Kingston HyperX SSD on a Mac
14 October 2011
72 Comments
I had unboxed the Kingston HyperX 120 GB SSD drive a couple of days ago and I installed the same on a Mac and I show you how it performs on a Mac OS X computer. I also compare it to a normal Hard-disk, this HyperX is a high performance SSD drive from Kingston and it blew me away with it’s ultra fast performance and I made a video to show you the same.
Do remember to subscribe to my Youtube channel to be notified about my video updates tutorials and guides it’s free to subscribe!
If you are in India and planning to buy books / mobile / gadgets online, I suggest you have a look at flipkart. It is one of the best online store in India and they offer free home delivery and cash on delivery for most products.
Hey!Does the upgrade software work, with mac?Does it also copy BootCamp windows?Thanks in advance
@Thekavsen: The cloning software that you get with the HyperX kit for cloning your drive is for windows only for Mac I used the Carbon Copy cloner to clone it to the SSD see my video on CCC on how to do the same watch?v=i16SaFkE2LE BTW my mac installation did not have a bootcamp windows partition so do not know if it works with boot camp.
@geekyranjit So i just start by fitting the SSD into the external case and copy and after that, i put it in my MacBook Pro?
@Thekavsen: Yep that should do it
Just follow the instructions that I gave to format the drive to make it bootable in that CCC video. BTW do note that to the speeds like what I am getting you need to make sure that your Mac has SATA 3 controller as far as I know the iMac 2011 edition has that do not have idea about other macs, if you have the old controller then the speeds that you would get be around 300 MB/sec but that is still way faster than your Mac spinning HDD.
@geekyranjit I hav ea 2011 MAcbook Pro and it does have S-ATA 3 controller and i can get 500+ mb/sec read
I can get up to 260 MB/s read speeds on my 2x500Gb 7200rpm RAID0 setup, but the access times are much slower compared to SSD. So far I’m happy with it
Any software for window 7
is trim suport by the mac?i have lion installed..i heard that ssd are not recommended for mac,is it true? thx
@lexlexutz: Yeah TRIM is only supported with native SSD that you get with apple, but this SSD which is based on sandforce controller has build in garbage collection so even if the OS does not support TRIM they continue to work fine.
Why the hell is mine not exceeding 160MB Write?reads are 480 and over but the write speeds suck
@Thekavsen: Glad to know that
So what are the write speeds that you are getting on your 2011 MBP, coz I do not have a MBP to test the same.
@geekyranjit On a 5400 rpm drive i get 60-60 ish speed.. Really wwant the SSD
Just imagine 2 SSD’s in RAID 0 configuration…
@RubinGrolsch: That would be just crazy speeds……
@Thekavsen What test did you use , cause mine is shitty at writing.
You should test a $7000 2tb ssd, I heard that they’re really slow for ssds.
whats the cost of it ranjit ….
@abdu2s Disk test, like the one in the video above..
hi, should I use the trim enable app on this SSD ?
@abdu2s Mine is also peaking at write speed of about 160mb/sec, and read speed in the same range as yours. Can’t for the love of God figure out why it doesn’t write any faster! Did you figure it out?
Anyone?
I’ve got the 120gb edition, running on a mac mini server 2011..
@Oysetin it’s due to the SATA controller used by Apple or the firmware that is restricting it, as I had mentioned in the unboxing video you need a native intel SATA 3.0 controller to get the max speeds.
I just tried it again on a Z68 based motherboard which has the native intel SATA 3.0 controller and I get around 430+ writes and 500 MB/s reads.
Cheers,
Ranjit
hi, I just installed the same ssd into my 2011 8g ram QC i7 MBP but is took close to a min for it to boot up, and read speed is at 463 but write is at 163 ? did you enable trim ? and if you do can you please show me how ? is there any type setting on my MBP that I have to change ?pls help thanks.
hi, I just installed the same ssd into my 2011 8g ram QC i7 MBP but is took close to a min for it to boot up, and read speed is at 463 but write is at 163 ? did you enable trim ? and if you do can you please show me how ? is there any type setting on my MBP that I have to change ?pls help thanks.
@suongphan: No I have not enabled TRIM, this drive features an inbuilt garbage collection so no need to force TRIM, try reboot it once you should get back to speed. Also go to System Preferences go to Startup disk and select this new SSD disk as your drive and restart.As I mentioned earlier I do not have a MBP so cannot test but another user who used on MBP has similar results writes are low below 200 but reads are very good, it must be the controller apple is using in MBP.
thanks
holy fucking shit!
@suongphan Same problem here with same config MBP i7 2011 15′ 8gb ram My Hyper X read 446 and write at 140 … please tell me if you have any details or solutions about this trouble…thanks
I have tested HyperX 240G on two MBP 2011-early with Lion 10.7.2, without TRIM. The result: Read was good, but Write was only arround 220MB/s or less. It’s wierd. Can anyone tell me why? Thanks.
what is the maximum disk usage of ssd? i heard you loose performance if you go over 70%
what is the maximum disk usage of this ssd? i heard you loose performance if you go over 70%
@86Ivar: I cannot comment about all SSD’s but modern SSD do not have this problem, also do note that you need to keep this in mind it applies for all drives SSD / HDD as a general rule keep at-least 15% disk space free on your drive else your performance will suffer coz the OS might need that space for virtual memory and paging even some heavy apps require temp disk space for caching stuff.
i have similar issues with this particular model and nobody has a clue why.
reads well into the high 400s and write speed does not pass the 160mb/s mark…
i use an early 2011 15” macbook pro..
@ac: As I have already mentioned in the comments it’s due to the fact the SATA controller Apple is using in the Macbook Pro it’s not the native intel SATA3 controller, hence you are getting low write speeds but high read speeds but to be frank in real world computing performance it will not matter much.
But if you are using the latest 2011 edition iMac then it should be good.
Cheers,
Ranjit
Were you using the latest version of Disk Speed Test (2.1)? I’m getting 143 MB/s write speeds and 453 MB/s read speeds on a late 2011 MBP with latest firmware on the ssd (332ABBF0).How did you end up with those speeds?
@sevastos7: I never said that I used a MBP and BTW you will not get those write speeds with the MBP even the latest 2011 model coz of the SATA controller apple used in the MBP, may be the new MBP that will come in 2012 will start using the native intel SATA3 controller and then you will get those speeds, as far as I know only the new iMac 2011 models use the intel native SATA 3 controller based on the Z68 chipset and with any other Mac you will not get those write speeds.
hey ranjit,i installed an ocz vertex 3 max iops on my mbp 2011 and i made the same test and the writes are 230-240 mb and the reads are 480-490 mb..is it normal? i even unlocked the trim support..does the ram affect the test? i have 4 gb of ram,is 8 gb cheange the speed?thx
@lexlexutz: Yep it looks good for a MBP…… do note that the results that you are seeing in the video specifically the write you will not get them with a MBP 2011 models coz of the SATA controller that apple is using, only the 2011 iMac can get those write speeds as of now even the MacPro cannot get those speeds coz of the SATA controller used in that.
ranjit what does the imac use instead of sata? can you get it replaced into a MBP for quicker write speeds?
@geekyranjit ranjit what does the imac use instead of sata? can you get it replaced into a MBP for quicker write speeds?
@cammyjeee: No you cannot do that on MBP, the new iMac use the Z68 chipset which use the native intel SATA 3 controllers an is the best preforming sata controller, the other 3rd party controllers are not as good as the intel SATA 3 controllers hence you get a little lower speeds with the 3rd party SATA controllers, I expect apple to use these SATA 3 controllers in all their 2012 Mac line up.
hey, im running an early 2008 8 core mac pro w/6gb of ram and 2 klingston hyperx drives setup in raid0 in the new icy dock internal raid enslocure. i am getting reads of about 210-212, and writes of about 230 or so..is this good for this setup, i thought it would be off the charts with the raid setup? is there anything i can do in my settings to increase this speed or am i basically married to the sata controllers limitations?? thanks
@scottfree6: It’s the limitation of the SATA controller used in the Mac Pro
its obviously the write speed on left and read on write, you don’t have to say every single thing. we could read.. good video though
apple really cheaped out on the MBPs sata 6 with out the sata 6 bandwidth… im so glad i never bought one last yr. im waiting for the 2012 model to release and see how they perform with thirdparty ssd. im looking to get the corsair performance pro ssd 256gb. nice video
I hope apple will use SATA3 speed on the optical bay channel. Would be typical for apple and very stupid if not, cuz raid0 would slow down both SSDs at the speed of the optical bay channel just like on my early 2007 (UDMA100).
I’m using the same HyperX SSD on the SATA 3 controller (Z68) but still I’m “stuck” at SATA2 speed. Is that because TRIM Enabler was installed and perhaps slowing down my SATA 3 ports?
i installed this drive on my macbook pro 13in late 2011 model, but when i do the speed test i only get about 160mbs write speed , and 500mbs read speed, i don’t get it, any ideas? thanks
@GENJJP: see the comments below I mentioned about it earlier BTW with the current MBP 2011 models or before you will not get very good writes coz of the SATA 3 controller apple used, you get very good reads but very average writes….. only the latest iMac used the updated SATA 3 controller which give good writes / read speeds.
ok so basically i won’t be able to use the full write capabilities on the late 2011 MBP with the kingston hyperx ssd
@GENJJP: As I mentioned it’s is not the limitation of the HyperX SSD it’s the limitation of the controller apple used in the MBP line up.
ok, well thanks for the quick response
what mac do you have?
isn’t it like running the PC purely on RAM…
How can that be when OWC makes a SATA III drive based on the same SandForce controller and yet it pulls full speeds in OSX on the Late 2011 MBP?The problem has to be with Kingston…
@geekyranjit How can that be when OWC makes a SATA III drive based on the same SandForce controller and yet it pulls full speeds in OSX on the Late 2011 MBP?The problem has to be with Kingston…
@TheMaxAwesome: I have not tested the OWC SSD with MBP but as you can see I used a Hackintosh in this video with Kingston SSD that has a proper native intel SATA 3.0 controller based on intel Z68 chipset which is one of the best SATA 3 controllers and you get good speeds… not all SATA 3 controllers are equal, as far as I recall the latest iMac late 2011 have this intel SATA 3.0 controller as they are based on Z68 chipset.. but not MBP…. I also tested it on a PC and get good speeds.
@geekyranjit I just bought and installed a Plextor 256GB M3 SSD which has a Marvell controller instead of the SandForce in my Late 2011 MBP and I’m getting 300MB/s sequential write, and around 400MB/s sequential read, so we can safely say that it is NOT a problem with the MBP’s SATA controller, otherwise throughput for writes would be limited regardless of the drive in question.
I just bought and installed a Plextor 256GB M3 SSD which has a Marvell controller instead of the SandForce in my Late 2011 MBP and I’m getting 300MB/s sequential write, and around 400MB/s sequential read, so we can safely say that it is NOT a problem with the MBP’s SATA controller, otherwise throughput for writes would be limited regardless of the drive in question.
@geekyranjit Also, I have put in a tech support ticket with Kingston on the matter. I have a feeling this is something that can be fixed via firmware update.
Also, I have put in a tech support ticket with Kingston on the matter. I have a feeling this is something that can be fixed via firmware update.
Is that a hackintosh?
@geekyranjit Is that a hackintosh?
@wiigamer136: Yes running on the Z68 based chipset which has the native intel SATA 3.0 controller, I believe the Z68 chipset is also found in late 2011 iMac’s.
Yep, that is true. Nice, computer, btw! I am stuck with an i3-530 and 4 gb of 1066 mhz ddr3 ram, lol.
@geekyranjit Yep, that is true. Nice, computer, btw! I am stuck with an i3-530 and 4 gb of 1066 mhz ddr3 ram, lol.
Mac OS X Support SSD SATA 6Gb/s > Hackintosh
Great video sir, but I have a VERY important question..After installing the SSD and reinstalling Lion, will Lion support TRIM for the SSD? From my understanding, TRIM is very important to maintain the drive’s efficiancy, speed and life of the drive. You seem very knowlegable, so I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you.
@damon323: No actually only SSD sold by apple with officially enable TRIM support but for drives like the which use sandforce controller they have inbuilt garbage collection so even if TRIM is not enabled at the hardware level the controller does the garbage collection, I have been now using this drive on my Mac for almost 6 months without any issues….. and I write and erase a ton of day everyday due to my video related work.
hi, do you think i would get this speeds if i install this ssd in my macbook pro 13″ late 2011,, thanks
How can you get 450mb/s on write speed?, when i only get 150mb/s and 450mb/s on read?I have: Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD, 8GB 1333MHz RAM, i5 2,5GHz and OS X Lion(late 2011 edition MacBook Pro). I am running the OS from the SSD too.
hi.
in some other reviews and blogs i read about this issue (slow write speed with hyperx) too. in german:
http://www.pc-experience.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=32294
http://www.pctreiber.net/2011/kingston-hyperx-120gb-ssd-sh100s3120g-review.html/3
it looks like this is BECAUSE OF THE SANDFORCE-CONTROLLER and has NOTHING TO DO WITH APPLES SATA3-CONTROLLER. the sandforce-controller (also used in SSD’s from other manufacturers) use the DURAWRITE-algorithm, which compresses the data in realtime before writing it to disk. that means, those high write speeds can only be achieved with good compressible (or allready compressed) data. your blackmagic disk speed test.app seems to do the test with such data… so, no wonder you reached this glorious write-value.
170Mb/s IS ABSOLUTELY NORMAL FOR USE UNDER REAL, EVERYDAY CONDITIONS!
or not?
Im also getting150mb/s write and 420mb/s read.. Would be nice to know how to get the same result as in the video.
Leave your response!
Catch me on Google+
Join me over 1,25,000 followers
on Google+
See my videos first Subscribe it’s Free
Tech2buzz.com on Facebook Join us
Recent Comments
Categories
Archives
Blogroll
Disclaimer: The posts / opinions expressed on this website are my own personal opinions and do not represent the views of any company or organization.