Buying late-2011 MBP - got some questions

[jon08]

Thanks guys.. Are there any cheaper alternatives for DVI adapters?

The Hitachi drive seems ok, but what bothers me is that there aren't many reviews available for it...?

Oh, and how dangerous is it for a HDD in Optibay while carrying MBP from one room to another (with MBP being on)?

 

[Vantage Point]

Thanks guys.. Are there any cheaper alternatives for DVI adapters?

The Hitachi drive seems ok, but what bothers me is that there aren't many reviews available for it...?

Oh, and how dangerous is it for a HDD in Optibay while carrying MBP from one room to another (with MBP being on)?

AFAIK there are no cheap alternatives. I looked into this about a year and half ago when I switched to Mac and couldn't find anything at the time but Best Buy might have one of their private labeled brands. My adaptor has worked flawlessy and I think I picked it up a little cheaper on ebay.

Here are 109 reviews from Amazon but some might be mixed in with their 500gb drive. There used to a number of threads on this topic which could be easily found with mroogle but that doesn't work anymore. I do recall that the few negative reviews seemed to be from using a 13" MBP in terms of sound. Just get it and return if you don't like it. If you need to store a lot of stuff and want to retrieve it reasonable fast then this is what you need, period.

I wouldn't think it more dangerous regardless of where the drive is mounted. If concerned then just close the lid to put it to sleep. The real concern is once you do this you lose your warranty.

 

[jon08]

Ok... looked pretty good so I went ahead and ordered it from B&H.

Do you think this adapter would be ok? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-displa...173?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25697e7535

Or is it better to stay away from these unofficial ones?

 

[Vantage Point]

Ok... looked pretty good so I went ahead and ordered it from B&H.


I think you'll be glad you did. You will get up to 30% faster performance. I just booted up this morning (most times I let mine sleep) and opened Adobe Photoshop CS5 which only took 6 seconds and my drive has 550gb on it. The original stock drive was a slow 320gb 5400 rpm. I try to keep it no more filled that about that since there is potential slow down as it fills as data is copied to the slower inner part of the drive. I keep about 65% of my photo library in a partition and my entire photo library on a larger drive.

I hope you have the right tools to swap the drive. Also, faster way to swap is NOT to use Apple's software but instead just make a clone with Carbon Copy Cloner. It's faster and that is my preferred backup software.

Do you think this adapter would be ok? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-display...item25697e7535

Or is it better to stay away from these unofficial ones?

I would. It's just a cable so you have nothing to lose but 5 or 6 bucks. That seller has a great feedback so the risk is minimal - it will either work or not and if not they will likely just refund you and then go out and get one locally. However, it will likely take about 2 weeks for shipping on the slow boat from China, so to speak. I purchase plenty of things from China on ebay and always got a great price and never a problem. CR2023 type batteries cost about $2-$4 on the store but I can buy a set of 6 for 99 cents. I just don't order from them if I need something quickly.

 

[jon08]

I ordered OWC Data Doubler, which comes with a bunch of screwdrivers: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDMBS6E120/

I suppose that would suffice?

And I just ran my new MBP for the first time... It's gorgeous and noticeably thinner than my early-2008 MBP. Love it. And kudos to B&H for delivering it on the 2nd day with free shipping!!

I'm not exactly sure what to do about Carbon Copy Cloner though. My idea was to make a bootable USB Lion drive so that I can reinstall in on the SSD once I place it in the HDD bay - but how do I go about doing that?

On the HDD that's currently in the new MBP there's Lion + a hidden Recovery Partition, but actually I wanted to erase this entire drive because I planned to sell it in the future?

 

[Vantage Point]

Those tools should do it. I know that one of the screwdrivers is special. My set came from OWC as well and worked out well,

As far a that special Lion partition I am not 100% sure so it might be best to start a new thread with appropriate title to attract those that know. I am still on Snow Leopard

In general CCC will easily make a bootable clone. You can use the utilities in your mac to create and set the size or partitions and format the drive. CCC will let you clone partition to partition. I have several backup disks that are also partitioned. For example on my MBP I have two partitions, one for all my photos (MBP-Library) and one for everything else (MBP). One of backups, a 1.5Gb Mercury Elite from OWC, has three partitions. MBP-Clone, Library, and TM. TM is the partition for Time Machine which only backs up the MBP partition. MBP-clone is an exact bootable clone of MBP partition, and Library is a my unabridged photo library which includes everything on my MBP-Library partition and more. I also have several other bare 3.5" drives so I have two TM backups and several clones - I just stick the drives in a Voyager and can daisy chain to my other Mercury Elite drive using Firewire 800. Makes for a neat and inexpensive way to manage and keep backups. That Voyager from OWC handles 2.5 and 3.5" drives so I used it to make a clone when I swapped out the stock drive.

Hope that helps

 

[jon08]

Thanks a lot man, I appreciate your help. I'll see what I can do...

Loving the new MBP so far, the only thing that annoys me slightly is the overly-glossy screen. Kind of regret a bit not having purchased the matte option.. but then again, I didn't want to spent extra $200 on it. And I'll have it hooked to my external monitor most of the time anyway..

 

[Vantage Point]

Glossy isn't so bad if you can control what's behind you. My NEC monitor is non-glossy. I tried an iMac but didn't like the gloss and sold it for my MBP + monitor. I would have gone with anti-glare but refuse to pay the price plus I do not want a high rez screen since that is just too hard on the eyes.

You have a really powerful machine which will blow away what you had in every way. If you find yourself doing RAM intensive stuff then keep in mind that you can upgrade to 16Gb when the prices drop in a year.

 

[Rizvi1]

Damn, they canceled my Scorpio Black order @ B&H because they are unable to get hold of it...

Does anyone know any other place where I could order it for about $150 or below?

They sell it for $180 at Newegg but I think that's just too expensive. Is Next Warehouse reliable??? http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?1018873_p3g

Or should I just go with Scorpio Blue 750GB instead?? I've read a couple of reviews and they mostly state that it could have been faster...

What about Seagate Momentus 750GB (5400rpm)?

I'm on the same boat. My order from Office Depot got canceled after a month or so. The Western Digital Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT 750 GB 2.5" Internal Hard Drive 7200 rpm you linked to at Next Warehouse is now now $240, but $230 on Newegg and $209 on Amazon.

 

[jon08]

^^I ended up buying a Hitachi 750GB 7200rpm HDD and it's pretty good... no vibrations, the only thing you can hear is a slight whoosh sound of the HDD.

 

[Rizvi1]

^ thanks for the advice. Cheapest I see the Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB SATA 3 GB/s 7200 RPM is $180ish used from Amazon Warehouse: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...-options=see-all-buying-options&condition=all

I can grab that Hitachi Travelstar 750GB SATA II 2.5" Mobile Drive for $120 from Tiger Direct's ebay store though: http://compare.ebay.com/like/350517624105?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y

How can I make sure the Hitachi fits my 2.4 ghz i5 Macbook Pro though?

 

[jon08]

I would assume all 2.5" HDDs fit MBPs?

 

[Rizvi1]

^ Let me add onto that. Not just physically fit the space of the laptop it's replacing but any other requirements as well. Data transfer speed maybe? I'm not sure. Just wanted to make sure all was good before I placed the order.

 

[jon08]

Hmm, there should be no issues as far as I know. Hopefully someone else can provide some insight.