News Archive for Thursday April 22, 2010     Goto Current News Page

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Report on MacBook Pro (Penryn) with Dual Intel 80GB SSD RAID 0
(drive upgrade report from a reader mail - he's going to rerun the tests as these scores are surprisingly low. Something isn't right...)

"Apple MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo (Penryn) running OS X 10.6.3 with two SSD G2 Intel X-25M's 80GB (SSDSA2M080G2GN) set up in RAID 0. Yes, it's fast. Yes, it's expensive.
One is an Intel branded drive and the other and Intel drive branded by A-DATA. Updated firmware for the A-DATA branded drive to rev. 2CV102HD. Intel branded drive was up to date when I purchased it. Removed my optical drive and put in an MCE Optibay enclosure (for replacing optical drive w/HD) to accommodate the 2nd SSD.
RAID setup in Disk Utility was a breeze. Did a clean install of OS.
See attached XBench score:

Xbench scores

(FYI: A reader with a Mac mini Server (8GB RAM) with dual Intel X25-M G2 SSDs in RAID 0 sent a link to his Xbench scores which show a 236.72 Sequential Score and a 1001.59 Random Score.-Mike)

No surprise that most apps open instantly (Photoshop CS3 opens in 3 seconds). I've processed some video and have yet to hear any of the fans kick on in the MBP.

I got each drive for about $210 and $100 for the OptiBay enclosure. SSDs are getting a little cheaper, believe it or not, but I can still see that cost will still turn most people off.

Gripes:
1. Still no TRIM support in OS X
2. Boot Camp does not support RAID configurations. (Don't like this one)

All in all worth it!
Best regards, Carnedo"

I wrote him to confirm the XB scores were in RAID0 (they were), as they seem very low even for a single SSD. He promised to rerun the tests tonight when he gets home. If it's still low, I'd be tempted to split up the drives (test in single drive mode) to see if that improves things. (In case it's some issue with the raid setup or drive mix. Granted I know Intel's SSDs have not benched as fast as some other brands (lower write speeds IIRC but high in IOPS), but the above scores definitely are not typical. And not that xbench is the last word on anything but still...)
As an FYI, here's a clip from my XB scores I posted last October with a single 256GB M225 (barefoot based) SSD. (That was before the later 1916 firmware that added GC - and it's not the best performance I've seen with that drive but not the worst either.)

M225 v1819 OS X SL reinstall

I no longer have the SSD installed in the MBP to compare 1916 firmware/10.6.3 results.
And another reply on SSD RAID 0, from a Mac Pro owner:

"striped SSDs in a Mac Pro
Two OCZ Vertex (barefoot-based) 120GB in RAID 0, v1.5 firmware connected to the ODD connector of the MacPro 2,1. Fast doesn't quite describe it re: cached images, booting etc. It's rare that an application takes more than a bounce and a bit to launch.
Intel SSDs were the kings re: ability to handle multiple I/Os but weren't as fast for sustained read/write. Tradeoff of one vs the other.
-DB

System Info:
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.3 (10D573)
Physical RAM 8192 MB
Model MacPro2,1
Drive Type OCZ Vertex x2 (RAID0)
Disk Test 347.29
  Sequential 240.14
    Uncached Write 280.41 - 172.17 MB/sec [4K blocks]
    Uncached Write 635.05 - 359.31 MB/sec [256K blocks]
    Uncached Read 98.57 - 28.85 MB/sec [4K blocks]
    Uncached Read 729.42 - 366.60 MB/sec [256K blocks]
  Random 627.13
    Uncached Write 235.11 - 24.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
    Uncached Write 952.15 - 304.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]
    Uncached Read 2645.57 - 18.75 MB/sec [4K blocks]
    Uncached Read 1435.52 - 266.37 MB/sec [256K blocks]"

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Reader experience with Mission Repair fixing cracked iPhone 3G screen
A friend in CA sent a writeup on his Experience w/Mission Repair replacing his damaged iPhone 3G Touchscreen after he dropped/cracked the display. Includes a list of costs (repair, shipping, etc.) - he also bought their accident insurance ($24.99/year).
Mission Repair also sent a coupon code for 10% off on their 3G or 3GS Digitizer Replacement Service by entering the coupon code "xlr8yourmac" at checkout.
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Apple Support/How-To/Troubleshooting Doc updates

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Apple related News/Articles/Rumors, Misc Software/App Updates

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Recent Articles and Reviews
Listing/links to recent articles and reviews you may have missed.
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