13” Macbook Pro 2012 and Striped RAID SSD

[Fried Chicken]

I’m looking at getting a bunch of SSDs and putting them all over the place;

Has anyone had success with the 2012 13” Macbook Pro?
I read that the 15” is good, but the 13” is bad. Is this true?

 

[Fried Chicken]

Bump;

According to OWC the SATA 3 connector in the optical bay is... unreliable?
Maybe I can just make a fusion drive out of it?

 

[campyguy]

The MBPs and Minis from that year had dodgy connectors for the optical bay. I wouldn't offer that it's unreliable, but, rather pick a SATA II-only drive to go in that bay - if it's an "automatic selection" drive (SATA I/II/III) for some reason the controller will sometimes be SATA III and most-to-all of the time SATA I (read: slooooow, pun intended…).

I've got several Mini Servers from that year and have not have issues. I went through 4 2012 Minis and each had that issue - the optical bay drive defaulted to SATA 1, and they went back to Apple. I've read on the interwebs and here on MR Forums about the slow data speeds and the recommendation to stick with a SATA II drive (spinner or SSD, if you can find one…) in that drive bay. Because of this experience and what I read I passed on the choice of making a fusion drive out of the Minis and it was easier to send them back…

What I recommend is put the fastest OS-specific SSD in the main drive bay and leave the optical alone. I can only recommend the Samsung 850 Pro for a main drive, having tested a bunch of them for use in my SMB. I love the EVO, but the Pro pretty much blows the EVO away as an OS drive and as a data drive. My favorite bar chart is the one put out by CNet for the 850 EVO: https://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-ssd-850-evo/2/ - and I've got an 850 Pro in my personal 2012 Mini Server with the stock (slave) 1TB drive in its upper bay after trying an EVO.

My work Mini Servers have dual 850 Pro SSDs installed, in RAID 0, but they're used as video ingest workstations and file server front ends, installed in Sonnet xMac units. I wouldn't call them stock, but the 850 Pro makes those Minis - with basically the same internals as your laptop - pretty much solid, fast computers. Cheers!

 

[duervo]

The MBPs and Minis from that year had dodgy connectors for the optical bay. I wouldn't offer that it's unreliable, but, rather pick a SATA II-only drive to go in that bay - if it's an "automatic selection" drive (SATA I/II/III) for some reason the controller will sometimes be SATA III and most-to-all of the time SATA I (read: slooooow, pun intended…).

I've got several Mini Servers from that year and have not have issues. I went through 4 2012 Minis and each had that issue - the optical bay drive defaulted to SATA 1, and they went back to Apple. I've read on the interwebs and here on MR Forums about the slow data speeds and the recommendation to stick with a SATA II drive (spinner or SSD, if you can find one…) in that drive bay. Because of this experience and what I read I passed on the choice of making a fusion drive out of the Minis and it was easier to send them back…

What I recommend is put the fastest OS-specific SSD in the main drive bay and leave the optical alone. I can only recommend the Samsung 850 Pro for a main drive, having tested a bunch of them for use in my SMB. I love the EVO, but the Pro pretty much blows the EVO away as an OS drive and as a data drive. My favorite bar chart is the one put out by CNet for the 850 EVO: https://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-ssd-850-evo/2/ - and I've got an 850 Pro in my personal 2012 Mini Server with the stock (slave) 1TB drive in its upper bay after trying an EVO.

My work Mini Servers have dual 850 Pro SSDs installed, in RAID 0, but they're used as video ingest workstations and file server front ends, installed in Sonnet xMac units. I wouldn't call them stock, but the 850 Pro makes those Minis - with basically the same internals as your laptop - pretty much solid, fast computers. Cheers!

How is that possible when the optical bay/drive was nonexistent in the 2012 Mac mini?

 

[campyguy]

How is that possible when the optical bay/drive was nonexistent in the 2012 Mac mini?

The SATA connector is present. OWC sells an adaptor product for the 2011/12 Mini with or without one of their branded SSDs:
https://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Popularity|1&Ne=5000&N=100369&Ntt=data+doubler
The drive wasn't present, but the guts are (rather, were). I've read on the interwebs theories that there were spare parts from the older units in a back room somewhere. The extra connector was IMHO a vestige of the previous models…

 

[Fried Chicken]

The MBPs and Minis from that year had dodgy connectors for the optical bay. I wouldn't offer that it's unreliable, but, rather pick a SATA II-only drive to go in that bay - if it's an "automatic selection" drive (SATA I/II/III) for some reason the controller will sometimes be SATA III and most-to-all of the time SATA I (read: slooooow, pun intended…).

I've got several Mini Servers from that year and have not have issues. I went through 4 2012 Minis and each had that issue - the optical bay drive defaulted to SATA 1, and they went back to Apple. I've read on the interwebs and here on MR Forums about the slow data speeds and the recommendation to stick with a SATA II drive (spinner or SSD, if you can find one…) in that drive bay. Because of this experience and what I read I passed on the choice of making a fusion drive out of the Minis and it was easier to send them back…

What I recommend is put the fastest OS-specific SSD in the main drive bay and leave the optical alone. I can only recommend the Samsung 850 Pro for a main drive, having tested a bunch of them for use in my SMB. I love the EVO, but the Pro pretty much blows the EVO away as an OS drive and as a data drive. My favorite bar chart is the one put out by CNet for the 850 EVO: https://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-ssd-850-evo/2/ - and I've got an 850 Pro in my personal 2012 Mini Server with the stock (slave) 1TB drive in its upper bay after trying an EVO.

My work Mini Servers have dual 850 Pro SSDs installed, in RAID 0, but they're used as video ingest workstations and file server front ends, installed in Sonnet xMac units. I wouldn't call them stock, but the 850 Pro makes those Minis - with basically the same internals as your laptop - pretty much solid, fast computers. Cheers!

I always felt the 850 pro was overkill and that the 850 evo was all the SATA 3 SSD you would ever need?

I think I might leave the optical drive alone, since (stupidly) my 2012 iMac doesn't have an optical drive.
I was otherwise thinking of creating a fusion drive setup, but I don't think I'll need all that extra space since this laptop is secondary to my iMac.

Is there an obvious way to tell if the optical drive SATA connector will default to slow speeds, or is this a universal thing that affects all 2012 MBPs?

Thanks for the help!

 

[treekram]

The OWC site says there are possible problems with running SATA 3 in the 2011 MBP's, not in the mid-2012 MBP. I have 2 Evo 850's in my 13" mid-2012 MBP and it works fine using RAID 0. My MBP was manufactured in late 2015 but I don't believe earlier MBP's had a problem (earlier MBP's may have issues with the HD cable though). Both report a negotiated link speed of 6 Gb. You do have to be careful about the bracket replacing the optical drive - there are electronics in the bracket. I have the OWC Data Doubler (more expensive than some alternatives) and it works fine.