MacBook pro 2011 ssd or hdd

Level 2

330 points

Feb 27, 2011 8:05 AM in response to firman

It's a doddle to do: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2009/9/1Second_Hard_Disk_into_a_Macbook_ProUnibody.html

I bought mine from the US so got stung with import duties. If you look on eBay however and search for optibay you'll see a lot of them about.

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firman

Level 1

25 points

Feb 27, 2011 9:01 AM in response to MacRS4

Ah, thanks for that. Seems simple enough. I have bought the kit from eBay. Thanks for the tip and the link to your blog. I also run multiple VM's from the Mac OS X system. I have 8 gig of RAM and use a Matrox DualHead2Go with 2 x 24" cinema displays. It gets a bit slow with 2 VM's but I think its mainly I/O issues.

What brand of SSD do you recommend? I read on the forums that the controller is key and SandForce is very good.

Thanks
Eric

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MacRS4

Level 2

330 points

Feb 27, 2011 12:15 PM in response to firman

Controller is the important bit due to lack of TRIM in OSX. Personally I've had great results with OCZ Vertex 2 units...that's what I'm on right now.

Just ordered a SATA6 based one for the 2011 unit I've got - will be interesting to see how much faster that is.

Good luck 🙂

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guitrein

Level 1

5 points

Mar 15, 2011 1:12 PM in response to MacRS4

I think it is important to mention that the SSD from Apple have TRIM support even under Snow Leopard. Check this quote from the article http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-br ings-sandy-bridge/6

"In the MacBook Air Apple standardized on a Toshiba controller, delivering performance nearly identical to Kingston's SSDNow V+100. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple used the same controller in the new MacBook Pros. The SSDs are still 3Gbps and will be a huge improvement over the standard hard drive, but just know that you aren't getting the best performance possible. In exchange for the price premium, what you do get is a drive that Apple will support completely (and also official TRIM support, no 3rd party drives have TRIM support under OS X). In the past Apple has had serious compatibility issues with 3rd party SSDs, so there is some merit to the BTO SSD option."

Well, if it is true, there is a good reason to choose an Apple SSD.

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rmhuizer

Level 1

0 points

Mar 18, 2011 2:38 AM in response to black6

I'm about to buy a Macbook pro 15 and the optibay seems like the perfect solution. One question: the optibay takes both normal HDD and SSD. Can one not put the SSD in the optibay and leave the HDD where it is. Can you boot from the SSD in the optibay and would performance be an issue?

Thanks, Ray

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Mar 19, 2011 1:48 AM in response to rmhuizer

You can, but you can't sleep your mac after that without a bit of terminal hacking because even though it will boot from the optibay it still wants to wake from the HDD bay.

If you're comfortable in terminal this is easy and not an issue. If you're like me and avoid terminal at all cost because of the possibility of killing your mac. SSD in the optibay is not an option.

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black6

Level 2

160 points

Mar 19, 2011 4:37 AM in response to firman

firman wrote:
Hi black6,

How difficult is it to remove the existing Superdrive and put the optibay enclosure in its place? I am quite familiar with replacing memory and hard drives in the unibody MBP's.

cheers
Eric

It's pretty easy and like anything else just make sure you have the right size/type drivers for the task.

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black6

Level 2

160 points

Mar 19, 2011 4:45 AM in response to black6

However just to note, this is not a good time to buy an SSD with a barrage of new releases running on sata3 with incredible read and write times just on the horizon.. 4-8 weeks..

You can get the very stable Intel 510 now but i would wait for either of these:

Corsair force gt
OCZ vertex 3

there are some others but the names escape me...

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Mar 20, 2011 4:32 PM in response to black6

This sounds like a really good idea, I almost never use my DVD player anyway. But one question, why not just keep the HD where it is and put the SSD where the DVD used to be?

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Apr 7, 2011 3:24 AM in response to Tjd448

Guys, you can check out this for enabling TRIM on Snow Leopard. Its a 3rd party tool. I just enabled it and it worked. You can confirm by checking out you "About This Mac"

http://forum.hardmac.com/index.php?showtopic=10023

I downloaded the enabler so its quite easy.

http://groths.org/enabler/updates/enabler.zip

Please read their disclaimer, as al always make sure you have a backup of your system.

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Sep 8, 2011 4:25 PM in response to Tjd448

Another option (way less expensive) if you are looking to use your superbay as well is to install 2 x Hybrid Harddisks in a RAID 0 Stripe.

I have 2 x 500GB Segate Hybrid 7200rpm drives installed in my 2010 MBP 15" running in RAID 0.

This means I have 1TB of space (yes 1TB) as RAID 0, with 8GB of NAND flash mem.

Quick, Yep, it's quick enough 🙂 and plenty of space. and cheap, cost was under $300 all up, and I still have the old drive.

The potential for failure is higher running 2 drives, but I have backup to NAS, no problems so far 6 months in....

IMO 2 x SSD in RAID 0 would be insane 🙂

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Jan 3, 2012 12:45 PM in response to LukeD

I have been using SSD's on all my computers for 3 years and I would NEVER go back to a spinning hard drive again. SSD's are faster, quieter, run cooler, and more reliable than HDD's. I have never had a problem with mine.

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antoyau

Level 1

0 points

Jan 22, 2012 4:00 AM in response to tampageek21

im going form a 2010 mbp late 2010 one to a new 2012( well what ever they are givin me 2011 or something) with 128gb ssd 2.8 dual core thingy/// stickin to the 4gb ram which is plenty till the mac slows down in maybe 2 years lol... im just sayin maybe 128 is abit tight from them considering they are a multi kazillion brand company ... im running music program/hardware/software stuff thats like taking up eventually about 28gb of that straight up... 100 gb is good enuff but 250 as standard sud be the offering.. i paid just over 100 euro for the upgrade so i say its abetter calll than gettin extra ram cos your statment sounds right... faster boot up? better program launches? over all more tidy!? sounds good to me...

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Hans P

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2012 11:10 AM in response to firman

Piece of cake.

I just did it today in less than 15 minutes.

see manuals for optical drive repalcement at ifixit.com.

(OWC's datadoubler)

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Jul 1, 2012 12:13 AM in response to Tjd448

I would highly recomend a Samsung 830 SSD or a Crucial M4 for mac as they both seem to be the most compatible with MacBooks. I have recently installed a Samsung 830 SSD, and it is absolutely brilliant. I can't update its firmware though, however as i purchased it after Jan 2012, I was told by a Samsung representative that it was already preloaded with the latest firmware.

I would never go back to the traditional Hard Drive that comes standard with baseline MacBooks as I found myself incredibly annoyed by the constant humming and noise coming from those Hard Drives. Installing my SSD has resulted in an absolutely silent machine, fast boot up times and a highly reactive system with no waiting times on loading programs etc.

As suggested by many in this thread, DO NOT PURCHASE YOUR SSD FROM APPLE, as you will not get your moneys worth. I paid $150 (AUD) for my 128GB SSD, so saved $80 if I were to buy a SSD from apple, which I have been told don't use one manufacturer for SSD resulting in varied performances between machines.

On top of that you get a free hard drive after installing your SSD lol!

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