Bumping this thread to ask if there is an equally easy tutorial to replacing the optical drive and adding another SSD and also is it recommended?
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Looking to replace HD in new uMBP.
- Thread starter Ice Dragon
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Have you try ifixit.com? It's the best source for those guides. I use them personally for all my macs.
+1.
Also, the X25-M is the best SSD on the market.
That is unless you transfer 5gb files every day.
Have you gone to the optibay on the cheap thread? If you dig, it's got a lot of good posts explaining almost all of it.
If I'm just using one drive for a boot drive, is it even worth it to remove the Superdrive? By the time I get my MBP, I'm sure Intel will have a more affordable X-25M with more storage. Thoughts? (also I like ifixit, *adds to favorites*)
The only reason to remove the superdrive is to install another HD.
For ideal performance, two x25-ms in RAID0 would be killer.
You could use an X25-M with a 500GB SATA drive for storage.
Or if you really wanted storage, you can get two maxed out drives (750GB right now? So 1.5TB total).
Yes I would be aiming for ideal performance. Then I guess I would get the MBA Superdrive for $99 to connect to the MBP when I wanted to play discs.
Edit: Seems a bit tough for me now. I think I'll stick with one SSD.
There is one place Anandtech recommended and they have built to order PC makers with up to 3 SSDs if I wanted that.
Once again to everyone, thanks for the help.
Edit: Seems a bit tough for me now. I think I'll stick with one SSD.
There is one place Anandtech recommended and they have built to order PC makers with up to 3 SSDs if I wanted that.
Once again to everyone, thanks for the help.
them ssd are so stupid. they cost to much. just get a 500 gb 7200 rpm hard drive for 120. how much would a 500 gb ssd cost? like 1000 i bet
Ice Dragon, the MacBook Air SuperDrive will not work with any other computer than the MacBook Air unless you perform a BIG modification (read: soldering) to the SuperDrive.
On a much lighter note, you will not damage your 17" MacBook Pro if you install an SSD. Apple's official stance is that the hard drive on the Unibody computer is a "customer-installable part". Just please keep in mind that you shouldn't put your hands all over the computer's logic board or the SSD's circuit board. Handle the drive by the edges and you'll be 100% fine.
On a much lighter note, you will not damage your 17" MacBook Pro if you install an SSD. Apple's official stance is that the hard drive on the Unibody computer is a "customer-installable part". Just please keep in mind that you shouldn't put your hands all over the computer's logic board or the SSD's circuit board. Handle the drive by the edges and you'll be 100% fine.
Actually you don't have to solder a thing on the optical drive itself. Just the IDE-USB replacement board you can get from ebay for $8. 4 wires. Takes longer to open the case up than make the mod.
NC MacGuy, oooh! There's a solder-free mod kit now? Anyway I sold my MBA SD after I used it one time...
Hmmm, did I write that? Don't think so.
You do understand the MBA SuperDrive is made up of an IDE slot loading optical drive, IDE to USB2 bridge, aluminum case top, a usb cable and a case bottom?
There is no soldering done on the optical drive itself. The only soldering is on the USB cable input to a generic IDE bridge board that plugs onto the drive, which then gets inserted into the case. As I wrote, the drive itself gets no soldering.
Cool, more responses... I'm really liking this forum.
All right, originally my dilemma was being afraid to open the back of the MBP period. OWC set me straight with that once I watched their tutorial in high quality (the YT version still made things sketchy due to things being a bit blurred).
Now, still being a newbie, I have to be honest I'm probably jumping ahead of myself. It is not entirely necessary for me to remove the Superdrive but A. I wanted some thoughts on it and B. I didn't want to be dumb and create a new topic when I can use this one.
There is a place that I mentioned before on Anandtech who build custom PC laptops and you can have up to three SSDs in RAID 0 (I think I worded that correctly), but I still want to own at least one Mac in my life and have an SSD in it.
Sorry for the tl;dr post but I had a lot to say.
Edit: AVADirect was the company in question.
All right, originally my dilemma was being afraid to open the back of the MBP period. OWC set me straight with that once I watched their tutorial in high quality (the YT version still made things sketchy due to things being a bit blurred).
Now, still being a newbie, I have to be honest I'm probably jumping ahead of myself. It is not entirely necessary for me to remove the Superdrive but A. I wanted some thoughts on it and B. I didn't want to be dumb and create a new topic when I can use this one.
There is a place that I mentioned before on Anandtech who build custom PC laptops and you can have up to three SSDs in RAID 0 (I think I worded that correctly), but I still want to own at least one Mac in my life and have an SSD in it.
Sorry for the tl;dr post but I had a lot to say.
Edit: AVADirect was the company in question.
That's the best thing about MR, the community does help out each other.
I wouldn't recommend doing anything with optibay or superdrive. There are only two reasons for removing superdrive, one is RAID0 and other is for second internal drive for storage. You don't need RAID0 and it won't really change the whole experience either, it only doubles the transfer speed, not the responsiveness of the system and suffers a little lag in the latency. Remember that an SSD has around .1-.2ms latency where normal HD has latency of 8-12ms. It's so fracking fast, it is not even funny how pissed and depressed you become when you work on somebody's laptop with a normal hard drive (especially 5400rpm drives, i almost want to kill myself, it's like being on 56k modem after years of FIOS).
As for storage, just go with external drive instead, either via FW800 or ethernet.