Which solid-state hard drive is best for a MacBook. Installing an SSD and a second HDD. What SSDs can be installed in Mac
Solid state drives are steadily advancing and replacing hard drives in Mac computers. Today Apple installs them not only in laptops and desktops.
Many users, when choosing a potential computer, prefer monoblocks. Large high-quality screen with high resolution, excellent performance and a relatively compact body. All of this combined makes the iMac a great choice for just about everyone. But all-in-one Apple devices have one very significant drawback. We will talk about him today.
Remember the good old days when you changed the battery in a couple of minutes, added random access memory and put an additional drive? If you are a user, this is all in the past for you, but upgrading your hard drive is still possible, and Apple developers allow us to do so for now. In 2010, Apple introduced its proprietary solid state drives, the "blade" SSD. The company touts their read / write speed and reliability, but rarely explains the details of the technology used in SSDs, since these drives are only intended for Apple computers.
If you suddenly have Mac mini 2011 or 2012 release or old / MacBook Air, do not rush to send them to rest ahead of time and run to buy a new generation of computer, which costs much more. The most affordable computer in Apple's lineup is fairly upgradeable, and with an SSD you can give it a second life.
Now almost every home has some kind of storage device: hard drives and solid state drives () in computers and laptops, USB sticks, microSD cards etc. True, all these devices have a common serious drawback. Due to the complexity of the technology that is used in their production, there is always a chance that the drive will fail, "burying" all available information: photos, collections of home movies or music. Have hard drives and SSDs have a limited data rewriting resource that a common user cannot always track down. But even if the drive is out of order, this does not mean that the data is lost forever. In most cases, them.
Few would argue with the fact that Apple creates the best computer technology, and has been doing this for a long time. The company's laptops and desktop computers have a beautiful and stylish design, a convenient operating system and, most importantly, work stably. Better yet, even older Macs can last for years because they have ample upgradeability.
I confess I'm a big fan of external drives. Even when hard drives with a maximum of 30-40 GB were installed in computers, I already had external drive of the same capacity - due to constant moving, I wanted to be as mobile as possible and always have at hand required files... Time goes by, and now even solid state drives (
TRIM on Mac: Apple OEM drives only
We already know that SSDs write data in 4KB chunks. In the process of moving data, removing obsolete data and using the free space for new data, larger blocks are used. This process known by the term "garbage collection" and is common to any SSD.
The problem is that solid-state drives and operating systems are usually not in a close dialogue. When you delete a file, the OS marks the space occupied by the corresponding data as free, but the drive itself does not know anything about this. After a while, a lot of free space is formed (from the point of view operating system), which the SSD considers to be still occupied by the data it needs. And only when the OS gives the command to write information to the block, which is filled with data, the SSD finally finds out that this data is no longer needed. Until a certain point, such pieces of data are scattered throughout the drive (the so-called "garbage collection points"), slowing down the drive and wearing out free NAND memory cells.
This is where the TRIM command comes into play. When the file is deleted, the operating system sends a TRIM command to the SSD, marking such sectors as free. In this situation, the drive knows that these sectors do not need to be garbage collected.
Of course, TRIM support must be present at several different levels. The drive, controller, and operating system must be compatible. Fortunately, the process of creating an ecosystem that powers the TRIM command began a long time ago. Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Linux, OpenSolaris, FreeBSD and OS X all have TRIM support.
But just because the combination of hardware and software provides TRIM support doesn't mean that the team will always work. In case of latest versions We are fortunate enough to have Windows because we are dealing with open source operating systems that provide broad compatibility. But Apple is not that kind. It only allows you to use TRIM on your OEM drives, while installing a third-party SSD after purchasing a computer Mac given the function is disabled.
There are no secret ways to get around this artificial limitation. In this review, we will show our readers one of these methods, after which we will conduct several tests to make sure it is effective.
Test SSD: Samsung 840 Pro
Unlike the MacBook Air, which requires a proprietary form factor SSD (like OWC's Aura Pro 6G + Envoy), MacBook Pro Provides more flexibility: you can use a 2.5 '' SSD. This makes it possible to use any drives that support various controller technologies and firmware versions. Samsung 840 Pro - good example for today's test. This is one of the fastest SSDs we've ever tested, and as a result we use it in all our testbeds. At the same time, the 840 Pro does not support SandForce / LSI's DuraWrite technology, does not benefit from data compression in speed, and its controller uses its own garbage collection technology. In the case of the Aura Pro drive for MacBook Air, the manufacturer claims that TRIM is not required: the drive is based on the SandForce / LSI controller, and DuraWrite technology removes the need for TRIM in hardware. In fact, this is not entirely true, since DuraWrite and TRIM are rather complementary, complementary technologies. One way or another, for using Samsung 840 Pro on a MacBook Pro, we have more reason to enable the TRIM command.
Although Samsung recently introduced new 840 EVO, which will soon replace the "regular" SSD 840, the older model 840 Pro is still the flagship in the line. Recall that this drive is based on its own controller S4LN021X01-8030 NZWD1 and uses for data transmission SATA interface 6 Gbps. On models 840 and 840 EVO a 3-bit NAND cell (Tri Level Sell - TLS) is used, which affects reliability and performance. But the Pro series drives are based on the familiar 21nm MLC memory.
Technical Samsung specifications 840 Pro
| Manufacturer | Samsung |
| Model | 840 Pro |
| Serial number | MZ-7PD256 |
| Form factor | 2.5 "(7mm) |
| Capacity | 256 GB |
| Price | $240 |
| Controller | Samsung MDX |
| NAND memory type | 21 nm MLC Toggle-mode |
| Sequential read / write speed | 540/520 MB / s |
| Random Read / Write Performance (4KB, Queue Depth = 32), IOPS | 100,000 / 90,000 |
| Over-provisioning | 0,07 |
| Cache | 512 MB |
| Interface | SATA Gb / s |
| Supplements | Samsung Magician software |
| Guarantee | Five years |
TRIM Enabler Test System and Software
Again, Apple supports TRIM through OS X, but only when you are using one of the OEM drives that came with your computer. As soon as you replace one or another drive, TRIM is disabled. We have heard scary stories about enabling TRIM using third-party utilities, and for this reason we decided to test the result on our own experience.
Fortunately, Apple's restrictions on third-party SSDs weren't too tight in terms of hardware... Some manipulation needs to be done to meet Apple's SSD requirements, but the.
This time, in order not to waste time, we decided to immediately try the utility TRIM Enabler... It is as easy to use as possible. In the program, you just need to move the slider from left to right - and you're done. One nuance should be taken into account, namely that when updating the operating system, you will probably need to repeat this procedure again.
Before using TRIM Enabler, you must enable the option in the system settings that provides the ability to install software of any origin, and not only those that are available through App Store or certified developers.
Test system and software
As test system we are using MacBook Pro. More specifically, we are talking about the most compact model of the eleventh generation, introduced in mid-2012, also known as the MacBook Pro with a screen diagonal of 9.2 inches.
Initially, the laptop is equipped with a 500 GB hard drive, which we took out and placed in an external box with USB interface 3.0. Its place in the laptop case was taken by the Samsung 840 Pro SSD. The system would be booted from the original hard drive.
| Apple MacBook Pro | |
| Model | MacBook Pro |
| Model number | MacBookPro9.2 |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-3210M |
| Clock frequency | 2.5 GHz |
| Number of Cores | 2 |
| L2 cache (per core) | 256 kB |
| Shared L3 Cache | 3 MB |
| Memory | 4 GB |
| System hard drive | Seagate ST500LM012 (500GB; 5400 rpm) |
Test Software
We will make the Samsung 840 Pro pass two rounds of testing. First, we will perform a complete erase of the drive - for this task, the secure erase procedure is used, which instructs the controller to erase all blocks on the disk. Then we bring the drive to the state in which it was at the time of sale, that is, in this state it had the highest possible performance. Then we'll run the first round of tests, which involves running AJA System Test and DiskTester twice without using TRIM. This gives a clear comparison of the performance of a fresh drive "out of the box" and a drive that has been used for a long time under standard daily workload.
In the second round of testing, we will replay the secure erase procedure, and then rerun the benchmark set twice with the TRIM command enabled. This gives us a total of four results:
- TRIM disabled, first test run (out of the box state).
- TRIM disabled, second test run (drive after active use).
- TRIM enabled, first test run (out of the box state).
- TRIM enabled, second test run (drive after active use).
Here is a detailed report on the progress of the tests:
- Installing TRIM Enabler and restarting your MacBook Pro is for Round 2 only.
- Full filling of the drive with data using DiskTester three times to simulate the used SSD.
- Full filling of the SSD-drive with video files.
- Break for 30 minutes.
- Running the benchmark AJA System Test (test file size 16 GB).
- Running the DiskTester benchmark (block size 4 KB and 8 KB).
Solid state drives in MacBooks are gradually replacing hard drives. Today Apple puts them not only in laptops, but also in desktops.
The company's desire to occupy a leading position in the market is reflected in the development of all products, including MacBooks. Once the Cupertinians introduced the USB standard, then the world's first tried to approach ultrabooks, removed optical drives. And finally, they put them on SSDs in their laptops. The latter turned out to be super productive compared to everything else that the market has to offer.
Features of SSD for MacBook Pro, model differences are discussed below solid state drives, a way to change HDD to SSD.
In the new Pro MacBooks, SSDs are phenomenal when compared to the competition. Its values reach 3.1 GB / s and 2.1 GB / s for reading and writing. In this case, the volume of the element does not affect the result in any way. The experts of the Computerworld resource came to such results after a series of tests. According to the test results, it was revealed that the new Pro MacBooks show an increase in performance by 200% in comparison with the representatives of the previous year.
Such results were made possible thanks to the use of the NVMe interface. It provides drives with high throughput... For the first time, the technology was implemented in a 12-inch MacBook. However, in this device, its capabilities could not be fully revealed due to the weak "filling".
According to Jeff Yanukovych, an expert of the IDC group, which owns the Computerworld resource, the rivals of the "apple" company will come to similar results no earlier than 2017. This only underlines the position of Apple's new laptops as close to ideal.
Types of SSD for Macbook Pro
Consider drive variations for current versions of MacBooks. Let's see what their differences are, and which Pro model each element is suitable for.
An SSD is a solid state drive, which is an "advanced" type of hard drive. Compared to the latter, the SSD weighs much less, but has a higher speed. The cost of the new item is significantly higher than that of hard disk... Regardless, the upgrade to install a solid state drive on a MacBook Pro is definitely worth doing.
SSD for MacBook Pro
The list of items for this device includes variations of 13 ", 15" and 17 "MacBooks up to 2012. The SSD has a 2.5 form factor, that is, it is similar in size to the main drive of a MacBook.
The possibility of installing an SSD instead of a HDD is available, but is it worth taking such a step? Winchester must have a large volume, and the price of an SSD of the same volume is quite high. Here you can resort to the most appropriate method.
Mostly SSDs are used to increase the speed of the device. That's why the best way out will be installing a solid-state element instead of a DVD, which almost no one needs today. This requires a special adapter. This is an optibay adapter. In this situation, small SSDs are sufficient, for example, up to 240 GB. 512 GB SSD is optional. The main disk will be responsible for saving data, and the drive will provide high-speed operation of the MacBook.
SSD for MacBook Pro Retina
In the "apple" notebooks of the new model, there are drives of a completely different type. They are small, but of increased power. These facts also affected the cost of the elements.
In addition, SSD dies in MacBooks with Retina display put in place for the main disk, which the representatives of this line do not have. By the way, they don't have a DVD drive either. So you don't have to dream of an additional hard drive.
Change HDD to SSD
The instructions below show you step by step how a MacBook Pro replaces an HDD with an SSD. For MacBook Pro Retina the information is not good, because they already come with such drives.
But the owners of Pro laptops released in mid-2012 and earlier, this manual will improve the performance of the device without unnecessary spending.
Replacement SSD MacBook Pro includes steps like this:
- We turn the MacBook over and put it on a smooth table top without unnecessary things so that they do not scratch the lid of the device. Unscrew the 10 screws holding the bottom cover using a Phillips screwdriver. Carefully remove the lid and set it aside.
- At the bottom left, near the battery, we will find a hard drive attached with brackets (on two screws each). Remove one bracket - that's enough. We are talking about an element located as close as possible to optical drive... We unscrew both screws and remove the bracket. Raise the disc a little by the tab and remove the fasteners from under the other bracket.
- Carefully disconnect the SATA connector from the hard drive. The cable from the "motherboard" to the SATA connector is thin, so all actions should be slow and accurate.
- We unscrew the fastening screws from the "filling" of the hard drive.
- We attach the mounting screws to the SSD. We glue the plastic tongue from the HDD to the SSD, so that later you can easily get the drive out of the MacBook.
- The SSD is prepared for housing. But you need to connect the SATA connector to it, then you can put the element in the compartment.
- Install and fasten the mounting bracket. The drive is where it should be - you can attach the cover.
By the way, you can replace the SSD for the MacBook Air in a similar way. But remember that a different adapter is required for your MacBook Air 13. In addition, for models with different encoding, for example, for the MacBook Air A1466, you need to buy a certain type of SSD. Changing the hard drive in the MacBook Air, as in the MacBook Pro 13, for one of the solid-state drives is a more complete real task.
Transferring the operating system to a new SSD
To complete this task, you will need a 2.5 ″ USB hard drive container. We put the hard drive extracted from the MacBook there. After that, we connect the formed element to one of the USB elements on the MacBook.
- Launch the MacBook by holding down the Option element (aka Alt). A boot menu will pop up shortly.
- Select Recovery and press Enter. The OS X Utilities window will appear instantly. You need to choose disk utility and click on the continuation item.
- In the left section, highlight the newly installed SSD and proceed to the erase section. During the procedure, a section entitled "New" will be formed. There is no need to change it, because later it will be called Macintosh HD.
- Next, we move on to the recovery tab. We cite Macintosh HD as the primary source. In the destination field, move the new section to the right side.
- We click on the restore button to transfer data from the selected category to the new SSD. A loading progress bar appears.
- Upon completion of the download, the new drive will contain a 100% copy of the operating system installed on the MacBook - with all the settings and information.
In the same software, at the end of the operation, you can clean the hard drive connected via USB. Subsequently, the disc can be used as an external portable element.
In time, the operation will take half an hour. But the performance indicators of the device will increase significantly. The operating system and software will boot instantly. The laptop will respond quickly to your every action. And all for the reason that the system will acquire quick access to all the data that is required to increase the speed of the device.
Another advantage of SSDs is that it does not make noise even during high activity. Therefore, the MacBook will become even more silent.
Due to the reduced power consumption, the SSD shows longer periods when compared to any conventional drive. autonomous work... This is another important advantage of using such drives in Apple devices.
What the MacBook will lose as a result of such a replacement is a few grams of weight. After all, an SSD element for a MacBook Pro is slightly lighter than a hard drive.
Remember, you can always connect outer element... But in this situation, an adapter or special adapters will be required.
It so happened that two weeks after mine, Macbook air 13 "Apple Care ended, SSD died. I didn't want to go to the official representative, as well as to the left labs. In the first case, the price of the check was not at all adequate, in the second I could not get the price of the repair from the lab, if it turns out that it really broke SSD only. The problem was compounded by the fact that I was not 100% sure it was an SSD and not motherboard for example, therefore, no surrogate was ordered from well-known and not so famous brands, for example, OWC. Another difficulty was that Apple deliberately makes its devices as difficult as possible to repair, even to simply unscrew the lid had to ask a friend for a set of screwdrivers, so it’s not surprising that it was impossible to just take the first SSD that came across and check.
Fortunately, this tricky nut also found its own threaded bolt, namely, an adapter to use standard SSD drives with Macbook. I stumbled upon it quite by accident and I think that very few people know about this possibility of replacing the disk, therefore I decided to talk about my experience here. The experience lies in the fact that an adapter was ordered for $ 4 from aliexpress, on the second attempt I found a 128Gb Samsung SSD lying idle with a friend, which stood up like a native. Especially I did not measure performance, but visually opening and installing programs as if they were native. No glitches were noticed either. Trim mode was manually enabled according to the instructions in this article. As a result, the repair was much cheaper than if I bought a compatible surrogate disk or, even more so, the original one.
Keep in mind that there are adapters for different models of SSD and Macbooks, prices range from $ 4 to $ 20. Sometimes a disc does not work for no apparent reason, so if it does not start with one disc, and the adapter is selected correctly, then try with another disc. Choose very carefully, visually they are all very similar. It is better to write to the seller your specific model Macbook, so as not to guess. In my opinion, they sell the same adapters for $ 4 and $ 20, the only difference is in the inscriptions on the board. You can buy on aliexpress, ebay, amazon, and there are sites that specialize in them. A couple of photos of what it looks like at the end of the article (I apologize for the quality, it was shot with a phone in haste). Hope my experience helps someone.
Update, got the following comment from user Helytdoff some time ago:
Good day!
After reading this material habr.com/ru/post/400279, I ordered an adapter, but it did not fit :(
Everything is fine with him, only the Chinese made the board thicker than the original one for the SSD for the poppy and he just stupidly does not go into the slot. It might be worth adding to the article a vorning that this could happen.
P.S. I rarely write in Russian, if there are mistakes (and they are), please write in a personal, I will correct them.
P.P.S. thanks a lot
Online store of spare parts and tools for Apple.
Today we are going to show you how to save money on SSD upgrades for all Mac computers after 2013. As you know, OWC has released new drives up to 1 TB with PCIe interface and proprietary Apple connector. Disk speeds for such a protocol are not great: up to 763 MB / s read and 446 MB / s write, but PCIe 2.0 allows you to achieve much higher speeds. And the price for 480GB is almost 30,000 rubles with delivery from the USA, and in Moscow from 44,000 rubles.
Recently Kingston company released PCIe 2.0 SSD drives with M.2 slot. The food is the same as that of Mac computers, but the connector is different. The task is set, the drawings are drawn, months of waiting and the required adapter are already in our office. It remains to install the disk through the adapter and test.
Quick Installation Guide SSD Kingston M.2 in MacBook Retina 13 "2015.
Step 1
- unscrew 10 Pentalobe * 1.2 screws with a screwdriver
- note that the screws differ in shape and length, during the assembly process, return everything to its place
Step 2
- remove the plastic cover from the battery connector
Step 3
- disconnect the battery cable from the motherboard with a spatula
Step 4
- now that the motherboard is de-energized, unscrew the T5 screw that secures the standard SSD drive
Step 5
- carefully remove the SSD at a slight angle
Step 6
- preparing a new one SSD larger volume with an adapter and push it into the connector, it fits perfectly in size
Step 7
- install our disk with the adapter and assemble the laptop in reverse order
Step 8
- install a clean OS X from a flash drive and test a new disk
After installing the operating system, we pass the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test. Windows results in the screenshot. The write speed at some points reached 561Mb / s, and the read speed was over 1Gb / s. What did all this give us? New 256Gb SSD disk for Mac devices PCIe last generations costs from 25,000 rubles, while it will be a disc without any guarantee, since Apple does not sell such discs, this disc will be disassembled or used. We, with the help of a magic adapter, installed a Kingston SHPM2280P2 / 240G 240GB disk (the price on Yandex Market as of the publication date is from 11,730 rubles). Total savings over 10,000 rubles, taking into account the cost of the adapter, as well as a 3-year manufacturer's proprietary warranty for the SSD drive.
Subscribe to our Blog on the site, we will pamper you with new articles about unique upgrades and Apple repairs technicians