And another Macbook Pro HD question...

[Ieziebie]

Hi,

Lots of threads about upgrading Macbook Pro HDs. I'm stuck with some sort of dilemma as well. The superdrive in my 2010 Macbook died on me. Or well....my daughter thought it would be funny to put something in it .

So now I'm thinking of removing the superdrive and put an OWC Data doubler in there. Now my options are (I would in the mean time replace the 250GB original disk as it's small and slow):

1. 40 or 60 GB SSD for boot (how do I install SL in such a way that only my applications are put on there). Is 40 enough for the whole OS and some more applications (nothing huge really). Then I would add another 640GB 5400 rpm disk for all the data.

2. Put in 2x 640GB 5400 rpm disks and setup a raid. How would this hold up? Would it increase CPU usage? Will I notice a difference with the 1 disk I have now?

Any other options are welcome as well, but I'm a bit on a budget, so....

Thanks...

 

[pullman]

Hi,

Lots of threads about upgrading Macbook Pro HDs. I'm stuck with some sort of dilemma as well. The superdrive in my 2010 Macbook died on me. Or well....my daughter thought it would be funny to put something in it .

So now I'm thinking of removing the superdrive and put an OWC Data doubler in there. Now my options are (I would in the mean time replace the 250GB original disk as it's small and slow):

1. 40 or 60 GB SSD for boot (how do I install SL in such a way that only my applications are put on there). Is 40 enough for the whole OS and some more applications (nothing huge really). Then I would add another 640GB 5400 rpm disk for all the data.

2. Put in 2x 640GB 5400 rpm disks and setup a raid. How would this hold up? Would it increase CPU usage? Will I notice a difference with the 1 disk I have now?

Any other options are welcome as well, but I'm a bit on a budget, so....

Thanks...

Alt 1 captures what I will do. I happen to have a spare OWC Mercury Extreme 40GB which I will install as OS and applications drive with the MCE "optibay" (it's better than the datadoubler because it includes a USB 2.0 case to make the optical drive an external drive).

I currently have a 40GB Mercury Extreme as boot drive in my Mac Pro. I have the full Creative Suite 5 (Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc etc) installed, Office for Mac and lots of other bits and pieces of software and it takes 17GB.

The system literally flies and I expect the same to happen when I install such a drive in the MBP.

The 60GB Mercury doesn't cost that much more but since you don't need the extra space on a boot drive (and I think it will be the same with Lion when it comes) go with the 40GB if you're on a budget. And do check out the MCE optibay.

Hope it helps
/p

 

[Labaguette]

Hey there,

i just installed a RAID 0 of Scorpio Black 750GB in my 2011 MacBook Pro - and it runs amazingly fast and has no cpu load issues. I opened up a topic you can find here with some HDD xBench results. I'm running the secondary disc in a noname 15$ Optibay from China which is already serving me well for 18 months now and i don't need the external optical drive as i got an iMac running 24/7 for remote disc.

Hope that helps a bit,
Monsieur Baguette

 

[Ieziebie]

Thanks both for the answer... I'm actually leaning towards a 2 times HDD solution. Only worries I have with 7200 rpm disks are heat, vibration, noise.... 5400 might be a bit slower but Raid 0 will make up for that I guess?

 

[Labaguette]

actually, i think performance will compare favorably well on 5400 vs 7200, if you want faster app launch, you should also consider my previous setup which was a Momentus XT as Boot HDD and a Scorpio Blue as Data Storage (Music&Films) that i could even unmount when i didn't need it!

Regards,
Baguette

 

[pullman]

i just installed a RAID 0 of Scorpio Black 750GB in my 2011 MacBook Pro

How about vibrations? I have the Momentus XT in my 13" MB and it vibrates quite a bit when on a hard surface.

 

[Labaguette]

How about vibrations?

actually compared to my former Momentus XT i feel pretty comfortable with the Scorpio Black! of course you can notably hear them a bit more than a 5400rpm stock HDD or an SSD, but vibration does not seem to be an issue with these drives.
for me, it's just a minor tradeoff, ran xBench on a 15" 2009 MBP 320GB stock HDD yesterday and the raid is 6.7x as fast on average, maxing out in 11x as fast as the stock HDD in sequential writes (keep in mind: my RAID is >60% full)!

Regards,
Baguette