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Intel SSD in Macbook Pro

Trey M

Trey M

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2011
971
368
USA
Hi All,

I own an early 2011 MBP 15'', and assuming I keep it after the new redesign coming up (hoping it's not too tempting or it'll be expensive!), I want to put a SSD in my MBP. I've been looking at the intel 330 series, 180GB, linked below:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167122

I just have a few questions regarding this.
I know the installation will be simple, but I'm wondering:

1) Should the negotiated link speed between the MBP and the SSD be 6GBPS because the drive and laptop are both SATA III?

2) To my knowledge, Intel doesn't support a data migration tool for OSX. Seeing as this drive doesn't include a USB plug or anything for data migration, what's the best way to migrate data from my current HDD to this new SSD? Has anyone else migrated their data from HDD to SSD on OSX Lion?

3) I have read just a few negative reviews regarding Intel SSD's and MBP's, and even ran across a few from people regarding the Intel 330 series. I know some reviews are people complaining about something that has an obvious solution, but has anyone heard of anything negative about people putting Intel 330 SSD's into their MBP's, and if so, what has been said? Has anyone actually had personal experience with the Intel 330 SSD/MBP combo?

I realize I'm asking for a lot of information, and any help is appreciated :)

Thanks!
 
^ Nice link

1) I'd imagine so, I don't see why not.

2) I'm not too sure about this personally, but couldn't you just back everything up to an external hard drive via Time Machine, install the new SSD, then sort through some boot options (perhaps boot off a Lion thumb drive or Lion disc or maybe magically there's the Lion thingy that allows you to redownload it), then once Lion is installed, restore from via Time Machine? You could also look into Carbon Copy Cloner, but yeah, not too sure myself how that'd process would go (I think it saves an image to an external, then you can boot off the external and copy it over maybe)

3) Have you considered the 520 series? I'm thinking about getting one myself, but you're right, it's hard to pick one with so much competition out there and so many mixed reviews!
 
I used CCC when I got my SSD. I put the SSD into an external enclosure, used CCC to clone my hard drive to the SSD, then swapped the drives (SSD into my MBP, old hard drive into the external enclosure to use as backup). It was a relatively simple process.
 
I installed an Intel 520 series in my mid 2010 MBP and it is outstanding. Bought the plastic case for the optical drive to covert it to an external drive. As little as I use the optical drive it worked out wonderfully.

So...you may ask why the 520 series? I know that I cannot use it to its fullest extent in this model MBP but I figured that I am due for a new laptop and with the next MBP update, (hopefully this month), I will be able use the 520 SSD in the new MBP that I end up buying.
 
STxMacUser said:
So...you may ask why the 520 series? I know that I cannot use it to its fullest extent in this model MBP but I figured that I am due for a new laptop and with the next MBP update, (hopefully this month), I will be able use the 520 SSD in the new MBP that I end up buying.
Click to expand...
That's going to suck for you if the MBPs move to the MBA-style blade SSD lol
 
thanks for all the replies!

is there something I'm missing superior about the intel 520 series vs. the 330 series I was talking about? obviously price was a reason for me picking the 330 but if there's something significantly better about the 520 series i'd definitely give it a look...

and yes kyle it's really hard to pick one...everytime you think you found a winner there's a reviewer that points you in another direction and it happens over and over again...i know it's stupid but something in my head tells me intel will be more reliable though logically i know that isn't true...especially because so many intel ssd drives are having problems with intel chipsets and such...it's absurd these things don't work like magic in these basically all intel machines, regardless of OS
 
Trey M said:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/16/intel-330-series-ssds-official-prices-start-at-89/

Based on the previous answers and this article, doesn't the 330 series also achieve 6GBPS?

Again, thanks for all the responses!
Click to expand...

Yes... these are all SATA III drives and are 6 Gb/s. Don't get too hung up on speed. Unless you are running a test application, in actual usage it will be about impossible to tell the difference in speed among any of these SATA III drives. Focus on reliability and compatibility.

There are some good recommendations from Hellhammer in the SSD thread Maflynn linked.
 
JohnnyChao said:
520 series is better
Click to expand...

The stat sheet definitely says the 520 series is better but the 330 series is much less costly while it has many of the good features of the 520. As long as there are no serious compatibility issues between this SSD and my early 2011 MBP, and that I don't pick up the laptop that's gonna be announced in the next few days, I think the 330 series is what I'll be picking up.
 
calibrationx said:
I have an intel 330 on the way...but also a crucial m4. I'll let you know which one I install.
Click to expand...

Sounds good. Will be interested to see how it goes. If you don't mind me asking, what MBP do you have from what year?
 
Those Sandforce based SSDs are power hogs, especially the Intel ones. (520/330, some speculate that Intel's solution to the problems experienced with other Sandforce SSDs is to increase the power consumption) As much as I love them in my desktops, I'd rather use one that consumes less power in my notebooks.
 
Daniel L said:
Those Sandforce based SSDs are power hogs, especially the Intel ones. (520/330, some speculate that Intel's solution to the problems experienced with other Sandforce SSDs is to increase the power consumption) As much as I love them in my desktops, I'd rather use one that consumes less power in my notebooks.
Click to expand...

But they still use less power than a regular HDD...
 
Installed it tonight. Works great. No beach ball issues as far as I can tell. Boots ridiculously quickly and all apps start pretty much instantaneously.

Did a fresh install.
 
calibrationx said:
Installed it tonight. Works great. No beach ball issues as far as I can tell. Boots ridiculously quickly and all apps start pretty much instantaneously.

Did a fresh install.
Click to expand...

Sweet. Would you mind coming back in a week or so and let us know how it's turned out for you?

I'm pretty excited about a SSD!
 
how's it going with the 330?

my intel 330 ssd arrives tomorrow. how is your working? I'm going to do a clean install of lion ( there's a 60+ page thread in apple forums that leaves no doubt in my mind mountain lion has a power usage issue) i believe I know how to do a clean install, I'm new to Mac tho, the point of the clean install is to get rid of garbage and unwanted downloads, apps, etc. how do you selectively replace certain apps, documents, etc. ? is it drag and drop like windows? I'll have my old MBP harddrive in an enclosure....or should I pick and pull stuff I know I want to a thumb drive? guess im not being very clear, what I mean is, my old hard drive in the enclosure will be bootable, but can I " explore" it while booted from the ssd and drag and drop as I need things. thx

----------

a quick search turned up migration assistant to pick and choose....
still wonder how the intel 330 is working?
 
calibrationx said:
Yeah, I'll see how it does under regular usage.
Click to expand...

Hi, could you please tell us if that Intel series is working good with MAcbook Pro??

I'm from Argentina and was thinking about changing my laptop's Hard Drive.
I have a late 2011 15" Macbook Pro i7 Quadcore. Just wanted to check if that series of intel is working good for you. I ask since i'm finding which SSD HD to buy and it's really cheap compared with others brands and models, but it's newer so it's kind of confusing for me.
I chosen this one as a first glance: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/DDMBS6E240/
but then i found this one: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3702410&sku=I69-7034

I understand they are similar and even Intel series is newer and has some new read/write features....
I will use the SSD as boot HD and my original internal HD in the Optical Bay.

Thanks again for your time and your help...

Ivan
 
Installed an Intel 335 SSD 240GB in a late 2011 2.2GHz MBP 3 weeks or more ago. Used CCC to clone the internal HD to the SSD in an external case then swapped the drives. Ran fix permissions and Disk Warrior (no errors found) on the SSD after installation, then enabled trim using ChameleonSSDOptimizer. I have had no problems at all, and no beach balls. The disk does not show spectacular results using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (probably due to the Sandforce controller not being fast with the compressed data used by that test), but in actual use, it is very fast indeed. Everything happens almost instantaneously. Every maker has different firmware for the Sandforce, and the Intel version does not seem to have the incompatibility with Trim that the OWC drives have. At least I have had no errors so far.
The Crucial M4 is also a good choice, just find the lowest price for the same size and you should be OK.
 
intel 330 working fine

working well in my mid 2011 i7 MacBook Pro. still waiting for power issue in mountain lion to be resolved. I did a clean install of lion and it works great, next time though, I don't want migration assistant to choose to copy everything, I just needed to do more research.
however that's not your question, I haven't had a single hiccup with the 330 drive.
 
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