Best SSD upgrade for 2012 MacBook Pro? Adata, Corsair, Intel, Kingston, Samsung...

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PostmanPot

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Hi all

Which SSD would you go for? There are quite a few options. Obviously I'd like performance and reliability. It should be as good as my late 2013 rMBP's SSD. I hear good things about Intels and Samsungs, they also win with warranty length. Should I stay away from Sandforce?

Thanks in advance.

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Here are some options:

Code: 
Adata premier pro SP920 256Gb 2.5" SATA6G SSD , with synchronous NAND flash , [B]marvell[/B] 88SS9189 controller , compressible data (ATTo) read/write : 560/360mb/sec , incompressible data (AS-SSD) read/write : 520/[B]340mb/sec[/B] ; Random Read/Write 4K : 96000/80000 ioPS ; bundled 3.5" mounting bracket - 3 years warranty

Adata XPG SX900 256Gb 2.5" SATA6G SSD , with synchronous NAND flash , [B]sandforce[/B] SF-2281 controller , compressible data (ATTo) read/write : 550/530mb/sec , incompressible data (AS-SSD) read/write : 510/[B]320mb/sec[/B] , Random Read/Write 4K : 60000/80000 ioPS ; bundled 3.5" mounting bracket - 3 years warranty

Adata XPG SX930 240Gb 2.5" SATA6G SSD , with synchronous enterprise-grade MLC Plus NAND flash ( with 8Gb SLC + 256mb DDR3 caching ) , [B]JMicron[/B] JMF670H processor 4 channels , hardware 72bit/1KB BCH ECC , compressible data , pSLC Cache Technology , (ATTo) read/write : 560/460mb/sec , incompressible data (AS-SSD) read/write : 550/[B]460 mb/sec[/B] , Random Read/Write 4K : 75000/70000 ioPS ; bundled 3.5" mounting bracket , 1.5 million hours MTBF - [B]5 years warranty[/B]

Corsair CSSD-F240GBLS / CSSD-F240GBLSB 240Gb Force LS series 2.5"  SATA6G SSD , with Toggle NAND flash , Random Write 4K : 85000 ioPS , [B]Phison's[/B] PS3105 controller , MLC Solid-State Drive , 512mb cache , read : 560mb/sec / [B]write 320mb/sec[/B] , Random Write 4K ioPS : 85000/78000 , with BGC (Background Garbage Collection) + built-in EDC/ECC - 3 years warranty

Corsair CSSD-F256GBLX 256Gb Force LX series 2.5"  SATA6G SSD , with Toggle NAND flash , Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller , MLC Solid-State Drive , 256mb cache , read : 560mb/sec / [B]write 300mb/sec[/B] , Random Read/Write 4K ioPS : 76000 / 70000 , with BGC (Background Garbage Collection) + built-in EDC/ECC - 3 years warranty

Corsair CSSD-N240GBXT / CSSD-N240GBXTB 240Gb Neutron XT series 2.5"  SATA6G SSD , with Enhanced Error Correction ( SmartECC+SmartRefresh ) + with Power loss protection ( SmartFlush+GuaranteedFlush technologies ) , AES-256 security , [B]Phison's[/B] 3110-S10 Quad-core controller/8channel , MLC Solid-State Drive , 512mb cache , read : 560mb/sec / [B]write 540mb/sec[/B] , Random Write 4K ioPS : 99800/88100 - 3 years warranty with 124 TBW

Kingston SHSS37A/240G hyper-X Savage SSD - 240Gb 2.5" SATA6G SSD - [B]Phison's[/B] 3110-S10 Quad-core controller/8channel , MLC Solid-State Drive , read : 560mb/sec / [B]write 530mb/sec[/B] , Random Read/Write 4K : 100000/89000 ioPS , with BGC (Background Garbage Collection) - 1 millions MTBF with 306TB TBW ( 1.19 DWPD ) - 3 years warranty

Samsung MZ-75E250BW 250Gb 850 Evo series 2.5"  SATA6G SSD , TLC solid-state drive , 7mm slim , with 3D VNAND flash , 2-core MGX controller with 512mb ddr3 cache , built-in hardware AES-256 encryption , read : 540mb/sec / [B]write 300mb/sec[/B] , Random Write 4K ioPS : 97000 / 88000 - [B]5 years warranty[/B] with 75 TBW

Samsung MZ-7KE256BW 256Gb 850 Pro series 2.5"  SATA6G SSD , TLC solid-state drive , 7mm slim , with 3D VNAND flash , 3-core MEX controller with 512mb ddr2-800 cache , built-in hardware AES-256 encryption , read : 550mb/sec / [B]write 520mb/sec[/B] , Random Write 4K ioPS : 100000/90000 - [B]5 years warranty[/B]
 
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SpiralS

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I have a Samsung Evo 840 in MBP mid 2012 and cant fault it. You also get a decent 3 year guarantee so if any thing fails you can just replace it. Mac boots up like a dream.
 
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PostmanPot

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Cool, thanks guys. Any reason you didn't go for the Pro? Out of budget, not justifiable?

It's R700 more and from the specs it is giving me an extra 220MB/s write speed. It has a 3-core vs 2-core processor, and DDR2 vs DDR3 cache :)wtf: )...
 
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Synaesthesia

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Intel and Samsung are the 2 best for reliability, compatibility and performance. They offer 3 or 5 year warranties too I believe. Check out Anandtech reviews for more.
 
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PostmanPot

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I'm keen for Intel. Prefer to support Samsung as little as possible...

Forgot to quote the Intels earlier, but I did see a few with 5 year warranties.

Next will be to weigh up performance vs the Samsungs.

Please keep the input coming!
 
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ChrisThomas

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I have a Kingston 250GB in my macbook air, it's been reliable, fast and pretty much flawless, write speeds of 400mb
 
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koffiejunkie

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First, some notes:

1. You'll want to get 500GB or higher if you want the best speed. The SSDs essentially stripe a bunch of chips, and it's at the 500GB mark that there are enough chips for the combined performance to reach the limit of the SATA3 interface.

2. It won't be as fast as the rMBP, for the simple reason, the rMBPs aren't constrained by the SATA3 interface. The late 2013 rMBP was the first to use a PCIe based SSD, and the performance is way above what's possible with SATA3.

Now, for the ultimate in SATA3 SSD, what you want (IMHO) is this:

Samsung 850 Pro 2TB SSD :D
 
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PostmanPot

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koffiejunkie said:
First, some notes:

1. You'll want to get 500GB or higher if you want the best speed. The SSDs essentially stripe a bunch of chips, and it's at the 500GB mark that there are enough chips for the combined performance to reach the limit of the SATA3 interface.

2. It won't be as fast as the rMBP, for the simple reason, the rMBPs aren't constrained by the SATA3 interface. The late 2013 rMBP was the first to use a PCIe based SSD, and the performance is way above what's possible with SATA3.

Now, for the ultimate in SATA3 SSD, what you want (IMHO) is this:

Samsung 850 Pro 2TB SSD :D
Click to expand...

Thanks, this is what I feared. Though going 500GB should help a bit you say?

Was hoping that the 2012 MBP was SATA6G.
 
Neoprod

Neoprod

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On picking a drive, I don't look at sustained read or write speeds as that's not what I use the OS drive for. Responsiveness comes from IOPS mainly and latency (though latency of SSD's is generally so similar, that's not even noticeable).

Out of the drives you've listed, I'd choose the Samsung with the higher IOPS rating. Given my own choice, I'd probably get a Crucial BX100.
 
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koffiejunkie

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PostmanPot said:
Thanks, this is what I feared. Though going 500GB should help a bit you say?

This review only includes the 2TB and 512GB models, but it gives you an idea:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9451/the-2tb-samsung-850-pro-evo-ssd-review/3

I had to go look for a review that includes three different sizes - here's one for the Cruical models:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9144/crucial-bx100-120gb-250gb-500gb-1tb-ssd-review/4

For Samsung's part, they list the performance as follows (for the 850 Evo):

Random Read (4KB, QD32)
  • 120 GB : Up to 94,000 IOPS
  • 250 GB : Up to 97,000 IOPS
  • 500GB, 1TB, 2TB : Up to 98,000 IOPS

Random Write (4KB, QD32)
  • 120,250 GB : Up to 88,000 IOPS
  • 500GB, 1TB, 2TB : Up to 90,000 IOPS

The gap seems to have closed a bit in the 850 series (or Samsung is cooking the numbers :)) - the difference is a bit more prominent in the 840 Evo series:

Random Read (4KB, QD32)
  • Max. 98,000 IOPS (500GB / 750GB / 1TB)
  • Max. 97,000 IOPS (250GB)
  • Max. 94,000 IOPS (120GB)

Random Write (4KB, QD32)
  • Max. 90,000 IOPS (500GB / 750GB / 1TB)
  • Max. 70,000 IOPS (250GB)
  • Max. 36,000 IOPS (120GB)

PostmanPot said:
Was hoping that the 2012 MBP was SATA6G.
Click to expand...

It is:

SATA1 = 1.5G
SATA2 = 3G
SATA3 = 6G

And Neoprod is right: I have a 2011 MBP (Sandybridge) and it has SATA3 controllers.

For what it's worth, I picked the 850 Pro over the 850 Evo for the following reasons:

840 Evo850 Evo850 Pro
MTBF1.5 million hours1.5 million hours2 million hours
TB Written? (840 Pro was 73150300
Warranty3 years (or TBW limit)5 years (or TBW limit)10 years (or TBW limit)


The 480 GB OCZ Vertex II in my MBP is on its last legs, and since I replace my laptops roughly every 5 years, its replacement will spend maybe a year in the MBP and the rest of its life in my PC, where it will mostly be used for video editing, so I'd like it to last a while :)


(side note: anyone know how to make a new line after a table? :confused:)
Click to expand...
 
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Space_Chief

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I have an OWC 480GB Mercury Extreme in one Mac and an OWC Mercury Aura 1TB in my rMBP. Both work well.

rMBPs only take OWC and Transcend SSDs AFAIK as third party (DIY) upgrade option.
 
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