 or Intel
Best SSD: OWC

 

[ectoplasmosis]

There have been a lot of unreliable SSDs as the fledgling industry matures. Many Sandforce-based drives had dodgy firmware and the cheaper disks based on low-quality flash chips often failed after just months of use (e.g. the woefully failure-prone OCZ Petrol).

Things have moved quickly the last couple of years and several configurations of SSD have proven themselves reliable enough. The things to look out for are: synchronous or toggle-mode NAND as opposed to the slower and quicker-wearing async, a Marvell or Toshiba controller, and good firmware with effective wear-levelling algorithms and hardware garbage collection.

Looking around, the drives which tick all the above boxes right now are the Corsair Performance Pro, Plextor M3 (effectively the same drive as the Corsair) and the Samsung 830. I went for the Corsair: relatively expensive but has Marvell, toggle NAND, top-notch performance and excellent garbage collection regardless of TRIM.

The Crucial M4 is a good drive for the money with a Marvell controller and synchronous NAND but its write performance and garbage collection isn't great.

 

[zarac]

Instead of naming my favourite SSD, I'll give you some reading material.

First thing you should know is that not all NAND chips are the same, and I'm not talking only about SLC vs MLC.
Read this very informative article which describes the difference between synchronous and asynchronous NAND chips.
Next, this topic contains the most thorough information on all current and past SSD drives and controllers, including LOTS of reviews.

Good luck fishing

 

[jonnyfive]

Anand is pretty on top of SSD tech over at: http://www.anandtech.com/

I'm trying to decide between the Intel 520 and the Samsung 830 for my old p55 i7-860 rig (May go up to Lion too). I like the Samsung better for a Mac in theory (I hear TRIM is natively supported in Lion for the 830 can anyone confirm?) but 128GB seems a little too small, and the 180GB Intel 520 is a nice price/capacity compromise.

Anyone having any issues with the 520 regarding waking from sleep etc in SL or Lion? TRIM enabler working for this SSD?

-j5