2 x 7200RPM/5400RPM RAID drive in MBP

[hackerwayne]

Hi there, i have 2 pieces of WD Blue 500GB 5400RPM drive lying around, is it a good idea to RAID 0 them together? What are the good/bad impacts on it? Currently, what i understand is:

1. Battery life will be much shorter.
2. Double the transfer rate
3. Ever so slightly heavier? Lol..
4. Failure rate is doubled (doesn't really matter)

Question:
1. How does it compare to SSD?
2. How much shorter will the battery be?
3. Will it boost up performance significantly?
4. Can i still boot camp on RAID? If no, not a big deal, im sure parallel still works lol.
4. How fast are 2 x 7200RPM drives in RAID compared to 2 x 5400RPM in RAID and then compared to a single low-mid end SSD, and no, im not getting a SSD for this MBP, just asking

Specs are:

MBP 2009
- C2D 2.26GHz
- 8GB 1066MHz RAM (I find that 1333 has lots of issues on this model)
- Currently 250GB HDD

Planning to:
Remove the optical drive and install a optical drive conversion kit and dump in 2 500GB WD Blue.

Generally speaking, 2 x 5400RPM should already double the performance of the original 250GB right?

 

[mfram]

Don't know how much shorter the battery life will be. But I know for sure the performance won't be anything like an SSD. Not even close. Especially not with 5400rpm drives.

Another option is to get a smallish SSD (64/128/etc) and try a DIY Fusion drive approach. As long as you have 10.8.2 then you can do that. Then you'll get the performance of the SSD with the extra space you want.

 

[hackerwayne]

Don't know how much shorter the battery life will be. But I know for sure the performance won't be anything like an SSD. Not even close. Especially not with 5400rpm drives.

Another option is to get a smallish SSD (64/128/etc) and try a DIY Fusion drive approach. As long as you have 10.8.2 then you can do that. Then you'll get the performance of the SSD with the extra space you want.

Hmm.. Sounds good, im planning to do that just because i have some unused HDD lying around. Ill do some benchmarks with them and see how it goes

 

[BB.King]

I think Fusion setup requires Mountain Lion OS installed, as it is the only OS inc Fusion software. Not sure if the 2009 machine can run ML.

 

[GermanyChris]

i think fusion setup requires mountain lion os installed, as it is the only os inc fusion software. Not sure if the 2009 machine can run ml.

uummm

 

[T5BRICK]

I think Fusion setup requires Mountain Lion OS installed, as it is the only OS inc Fusion software. Not sure if the 2009 machine can run ML.

I'm running ML on my mid 2009 MBP. It works fine.

 

[hackerwayne]

I think Fusion setup requires Mountain Lion OS installed, as it is the only OS inc Fusion software. Not sure if the 2009 machine can run ML.

Only Early 08 Macs n below can't except MBP 07 n 08