BEST Internal SSD Drive for MacBookPro8,2 (April 2012) on the market RIGHT NOW?!??!

[lip5016]

What would you say is the BEST Internal SSD Drive for MacBookPro8,2 on the market right now?

I work full-time as a musician in Logic X, and run a ton of CPU-intensive plugins, and needless to say, my relatively-new, MacBook Pro/Logic X (system info. in sig.) keeps on freezing up and crashing on me.. very frustrating, since I'm working in it for an excess of 12 hours a day.. Hoping that upgrading the system disk/startup disk and installing all my key music software on that, that I'll be able to run much more smoothly without as many "disk read/system overload" errors..

Since getting a new Mac Pro is not in my budget for the foreseeable future (lol), I figure I'll spend the extra $$ on decking out my current MacBook Pro (maxed RAM, and max CPU-offering at that time)..

What would be the BEST internal SSD that I could get for my MacBook Pro? I'm doing a TON of CPU-intensive processing all day in Logic X, so I'm willing to spend for the best money can buy, with 480-750GB+ storage capacity, and will be sufficient for the CPU-intensive work[/b] I'm doing all day.. I don't think the 1TB SSD's are worth their price just yet.. Will probably go for the 2nd highest storage model that's being offered..

What are your suggestions?

I want to place an order for one ASAP and will be selecting based off your input! Thanks!!

 

[COrocket]

(Assuming you are looking for a 2.5" SSD) - Best of the best if you are willing to pay top dollar is the Samsung 850 Pro IMO. http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...isite/SSD/global/html/ssd850pro/overview.html

A lot of people use the Samsung SSD's including myself and they have been great so far. The 850 has a 10 year warranty so it should be able to handle anything you throw at it. Looks like the 512GB is $360 and the 1TB is $700 on amazon, so you get what you pay for regardless of what size you get.

 

[lip5016]

(Assuming you are looking for a 2.5" SSD) - Best of the best if you are willing to pay top dollar is the Samsung 850 Pro IMO. http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...isite/SSD/global/html/ssd850pro/overview.html

A lot of people use the Samsung SSD's including myself and they have been great so far. The 850 has a 10 year warranty so it should be able to handle anything you throw at it. Looks like the 512GB is $360 and the 1TB is $700 on amazon, so you get what you pay for regardless of what size you get.

I was wondering if I can replace MacBookPro8,2 (Late 2011) optical drive with an SSD 6G drive?

I currently have a 750gb 7200rpm (factory stock) hard drive in my Late 2011 MacBook Pro (8,2) .. I'm a little bit confused right now because I was looking into replacing the main, start-up disk with a 3rd-party internal SSD (Samsung 850 Pro - 512gb - 6G)..

I do music production full-time at the moment and really need the extra computing power to run large, plugin-intensive, CPU-intensive, maximum quality settings in Logic X, without it constantly crashing/overloading..

I was thinking that it would be really cool to replace my main, factory hard disk with the Samsung one (listed above), and then that it'd be even cooler to replace my SuperDrive with an additional SSD (so that I can put OSX + Logic X on the "main" drive, and then all my samples/less important, but frequently accessed information, on the 2nd SSD in the optical bay/SuperDrive slot)..

I'm a little confused because I read that some MacBook Pro's (8,2) DO accept a 6G SSD in the SuperDrive/optical bay, while some others don't.. but then again, I try to take everything I read on the internet with a grain of salt (lol..).. I've read that in the case that it doesn't have the proper connectors to take the "6G", that it can take a "3G" harddrive/solid state drive, instead..

I'd REALLY like to be able to get a 6G SSD in both bay's, so that I can get the MOST out of both drive's abilities.. but I'm having trouble finding out whether or not this is possible in my model MacBook Pro (8,2) (Late 2011)..

I went ahead and attached a screenshot of my MacBook Pro's specs (left column) for anyone that's more tech-savvy than myself.. Any ideas guys? Thanks!

 

[matspekkie]

The Superdrive data connection is not an 6G but 3G connection. While It will be fast enough for conventionals drives it is not for a fast SSD.
Best is to build your " normal" drive in the caddy 3G and put the SSD in place of that. It will be fast enough for conventionals drives.
I did that this way and works like a charm.

 

[Gav Mack]

The late 2011's can take a SATA 3 in the optibay, the early 2011's are only sata 2 and some SATA 3 disks/SSD's have to be set in their firmware via a utility /jumpers to run in SATA 2 mode only.

The Intel SATA chipset had a bug in the initial batches for these sandy bridge CPU 2011's MBP models so Apple downgraded them to SATA 2 in the early 2011 - when Intel produced fixed silicon for the later model they were fine with the 6g transfer rate.

Though the cable is very delicate so be careful with handling it else it won't run full speed..

 

[lip5016]

The late 2011's can take a SATA 3 in the optibay, the early 2011's are only sata 2 and some SATA 3 disks/SSD's have to be set in their firmware via a utility /jumpers to run in SATA 2 mode only.

The Intel SATA chipset had a bug in the initial batches for these sandy bridge CPU 2011's MBP models so Apple downgraded them to SATA 2 in the early 2011 - when Intel produced fixed silicon for the later model they were fine with the 6g transfer rate.

Though the cable is very delicate so be careful with handling it else it won't run full speed..

I have uploaded screenshots from my "About My Mac".. Would someone please be able to clarify what the maximum connection my optical drive bay can take? Thank you!!

 

[lip5016]

The Superdrive data connection is not an 6G but 3G connection. While It will be fast enough for conventionals drives it is not for a fast SSD.
Best is to build your " normal" drive in the caddy 3G and put the SSD in place of that. It will be fast enough for conventionals drives.
I did that this way and works like a charm.

I have uploaded screenshots from my "About My Mac".. Would someone please be able to clarify what the maximum connection my optical drive bay can take? Thank you!!

 

[Weaselboy]

I have uploaded screenshots from my "About My Mac".. Would someone please be able to clarify what the maximum connection my optical drive bay can take? Thank you!!

That optical drive connection is a SATA III connection.

 

[Gav Mack]

I have uploaded screenshots from my "About My Mac".. Would someone please be able to clarify what the maximum connection my optical drive bay can take? Thank you!!

In your second attachment for the SuperDrive in system profiler it clearly states the link speed is 6.0 gigabit which is SATA 3. Early 2011 models have 3.0 gigabit in their listings for that port.

Another recommendation for the large Samsung SSD's from me - they work great. So do a pair of 8gb DIMM's to give it 16gb despite Apple saying it's the maximum 8gb, though keep your original ram and hard drive to retrofit if you ever have to return it to apple.

 

[COrocket]

Splitting the information between drives would work fine. However there really isn't any practical or speed advantage over throwing everything on a single large SSD. I would just make the install simpler.

If you really wanted to go for maximum speed, then you could install an SSD in the optical bay slot. Then RAID0 the drives together which basically turns both 6 Gbit/s drives into a single 12 Gbit/s drive.