I want to install an SSD on my MacBook but by reading reviews and consumer reports they seem to be spotty at best. A lot of users experiment BSOD, system lockups and corrupted drives that need drive format etc. Maybe the technology is still not ready for primetime?
Yes, most of the reports and reviews are on windows systems with no in depth report on Macs. So pretty much I want to hear if someone experience with such drives which one their got and price to better make a decision on which to get.
On my experience, mechanical HDD’s, WD and Samsung tend to be more reliable than other brands like Seagate, Maxtor. But, now we have companies that historically make RAM doing such storage devices like Crucial, Corsair, Mushkin, AData etc and maybe they dont have the experience/data/mass producing tech to do them properly and can afford to have them IRL tested by us using regular warraty.
Also know about experiences modding macbook DVD drive into SSD bay? Particulary if the drive rattles inside or it feels tight and secure inside.
Maybe if they were 99.9% reliable I would but too many bad reviews, newegg, amazon, tiger direct, consumer reports… Yes some people are retards and many dont RTFM but so MANY of them?
I have a 2008 MacBook Unibody one and I have put a 128GB Kingston SSD in the normal hard drive location and another 128GB Kingston SSD where the optical drive was. So far so good!
I did have a normal 500GB hard drive in the optibay but found my macbook was getting really hot! as it’s obviously not designed for that.
I have 2 external drives which I use carbon copy cloner to clone both drives and take them with me to gigs in case I do have a hard drive fail!
Hey, don’t mean to hijack thread (I’m actually considering an SSD myself) but I have a quick question about carbon copy cloner. Is this the same as time machine or different?
It’s different as you have to manually launch the app and start the back up but the best thing it makes your back up drive a bootable system, so should your internal disk fail you could boot from your back up and carry on working
Got an Intel X25 SSD in the optibay on my MBP and have never had problems. With customer reviews you’ll find tons of people talking about HDDs (and anything else) failing as well, so that can really only go so far.
Ahhh I dunno man. Obviously all fail but SSD’s, at least from what Im reading, seem to have a high crashing rate and short life. Intel MB are the most reliable ever and I guess SSD’s are no different. Getting a pair makes sense budgetwise but I wanna know about battery too.
I stopped reading replies when they stopped making sense.
SSDs have slightly higher failure rates than hard drives independent of damage. key word: slightly. The nature of the internet over-reports failures.
I’ve been using SSDs since 2008 without a single problem.
My first one was a cheap 64gb POS Kingston SSDNow V2. It worked fine except that I had to do a low-level format every now and then to fix the lag issues that older SSDs developed (aka…the reason for the stop-gap solution of Trim).
My current SSD is a Mercury Extreme Pro 6g, and the thing effing screams. No problems. No stutter/lag. No issues. When/if it fails before I just want to get something bigger/newer, I’ll do a bit of research to make sure they haven’t been leapfroged, but I’ll probably buy the exact same drive.
Even if it fails because of a defect.
It’s that fast.
I’m not kidding. I have backups for a reason.
Modern high-end SSDs are fast enough that they’re worth dealing with the higher failure rate.
But, my livelihood doesn’t depend on my laptop working 24/7. Most work-related stuff is backed up off-site, and I can access it from any computer than can run an SSH client. I don’t DJ as a source of income (though if I did, I’d just have 2 identical laptops…including the SSD).
Seriously…they’re that amazing. Just buy one and a 1 TB drive to do backups on. OWC ships within a day, so unless your drive goes out right before a gig…you won’t be down long. And if the gig matters that much…it’s just money. Buy 2. A pair of 13" MBPs that are capable of running Traktor, Maschine, and Logic all at the same time…with my SSD…cost about the same as a pair of CDJ-2000s. Suck it up.
I have 2 x SSD’s - both OCZ Vertex… wouldn’t ever go back to a non-SSD for my main OS drive again.
and tbh, who cares if they fail? that’s what backups are for. The speed advantage far outweighs any possible unreliability problems (which I’ve never had with my SSD drives… but I’ve had plenty of hard disks fail).
Im in the same boat, with my MBP15, want a SSD, gotta save up, too scared because of bad reviews on websites.
One common factor I read on fails were about drives that went into hibernate mode (running off battery power, and right before the batterie dies out, osx will save what you are doing and shut off) and the drive can’t really come back.
Wow lots of bullshit info in this thread… I’ve got five computers running on ssds theyre blazing fast no heat and very reliable as far as brand yes intel makes the most commonly recommended ones in benchmark tests (especially the extreme models) I’ve got two oczs a crucial a Kingston and whatever comes with a MacBook air - they’ve all served me well
DJKeyWee, djerikt and myself have all heard about unreliable SSD’s so I wouldnt call this “bullshit info”. Dont be trying that hard to be a douche… If you havent had an issue good for you.
What I think I’ll do is buy an SSD and get the extended warranty and pay it with the American Express to add the extra warranty year just to be sure. Im thinking a 128GB would be more than adequate for me Macbook. But how you people do it? You have the OS on 1 drive and the apps in another drive? Any partitions?
Wasnt being a douche… Just saying you cant believe everything you read on the net.. I’m guilty of being a “typical reviewer” .. Reviewed probably 10 things online and can only remember writing two positive reviews, didnt take the time out of my day to review good products but I Certainly did when I was disappointed!!
This is always a good idea, and FYI I’ve been using a 128 in my MacBook and have been happy so far
I have had mine (128 gb) in my MBP for over a year as a system drive and the original HD in an optibay where the CD drive used to be. Machine is blazing fast, loads of storage and i haven’t had one problem.
I even took the hit on shipping and import tax to the UK after researching and concluding these drives were what should be stuck in my precious machine.
