epicvengeance Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 I want a snappier system, like faster app loading and boot. Currently, I have 40 second boot from chameleon to the desktop. Will this help me? I was thinking about getting the Vertex 2. Will I get all 240 mb/s for read? I dont have sata 2 so im not sure. Well I think I dont. I have a G41m Es2l Gigabyte. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielkza Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 SSDs are pretty much the best you can get to help boot times and application launching. Your motherboard does have SATA 3gbps (300MB/s), so the Vertex 2 would be a great choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epicvengeance Posted August 1, 2010 Author Share Posted August 1, 2010 So in essence, should I have full speed? Even in Mac OS SL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielkza Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 So in essence, should I have full speed? Even in Mac OS SL? The only thing missing in OS X (on real Macs too) is TRIM support, that tells SSDs what sectors are free for better internal bookkeeping. Most newer drives have some other method for taking care of said issue (internal garbage collecting), and Sandforce drives like the Vertex 2 are pretty resilient anyway. I wouldn't worry very much about that though: you'll get amazing performance unless you intentionally torture the drive by doing random writes all over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epicvengeance Posted August 2, 2010 Author Share Posted August 2, 2010 How about a Vertex, not vertex 2. I found it for 80 bucks used. But does it also have internal garbage collecting? And I'm not sure if my mobo has ahci. I didnt see it in by bios. Will that affect anything? Or, could you help me find a vertex 2 for about 100? I dont care about the size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsw953 Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 How about a Vertex, not vertex 2. I found it for 80 bucks used. But does it also have internal garbage collecting? And I'm not sure if my mobo has ahci. I didnt see it in by bios. Will that affect anything? Or, could you help me find a vertex 2 for about 100? I dont care about the size. As far as I know all OCZ SSD's with firmware 1.4.1 and above support garbage collection. I have been using OCZ Solid 2(not the fastest ssd by any means) for about 4 months now and my X-bench disk test(read/write) scores are pretty much the same as when I first installed it,around 100(it's only an Atom) .Booting from a HDD it's only around 40.Also boot time after chameleon,from the gray Apple screen is 13 seconds as opposed to 45 second on HDD.Mine came from Tiger Direct, they usually have at least 1 SSD on sale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epicvengeance Posted August 2, 2010 Author Share Posted August 2, 2010 Oh cool, I'll look into some of tiger directs deals also, is that 100 mbps for read and write? Looks like you had a great upgrade in your netbook with that ssd. Why is it that you don't get 240 mbps? Isn't that what vertex 2 supports? Is it because you might not have ahci? I don't think my bios has ahci either. And since my western digital gets 100 Mbps read now, should I still upgrade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsw953 Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 No,100 is the Xbench score.My read is about 120 mbps and write is just over 60.It's an OCZ Solid 2 which is rated at 170 read and 70 write and it's only a single core Atom processor so I think it's pretty acceptable performance.Way better than on a HDD.I only got the Solid 2 because it was on sale and I was wanting to try an SSD, now that I know the benefits next time I'll get something better. And yes my bios supports ahci.I think if you go with a Vertex 2 I think you should except to at least double your read/write speeds and cut your boot time way down.But there's really only one way to find out, isn't there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epicvengeance Posted August 2, 2010 Author Share Posted August 2, 2010 Indeed there is only one way to find out. But I am somewhat short on money and don't want to buy a vertex if i wont have all the speed it's supposed to have just beachase my mobo doesn't have ahci. Will not having ahci degrade my performance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsw953 Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 Here's my thoughts and I could be wrong(you should probably do a bit more research). Isn't AHCI a controller for Sata drives,so if your HDD is Sata now and your read/write speed is good (for a HDD)then I would assume either AHCI is automaticlly enabled or you have a kext added to enable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epicvengeance Posted August 2, 2010 Author Share Posted August 2, 2010 Does anyone know the definite answer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielkza Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 @gsw953: There are two operational modes for SATA controllers. One is AHCI, which requires drivers and OS support, and allows full use of the protocol. The second is IDE emulation mode, for older operating systems, which is what most motherboars default to. @epicvengeance: Your motherboard's southbridge (ICH7) does not support AHCI, at least according to Wikipedia. I didn't know P41/G41 motherboards had chips that old. I guess you won't be able to make full use of a Vertex 2. You could still do some more research, found out the maximum speed you can actually get, and see if it's worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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