Using the Intel 510 Series SSD in a 2011 MacBook Pro at full speed and with TRIM

I just got a new MacBook Pro from my current employer and since I got it without an SSD I bought the Intel 510 250GB and installed it. Everything worked smoothly after the first boot. However, as @denis2342 pointed out, there are a few extra steps to make it run at full speed and performance.

First of all, although this MacBook Pro has a SATA-III interface with up to 6 Gigabit, the System Profiler only showed a »Negotiated Link Speed« of 3 Gigabit. In order to make it negotiate to 6 Gigabit a SMC reset has to be performed. Basically you have to press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time and after that you have to boot normally.

After that System Profiler showed a »Negotiated Link Speed« of 6 Gigabit.

Then, although OS X enables TRIM support for Apples own SSD drives on the latest MacBook Pros, it doesn’t enable it for 3rd party SSDs. There were workarounds which involved patching a CoreFramework it was kind of messy and not something you’d recommend to any beginner. Luckily there is now a tool called »TRIM Enabler« which allows to backup and restore the Core Framework library and also to patch it with the click of a button. This also worked as expected and after another reboot the System Profiler showed that TRIM was enabled for my 3rd party SSD.

After I ran an Update the TRIM support was disabled again and I had to run TRIM Enabler once more.

I really hope that Apple is enabling TRIM for all SSDs with Lion to make this step unnecessary.

That is about it. This SSD is really blazing fast. If you’re interested, there is a nice in-depth review at anandtech.com

While the SSDs from other vendors are still faster, the Intel SSDs offer a higher reliability.

7 thoughts on "Using the Intel 510 Series SSD in a 2011 MacBook Pro at full speed and with TRIM"

  1. Markus says:

    Hallo hukl,
    vielen Dank für die Infos, sehr interessant. Habe schon in Mobilemacs über Dennis´ Tipps zum Turboboost gehört. Super, diese Tipps nun auch schwarz-auf-weiss lesen zu können 🙂
    Ich besitze ein Macbook Pro 2010, ich vermute dass dieses nur ein Sata-II Interface besitzt und Sata-III erst seit 2011 verbaut wird. Kannst Du das so bestätigen? Schonmal vielen Dank im Voraus und schöne Grüße von Köln nach Berlin…

    Gruß
    Markus

    1. hukl says:

      Lad dir MacTracker herunter und schaue nach. Ich glaube aber das nur die 2011er MBPs SATA-III haben.

      1. Markus says:

        Danke für die Info @ MacTracker! Leider haben die 2010er MBP kein SATA-III. Immerhin hat das 15″ einen Intel-Chipsatz, der schneller als der herkömmlich verbaute Nvidia-Chipsatz sein soll. Egal, SSD wird geklickt, SATA-III hin oder her 😉
        Gruß Markus

  2. Benjamin says:

    Hallo hukl,

    vielen Dank für den Tipp! Meine Erfahrung bzgl. der Angabe der SATA-III-Geschwindigkeit im System Profiler: es wurden sofort 6 GBit angezeigt.
    Setup: early 2011 13” MacBook Pro, OCZ Vertex 3, eigener Umbau noch vor dem ersten Boot. Dann Direktinstallation von der mitgelieferten DVD.

    Viele Grüße
    Benjamin

    1. Malte Fittkau says:

      Hey Benjamin,
      genau deine Kombination schwebt mir auch vor.
      Läuft dein System immer noch stabil und schnell?
      Die ganzen Threads über Probleme mit SATA III in MBP(2011), sowie die geteilten Meinungen über die Vertex3, verunsichern mich schon.
      Welche Vertex3 hast du verbaut? (Größe, max IOPS?)
      Wie lange läuft das schon?

      Gruß Malte.

  3. Vincenzo says:

    I’ve just installed this SSD on my brand new macbook with Lion. Unfortunately, Lion does not enable TRIM for the disk. Any idea whether Trim Enabled is going to work with Lion too?

  4. I can not wait to get home and apply this solution. my speed negotiation appears as 3 gb, Corsair SSD is a Force 3 120GB
    I hope to get lucky and be cleared.
    thanks for the input!

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