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2010 MBP SSD Optibay Help

H

Hydrocity

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2010
527
0
Hey everyone,

I am planning to finally set up an optibay for a SSD in my 2010 MBP (specs in sig), but I am kind of lost.

I'm looking to use the SSD for start up and apps, while the HD is for saved files. 120GB should do it right?

Also where can I get one of those adapter things you put in the optibay to hold your drive? Can anybody recommend one?

Whats the common setup? HD in the HDD and SSD in the optibay, or the other way around?

Will this drain my battery faster?

And lastly, what SSD can you recommend for me? Remember I have a 2010 so that new Sata3 may not work with me.

Thanks! If you have any links I could check out, please post them! :)
 
Hydrocity said:
Hey everyone,

I am planning to finally set up an optibay for a SSD in my 2010 MBP (specs in sig), but I am kind of lost.

I'm looking to use the SSD for start up and apps, while the HD is for saved files. 120GB should do it right?
Click to expand...

Yes, 120GB is fine for OSX and apps.

Also where can I get one of those adapter things you put in the optibay to hold your drive? Can anybody recommend one?
Click to expand...

I got mine off eBay for cheap and it works fine.

Whats the common setup? HD in the HDD and SSD in the optibay, or the other way around?
Click to expand...

I went with SSD in the main bay and HDD in the optibay, since I couldn't get the laptop to boot with the SSD in the optical slot.

Will this drain my battery faster?
Click to expand...
No, or at least not noticeably.

And lastly, what SSD can you recommend for me? Remember I have a 2010 so that new Sata3 may not work with me.
Click to expand...

OCZ Vertex 2 120GB, b/c it's on sale for $179.99 at Newegg.
 
Last edited:
Yes, 120GB will work fine. I would recommend a Samsung 470 SSD. The 470 Series is one of the fastest SATAII drives avaiable. It has a pretty good garbage collection as well. I mean, just look at the reviews on newegg.

As an adapter you can choose between the original MCE Optibay, if you live in Europe there is also the hardwrk kit or the ebay solution described above works as well. In that case I would rather buy a "real" external dvd burner instead of just the case for your superdrive, something like this one

Although there are different opinions to this, I recommend to put the SSD in your harddrive bay and the original harddrive to the optibay to avoid hibernation problems.
 
Thanks for the comments! I will be taking a look at your links now

Are there any more opinions on either the OCZ Vertex 2 or the Sansung 470?
 
ApplePu said:
Although there are different opinions to this, I recommend to put the SSD in your harddrive bay and the original harddrive to the optibay to avoid hibernation problems.
Click to expand...

What are the Cons and Pros of each option?
 
dagamer34 said:
That really is the only way you should do it as the MacBook Pro will not instantly power on any device in the optical slot, leading to a kernel panic.
Click to expand...

However I think I read something about HDD in the optical drive having trouble regarding protection of the HDD when it came to the laptop falling or so?
 
Blues003 said:
However I think I read something about HDD in the optical drive having trouble regarding protection of the HDD when it came to the laptop falling or so?
Click to expand...

Well that's only true if your harddrive has no built-in shock protection. I guess the only con about installing the hdd in the optibay is that it'll probably make more noise and vibrations because it would be better insulated in the hdd bay. but honestly, I've got no problems at all with noise and/or vibrations with my hdd in the optibay adapter.
 
that's a great one. I have that one:D You're going to have people lobbying for their favorite brand. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. In reality, there are a lot of good SSDs on the market right now. For what it's worth, the reason I chose that particular one for myself was because
1. Intel has been at it for probably the longest and has built a very good reputation for high quality and reliability.
2. Though it doesn't benchmark as the fastest, it is tuned to do very well in every day usage tasks, not necessarily tuned for benchmarks.
3. Intel has a very easy firmware upgrade process. Most others are a nightmare to upgrade for a Mac system.
4. Though my computer is capable of using the newer, faster SATAIII protocol, there has been a lot of reported compatibility issues that sounded like a huge headache I didn't want to deal with, so I chose the ease and lower cost of this SATAII drive. Many people (not everyone) even reports that they can't tell the difference between SATAII drives and SATAIII drives. The truth is, all SSDs are fast. Super fast. It's easy to see the speed difference between HDD and SSD, harder to see the difference between medium speed SSD (which are reasonably priced) and higher speed SSDs (which cost quite a bit more).
 
bozz2006 said:
that's a great one. I have that one:D You're going to have people lobbying for their favorite brand. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. In reality, there are a lot of good SSDs on the market right now. For what it's worth, the reason I chose that particular one for myself was because
1. Intel has been at it for probably the longest and has built a very good reputation for high quality and reliability.
2. Though it doesn't benchmark as the fastest, it is tuned to do very well in every day usage tasks, not necessarily tuned for benchmarks.
3. Intel has a very easy firmware upgrade process. Most others are a nightmare to upgrade for a Mac system.
4. Though my computer is capable of using the newer, faster SATAIII protocol, there has been a lot of reported compatibility issues that sounded like a huge headache I didn't want to deal with, so I chose the ease and lower cost of this SATAII drive. Many people (not everyone) even reports that they can't tell the difference between SATAII drives and SATAIII drives. The truth is, all SSDs are fast. Super fast. It's easy to see the speed difference between HDD and SSD, harder to see the difference between medium speed SSD (which are reasonably priced) and higher speed SSDs (which cost quite a bit more).
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input! I looked over the thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1126688/) and it seems to be good. I may pick one up. I need to order one of those data doubler things for the optibay. Anybody have any recommendations on where I should get one of those?
 
I ordered mine from Max Upgrades. I'm happy with it. You can also get high quality ones from places like OWC and MCE. Or you could roll the dice on a cheap Chinese one from ebay.

For me it was worth the peace of mind to pay a little more for a quality product from a respected company. I would've gotten one from OWC as it is cheaper than MCE and Max Upgrades, and I'm quite sure it is made by the same people that made my Max Upgrades caddy, but OWC was out of stock when I was ready to order. Now it looks like Max Upgrades is coming in cheapest at ~$70.
 
bozz2006 said:
I ordered mine from Max Upgrades. I'm happy with it. You can also get high quality ones from places like OWC and MCE. Or you could roll the dice on a cheap Chinese one from ebay.

For me it was worth the peace of mind to pay a little more for a quality product from a respected company. I would've gotten one from OWC as it is cheaper than MCE and Max Upgrades, and I'm quite sure it is made by the same people that made my Max Upgrades caddy, but OWC was out of stock when I was ready to order. Now it looks like Max Upgrades is coming in cheapest at ~$70.
Click to expand...

Thanks again! Im from Canada, so I'm not sure if Max Upgrades ships here, but I will check. Its going to be a pain having to wait for it to deliver :p

Edit: I think they do, but if I am seeing this right, it costs $25 for international shipping. OWC would be cheaper this way then I guess
 
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