MacBook Pro 2011 surgery time.. which second hard drive?

[alexjholland]

Last night I picked up an early 2011 MacBook Pro 13" i5 that my friend has kindly gifted me, as I'm off travelling and have to sell my mid 2010 iMac i7.

It's predominately for music production, but I'll edit a few GoPro films too in FCPX (yeah, I know it will render slowly), until I can afford a top-end, new MBP.

I have ordered a crucial 1TB SSD (my iMac has around 800GB data on its main SSD) and will order 16GB RAM shortly too.

I may be installing a new trackpad too, as it was pretty dirty, so I wiped it all down with a cloth.. but now the trackpad is erratic!

I unscrewed the back and left it upside down and open for ventilation in my airing cupboard until I arrive this weekend.

A new trackpad was only £35, so I ordered one and will return it if the existing trackpad is perfect again.

So far I've ordered:
- 1TB Crucial SSD
- £10 kit of MacBook Pro tools
- new trackpad
- 2.5" caddy

I figured I should install the second hard drive I'm planning to use for storing video footage while I'm doing surgery this weekend too.

Im ordering the Proster HD caddy that sits inside the optical bay.

Any suggestions on compatible 2TB hard drives that are compatible? Any good deals would be a bonus!

Any other suggestions/tips before I start surgery this weekend?

Thanks

 

[Rafterman]

13 inch, huh? Depending on the model, the DVD drive bay for the second drive did not properly support SATA 3 at 6 GBPS. 13 inch models were OK, but for the 15 inch Macbook Pros, 3 GBPS SATA 2 drives are only recommended. So, it sounds like you are OK with that.

I bought a couple of Samsung 850 Pro 2TB drives. They aren't cheap ($1000 each), but they have great performance. There's a cheaper non-Pro 850 too. But either eway, you are paying a premium for 2TB.

 

[alexjholland]

Hey, the second drive is for storing GoPro footage on, so I'm absolutely not looking for performance; just a reliable spinner! Cheers
[doublepost=1480436278][/doublepost]

13 inch, huh? Depending on the model, the DVD drive bay for the second drive did not properly support SATA 3 at 6 GBPS. 13 inch models were OK, but for the 15 inch Macbook Pros, 3 GBPS SATA 2 drives are only recommended. So, it sounds like you are OK with that.

I bought a couple of Samsung 850 Pro 2TB drives. They aren't cheap ($1000 each), but they have great performance. There's a cheaper non-Pro 850 too. But either eway, you are paying a premium for 2TB.

Hey, the second drive is for storing GoPro footage on, so I'm absolutely not looking for performance; just a reliable spinner! Cheers

 

[alexjholland]

So it sounds like I have to place a SATA II drive in the optical bay - I cannot use SATA III there.

I'm surprised none of the reviews for the optical bay HD conversion kit mention this!

 

[definitive]

Main drive can be the SSD, while second 2TB (in the DVD drive's space) could be something like Western Digital Blue or Seagate BarraCuda.

 

[alexjholland]

Sounds like I must stick to SATA II / 3GB, which - in 2.5 - I am struggling to find above 1TB?
[doublepost=1480443300][/doublepost]Yeah, looks like the 2011 SATA II demands restrict me to 1TB max.

I'll be buying this in a few hours, unless anyone has any knowledge of a 2TB that fits the same space and technical specs!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-MQ...8&qid=1480442804&sr=1-1&keywords=sata+3gb+2.5

 

[Chancha]

You can confirm the speed of respective SATA bays by looking to system profiler.
I have the Early 2011 13" but with i7, and mine says this for the DVD drive:
Hardware > Serial-ATA
Intel 6 Series Chipset:
Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

This means if I were to place an SSD at this port, I can get SATA3 speed. If yours report the same then there will be no difference to where you put the HDD in, except that the original hard drive bay is taller which enables >9.5mm 2.5" disks if you want. Otherwise the better option is like you say, the HDD goes to the optical bay, SSD stays at HDD bay.

 

[alexjholland]

You can confirm the speed of respective SATA bays by looking to system profiler.
I have the Early 2011 13" but with i7, and mine says this for the DVD drive:
Hardware > Serial-ATA
Intel 6 Series Chipset:
Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

This means if I were to place an SSD at this port, I can get SATA3 speed. If yours report the same then there will be no difference to where you put the HDD in, except that the original hard drive bay is taller which enables >9.5mm 2.5" disks if you want. Otherwise the better option is like you say, the HDD goes to the optical bay, SSD stays at HDD bay.

Pretty confident I'll be placing the SSD in the main bay, as it's SATA III / 6GB?

Spinner then goes in the optical bay, which - apparently - doesn't like Sata III.

2 TB would be nice on the spinner, but I can live with 1TB if required.