MBP SSD upgrade queries...

[peanutismint]

I'm thinking of getting an SSD for my Macbook Pro (unibody, late 2009), but don't feel comfortable only carrying 60/120GB around with me!

I've searched around and found that it's possible to install your old SATA drive in a caddy in place of your optical drive - I've struggled long and hard with the idea of completely removing my optical drive but I think if I got an external enclosure for it I could probably make do (would rather be out somewhere and not be able to burn a CD than lose my 500GB of internal storage!)

So with all that to think about - does anybody have any preferred methods/arrangements? What size SSD would you go for? If I'm going to keep my 500GB drive in I'd probably go for a 60GB SSD for the OS/apps. Is there an external USB enclosure I can buy that will accept my SuperDrive? Or would I be better off buying a completely new/faster drive? Am I likely to see that great of a performance increase? And what will adding a second hard drive likely do to my battery consumption? Not that I typically use my MBP on battery in a day-to-day scenario.....

I have many questions! Apologies if they've already been answered.... Looking forwards to hearing some opinions!!

 

[millerb7]

I'm thinking of getting an SSD for my Macbook Pro (unibody, late 2009), but don't feel comfortable only carrying 60/120GB around with me!

I've searched around and found that it's possible to install your old SATA drive in a caddy in place of your optical drive - I've struggled long and hard with the idea of completely removing my optical drive but I think if I got an external enclosure for it I could probably make do (would rather be out somewhere and not be able to burn a CD than lose my 500GB of internal storage!)

So with all that to think about - does anybody have any preferred methods/arrangements? What size SSD would you go for? If I'm going to keep my 500GB drive in I'd probably go for a 60GB SSD for the OS/apps. Is there an external USB enclosure I can buy that will accept my SuperDrive? Or would I be better off buying a completely new/faster drive? Am I likely to see that great of a performance increase? And what will adding a second hard drive likely do to my battery consumption? Not that I typically use my MBP on battery in a day-to-day scenario.....

I have many questions! Apologies if they've already been answered.... Looking forwards to hearing some opinions!!

Ordering mine right now

I have a OWC 120GB SSD and am in love with it. I'm buying the MCE or Maxupgrades optibays. Both come with USB external enclosure for your optical drive ($89 for maxupgrades, $99 for MCE).

I'm then buying a 640GB 5400RPM WD HDD or the 500GB 7200RPM WD HDD. 5400rpm is $79 and the 7200rpm is $69 due to the sizes.

 

[peanutismint]

Cool! Yeah I've seen that those Optibays come with a 'free' enclosure, but they're a LOT more expensive than ones I've seen on ebay (which are like £10 each?!), and besides, I'm not sure if I'll stick with my superdrive when I can get a better/faster external dvd writer with blu-ray for around £50...

SSD-wise, I was tempted to go for a 120GB when I thought that would be my only internal storage, but if I'm going to install my 500GB SATA as well, I can surely make do with a much smaller SSD for OS/apps? Say, 60 or even 40GB??

 

[millerb7]

Cool! Yeah I've seen that those Optibays come with a 'free' enclosure, but they're a LOT more expensive than ones I've seen on ebay (which are like £10 each?!), and besides, I'm not sure if I'll stick with my superdrive when I can get a better/faster external dvd writer with blu-ray for around £50...

SSD-wise, I was tempted to go for a 120GB when I thought that would be my only internal storage, but if I'm going to install my 500GB SATA as well, I can surely make do with a much smaller SSD for OS/apps? Say, 60 or even 40GB??

I wouldn't personally go any smaller than 60GB... 40GB is freaking tiny.

I'm doing the 640GB Western Digital HDD as my secondary drive, with 120GB SSD.

I don't want/need 7200RPM as my secondary. I want this baby to run as silent as possible haha.