Has anyone installed Crucial M500 960GB SSD in a 2011 MBP?

Semper_Fi_Mike wrote:

...They also confirmed that if you are setting up two SSDs in a RAID 0 stripped config that both drives must be the same speed. It is because of this that I will be purchasing two of the OWC 3g drives, one in HD bay one in optibay and combining them with RAID 0 which should give me approximately 570MB/s...

I'm not sure it this matters but the OWC Mercury Electra 3G MAX 960 GB SSD is already a RAID 0 drive and I wonder how well that would play as a RAID 0 configuration of two RAID 0 drives, especially since the two buses aren't the same. I use one of them in a Mac Pro as the primary boot drive and it's been rock solid so far. But my installation is as plain vanilla as you can get.

Hey you bring up a great point there. I think a lot of people do not realize that the OWC Mercury Electra 3G MAX 960 is actually multiple boards layered together in RAID 0 in one casing to get you the 960 GB size. I did ask the technical service rep at OWC how that would play together in using two of those 960 drives together in a MacBook Pro, configured in RAID 0 and he said it would work no problem and that as far as the computer is concerned each of the drives are just one drive (the computer doesnt know that each 960 drive is actually two 480s put together in RAID 0). This does bring up a point on longevity though as that is a lot of RAID 0! Many backups will be in my future haha!

I do wish that the optibay could reliably take a 6g SSD though because I would love that theoretical 1000MB/s speed and then I could use the Crucial M500 1TB SSD which is half of the price of OWC's 960GB drive.

The other thing to consider about the OWC 960 GB drive is that it doesn't seem to be susceptible to firmware upgrades like the Crucial and other OWC SSD's are. When OWC recently released firmware updates and updating software for a lot of its SSD's, I asked if that applied to the Electra 3G MAX 960 too and was told yes, even though the firmware version shown in System Information was 1.0000 rather than the complex FW versions listed on the website as suitable for updates. I tried running the updater and it identified the SSD as already up-to-date. I suspect that's because it would be the RAID controller that would be reachable for updating, not the drives themselves.

Oh wow I had not heard that before. So does it update itself then during that firmware update or is there something else you would need to do then?

Semper_Fi_Mike wrote:

Oh wow I had not heard that before. So does it update itself then during that firmware update or is there something else you would need to do then?

It didn't update at all. I don't think there ever has been an update and I would imagine the updater would have to be a lot more complex since the RAID controller and each of the drive controllers would likely all have to be touched. Moreover, I think the 960 GB SSD is the only drive in the line which relies on a RAID configuration so the far larger installed base of regular SSD's will get the attention first.

Also, TRIM can't be enabled on the drive; indeed, System Information shows Medium Type as Rotational rather than SSD.

I installed my Crucial 960 SSD in my Macbook Pro 2.7 on April 2 as I posted on page 1 of this thread. It works like a champ and I love it. I've been considering buying a 2nd one to install in the optical bay port. The recent discussions above confuse me.

If I buy it and install it in the optical bay port, will it or will it not be equal in speed to the Crucial 960 I already have?

Thanks.

So if your MacBook Pro's optibay drive has a SATA III connection you will be ok however if it is SATA II you will experience issues by putting the 6G Crucial SSD in there. Although the drive can run at 3g speeds, it does not talk to the Mac properly and it will revert to 1.5g speeds which is just unacceptable. This issue is not with the SSD brand, you would just need to get a 3g SSD and it will work just fine.

This explains it pretty well:

Special compatibility notes related to use of this product with 6Gb/s SSDs in the following machines:

2011 MacBook Pro 13" (Model ID MacBookPro8,1)
2011 MacBook Pro 15" (Model ID MacBookPro8,2)
2011 MacBook Pro 17" (Model ID MacBookPro8,3)

• MAIN BAY: A 6G SSD may be utilized in main bay (move drive or second SSD into Optical Bay*) for reliable SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s performance in excess of 500MB/s.
  (Model ID MacBookPro8,3) models. After successfully applying this update, your Boot ROM Version will be: MBP81.0047.B1E. Please read our very informative Blog Post for additional information.
  OPTICAL BAY: The optical bay interface may either be SATA Revision 2.0 3Gb/s (300MB/s max) OR SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s. There is no way to specify/order this data interface with Apple, but you can confirm what interface version your optical bay offers by using 'About this Mac, More Info, Serial-ATA' info display.
  Testing has demonstrated that Apple factory hardware does not reliably support a 6G (6Gb/s) Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive in the optical bay of 2011 MacBook Pros (ModeI ID8,1; 8,2; 8,3). If your OWC Data Doubler bundle comes with a 6G drive, you should ONLY install that drive in the main drive bay and utilize the Data Doubler to re-task your existing drive or install a new 3G SSD or HDD in the optical bay. PRE-2011 models can utilize a 6G drive in the optical bay, but will do so at a reduced 3G (3Gb/s) speed.
  MacBook Pro 13" models: Apple does not support the use of 6Gb/s drives in the optical bay. While we have observed a high rate of success using SATA 3.0 6Gb/s drives in Apple 13" bays where 6Gb/s link is present, some systems may not operate properly with this setup. For guaranteed reliability/compatibility, we suggest 6Gb/s drives be used in the main drive bay only, and 3Gb/s hard drives or SSDs be used in the optical bay when a two-drive configuration is desired. We cannot guarantee proper or successful 6Gb/s drive operation in the Apple MacBook Pro 13" optical bay.
  2008/2009 MacBook/MacBook Pro 13", 15", and 17" models. (Model IDs: MacBookPro5,1; 5,2; 5,3; 5,4; 5,5 and MacBook5,1; 6,1; 7,1) While a 6G SSD does function, it will only do so at SATA Revision 1.0 (1.5Gb/s) speeds rather that the SATA Revision 2.0 (3.0Gb/s) speed the machine can deliver. Should owners of these machines desire another SSD option, the Mercury Electra™ 3G SSD does run at the full SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gb/s) specification.
  NOTE: Apple's DVD Player application only works with an internal optical drive or Apple's external SuperDrive. To play DVDs with your removed optical drive after installing it in an external enclosure such as the OWC SuperSlim, we recommend the free VLC Player, which can be downloaded from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

i got a early 2011 MBP 17" my optibay drive has a 3.0 6g link speed, so if i had put a m500 in here would i get the full 6g speed?

also my stock hdd only has a negotiated speed of 3g so should work perfectly fine in the optibay ?

too much conflicting information here

also re the dvd drive not working correctly with aples stock app is there not a DVDplayback system file you can edit to fix this?

/System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/a/DVDPlayback

Cheers

To make it work with DVDs (it gives an error 70012) you need to get 0xED software app, open the file at location "/System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback" with it, press CTRL F, search and replace "internal" with "External" and save the file to desktop. Backup original file and replace it with edited one

http://macenstein.com/default/2011/07/how-to-get-your-external-super-drive-worki ng-in-lion/

igeeky, this is where it gets confusing about the 6 series chipsets. Eventhough some of the early 2011 17" MacBook Pros have the dual 6 series chipsets, the problem from what I am reading is that the coding within the Mac is what dials down this speed and makes for difficult times trying to use the 6g SSDs in the optibay. Check to see if your MacBook Pro is a version 8,3, (About this Mac, more info, system report) and if it is, the 6g SSD will not work in the optibay reliably.

I went ahead and confirmed it last night. I put a Crucial M500 in the main HD bay and holy crap she is fast! I had a HGST 1.5tb 5400rmp drive in my Early 2011 17" MacBook Pro 8,3 and it was just fine but switching to a SSD is just insanity fast! I then shut her down and attempted to run that SSD from the optibay and it was slower than the 5400rpm HD, if it worked at all. Many times it got hung up and beachballed me.

So that being said, with that MacBook Pro model I have, I have to treat it as 6g SATA III main HD bay and 3g SATA II in the optibay. I am spoiled with my 1.5TB HGST 5400rpm drive in the sense of its capacity. I have about 1.1tb on it, filled with music, photos, movies and docs but I want an SSD.Since there is no 1.5 or 2TB SSD out there as of yet (there are talks of new 2TB drives comming) there is really only one option. I install two OWC Mercury Electra 3g 960gb drives. I am still tossed up between installing them as two separate drives or as a RAID 0 config but I am leaning towards RAID 0.

I understand the risk of data loss with RAID 0 but I backup frequently so I am not worried about that. What entices me to do the RAID 0 is since I cannot achieve 6g speeds due to the optibay 3g limmits so if I RAID 0 two 3g SSDs I can achieve the theoretical 6g speeds.

I just installed two OWC Mercury Electra 960GB SSDs in my late 2011 17" MacBook Pro with that data doubler and configured them together in a RAID 0 configuration and all I have to say is she is a whole new machine! I have never used anything so fast in my life. Next purchase will have to be bumping this 8GB RAM up to 16GB!

This is not advertisement for OWC but as a happy customer I want to share my experiences. As you are well aware there are many different SSDs on the market at various different price points. In my search for what SSD to put in my MacBook Pro I probably spent the better part of a month actively researching, reading through every forum comparing the drives. Many forums talk highly about the OWC products. Many say that they are overpriced and not economical at a $/GB rate however there were some very helpful comments I had read which talked about the durability and longevity of the OWC drives being top notch. That is all great however what really sealed the deal in my decision to purchase these drives from OWC were, one, my own past experiences with OWC which I have always been more than pleased with and two, the comments from other OWC customers who spoke so highly about the company and their customer service experiences. I don't believe there is any other SSD manufacture out there that sells the entire package quite like OWC and the fact that they are an American company is icing on the cake!

From the top notch products to in depth how to videos, to the outstanding customer service, it is truly a no brainer. I cannot tell you how many times I read through those forums where so and so got this ultra fast 6g SSD from company x for half the price of company z but when it stopped working they could barely get through to customer service. Or company y said that this would work with my computer but it ends up they were wrong. To me OWC is much like Apple in the sense that they are perhaps a bit more expensive than the competition however you can rest assured that you are purchasing a top notch quality product and you are buying into a customer service base which is beyond reproach. I am certainly not saying that other SSD manufactures do not make quality products however OWC has certainly gained a loyal customer out of me. OWC knows their products and the products their customers are installing them into inside and out and they will not sell you something that is not right for you.

Proud owner of my new ultra fast MacBook Pro!

Well, I am facing the same doubts as everyone here...

I have a late-2011 MBP 17 inch, with 16Gb RAM, and now it has an OCZ Vertex2 in the Main Bay (SATA2), and the original 750Gb HD in the optical bay.

I have now just ordered the new Crucial M500 950Gb SSD, and I know it is not going to work in the optical bay, so my plan is to place it in the main bay, and move the Vertex-2 to the optical bay.

This will give me a 1.2 Tb storage, all SSD, with the main disk running at Sata-3 speed (that is practically the same speed you get with your two OWC Sata-2 drives in Raid-0).

I cannot go Raid, as the machine is dual-boot with Windows 7, which I use probably more than OSX.

And I cannot afford to purchase an OWC Mercury Electra, here in Italy such item costs more than 1000 €, whilst I managed to buy the Crucial M500 around 450 €...

My only concern is about the fact that, when I bought this machine, my initial attempt to install a Sata-3 SSD in the main bay (a Corsair Performance Pro 256GB) failed, it was beachballing and crashing... So I went for a SATA-2 SSD, which is reliable but slower.

So I am worried that also the new Crucial M500 will not work in the main bay of my MBP 8.3...

If this happens, is there a way to force the Crucial M500 to operate at Sata2 speed, as described here above regarding a Vertex-3 drive?

Crucial did not provide me with a definitive answer on this point, they say that their drive operates reliably in the main bay at SATA-3 speed...

So I totally get your frustration because I am living through the same thing here. So in the past week I have altered the setup of my early 2011 MBP 17" in a few ways to test compatability and in one of the configurations I had set up was with the Crucial M500 in the main HD bay. Now I only had it in there for a bout 48 hours but it worked flawlessly for me. Now on their website it does say that it is 3g compatable but it doesn't say that you can actually force it to run at 3g speeds, rather it is backwards compatable. I did read on some other forums that there is a controller or firmware you can download to force it to only run at 3g speeds if necessary. However you should have no issues running it at 6g speeds in the main HD bay.