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I have a 2010 Macbook pro with a hard drive, and I'd like to replace it with a SSD.

Information I've read about OS X and SSD is generally quite old, and not reassuring (not all SSD are supported, and the thing about the TRIM command not enabled for non-apple SSD…).

So: is there any problem anymore with OS X and (non-apple) SSD?

This question is intended to be generic, but to give an example here is the SSD I'm considering to buy: Samsung 840 EVO 750Go.

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    it will. Period. As long as it's SATA II/III compatible, it will.
    – Alexander
    Sep 12, 2013 at 22:28
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    It's a hard drive. I haven't seen a single HDD (or SSD for that matter) print on the side of their box "OS X not supported." Ever. Also TRIM is a deprecated system and I do believe every single drive being made today has onboard garbage collection algorithms which is always more favorable than TRIM (this Sammy does too). Again, I've not seen a single one these days that does not. And in many cases, TRIM shouldn't be used in unison. Lastly, as it says on the Samsung website, the drive supports: "Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), Vista, XP, MAC OSX, Linux."
    – user10355
    Sep 13, 2013 at 0:52
  • Your biggest concern should be advertised speeds. The '10 MBP only has a SATA 3Gbps connection to the hard drive. The drive you are looking at needs 6 Gbps to get all the speeds out of it. You will be bottlenecked. You may be better off buying a slower drive that costs less in this case.
    – user10355
    Sep 13, 2013 at 1:02
  • @cksum I know it will be bottlenecked, but AFAIR I couldn't find any SSD SATA 3Gbps, so unless it's a problem I'll buy a 6Gbps (it shouldn't perform "less" right?). About TRIM, that's exactly why I asked the question thanks.
    – Matthieu Napoli
    Sep 13, 2013 at 6:11

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I replaced my stock HDD with a similar Samsung SSD in my 2010 MBP without any issues. It's a huge improvement over HDD as well. You will need to enable TRIM though. I used this trim utility on Mountain Lion. (Caveat: it WILL work without TRIM, but I wouldn't advise it. A good discussion on the topic is on SU here.)

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  • That post on SU is so outdated, it has no bearing on current SSDs. TRIM is deprecated and no longer an issue (not that SSDs ever saw the same degradation on OS X than they did on their Windows counterparts). You should't simply flip the switch on TRIM unless you know what that does and what it means to your drive. SandForce based SSDs actually saw a detriment using TRIM on OS X. Other controller boards have had conflicts as well. The main issue @matthieu is likely going to face is getting the advertised speeds if the connection on the '10 MBP is only SATA 3 Gbps (which it is).
    – user10355
    Sep 13, 2013 at 1:00
  • There are 2013 discussions on this same topic that endorse using TRIM for drive longevity. I happen to agree with that position. Granted, the drive to which I referred was installed awhile back, but the issues, while not as substantial, are still the same. You believe you don't need it. That's fine. That's what makes discussion important. My advice to the OP is to do your own research, and see for yourself.
    – Dave
    Sep 13, 2013 at 2:16
  • Any "official" link about using/not using TRIM? This is interesting (and the reason I asked the question), I'd love a canonical response.
    – Matthieu Napoli
    Sep 13, 2013 at 6:12
  • @Matthieu read my answer here: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/25224/… Which I see oddly enough you did comment on a year ago. There was a wealth of information there, not sure why you didn't bother to read it all.
    – user10355
    Sep 13, 2013 at 19:18
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    Tom's Hardware did some Samsung SSD benchmarking, with the following commentary about TRIM: "More important are the endurance-oriented reasons to keep TRIM turned on. Without the command, your operating system knows when data is deleted, but has no way to tell the SSD's controller. In turn, the SSD keeps moving that information around via garbage collection, unnecessarily programming and erasing the flash memory cells with stale data." I'm of the same opinion - use TRIM for drive life. (goo.gl/sv1uJn)
    – Dave
    Sep 13, 2013 at 20:05

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