Mac Pro 2009 SSD Drive

Question

I know there have been other topics related to this, but I haven't been able to find a straight answer about what drives would be the best. I'd like to be sure before I buy anything.
At the moment I have a Mac Pro with just a 1TB drive that came with it from the factory. I want to install a SSD drive as the boot drive, but i'm a bit confused as to which one to go for. By looking through forums, a lot of people seem to be saying Intel make the best drives? Am I wrong?
I was thinking of this drive:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-004-IN
Is there another around the same capacity that would work better and is maybe a bit cheaper? ~64gb would work too. I see the Kingston ones are cheap, but their read/write speeds seem poor.
This one looks good too:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-079-SA&groupid=701&catid =14&subcat=910
I was thinking of getting two if I can afford it so I can have windows on one of them to play games. But it would probably work out cheaper to get a 128gb drive and partitioning it, wouldn't it?
Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi Steve,
OCZ replaced my Agility EX 60GB SLC SSD with their much more expensive, top of their range Vertex EX SLC SSD.
The reason for OCZ doing this was that the Agility EX had been discontinued. According to OCZ, the reason was: "We no longer get the Nand that is on the drive, not that there is anything wrong, we just don't have a competitive source for it."
This sounds like a reasonable explanation to me, because the Agility EX was extremely competitively priced compared to other Single Level (Layer) Cell SSDs. Also, it used Intel NAND, whereas, according to third party reviews, their other SSDs use Samsung. Perhaps Intel didn't like OCZ selling Single Level (Layer) Cell SSDs at a price much lower than Intel's own 'E' Series of SLC SSDs, and so they upped the price of their NAND to OCZ? It seems plausible.
I did a clean install of the Mac OS and all my applications, and I am very happy with the result. Start up time has been more than halved, and applications launch like greased lightning, even Aperture 2 which used to be a bit of a pig!
The only downside, as far as I am concerned, is that, apparently, it is impossible to update the firmware on a 2009 Nehalem Mac Pro. The Vertex EX came with version 1.3, which is equivalent to 1.4 on other OCZ SSDs, but 1.5 was released at the end of January. "Samsara" had raised the problem of OCZ firmware updates in a post on another thread, and I took this up with OCZ.
The last I heard from them was on10th. February, when they commented:
"1.3 on the EX drives = 1.4 revision on the other drives.
Have you tried to boot with one of the update CD's?
Let me see if I can find a solution, the problem being that the program that checks the SSD for the proper FW, has to be able to write the file somewhere. This is done through a ramdisk, which is part of the boot on the CD."
Obviously, they have yet to find a solution to this problem!
Despite the fact that the 1.5 firmware update would make the Vertex EX even faster, it is still an extremely fast drive.
However, if I had waited another 2 months before ordering an SSD (I bought the Agility EX last December), I would definitely have ordered the OWC Mercury Extreme, even though it would have meant importing it from the USA.
OWC are primarily a Mac friendly company, whereas OCZ, Intel and other SSD manufacturers pitch their products at the PC market.
The reviews of the OWC Mercury Extreme speak for themselves.
This "folk" says "NO BRAINER! BUY THE OWC MERCURY EXTREME!"
Regards, Bill
PS
MacFormat UK reviewed the following 120/128GB capacity SSDs in the issue I referred to earlier:
Crucial M225, Imation M-Class, Intel X25-M Mainstream, Kingston SSD Now V-Series, OCZ Agility Series, Patriot Torqx, Transcend, and Transcend Ultra.
The winner ( 4 out of 5 stars) was the Crucial M225. The ratings were based upon 3 tests - Value, Extras, and Speed.
Although the Kingston scored 5 stars for both Value and Extras, it was the slowest by a mile, scoring only 1 star in the Speed test.
The Patriot Torqx was the fastest of these drives, and scored 5 stars in the Speed test, and so did the Crucial M225, OCZ Agility, and Transcend Ultra.
Overall Ratings:
4 Stars - Crucial M225
3.5 Stars - Kingston Now V Series, Patriot Torqx
3 Stars - Imation M-Class
2.5 Stars - Intel X25-M Mainstream, OCZ Agility, Transcend, and Transcend Ultra
As far as "Speed" goes the OWC Mercury Extreme would have blown all the above away!
"Extras" really shouldn't have been a consideration in the review as far as I am concerned. None of them would have been of any use to me!
"Value" is something which can only be determined by the individual purchaser's requirements and judgement. Personally, I would not even consider buying an SSD which scored 5 Stars for Value, but only 1 Star for Speed. I would sooner spend more money per GB to obtain 5 Stars for Speed.
In my opinion the OWC Mercury Extreme is fantastic value for money, particularly when you take into account its read and write speeds, and let's face it, the reason most of us buy SSDs is for increased performance!