[fjon]

I'm not sure there is much in the difference between the Samsung and Crucial ones. The Crucial one fluctuates around the £300 mark on Amazon which is cheaper than the €530 for the Samsung.

I've had mine installed for about a week and it's going great. I had to downgrade my EFI firmware to 1.6, but since I did that everything is working fine. I'm not getting full SATA 3 speeds on it, but I don't think there's anything I can do about that until Apple release a new EFI firmware that works (doubtful). It's still a lot faster than my old HDD.

[Dr.Sanchez]

Originally Posted by jenno86

Cheers, that link isn't working for me tho!

Strange, try this so...

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_cente...2011/index.cfm

[maggy_thatcher]

Originally Posted by Dr.Sanchez

When you do get the SSD, use these instructions (method 2) for installing the new drive.

Another option (which is what I did), is to burn an install DVD (the disk image is embedded in the "Install Lion" application), and just do a clean install that way. See Macworld for details. If you've an 8GB (or larger) USB key, you can install it from this either.

[opinion guy]

Originally Posted by fjon

I'm not sure there is much in the difference between the Samsung and Crucial ones. The Crucial one fluctuates around the £300 mark on Amazon which is cheaper than the €530 for the Samsung.

The Samsung is a bit faster - which I want/need for some heavy duty work I will be doing

[garion]

I've got a 13" mid-2009 MBP and recently decided to give it an overhall.
Upgraded the RAM to 8GB (bought from Crucial) and also installed a 64GB Crucial M4 SSD I had spare. Install went fine but I started getting beachball constantly like the OP.
In the end I thought it was the M4 so decided to buy the 256GB Samsung 830. Then ran into issues when trying to install OS X Snow Leopard (getting "support files cannot be copied" error). Samsung drive seems fine as stuck it in a Dell and installed Windows fine.

I'm hoping the issues (with both SSDs!) will be resolved by downgrading the firmware down to 1.6 (I'm currently on 1.7). Will do that tonight and report back. Fingers crossed!

[Sad Professor]

Originally Posted by garion

I've got a 13" mid-2009 MBP and recently decided to give it an overhall.
Upgraded the RAM to 8GB (bought from Crucial) and also installed a 64GB Crucial M4 SSD I had spare. Install went fine but I started getting beachball constantly like the OP.

This, I suspect, was a firmware issue due to the EFI 1.7 update, which doesn't seem to like the M4. However, while I had problems installing OS X on my Samsung drive, I haven't experienced any problems since, which makes me think the firmware is okay with it.

In the end I thought it was the M4 so decided to buy the 256GB Samsung 830. Then ran into issues when trying to install OS X Snow Leopard (getting "support files cannot be copied" error). Samsung drive seems fine as stuck it in a Dell and installed Windows fine.

What copy of Snow Leopard do you have? Is it a retail copy or did it come with your Mac?

[silvine]

Hate to hijack a thread but it seems relevant...

Is ab OCZ Technology 240GB Agility 3 SSD a good fit/buy for a 2010 iMac?

http://www.dabs.ie/products/ocz-tech...l?q=ssd&src=16

[garion]

Originally Posted by Sad Professor

This, I suspect, was a firmware issue due to the EFI 1.7 update, which doesn't seem to like the M4. However, while I had problems installing OS X on my Samsung drive, I haven't experienced any problems since, which makes me think the firmware is okay with it.


What copy of Snow Leopard do you have? Is it a retail copy or did it come with your Mac?

Hmm... just downgraded the firmware (after being forced to go from Lion to Snow Leopard!) but I now have the Boot ROM Version of MBP55.00AC.B00 instead of MBP55.00AC.B02.... hmmm.

Anyway will try install the Samsung now and see how things go.

[garion]

OK i'm posting this from my MBP with Samsung 830 installed!

Install went without a hitch once I downgraded the firmware. I suppose all I can do now is give it a few days and see if any issues occur. I seem to be making progress anyway.

Will report back in a few days.

Thanks to the OP and Sad Professor for their help. I was on the verge of returning the Samsung yesterday. Very glad I decided to ask for help on Boards!

[Dr.Sanchez]

I have an 830 in my pro, major improvement. Next step is to take out the DVD drive and stick in a second SSD

[opinion guy]

Fecking price of 512Gb Samsungs gone back up.

grrrr

I may bite on a Crucial M4 so.
Can anyone tell me - the firmware update requires a windows machine yes ?
Does it have to be done internally ?
Can I used a 2008 WinNT Hp laptop to update it ?

[Colonel Panic]

Nope, it doesn't need a Windows machine and will probably come with the latest firmware anyway.

[garion]

All still going well with my MBP since I downgraded the firmware during the week. It's flying along so delighted with it so far. I installed Windows 7 through Boot Camp too and its working great.

After the Windows install I decided to upgrade the firmware to see if it would still work. As soon as I rebooted after the upgrade both Windows and OS X froze on start-up! Downgraded again to 1.6 and all is back to normal thankfully. So the moral of the story is don't upgrade to 1.7 if you want to replace the stock HDD!

[opinion guy]

Price drop on pixmania on Samsung 830 512gb:

€429
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/search/samsung-830-512gb

Promo code here for an extra €16 off: http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/cp-discount-code

Unfortunely delivery is a minimum of 8.99