Trying to sort out the SSD information

[wnlewis]

I want to put a 1 Tb SSD drive in my Sawtooth G4. I have a Firmtek/Seritek 4 port card in it that is successfully running 750 Gb Ultra ATA drives. They go through an ATA to SATA card and then to the Seritek SATA card.

I have seen "use OWC SSD drives". I have seen, "Don't use OWC drives". I have seen, "Use Samsung EVO 840 drives". "Use Samsung EVO 850 drives". "Don't use Samsung EVO 850 drives".

If I go with a Samsung, or OWC I plan to buy a new drive. If I get an OWC it will be set up. If I get a Samsung drive, who can help?

It's not the money, but the level of support that I can expect out of Samsung, OWC, or this group.

Is someone up to answering this question? Thanks, wnlewis.

[IIO]

the incompatibility of the evo 850s firmware is probably only one of many examples. so if you want to be on the safe side, buy and build based on the "positive list" only, i.e. go for a 840, which is known to work no matter how you attach it to a mac os 9 machine.

i am not you, but if i was you i would not try to find a 1tb ssd solution. i would rather buy a small 128gb SSD and 2 TB of mechanical drive for storage for about the same money.
the more modern a ssd is, the higher is the traffic rate you cant make advantage of anway.

[wnlewis]

Thank you for your advice. The Samsung EVO 840's are available in several sizes. I will have to see if a smaller one might work. Thanks for your help. wnlewis

[wnlewis]

Good advice.

I got a used Samsung EVO 840 250 Gb on eBay. It is installed and working.

I split it into two partitions: 10.4.11 and 9.2.2.

Is there a way to check it and update it on the Mac side, or do I need to stick it into a PC?

Thanks.

[IIO]

you talk firmware update? i dont know. but dont bother about it - never change a running system.

[wnlewis]

So, If it ain't broke . . .

Yes, I was thinking about firmware upgrades.

The SSD has really improved the performance of the G4. It makes 10.4 livable and it makes 9.2.2 pop.

[refinery]

Is there a way to check it and update it on the Mac side, or do I need to stick it into a PC?

Samsung Magician software is the only way to update firmware on those, and it is PC-only. it is however, a very fast and painless process. 20 seconds to update, and a power cycle.

[wnlewis]

So, . . . Take it out of my Mac. Put it in my PC. Do the update. Check the health of the drive while I have it in the PC. Put it back in the Mac. I am also thinking about putting TRIM on it. Any thoughts?

[refinery]

i had been under the impression that TRIM was something implemented at the operating system level, not the SSD firmware, so im not sure if that's possible. I do believe you can "over-provision" the SSD using Magician, which is somewhat similar to TRIM. instead of using TRIM to handle re-allocation to avoid write wear, the SSD at the firmware level basically uses a chunk of the disk to move data around to prevent write wear. The trade-off is you lose some capacity (and in your case, may require a reformat of the disk.) However, i have no idea if that is an OS-dependent function or not. However, the fact that the Evo is a 250GB disk, instead of a 256GB, leads me to believe it may actually already be over-provisioned. (usually any time you see a SSD that is below the "standard size increment" of 64/128/256/512/etc that is because its been over-provisioned.)

[FdB]

Seems like we’ve had previous discussion(s) about TRIM?
(In one of which, I was supposedly “edified”?)

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4435.msg31698.html#msg31698

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2408.msg31763.html#msg31763

(Much wringing-of-hands and gnashing-of-teeth... not really.)
Post from first thread noted above, comes from "comparison adventure" and think
the SSD was formatted in either a Quicksilver or MDD before placing it into the mini.
(Although might have been possible to format it within the mini booting from an OS
install disk - disk tools, to format it and avoid all that switching around, in and out.)
[Ninester's possible approach with his SSD? See aforementioned thread.]
Did not even attempt to utilize TRIM.