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jcarey79

macrumors newbie
May 10, 2014
16
0
I know most people on here seem to like the Samsung 840 Evo or the Crucial M500 (I think) for the best bang for your buck. OWC makes some good ones, too, although they tend to be a bit pricier. Regardless, you'll need a mount and adapter cable to use the drive in your optical bay. Have you thought of moving your hard drive to that bay and using the SSD in the hard drive location?

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/drive_bracket/datadoubler/

I should have been more specific. Your recommendation of putting the SSD in the hard drive location is what I am wanting to do. Would appreciate any advice/recommendations/watchouts, etc.

Thanks,
 

ecschwarz

macrumors 65816
Jun 28, 2010
1,433
354
I should have been more specific. Your recommendation of putting the SSD in the hard drive location is what I am wanting to do. Would appreciate any advice/recommendations/watchouts, etc.

Thanks,

Ah, that's easy - basically buy whatever SSD you want that is in a 2.5" form factor, follow the steps to remove your old hard drive and replace it with the SSD. I know that's a bit over-simplistic, but it's an exact swap (no adapters or mounts needed - just transfer over the little hex-screw nubs from the hard drive to the SSD). If you want, you can pick up a cheap USB 3 enclosure for your old hard drive and then use it as a backup drive or just additional storage:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/10378
 

davidlv

macrumors 68020
Apr 5, 2009
2,291
874
Kyoto, Japan
I should have been more specific. Your recommendation of putting the SSD in the hard drive location is what I am wanting to do. Would appreciate any advice/recommendations/watchouts, etc.
Thanks,
Watchouts: 1. Use a good #00 Philips head screwdriver to remove the screws on the back cover. Most of those screws are tiny and easy to drop (4 are a little longer). They should be put back in the same location, so lay them out in order as you remove them (use an old egg carton?). The #00 screwdriver can also be used to remove/replace the little holding bracket on the side of the drive. 2. You need a #6 Torx driver for the lugs on the side of the original drive itself, just replace them on the new drive. You use a pair of needlenose pliers for that in a pinch, but the Torx driver makes it so much easier. This is actually a very easy job, writing about takes longer than the actual operation! :cool:
 

MMcCraryNJ

macrumors 6502
Oct 18, 2012
271
49
Just replaced my Apple SSD 128GB (which was a Samsung 830) with a Samsung 850 Pro 256GB in my 2012 cMBP. Decided to stick with a fresh install of Mavericks for now (coming from Mountain Lion), so I enabled Trim using Trim Enabler, and disabled the Sudden Motion Sensor with the Terminal Command.

Anything else I need to do to keep this optimized? Is it recommended to disable hibernation or anything? If so, what are the commands for that? Thank you!

EDIT: Also, I noticed that OS X does not provision 3rd party SSDS (my 256GB drive displays as 255.2, whereas I know on Windows it would be shown around 230GB due to provisioning). Is this cool or do I need to do something?
 
Last edited:

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,071
15,494
California
Just replaced my Apple SSD 128GB (which was a Samsung 830) with a Samsung 850 Pro 256GB in my 2012 cMBP. Decided to stick with a fresh install of Mavericks for now (coming from Mountain Lion), so I enabled Trim using Trim Enabler, and disabled the Sudden Motion Sensor with the Terminal Command.

Anything else I need to do to keep this optimized? Is it recommended to disable hibernation or anything? If so, what are the commands for that? Thank you!

EDIT: Also, I noticed that OS X does not provision 3rd party SSDS (my 256GB drive displays as 255.2, whereas I know on Windows it would be shown around 230GB due to provisioning). Is this cool or do I need to do something?

There is no need to do anything other than enable TRIM.
 

Ledgem

macrumors 68020
Jan 18, 2008
2,034
924
Hawaii, USA
Just replaced my Apple SSD 128GB (which was a Samsung 830) with a Samsung 850 Pro 256GB in my 2012 cMBP. Decided to stick with a fresh install of Mavericks for now (coming from Mountain Lion), so I enabled Trim using Trim Enabler, and disabled the Sudden Motion Sensor with the Terminal Command.

Anything else I need to do to keep this optimized? Is it recommended to disable hibernation or anything? If so, what are the commands for that? Thank you!
Chameleon SSD Optimizer has a few additional things to do in order to cut down on read/write activity, including disabling local Time Machine snapshots (which prevents your local disk from storing Time Machine backups, meaning you're purely using your external drive) and disabling the hibernation sleep image (which is what would allow you to pick up from where you left off if your battery completely died while the computer was in "sleep" mode).

The website's FAQ section lists out some of the commands, if you wanted to do them manually, but unfortunately I couldn't find the commands for what I mentioned above.
 

got556

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2013
491
160
Indiana
Ugh...can't decide if I want to go w/ an OWC 240 ME 3G or a Sammy Evo.

It would be going in a Mid 2009 MBP w/ Sata II (3.0 GB/s) w/ 8GB RAM and running 10.10.1.

My on the fence issues about which one to go with revolve around the TRIM issue and the Sammy firmware updates. I have Parallels 10 with Win7 installed. If I needed to do the firmware updates, could I just do them on Parallels? Also OWC SSD's don't need to worry about TRIM correct? But then I would have a drive that is only SATA II and not SATA III for future machines...

What say you, MR members?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,071
15,494
California
Ugh...can't decide if I want to go w/ an OWC 240 ME 3G or a Sammy Evo.

It would be going in a Mid 2009 MBP w/ Sata II (3.0 GB/s) w/ 8GB RAM and running 10.10.1.

My on the fence issues about which one to go with revolve around the TRIM issue and the Sammy firmware updates. I have Parallels 10 with Win7 installed. If I needed to do the firmware updates, could I just do them on Parallels? Also OWC SSD's don't need to worry about TRIM correct? But then I would have a drive that is only SATA II and not SATA III for future machines...

What say you, MR members?

That is nothing but marketing speak from OWC. All SSDs benefit from TRIM. If you are concerned about the firmware on the EVO, take a look at the Crucial MX100 that is a very good bargain.
 

rnodern

macrumors member
Nov 29, 2014
34
9
Manila, Philippines
Just installed a 500gb Samsung 840EVO in my 2011 MBP 15" last night. Was dead easy. However the torx screws affixed to the sides of the old HD couldn't be removed. Funnily enough, I didn't have the right sized head in a 64 piece set.
I've improvised with other bay spacer screws. I figure, as long as the bay frame screws down and locks onto the drive screws, it's all secure.

Anyway. Boot time is about 20 seconds now.. super happy with it.
 

alex0002

macrumors 6502
Jun 19, 2013
495
124
New Zealand
Just installed a 500gb Samsung 840EVO in my 2011 MBP 15" last night. Was dead easy. However the torx screws affixed to the sides of the old HD couldn't be removed. Funnily enough, I didn't have the right sized head in a 64 piece set.
I've improvised with other bay spacer screws. I figure, as long as the bay frame screws down and locks onto the drive screws, it's all secure.

Anyway. Boot time is about 20 seconds now.. super happy with it.

Just make sure you have the latest firmware with that Samsung 840 EVO and it should be good.

Regarding the screws, as long as the SSD is secure and isn't going to rattling around in your MBP it should be fine.

If the SSD moves around, it might cause some wear/damage to the SATA cable and SATA cable damage can have a performance impact. Sometimes, rather than cause a complete failure, a faulty SATA cable can sometimes fail to run reliably at SATA-III speeds. In some cases a lot of wasted time reinstalling OS X and RMA'ing the SSD could have been avoided by replacing a bad SATA cable.
 

edurodenas

macrumors newbie
Dec 20, 2014
2
0
Just replaced my Apple SSD 128GB (which was a Samsung 830) with a Samsung 850 Pro 256GB in my 2012 cMBP. Decided to stick with a fresh install of Mavericks for now (coming from Mountain Lion), so I enabled Trim using Trim Enabler, and disabled the Sudden Motion Sensor with the Terminal Command.

Anything else I need to do to keep this optimized? Is it recommended to disable hibernation or anything? If so, what are the commands for that? Thank you!

EDIT: Also, I noticed that OS X does not provision 3rd party SSDS (my 256GB drive displays as 255.2, whereas I know on Windows it would be shown around 230GB due to provisioning). Is this cool or do I need to do something?
Be aware that if you ever update your OS to Yosemite you need to disable the kext signing security setting in order to be able to TRIM your SSD. If you don't do it, your computer will be stuck at the gray "stop sign" when you try to boot it.
 

MagicBoy

macrumors 68040
May 28, 2006
3,947
1,025
Manchester, UK
EDIT: Also, I noticed that OS X does not provision 3rd party SSDS (my 256GB drive displays as 255.2, whereas I know on Windows it would be shown around 230GB due to provisioning). Is this cool or do I need to do something?

It's not provisioning, it's the measurement standard.

Windows uses traditional gigabytes (base 2), OS X 10.6 and above use the newer "make our drives look bigger" gigabyte from the drive manufacturers (base 10).

238 (before formatting) base 2 gigabytes = around 256 billion bytes.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,071
15,494
California
Should I let apple professionals install it? Are they gonna be ok with it or void my warranty?

It is very easy to do yourself, and it will not automatically void your warranty. Now if you break or damage something during the install, that of course won't be covered by warranty.
 

camner

macrumors regular
Jun 19, 2009
228
15
Silicon Power ssd?

I'm exploring replacing the HD in a 2011 MBP with an SSD. Fabulous performance is not needed (the machine doesn't get a lot of use that involves much disk access).

I've read some good things about the Silicon Power series of ssds. A couple of questions, if folks have had experience with them:

1. What has been the experience with this line?

2. The S80 is a newer model, replacing the S70. The principal difference (afaik) is that the S80 has a Phison controller while the S70 has a Sandforce controller. Any thoughts about one of these controllers being better than the other?
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
34,291
49,548
In the middle of several books.
I installed a Crucial Mx100 (512GB) SSD ($199.00 Amazon) this afternoon on my late 2011 MBP. Installation was easy. Hardest and longest part was removing and replacing the bottom panel screws. Did a clean install of Yosemite via USB. Installation took about 20 minutes. FileVault 2 took less than an hour. I haven't finished installing everything but what I have installed thus far has been running very smooth and fast. No more bouncing apps or beachballs as was the case with the stock 5400rpm. Using the stock 500GB HDD for my iTunes library and some other miscellaneous files.

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

Write speed has been 464 - 480
Read speed has been 508

Very impressed with the install and performance thus far. I also like the fact that I don't have to worry about enabling Trim. It has built in garbage collection when the disk is idle.
 
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