Hard Drive for Optibay for shock protection - WD Scorpio Black?

[oxfordguy]

Hi - I'm looking to purchase a new 15" MBP and am considering configuring it with a SATA III SSD in the main drive bay* and a 7200rpm hard drive in the optibay (via an adaptor). I will use the SSD in the drive bay as my main boot drive, which should avoid hibernation problems.

The main issue, I think, is that the optibay is not supported by the laptop's own sudden motion sensor, so I want a drive with built-in shock-protection. I was considering putting a WD Scorpio Black drive in the optibay as, if I've understood correctly, this has built-in "ShockGuard" technology (as well as being a fast, reliable drive), so should compensate for this - can anyone confirm whether this is correct? Does this aply to all Scorpio Black models? Thanks

* will probably use a 256Mb Crucial M4 SSD for this, was thinking of ordering the MBP with a 5,400rpm 750Gb drive and taking this out and putting in an external enclosure and using it for Time Machine backups.

 

[alust2013]

I think some do and some don't. You have to look up model numbers. That said, I would recommend a 5400 RPM drive for the optibay, as the scorpio black isn't the quietest drive out there, and you don't get a boost in performance from it as a storage drive.

 

[oxfordguy]

I think some do and some don't. You have to look up model numbers. That said, I would recommend a 5400 RPM drive for the optibay, as the scorpio black isn't the quietest drive out there, and you don't get a boost in performance from it as a storage drive.

The WD website implies that the only difference between the Scorpio Black WD****BPKT and WD****BEKT Models is that the WD****BPKT models have Advanced Format (AF) and that the WD****BEKT Models don't. As far as I can tell, the WD website implies that all have "ShockGuard" technology, but I'm not 100% sure if this is true.

As for going the 5,400rpm route - wouldn't even a "storage" drive benefit from a speed boost? This is where my iTunes collection, pictures, movies and most docs will be. The optibay is on a 3Gb's SATAII connector, as I understand it, so isn't too constrained.

 

[dusk007]

Not really. You can write to it slightly faster but that is not really a big difference. The 500GB platter 5400rpm drives are sequentially as fast as all the last generation 7200rpm drives which the black still belongs too.
As far as reading goes you really don't need much speed. Latency won't really make a difference in that regard and for reading in music or even movies you never need more than a couple MB/s. Even a 4200rpm drive wouldn't feel much slower.

I would get one of the new 1TB 9.5mm drives. Those are the ones with 500GB platter.
And I also wouldn't bother about putting it into the optibay. The HD bay has better mounting which absorbs some vibration. It is quieter and there really aren't any issues. Current 2011 MBP have SATA 3 at both ports thus there is no speed difference as was the case with MBPs shipping in the first few months.
I also don't know about any hibernation issues. I have my SSD in the optibay. I don't really use hibernation though. I either use Standby or I shut it down. The latter only for updates or to restart in Windows.
Regardless of what HDD you buy I would try sticking it into the optibay first and only switch it if it really doesn't work. I have a 2010 MBP but I haven't really heard about the 2011 having any problems in that regard.

 

[oxfordguy]

Not really. You can write to it slightly faster but that is not really a big difference. The 500GB platter 5400rpm drives are sequentially as fast as all the last generation 7200rpm drives which the black still belongs too.
As far as reading goes you really don't need much speed. Latency won't really make a difference in that regard and for reading in music or even movies you never need more than a couple MB/s. Even a 4200rpm drive wouldn't feel much slower.

Okay, I see your point

I would get one of the new 1TB 9.5mm drives. Those are the ones with 500GB platter.
And I also wouldn't bother about putting it into the optibay. The HD bay has better mounting which absorbs some vibration. It is quieter and there really aren't any issues. Current 2011 MBP have SATA 3 at both ports thus there is no speed difference as was the case with MBPs shipping in the first few months.

Are you sure? I thought all current MBP only had SATA2 for the optibay, which would throttle the performance of a SATA3 SSD. Would someone with a recently purchased 15" MBP be able to confirm either way? Thanks

I also don't know about any hibernation issues.

Its something I've read on a number of forum posts related to using the optibay for the boot drive

I have my SSD in the optibay. I don't really use hibernation though. I either use Standby or I shut it down. The latter only for updates or to restart in Windows.
Regardless of what HDD you buy I would try sticking it into the optibay first and only switch it if it really doesn't work. I have a 2010 MBP but I haven't really heard about the 2011 having any problems in that regard.

Okay, thanks for the feedback. Anyone else?

 

[TheRdungeon]

Have had two 7200rpm drives in optibays in two separate MBPs and they've both been all good. I have an apple BTO ssd in factory location

 

[blackranger3d]

I have this exact setup but in a 13 which I'm going to upgrade to a 15.

- 120 SSD in main bay
- 750 GB in Optibay

And it works great.

Forgive my ignorance, but why are you concerned about shock protection?

PS. My only advise would be that 256 might be way more space than you need for a OS drive. But of course you know your usage better than anyone.

cheers,

 

[B.LI]

This is a setup I also want to try out, but one question...

If i were to launch a program via the HDD in optibay will it still have the speed boosting from the SSD in main bay?

I really should have started a new thread but thought I'll post it here instead since it links with the topic.. well sort of...

 

[oxfordguy]

This is a setup I also want to try out, but one question...

If i were to launch a program via the HDD in optibay will it still have the speed boosting from the SSD in main bay?

I really should have started a new thread but thought I'll post it here instead since it links with the topic.. well sort of...

I would've thought that only applications installed on the SSD drive itself would gain any speed benefit - that's the general idea isn't it, install the base OS and all applications on the SSD with symlinks to the HDD for your music, movies, pictures etc.?

----------

I have this exact setup but in a 13 which I'm going to upgrade to a 15.

- 120 SSD in main bay
- 750 GB in Optibay

And it works great.

Great - what makes/models of SSD and HDD are you using?

Forgive my ignorance, but why are you concerned about shock protection?

A MBP is a laptop, so gets moved around quite a bit (or even dropped, by accident), HDD drives can be sensitive to this.

PS. My only advise would be that 256 might be way more space than you need for a OS drive. But of course you know your usage better than anyone.
cheers,

Maybe, though I will also be putting Windows 7 on this drive (bootcamp partition), so may need the extra space...

 

[dusk007]

Are you sure? I thought all current MBP only had SATA2 for the optibay, which would throttle the performance of a SATA3 SSD.

Quite sure. Apple changed that sometime around April I think. For about a month there where thread in this forum about people checking if they already got the new revised or old version and quite soon it was all SATA3.
There was even a news on macrumors about this change I think.

----------

This is a setup I also want to try out, but one question...

If i were to launch a program via the HDD in optibay will it still have the speed boosting from the SSD in main bay?

I really should have started a new thread but thought I'll post it here instead since it links with the topic.. well sort of...

If you install a game on the HDD and it will launch and load levels no faster then if there was no SSD in the system. The only possible speedup is if along with a certain application some service in Windows is started up or some other thing that belongs to the os and resides there is started up. Say a Java App loads a bunch of libraries at launch which all are in the Java folders which is on the SSD.

 

[oxfordguy]

Quite sure. Apple changed that sometime around April I think. For about a month there where thread in this forum about people checking if they already got the new revised or old version and quite soon it was all SATA3.
There was even a news on macrumors about this change I think.

Okay, have jus done some research on this - it looks like your partially right - This article seems to suggest that although some (all?) Macbook Pros now shipping have SATA III 6Gb/s support for the Optibay, BUT it only actually works on the 13" model, even after the recent firmware update for SATA III problems! Not only that but the 15"/17" MBPs will have problems even running a SATA III SSDs at *any* speed in the Optibay! Go figure...

I've also posted a poll to see if anyone else if having better luck with SATA III 6Gb/s support for the Optibay on 15" MBP models

Anyway, looks like because of this I will almost definitely be putting the SSD in the main drive bay and an HDD in the optibay, so would still like a drive with shock protection for the latter...