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MCE Optibay Alternative CHEAP

2010.

The caddys are definitely SATA.

I bought two different one. One from ayagroup, which has no screw holes, so I will be returning, then a SATA one from that ebay link which is identical to the ayagroup one with screwholes. Both are sata. Although they say Sata 1.5Gbs, not sata 3.0gbps. Is this okay for A very fast SSD and RAID0?

But back to the original question. How to I plug the caddy into the macbook. Theres two little slots, that look like sata and power. I dont see those anywhere on my macbook pro 17" 2010 i7 though.
 
theaero said:
2010.

The caddys are definitely SATA.

I bought two different one. One from ayagroup, which has no screw holes, so I will be returning, then a SATA one from that ebay link which is identical to the ayagroup one with screwholes. Both are sata. Although they say Sata 1.5Gbs, not sata 3.0gbps. Is this okay for A very fast SSD and RAID0?

But back to the original question. How to I plug the caddy into the macbook. Theres two little slots, that look like sata and power. I dont see those anywhere on my macbook pro 17" 2010 i7 though.
Click to expand...

SATA 1.5 will bottleneck your SSD for sure.

My OWC can reach 285 mb/s on 3.0, on 1.5 it's, well, half that ;)

Factor in actual real life speeds (not the reported speeds which are random not sustained)... I'd honestly just do a HDD if it was 1.5 limited not 3.0.
 
well i have two ssds... but is there a sata 3.0 caddy available??

and how do i connect to it? Do I need to make my own cable or something? I'm so confused, what cable plugs into the caddy?
 
theaero said:
well i have two ssds... but is there a sata 3.0 caddy available??

and how do i connect to it? Do I need to make my own cable or something? I'm so confused, what cable plugs into the caddy?
Click to expand...

The caddy has a SATA connection that u slide the hard drive in. On the exterior, use the zif cable from your optical drive and use it for your caddy.
 
theaero said:
well i have two ssds... but is there a sata 3.0 caddy available??

and how do i connect to it? Do I need to make my own cable or something? I'm so confused, what cable plugs into the caddy?
Click to expand...

You replace the optical drive with a caddy. Then you can stick one SSD (or hard drive) in the caddy. You can't connect two - there's only one SATA connection. I don't know if it's SATA 3.0 or less, but it doesn't really matter. You don't need any cables.
 
Yeah I figured out there was a little thing I had to take out of the original superdrive!!! Oops :p


So.... its Sata 1.5gbps. :(. Thats no good... Are there any 3.0 caddies?
 
Paik4Life said:
Does anyone know if the MBP kit (http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=186) will work in my iMac?

Thanks in advance!

~Paik
Click to expand...

Answering my own question just in case others had the same question.

After talking to the Maxupgrades.com guy, the kit doesn't work for iMacs. The enclosure for the MBP models does not fit 12.7 one that comes out of the iMac. Personally, I can't justify spending the $185 they want for the caddy and enclosure. The enclosure by itself is $120, more than the MCE caddy AND enclosure.

Sure it looks nice, but that's just ridiculous for an enclosure. I'm going to wait and see if MCE puts up another sale before Xmas to order one. Or if anyone has one that they would be willing to PM me, I'd appreciate it.

~Paik
 
MaxUpgrades MaxConnect

I just installed a MaxConnect optical bay hard drive mount into my early 2009 MacBook Pro 17".

The MaxConnect came with the mount, screws, and a set of tools (Torx, Phillips, hex, and nylon pry tools... nice). It also came with a USB external case to hold the removed SuperDrive. The case is screw-less, with a plastic top, metal snap-on bottom, and non-removable USB cable attached to the logic board. I haven't tried the case yet.

No instructions were included, but I watched an OWC Data Doubler video on YouTube the other day, so I didn't bother to look for instructions on MaxUpgrades.com.

I ordered on Friday and the package came on Tuesday via US Priority Mail.

I probably could have saved some money ordering from Hong Kong via eBay, but I had already installed my SSD and my hard drive was dangling in an OWC external case.

The hard drive is a Hitachi 500GB 7200 RPM. I used the Hitachi Feature Tool to set the Advanced Power Management (APM) to 0xC0 to prevent the head from parking.

I also installed 2x4GB RAM from Newegg at the same time.

My setup:

- 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD in the regular hard drive bay
- Hitachi 500GB 7200 RPM hard drive (APM set to 0xC0 using the Hitachi Feature Tool) in the optical bay
 
segfault66 said:
I just installed a MaxConnect optical bay hard drive mount into my early 2009 MacBook Pro 17".
...

- 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD in the regular hard drive bay
- Hitachi 500GB 7200 RPM hard drive (APM set to 0xC0 using the Hitachi Feature Tool) in the optical bay
Click to expand...

May I ask why you want to prevent the heads from parking? Isn't that dangerous?

60GB is a bit on the small side IMO - I have 80 but I think I'd need at least 120 to be totally comfortable. As it is, I am symlinking many things off of the SSD - a lot of huge folders in /Library/Application Support, and other stuff. I'd rather not do that, the more I symlink off the more work it will be to migrate to a new system eventually.
 
orthorim said:
As it is, I am symlinking many things off of the SSD - a lot of huge folders in /Library/Application Support, and other stuff. I'd rather not do that, the more I symlink off the more work it will be to migrate to a new system eventually.
Click to expand...

Yikes, symlinks...Don't get me wrong, symlinks have their place, but for something like this, I prefer to do it another way:

http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/09/moving-os-x-users-to-separate-partition.html

I know that the tutorial is for the /Users folder, but I have tested and you can actually do this with every folder in the root of the drive(/System, /Library, /Applications, /Users). Not that you would want to do this with every folder, but if /Library is killing your space that badly...
 
orthorim said:
May I ask why you want to prevent the heads from parking? Isn't that dangerous?
Click to expand...

Without setting the APM, the hard drive will click and load cycles will increase.

60GB SSD for OS and apps, leaves about 25GB free. I can shuffle things between the SSD and HD as needed.
 
what happens when you hold down the eject button the keyboard with a hdd/ssd in the caddy? does it unmount the hdd/ssd?

if you plug in the empty optical drive to the USB, does it read as a drive or nothing pops up until a disc is inserted?

and if theres a disc inside, can you eject by holding the keyboard eject button? or do you have to drag down to eject or menu eject?

what is the process to eject the optical drive? is it safe to just pull the plug anytime?


sorry to ask all these questions, ive just been curious to how it all works.
thanks!
 
polobreaka said:
what happens when you hold down the eject button the keyboard with a hdd/ssd in the caddy? does it unmount the hdd/ssd?

if you plug in the empty optical drive to the USB, does it read as a drive or nothing pops up until a disc is inserted?

and if theres a disc inside, can you eject by holding the keyboard eject button? or do you have to drag down to eject or menu eject?

what is the process to eject the optical drive? is it safe to just pull the plug anytime?


sorry to ask all these questions, ive just been curious to how it all works.
thanks!
Click to expand...

I made a How To on how to make the eject button control external superdrive, it can be modified to work with HDDs too - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1073018/ - That covers how to do everything but the disc can be ejected by dragging to trash or in finder also, I just wanted a way to not waste the eject button.

If there is a disc in the odd and you unplug it, it will bitch...
 
Hi everyone,

I have a new Unibody Macbook Pro 13" sitting in front of me, and the newmodeus caddy. On Monday, Newegg will give me a 60 G0 SSD and Momentus.

So I'm going to have:

SSD - Snow Leopard
Seagate Momentus - Different SL install, Windows 7 bootcamp

Now, the SSD will need the Seagate (the SSD will be running Pro Tools, recording audio to the Seagate drive), but if I boot the SL install on the Seagate, I won't need the SSD...

*Which drive should I put where? It makes the most sense to put the SSD in the newmodeus caddy, and keep the magnetic drive in the bigger space with the shock sensor, but I've been reading reports of beachballs and freezes if the SSD is over there... eek!!!

*Where could I find Torx screwdrives without ordering online and waiting?

*Could somebody link me to an enclosure for the superdrive that will work with the current macbook pro 13 model? I don't need to use DVD Player, I just want to be able to rip/burn discs.

Thanks for any help!
 
JustinAiken said:
Where could I find Torx screwdrives without ordering online and waiting?
Click to expand...

Sears, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, any decent computer store, any other decent tools/hardware store.

If outside the US, substitute the above for any reasonably well stocked DIY store.
 
Okay thanks, found some at Home Depot.

Also ordered the MaxUpgrades enclosure for the DVD burner.

EDIT - Put SSD in optibay, upgraded regular drive... That was tricky! Got the case back on and realized the speaker wasn't working, had to take it apart again...
 
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