Well, it's true. I have an OWC Mercury drive installed in a Mac Mini and I can't get the TRIM enabled on it. Supposedly the Mercury has its own "Sandforce" optimizer but I have no idea about its efficacy. No way to tell if it's working or not.
That drive does not support TRIM. It does implement its own garbage collection scheme though.
If you're looking at the Seagate Momentus I suggest you read the customer reviews at Newegg.com first. Between the DOA units, the early life failures, the noise issues and the ineffective firmware fixes you'll soon lose interest. At least I did.
Too bad, since it's an interesting concept, but Seagate has failed miserably to execute.
Do some research online (e.g. at Anandtech.com). The effectiveness of the Sandforce controller's internal garbage collection routine is quite well established. Right now a Sandforce-equipped SSD is the only good third party choice for a Mac in those cases when TRIM can't be enabled.
However see also the very interesting link elsewhere in this thread to TRIM Enabler (http://www.groths.org/?p=387). Assuming this works?and I haven't tried it?a much wider choice of SSDs is opened up.
Thanks for the advice and info, Neil. I did google sandforce some time ago but unfortunately most of what was out there was technically beyond my comprehension while the rest provided nothing that was helpful. I did try the TRIM enabler based on the info posted earlier and after doing it, the system profiler showed that TRIM was indeed now enabled.
One question: Is there some means of seeing what either/both Sandforce and TRIM are doing? In other words, how does a non-technical person like me gain confidence that these are doing something, anything, to keep the SSD well-oiled yet not accelerating its decay? This was part of my earlier google search and turned up nothing.
I use trim enabler with my OWC drive with a Sandforce controller. Going on a few months now with 0 issues, very pleased with the drive and happy with what trim enabler provides. It may vary by drive and by system so I can only speak for my own experience. I re-patched for 10.6.8 so I'll see how that turns out.
So Zach, how exactly does a non-technical consumer like me see these advantages? How can the TRIM/Sandforce functions be measured? (Serious question.)
I just enabled TRIM on my SSD per the instructions posted earlier (using the patcher) and I have no idea if things are getting better or worse or what's going on behind the scenes. I did this just to be sure I don't run into slowdowns or a reduction in live cells (or whatever you call the SSD analog of HDD blocks).
Comments
Well, it's true. I have an OWC Mercury drive installed in a Mac Mini and I can't get the TRIM enabled on it. Supposedly the Mercury has its own "Sandforce" optimizer but I have no idea about its efficacy. No way to tell if it's working or not.
That drive does not support TRIM. It does implement its own garbage collection scheme though.
Since iPods and iPhones have SSDs is there any type of TRIM support for them? They need it more than computer hard drives because they are so small.
Who knows the answer to this one?
Who freakin' cares???
Seriously, what does it matter? Will your experience with your iDevice monumentally change because it has or doesn't have TRIM support?
If you're looking at the Seagate Momentus I suggest you read the customer reviews at Newegg.com first. Between the DOA units, the early life failures, the noise issues and the ineffective firmware fixes you'll soon lose interest. At least I did.
Too bad, since it's an interesting concept, but Seagate has failed miserably to execute.
I was looking at this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-591-_-Product
It's got 4 stars and most of the comments speak very positively about it. It seems about as good as any of the other Seagate drives.
Do some research online (e.g. at Anandtech.com). The effectiveness of the Sandforce controller's internal garbage collection routine is quite well established. Right now a Sandforce-equipped SSD is the only good third party choice for a Mac in those cases when TRIM can't be enabled.
However see also the very interesting link elsewhere in this thread to TRIM Enabler (http://www.groths.org/?p=387). Assuming this works?and I haven't tried it?a much wider choice of SSDs is opened up.
Thanks for the advice and info, Neil. I did google sandforce some time ago but unfortunately most of what was out there was technically beyond my comprehension while the rest provided nothing that was helpful. I did try the TRIM enabler based on the info posted earlier and after doing it, the system profiler showed that TRIM was indeed now enabled.
One question: Is there some means of seeing what either/both Sandforce and TRIM are doing? In other words, how does a non-technical person like me gain confidence that these are doing something, anything, to keep the SSD well-oiled yet not accelerating its decay? This was part of my earlier google search and turned up nothing.
I use trim enabler with my OWC drive with a Sandforce controller. Going on a few months now with 0 issues, very pleased with the drive and happy with what trim enabler provides. It may vary by drive and by system so I can only speak for my own experience. I re-patched for 10.6.8 so I'll see how that turns out.
So Zach, how exactly does a non-technical consumer like me see these advantages? How can the TRIM/Sandforce functions be measured? (Serious question.)
I just enabled TRIM on my SSD per the instructions posted earlier (using the patcher) and I have no idea if things are getting better or worse or what's going on behind the scenes. I did this just to be sure I don't run into slowdowns or a reduction in live cells (or whatever you call the SSD analog of HDD blocks).