6 Gigabit SSD Speed Optical Bay Macbook Pro 17 Late 2011

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6 Gigabit SSD Speed Optical Bay Macbook Pro 17 Late 2011

Hi, comunity. I own a MacBook Pro 17 Unibody Late 2011. I want to put on the optical bay a SATA 3.0 SSD. Optical Bay Specs:

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel

Product: 6 Series Chipset

Link Speed: 6 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Can i use a SATA 3.0 SSD on that bay or it will only work with a SATA 2.0 SSD?

Note that the Optical Bay Link Speed says 6 Gigabit.

At the moment, i just put a SATA 3.0 SSD for the main sistem drive, and replace the SuperDrive with the original Toshiba HD 750GB.

Note that the Toshiba only give me 3 Gigabit speed, since i suppose it is a SATA 2.0 HD. Am i wrong?

MacBook Pro Specs:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,3

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B27

SMC Version (system): 1.70f6

Serial Number (system): C02GR2TZDV11

Hardware UUID: 2D3F9182-176F-5AC4-9930-D5A2A2B60B9B

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You

very much.

Posted on Aug 12, 2013 10:17 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

clintonfrombirmingham

Level 7

30,100 points

Aug 13, 2013 2:19 AM in response to edgarinsky

In the late 2011 models, the optical bay port supports negotiated speeds of 6.0Gbps (SATA III) so you'll get more speed by installing a true SATA III (6.0Gbps) SSD, rather than installing a SATA II (3.0Gbps) SSD.

See MacTracker.

Clinton

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Answer 2

Aug 13, 2013 2:20 AM in response to edgarinsky

Be careful: i had problem in building a Fusion drive with an SSD or a Hybrid drive (stadard HD + 8 GBYTE NAND) into the optical bay: no way to initialize the disk into the optical bay (15" late 2011). Why? I don't know but one thing is sure: there's something wrong because when I was asked by adapters for the optical bay what machine I had in order to have help or a different brand adapter, nobody turned back to answer me.

For you: the optical bay's conncetion should work also at SATA II / 3GBit/sec and I woul recommend you to put the SSD into the main HD bay and the standard HD into the Optical Bay.

Be sure to have a backup of all your data's before performing any operation of this kind. I've also read about a Fusion buildin HD (SSD+standard HD) in automatic by Mac OS. Wyou'll the loose your partition and need to recover with specific programs.

HTH

Simon

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Answer 3

edgarinsky Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 13, 2013 5:36 PM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Yes! If we trust the specs. It will be supported. Thanks for the help. Will try and bring news here!

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Answer 4

edgarinsky Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 13, 2013 5:37 PM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Yes! If we trust the specs. It will be supported. Thanks for the help. Will try and bring news here!😎

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Answer 5

edgarinsky Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 13, 2013 8:21 PM in response to luxuryliner67

Yes, the whole theme is a mistery on the web. Sometimes work, sometimes dont.

Thanks for the reply!

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Answer 6

Apr 22, 2015 7:30 AM in response to edgarinsky

Hi,

I am actually reluctant to do this upgrade due to this info: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDMBS6E120/#comp_notes

Late 2011 MBPro seems to have a well reported problem with a 6 GB/s communication in the dvd bay, due to, "isolation" problems that make communication at such speed very problematic.

Up to now (I hope to find news about this problem is solved, but I'm scheptic) only working configuration is SSD at 6GB/s in main bay and HDD 3GB/s in DVD bay (or SSD at 3GB/s if you find one).

See 15" and 17" (Late-2011) MacBook Pro's STILL have a SATA III (6Gbps) problem!!?

Good luck.

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