? Good SSD price???

pm-r · Oct 17th, 2012, 07:54 PM

Good SSD price??? From a recent email:

While Supply Lasts – Almost Gone!
Toshiba 512GB SSD was for $799 now $315.00!

Toshiba THNSNC512GBSJ 512GB SSD 3Gb/s 2.5-inch... in stock at OWC

monokitty · Oct 17th, 2012, 07:57 PM

Yes, but those are SATA 3.0Gb/s SSD's, so if you have a SATA 6.0Gb/s capable bus, this SSD may not be for you if you're looking for maximum speed and performance.

John Clay · Oct 17th, 2012, 07:58 PM

If it's suddenly on sale for $484 off, then there's clearly a reason. I'd avoid it.

pm-r · Oct 17th, 2012, 08:31 PM

Thanks and good points. And yes my mid-2007 2.4GHz 24" iMac only has SATA 3.0Gb/s support I believe.

Aprox. what year or Mac models came with a native hard drive SATA III (3.0) 6.0Gb/s capable bus?

I seem to having a seniors moment and a brain fart to locate the info.

Andrew Pratt · Oct 17th, 2012, 08:43 PM

Pretty much the 2011 or new models I believe will have 6Gb/s support in the drive bay and the very first generation of those will only have that on the hard drive not the optical bay.

CanadaRAM · Oct 17th, 2012, 08:56 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by pm-r
	Good SSD price??? From a recent email: While Supply Lasts – Almost Gone! Toshiba 512GB SSD was for $799 now $315.00! Toshiba THNSNC512GBSJ 512GB SSD 3Gb/s 2.5-inch... in stock at OWC

$315 US, plus $20.85 shipping and change on the dollar (even if the dollar is at par the charge card company will hit you with 2.5% commission) = CAN$345.18

This is good performance for two years ago but it isn't close to saturating even the SATA 2 3GB/s bus

Sequential Read (up to)220 MB/sec (SATA 3Gb/s)
Sequential Write (up to)180 MB/sec (SATA 3Gb/s)
1 year warranty from OWC, not from Toshiba, so this tells me it is an EOL clearance item.

You can pick up an OCZ Agility 4 512 MB SATA 6 GB/S from us with a three year warranty for $385 (and no shipping for you PM-R :-)

pm-r · Oct 17th, 2012, 10:57 PM

Thanks Trevor (CanadaRAM). As usual, excellent advice and helpful service.

Can I then assume that a later SSD such as an OCZ Agility 4 512 MB SATA 6 GB/S would or may provide better performance with my mid-2007 2.4GHz iMac and its SATA 2 3GB/s bus speed limitations with any backward speed compatibility, rather than using a SATA 2 3GB/s rated SSD?

monokitty · Oct 17th, 2012, 11:16 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by pm-r
	Can I then assume that a later SSD such as an OCZ Agility 4 512 MB SATA 6 GB/S would or may provide better performance with my mid-2007 2.4GHz iMac and its SATA 2 3GB/s bus speed limitations with any backward speed compatibility, rather than using a SATA 2 3GB/s rated SSD?

A 6GB/s rated SSD requires a 6GB/s bus to run at full speed - it would run at only 3GB/s on your unit; you may as well use a 3GB/s rated SSD - you'd pay extra for a 6GB/s rated SSD and then not be able to fully utilize it.

pm-r · Oct 18th, 2012, 12:38 AM

Thanks, and I know that my old iMac only supports 3 GB/s, but I guess I was just wondering if a newer SATA 3 6 GB/s rated SSD with it's backward 3 GB/s compatibility could somehow support better and faster throughput than an original SATA 2 3 GB/s hard drive.

But I guess a Mac's limited 3 GB/s bus speed = 3 GB/s bus speed, and no more and no new increase speed improvements with a 6 GB/s rated SSD and its backward 3 GB/s speed.

CanadaRAM · Oct 18th, 2012, 12:41 PM

The Toshiba drive underperforms the 3GB/sec bus, the modern drives will be able to deliver performance close to the limit of the bus.

At SATA II bus speeds, the SATA bus is capable of approx 300 MB/Sec
A 7200 RPM laptop hard drive will get up to 90 MB/sec
A 5400 RPM laptop hard drive will get up to about 70 MB/sec
A modern SSD will get about 240 MB/sec on a SATA II bus
The Toshiba is probably getting under 200 MB/sec

Compared to a hard drive you can expect at least double the sustained throughput on the SSD, and close to zero latency as well, which is good for small files.