Upgrading to SSD .. am I not sacrificing extra space?

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Level 1

15 points

Upgrading to SSD .. am I not sacrificing extra space?

Hello

I am currently running a Macbook with 1TB hard drive (which is almost at its capacity) and wanted to upgrade the hard drive to SSD.

I have seen many youtube videos where people swap out their 500 GB grives for 250 GB SSD.. my question is are you not sacrificing space for speed?

In my case, is the only choice to put the SSD in place of the current Hard drive and swap out the optical drive and put the old hard drive in its place?

Or is there a better way to upgrade both the speed and capacity of my Macbook which is only 1.5 year old.

Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 26, 2014 12:27 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

BobRz

Level 5

6,138 points

Feb 26, 2014 12:54 PM in response to Hooman A

You have a lot of options, the question is cost. If you want more SSD space, it's available.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-Inch-adapter-Internal-CT960M500SSD1/dp/B00BQ8R GL6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393448036&sr=8-1&keywords=crucial+1tb

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Answer 2

Feb 26, 2014 1:00 PM in response to Hooman A

You can buy 1TB SSDs like the Samsug 840 EVO but its crazy expensive. I would recommend replacing your hard drive with a 250GB or more SSD because thats the sweetspot nowdays and I would advise getting a cheap hard drive casing, something that will allow you to put your current hard drive and pretty much make it an external hard drive.

Reason being is that backups are extermerly important, Apple care or not things happen and you need backup. Also too, is because why keep all your pics, music and videos on your mac when you could have them in your external hard drive! 😀

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Answer 3

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Feb 26, 2014 1:05 PM in response to Hooman A

Crucial makes a 1TB SSD for under $600. Right now about the largest notebook HDDs are 1 TB. There is one that is 1.5 but it is the Slow 5400RPM style. If that's OK with you go for that.

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Answer 4

Hooman A Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 26, 2014 1:15 PM in response to Hooman A

Thank you all for your responses. But the problem is the maximum of 1 TB SSD would still be too small. as I am almost at capacity of the current 1TB drive.

Also having an external drive hanging from your laptop also defeats the who purpuse of having a laptop and being mobile with it.

I heard that I could get significant speed boost if I put my OS X on the bootup SSD (a 250 GB SSD would be sufficient) and move my old HDD to theslot where the Optical drive is currently housed. I will then have a total of 1.25 TB and a much faster system..I would also avoid having a USB external

Pros? Cons?

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Answer 5

Feb 26, 2014 1:21 PM in response to Hooman A

Well then, I would advise getting the WD Black dual drive. I'm not sure if its 100% compatible. But its a 1TB 7200rpm hard drive and a 120 SSD in one. In one 2.5 case. So its really compact, the hard drive and SSD both show up seperatley in the operating system though. If you had the WD dual drive and your current hard drive, you would have an SSD and 2 1TB drives. Very powerful for a notebook. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1190

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Answer 6

BobRz

Level 5

6,138 points

Feb 26, 2014 1:24 PM in response to Hooman A

That's actually how my machine is set up. I keep the OS, applications, and my Home folder on the SSD and large data files on the hard drive. It's worked fine for me for over 2 years. I used the Other World Computing Data Doubler to hold the drive in place of the optical drive.

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Answer 7

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Feb 26, 2014 1:40 PM in response to Hooman A

Do you NEED all of the 1TB of DATA on your drive ALL the Time??????

Surely you can off load most of it to an external and never miss it. There are companies running large businesses that don't have 1TB of Data on an internal hard drive of their computers.

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