Adding SSD to MBP

Discussion in 'MacBook Pro' started by xoggyux, Feb 10, 2009.

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  1. xoggyux, Feb 10, 2009

    xoggyux macrumors 6502

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    Dec 4, 2008
    #1
    Hi, I am wondering if i could add a SECOND drive, specifically an SSD drive, since SSD are so expensive i cannot just replace the HDD, therefore i want to add something in the neighborhood of the 32GB for system + apps, and then leave the HDD for MP3s and Videos.
    I know that there is no extra space for SATA drives in the MBP, I have also seen people that have removed the optic drive and used certain kind of adaptor to add a SATA drive, however though i think the optic drive is worthless i still wouldn't like to mutilate my mac, specially having the "slot loading" hole with no function what so ever, therefore that option is out of the table.
    I have seen however some other alternatives such as express card SSD and some kind of SSD that are not SATA drive but look kind of a circuit board (like ram, just a bit bigger,) the express card sounds easy to do, however so far i have only seen small ones available (~16, transcend i believe) and i have heard they are not much faster than a regular HDD connected to USB port since express card is ~300MBs bus, however i am hoping that the decrease in latency would worth it, the other option requires some kind of port that i dont even know if exist, so here is my question... do you know what that port is? some kind of PC PCI/MBP equivalent? how hard is to add the SSD to that port, can it be done at all? does it exist? whats the name? etc. please help.
     
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  2. jvlog, Feb 10, 2009

    jvlog macrumors member

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    Feb 26, 2008
    #2
    i have a early 2008 Macbook pro with a 128 GB SSD that i got for around $300 that works great. i keep all my apps music and the os on the SSD and keep all my movies on a 1TB external ($180) and i think it's a great set up because you will rarely need more than one or 2 movies on the go and the rest are safe and sound at home. i actually replaced my "Movies" folder in the os with an allies to the movies folder on the external. everything streams just fine over firewire and if you know how to distribute media properly it's an amazing set up and you don't notice that most of the media that would otherwise just be wasting space on your primary drive is not with you. just plan ahead what you might want to see when your away from home, battery life is only long enough for about a movie and 1/2 any way
    example i have about 250-300 GB of media but only use 45Gb on my internal

    for a more specific answer to your question you can not do 2 separate discs in older MBPs because there is only one SATA port and the ATA optical drives in notebooks use a different connector than ATA hard drives. in the brand new macbook and macbook pro however this can be done because the optical drive uses a SATA connector although you will have to remove your optical drive and find some secure way to mount the drive in it's place, i believe there kits to do this but I'm not positive. because it sound like coast is an issue the best method would be to buy a 2.5" external inclosure for your current hard drive witch can be found for pretty cheap and simply convert it to an external while using the SSD as a boot drive and the newly liberated external for mass storage, beware though that 2.5" hard drives are more prone to fail
     
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  3. xoggyux, Feb 10, 2009

    xoggyux thread starter macrumors 6502

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    #3
    buying a large SSD is not an option for me right now, to say the truth, SSD prices halves every year, and chances are that in 1year time i can buy a new macbook (which would probably be faster than my 1 year old MBP) with a ~100gb or more SSD for less than $1500 so i could save then 300-500 that would cost me the upgrade and it will be better expend for a future system upgrade.
    My was primarily about what is that mysterious port for which i have seen SSD drives (circuit boards looking) and if there is any available in MBP and how hard is to access it, I basically went trought all the explanations to avoid people suggesting those solutions which i already considered and rejected :D thanks though.
     
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  4. JustGretchen, Feb 10, 2009

    JustGretchen macrumors 6502

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    Dec 2, 2008
    #4
    you can get 128mb at newegg for ~200 right now
     
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