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How big of an ssd do I need to boot and run apps

R

Rhino420

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 9, 2010
54
0
I have a 2010 mbp 15" with the stock 320hdd. I want to get a ssd in the opti-bay to run my os and apps off of due to the great speed the ssd offers.Im planning on useing my current installed hdd just to store my music photos and video but the workhorse drive would be the sdd. (if this is possible)
My questions are...

1.How big of a ssd drive do I need to run mac os x lion, photoshop cs5 ,lightroom and mostly all my applications.
2.Do the generic hdd caddy's of ebay work just as well as the data doupler or mce optibay set up?
3. In order to run main apps and mac os x does the ssd have to be put in the main hdd spot and the hdd be put in the caddy position?
4. Would i have to do a completer clean install of mac os x to get this set up working?
any info would be great Thank you guys so much in advance!
 
Rhino420 said:
I have a 2010 mbp 15" with the stock 320hdd. I want to get a ssd in the opti-bay to run my os and apps off of due to the great speed the ssd offers.Im planning on useing my current installed hdd just to store my music photos and video but the workhorse drive would be the sdd. (if this is possible)
My questions are...

1.How big of a ssd drive do I need to run mac os x lion, photoshop cs5 ,lightroom and mostly all my applications.
2.Do the generic hdd caddy's of ebay work just as well as the data doupler or mce optibay set up?
3. In order to run main apps and mac os x does the ssd have to be put in the main hdd spot and the hdd be put in the caddy position?
4. Would i have to do a completer clean install of mac os x to get this set up working?
any info would be great Thank you guys so much in advance!
Click to expand...

Link to a search for optibay in the thread title.

https://forums.macrumors.com/search/?searchid=24021925
 
Even a 40GB SSD would be fine as a boot device and location to save app data as long as you kept everything else on the HDD.. I would go for something a little bigger though in case you want to save a little more data on the SSD just to simplify things. You don't need a very big ssd if all you are storing on it is the OS and apps.
 
Thanks for the response! ?I think I'm gonna go for at least 80gb if i can find a good deal on it..... any one have a link to a caddy off ebay that is good? or amazon ?
 
I was gonna vote at least 80gb...you could comfortably put your os and quite a few apps on it.
 
I have the same question, although using Carbon Copy Cloner, is this setup fine? (the one's I have checked). Are there any others I can uncheck without losing Application data (serials, version, etc.) or system data? I'm trying to fit it all (so I can boot and run applications) on a 50GB Vertex 2 and have similar needs as the OP

I will be keeping all files, folders, projects and such on a 320GB 5400 rpm drive in the optibay. I'm not sure if I should have unchecked Users...

5ceyxc.png
 
Last edited:
Mokhan,
Are you going to putting the ssd in your original hdd spot and move the original hdd to the optibay? I have read and i could be wrong but moving the original hdd is not a good move since the o.g. hdd needs the shock system to help it be safe incase of any falls or things of that nature. is there a pro or con to putting the ssd in the o.g. hdd spot? i was going to just take my super drive out and put the ssd in that spot and leave my hdd in the o.g. spot. can anyone chime in?
 
Rhino420 said:
Mokhan,
Are you going to putting the ssd in your original hdd spot and move the original hdd to the optibay? I have read and i could be wrong but moving the original hdd is not a good move since the o.g. hdd needs the shock system to help it be safe incase of any falls or things of that nature. is there a pro or con to putting the ssd in the o.g. hdd spot? i was going to just take my super drive out and put the ssd in that spot and leave my hdd in the o.g. spot. can anyone chime in?
Click to expand...

Hey, yeah you're right, you should leave your HDD in the original spot as that area has special shock sensors and adaptive technology which protect the HDD and its moving parts (ultimately your data) in case of sudden movement. Put your SSD in the optical bay.

For people with a 2011 Macbook Pro on the other hand, they may choose to put their SSD in the original HDD spot as that spot supports SATA III speeds while the optical bay only supports SATA II (the 2010 model has both the original HDD spot and optical bay spots as SATA II)

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro but my Vertex 2 is a SATA II drive, so I will be putting it in the optical bay spot. :)
 
SSD in Optibay or not..

Rhino420 said:
Mokhan,
Are you going to putting the ssd in your original hdd spot and move the original hdd to the optibay? I have read and i could be wrong but moving the original hdd is not a good move since the o.g. hdd needs the shock system to help it be safe incase of any falls or things of that nature. is there a pro or con to putting the ssd in the o.g. hdd spot? i was going to just take my super drive out and put the ssd in that spot and leave my hdd in the o.g. spot. can anyone chime in?
Click to expand...

There are 2 problems with this and the Optibay.
1. The Superdrive SATA interface is limited to 3 Gigabit speeds while the HDD SATA connection is 6 Gigabit, so basically you will lose half of the speed performance if you place the SSD on the OptiBay.

2. Moving your HDD to an Optibay will expose it to more vibration since it lacks the rubber suspension system the new unibodies have.

This is a dilema, having your SSD on the Optibay will sacrifice speed but will keep your HDD safe. Moving your SSD to the HDD bay will give peak performance but will expose your HDD to more vibration, but not something a normal HDD wouldn't be able to tolerate. I mean its not that your HDD is going to break immediately if you put it on the Optibay.

Personally I would prefer to have the SSD as the main system boot drive on the main hdd bay and storage in an HDD on the Optibay.

It would be nice however, if Optibay could design a HDD cradle with a similar suspension system as the one in the macbook pro.
 
Wow. These posts are making me realize that I really should leave my HDD in the original location. I'm still in the process of upgrading, so no physical moving has been done yet. I always thought the original HDD location was seen as the primary location for the computer for its boot drive.

And OP, I was in the same boat as you. Right now, I actually have a 500GB Momentus XT (HDD/SSD) hybrid drive. While it is faster than a regular HDD, it's still not a full SSD. Upon hearing about the new 750 model and that it seems to be faster than this one, it made me want to upgrade. However, the price was too high. So, I figured I may as well do the SSD/HDD dual drive setup so I no longer have to keep up with the hybrid drives. I'm purchasing a 120GB Intel 320, my MBP can only support SATAII. I may have been fine with 80GB but the price difference was so close, I just had to get the bigger one. It will just be the boot drive but I'm sure I'll be temporarily dumping files on there before they are moved. And possibly install apps there.
 
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