Small, but interesting tidbit. The Crucial is about 1/4 the weight of the Samsung.

Samsung, however, is still the market leader and worthy of the extra $50 imho.

Skip both

OWC makes the best SSD's on the market, specifically for Mac. Their Wear Leveling, and trash collection is so efficient, you don't need TRIM enabled.

Is TRIM still a thing post Win7/8/Yosemite?

What makes the Samsung a better buy?

I have a Samsung 512GB 850 EVO Pro installed in a 2009 MBP. It has one of the fastest read/write speeds of any consumer grade SSD. It also has a 10 year warranty. That alone says a lot about the quality. It may not be the cheapest SSD available but it has been very reliable.

I've used both OWC and Samsung. Have a Sumsung currently. Both excellent. And FWIW Crucial has always been a super solid company for RAM so I would assume the same for SSDs...I don't think you can go wrong with any of these choices.

Ok thanks for the info!

Given what you are doing with the drive the difference is specs won't matter.
Look at the warranty and make your choice from that.

After doing some more research I think I'm just going to go with an external drive, really trying to make up my mind now on Thunderbolt or firewire.

Just go Thunderbolt, nothing has FW on it anymore and it will just make transferring stuff a pain in the ass next time you upgrade (you'll have to get a dongle at least).

I've liked having the extra internal over having an external

My answer is BOTH an internal SSD AND an external SSD. By putting an internal SSD into my system, I saw a MASSIVE improvement in performance, as well as a cooler and quieter-running Mac. It's the single best upgrade you can possibly do on an older Mac. It will feel like a new machine. Do it!

With that being said, ABSOLUTELY do an external as well. I keep my entire library on an external drive and the beauty of Serato is that it enables your library (other than smart crates) to be entirely portable. I always cary a drive with me to tag in on a random party, etc. Just plug in to a friend's machine and you're off and running.

I purchased this one and couldn't be happier: www.amazon.com

Absolutely get an SSD for your external. It is much more prone to being dropped than your laptop is so having the peace of mind of SSD durability is a must in my opinion. Plus its awesome to have the tuck-a-way thunderbolt cable and not having to use up an extra USB port on your machine when you plug it in. Best DJ purchase I made last year.

Do not consider FireWire under any circumstance. It's a dead data transport mechanism.

Thanks for the info. I already have a solid state drive 250GB as my internal. I'm going to buy a Lacie 2TB Thunderbolt drive and I'm all set.

Perfect. Great choice. Enjoy.

Agreed. Good choice.
I was login to say go USB3 before you go Firewire.

I use 3 Crucial SSD since more than 2 years without any problem ! (2 in the MBP + 1 external)
I also have a Sandisk SSD in my PC: no problem :-)

I was wondering if you guys still recommend the same SSDs or should i get a cheaper SSHD for example the Seagate FireCuda SSHD 1TB with 7200 RPM or the WD Black. Some people say it's cheaper and better to buy a SSHD. But i am not sure everybody talks about SSD and especially recommend the EVO 850... So could you guys give me an update since we are now in 2018 and lots of new hard drives are out..and also budget its a main factor here, because i can also buy Kingston 16GB (DDR3) if i go for a SSHD and upgrade my 8GB ram.

SSHD isn't going to help with DJ'ing.. gaming or OS booting, maybe. Just stick to HDD or SSD.

SSHD isn't going to help with DJ'ing.. gaming or OS booting, maybe. Just stick to HDD or SSD.

Thanks for the info. And what is your recommended choice of SSD for my late 2011 MacBook Pro? Is Samsung EVO 850 still worth the extra $ ?

Samsung EVO or Pro SSD are excellent and have put them in about 10 of my friend’s 2009-2012 MacBook Pros. It’s a huge difference. Get that or a Crucial or OWC SSD. Skip regular spinning disks or those Hybrid drives.

Its hard to believe that Samsung EVO has been holding their position for such a long time. They must be excellent. I mean in different forums they have been recommending it since 2015-2016. on the other hand Crucial is around 60 EURO cheaper than Samsung, But before i make any orders, what about DDR upgrade?? Did you also upgrade them as well. I have 8GB in total as recommended by apple.

8GB of RAM is sufficient. You don’t need more on a DJ laptop. Crucial is an excellent brand. You can use them as well.

Hi there serato fam..just need some help I got mid 2012 MacBook pro 13" with a 2.9ghz intel dual core i7,8gb ram and a 750gb hd..

It has never gave me a problem up to date however being a 2012 computer and many years have passed I really want to upgrade the ram to 16gb and the hd to a 1tb ssd.

I have researched already but theres many brands,is there a brand that works best with this mac or recommend?

Crucial and Samsung are still great brands for SSDs.

Thanks im going to decide between those 2.

For ram im looking between A-tech or Corsair hope any of those are good

It really doesn't make a difference if a drive goes into a Mac or PC. Just get the best drive you can afford. I use either Corsair or Intel. The other brands already mentioned are excellent as well. You won't go wrong with any of them.

Perfect thanks for the help

my question is will these with adapters work with a 2012 MBPs?

www.samsung.com

No, the m2 form factor doesn't play nice with the 2012. Just need to go with the SATA 2.5".

My 2c (your friendly IT Engineer here), if you're putting parts into an old ass museum piece like that Macbook of yours then it will make a noticeable performance difference if you choose a Samsung Pro SSD vs a budget system SSD or an EVO SSD's are the single best "bang for buck" you can make to an old dusty ass system like your mac :) to increase performance

Recommendation: Upgrade Mac

That aside: if I had a gun pointed to my head and someone said just upgrade this thing then I'd grab a Samsung Pro SSD, no questions asked: amzn.to

It's pricier but the performance increases you get over an EVO are worth it. The differences aren't major but the Pro's have much more endurance at high speed workloads than the EVO. Secondly, they're almost like industry standards with most high-end PC's. If you're just trying to get by for another year with that thing then get the EVO.