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SSD Upgrade for MBP 13" 2010

WillFisher

WillFisher

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 19, 2011
387
16
So I'm going to put a caddy into the drive of my 13" MBP 2010, and want to put my current HDD into the Optical bay and a new SSD into the original hard drive bay, I know my MBP is a SATA 2 connection, but I was wondering what would be a better option of these two SSD's, and whether they would work correctly?
(Considering most of the SATA 3's are the same price as SATA 2's I'm looking at slowing a SATA 3 to a SATA 2 speed so that I can, at some point in the future, put it into a more current machine.)

These are the two SSD's:
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/ocz-ag...internal-2-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-11965481-pdt.html
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/ocz-ptl1-25sat3-128g-internal-2-5-sata-ssd-128gb-12872039-pdt.html

Thanks guys.
 
I love my OCZ Vertex - highly recommended.

My friend has an agility - works wonderful.

Its smart what you were saying about purchasing a sata 3 SSD for later purposes.
 
Spink10 said:
I love my OCZ Vertex - highly recommended.

My friend has an agility - works wonderful.

Its smart what you were saying about purchasing a sata 3 SSD for later purposes.
Click to expand...

So you'd recommend the Vertex if I could get it over the Agility?
Have any clue about Caddy's too? Are they all essentially the same? Thanks
 
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WillFisher said:
So you'd recommend the Vertex if I could get it over the Agility?
Have any clue about Caddy's too? Are they all essentially the same? Thanks
Click to expand...

During the course of your research you will see many many opinions on which optical bay to buy, you'll be asking which one is most reliable, which is the best quality, etc. Some people say go cheap and buy off ebay because it doesn't matter, some people recommend maxupgrade, some people recommend OWC data doubler, and many recommend the MCE Optibay kit.

I'm gonna try to save you the hours of research and recommend the MCE kit. It has the best enclosure BY FAR and it's very nicely priced at $49.99 plus shipping. It's basically the high end in terms of quality and it's made of machined aluminum not plastic like many others, with the enclosure fitting snugly around the drive - not leaving any spaces. It also comes with a nifty screw driver with 4 replaceable heads and a torx single screwdriver. It also comes with the software needed to activate your DVD drive. All in all and solid buy especially because they're so generous with the toolset.

In terms of the enclosure, MCE sells one for $29 which you could order at the same time as the optibay. I haven't purchased it, but from what I can tell it's not as good as the MaxUp offer. The MCE one is grey plastic and slot loading (so the front just has a slot and has a clean look to it), but the MaxUp one is actually machined aluminum so it may match better and be sturdier than the MCE. The MaxUp is also a bit cheaper, however since you'll have to pay shipping twice, it may end up costing the same. Search Google for the installation guide, the major sites should have tear downs/walkthroughs with photos.

Just buy the following:

Optibay:
http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=OBSXGB-UNB

USB enclosure:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=306&ParentCat=348

My experience is literally 2 weeks old and I did exhaustive research because I didn't want to put anything crappy into my baby.

The MCE is the highest quality bay, the MaxUp is the highest quality enclosure. Also note that if you can find a $30 drive on craigslist in your area, then just grab that because then at least it's a real external.
 
Last edited:
Bauer24 said:
During the course of your research you will see many many opinions on which optical bay to buy, you'll be asking which one is most reliable, which is the best quality, etc. Some people say go cheap and buy off ebay because it doesn't matter, some people recommend maxupgrade, some people recommend OWC data doubler, and many recommend the MCE Optibay kit.

I'm gonna try to save you the hours of research and recommend the MCE kit. It has the best enclosure BY FAR and it's very nicely priced at $49.99 plus shipping. It's basically the high end in terms of quality and it's made of machined aluminum not plastic like many others, with the enclosure fitting snugly around the drive - not leaving any spaces. It also comes with a nifty screw driver with 4 replaceable heads and a torx single screwdriver. It also comes with the software needed to activate your DVD drive. All in all and solid buy especially because they're so generous with the toolset.

In terms of the enclosure, MCE sells one for $29 which you could order at the same time as the optibay. I haven't purchased it, but from what I can tell it's not as good as the MaxUp offer. The MCE one is grey plastic and slot loading (so the front just has a slot and has a clean look to it), but the MaxUp one is actually machined aluminum so it may match better and be sturdier than the MCE. The MaxUp is also a bit cheaper, however since you'll have to pay shipping twice, it may end up costing the same. Search Google for the installation guide, the major sites should have tear downs/walkthroughs with photos.

Just buy the following:

Optibay:
http://store.mcetech...Product_Count=0

USB enclosure:
http://www.maxupgrad...&product_ID=306

My experience is literally 2 weeks old and I did exhaustive research because I didn't want to put anything crappy into my baby.

The MCE is the highest quality bay, the MaxUp is the highest quality enclosure. Also note that if you can find a $30 drive on craigslist in your area, then just grab that because then at least it's a real external.
Click to expand...

I've looked at the MCE Optibay many times, the problem is that I'm in the UK and shipping alone is around $40 ontop of the $80 or so for the drive, thats nearly £80 in my terms, and I have around £120 max to spend. The SSD will be around £70-£90 and therefore the MCE is far too expensive for the needs.
 
Ah, I see. Yeah, shipping can be a pain.

I don't know of any UK optibay companies so hopefully Amazon will be able to ship at a low cost.

As for SSD, the Crucials are solid and cheap. If you're on a budget I'd say grab an m4 at the highest capacity you can afford. Samsung or Intel, while they are top-of-the-line, will blow through your budget.
 
I wouldnt get either of the drives you have listed.

If it had to be OCZ I would get a Vertex 3, since the relibaility has increased with recent firmware updates.
The Vertex 4 is newer, but still has issues and frequent firmware updates. It hasnt been around long enough to judge its reliability.

On the other hand, Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 are highly rated, with the latter having brilliant reliability. Ive created a video of the Samsung 830 installation and speed tests in my YouTube channel and can personally vouch for its speeds. I can also confirm that you are able to enable TRIM in OSX for this drive perfectly fine.

When it comes to these SSDs mentioned, the speed difference between them will be almost unnoticable during normal everyday usage, so dont be fooled into looking at the very last Mbps!

On a sidenote I currently have a brand new and sealed Vertex 3 120GB for sale, sitting nicely at the lower end of your budget ;)
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1418839/
 
Ifti said:
I wouldnt get either of the drives you have listed.

If it had to be OCZ I would get a Vertex 3, since the relibaility has increased with recent firmware updates.
The Vertex 4 is newer, but still has issues and frequent firmware updates. It hasnt been around long enough to judge its reliability.

On the other hand, Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 are highly rated, with the latter having brilliant reliability. Ive created a video of the Samsung 830 installation and speed tests in my YouTube channel and can personally vouch for its speeds. I can also confirm that you are able to enable TRIM in OSX for this drive perfectly fine.

When it comes to these SSDs mentioned, the speed difference between them will be almost unnoticable during normal everyday usage, so dont be fooled into looking at the very last Mbps!

On a sidenote I currently have a brand new and sealed Vertex 3 120GB for sale, sitting nicely at the lower end of your budget ;)
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1418839/
Click to expand...

Having looked around, I can get a Samsung 830 for £80, only £5 more than a Vertex 3, so I'll probably go for that! Thanks for that though!
Unless your Vertex 3 is a lot cheaper than that I'm pretty sold ;D Ahaha.
 
WillFisher said:
Having looked around, I can get a Samsung 830 for £80, only £5 more than a Vertex 3, so I'll probably go for that! Thanks for that though!
Unless your Vertex 3 is a lot cheaper than that I'm pretty sold ;D Ahaha.
Click to expand...

The Vertex 3 I had for sale sold, so we're all happy! lol
The Samsung 830 is a great drive though, you'll be well chuffed with it.

Check Dabs and Scan - they are the 2 places that had it cheapest when I was initially looking, and I ended up buying from Dabs, although it was the 256GB version.
 
Samsung 830

I just installed a Samsung 830 256GB SSD. I chose it over other drives because Apple uses the same controller (Samsung) for the rMBP. It also has great performance and reliability as far as am aware of.
 
Limecraft said:
I just installed a Samsung 830 256GB SSD. I chose it over other drives because Apple uses the same controller (Samsung) for the rMBP. It also has great performance and reliability as far as am aware of.
Click to expand...

Excellent choice. You'll have a good experience with it.
 
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