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MCE Optibay Alternative CHEAP

OWC's products

I've been reading this thread over the past few weeks. I want to thank you all for your advice, and to share my experience with an Optibay installation that I did last week.

I installed OWC's Data Doubler on an Early 2011 MBP 15", and I'm impressed with the quality of the Data Doubler. It holds the hard drive in position using two screws, which feels very secure once assembled. I felt the Data Doubler was worth the cost over the options on Amazon, because it included all the tools you needed to complete the job. That's a personal plus, considering I didn't have any of the necessary tools available.

However, I purchased OWC's SuperSlim for Apple's SuperDrive enclosure with the Data Doubler, which was not impressive at all. The SuperSlim enclosure fits the Early 2011 MBP's superdrive perfectly, but would not load any DVD or CD I threw at it. I tried plugging the SuperSlim into the Mac, and then a desktop PC in my house, but both would have the disc spin up, but then stop spinning, never to load, auto-play, or provide any signal that I introduced an optical disc to OS X or Windows 7. To rub salt in the wound, I would have to remove the SuperDrive from the enclosure, remove the Data Doubler from the Mac, and reinstall the SuperDrive to eject the disc.

I ended up returning the SuperSlim enclosure to OWC for refund, and am currently on the market for a worth enclosure for my evicted SuperDrive. I'll look through the thread again, but any suggestions are welcome.

TL;DR?
OWC's Data Doubler = Worth buying.
OWC's SuperSlim for Apple's SuperDrive enclosure = You're milage may vary.

EDIT:

OWC emailed me after my return and refund, saying my specific enclosure was defective. So, you're milage may vary. I ended up settling for a knockoff enclosure, fashioned to look like Apple's external SuperDrive. Bought it off eBay for ~20
 
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Good to hear, I forgot to order the Superslim drive when ordering everything else so tried to add one to my order. The $40 item bumped up my shipping to Australia by $43! I got them to remove it.

Bullet... Dodged.
 
I too have the super slim enclosure, but I have had nothing but good experiences with it. It seems to be built sturdy enough and has always loaded disks. I think your issue might be that your drive isn't getting enough power. A DVD drive can draw a fair amount of current from a USB port and if you have other devices plugged in to your other USB ports (like a phone that's charging, etc) it can possibly not deliver enough current to spin the disk up fully. Also, I think all newer macbooks have full current available on each usb port, but the 2009 or so white macbooks had one usb port that could deliver more power than the other. In any case, I'm able to run the superdrive I took out of my 2010 MBP 13 in the superslim enclosure off of just 1 usb port, but I also have a second usb plug attached to the cable incase I need to use it with another computer that doesn't seem to supply enough power.
 
tomk94 said:
I bought this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-2ND-HD...C_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item27beaeefe4

But it doesn't fit in my Macbook Pro Early 2011 13". Does somebody have an idea why?
Click to expand...

There are so many 3rd party optical bays that it's hard to determine. The best thing to have done was to buy one off Amazon so you can read the reviews for it. I bought the one that MaxBurn suggested on the previous page. Try returning the one you ordered and getting one off Amazon.
 
I just bought this item from ebay (listed at 17.99, but I ended up getting it for 15 bucks after making an offer). Seller is in the US and shipping was very fast (received item in like 3 days).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2nd-HDD-har...C_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item43ac2da382

It fits my 15 inch 2011 MBP perfectly! It has the two tabs that get secured to the chasis with the two torx screws that secured the superdrive. When you take the superdrive out, you can take off the little bracket on the back of it and secure it to the optibay with the 2 screws that were used to secure it to the superdrive. This tab then has one slot for a screw to secure it to the chasis. The thing also has two slots to secure the hard drive to the optibay with screws (included with the optibay) and it is very secure. It is the exact shape and size of the superdrive you remove, so it fits back in perfectly.
 
blink487 said:
I too have the super slim enclosure, but I have had nothing but good experiences with it. It seems to be built sturdy enough and has always loaded disks. I think your issue might be that your drive isn't getting enough power. A DVD drive can draw a fair amount of current from a USB port and if you have other devices plugged in to your other USB ports (like a phone that's charging, etc) it can possibly not deliver enough current to spin the disk up fully. Also, I think all newer macbooks have full current available on each usb port, but the 2009 or so white macbooks had one usb port that could deliver more power than the other. In any case, I'm able to run the superdrive I took out of my 2010 MBP 13 in the superslim enclosure off of just 1 usb port, but I also have a second usb plug attached to the cable incase I need to use it with another computer that doesn't seem to supply enough power.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, blink, but I've got a early 2011 Macbook Pro 15". It should've had more than enough juice to the USB ports to power the drive. The MBP now powers the Hong Kong apple knockoff enclosure I purchased off eBay to replace OWC's super slim enclosure, which works perfectly. I do miss the quality of OWC's enclosure, which is far and away better than this apple knockoff. For what it's worth, OWC did send me an email confirming the specific enclosure I received was defective.
 
JoeCo0611 said:
Thanks for the info, blink, but I've got a early 2011 Macbook Pro 15". It should've had more than enough juice to the USB ports to power the drive. The MBP now powers the Hong Kong apple knockoff enclosure I purchased off eBay to replace OWC's super slim enclosure, which works perfectly. I do miss the quality of OWC's enclosure, which is far and away better than this apple knockoff. For what it's worth, OWC did send me an email confirming the specific enclosure I received was defective.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, does the knockoff enclosure that you have look like a Macbook Air superdrive? I've seen those on ebay a couple time and was intrigued, but I think they have a plastic body, right? Some even required you to cut off the 2 metal mounting tabs of the superdrive, which I didn't want to do if I ever needed to reinstall the drive (for selling the laptop for example).
 
blink487 said:
Out of curiosity, does the knockoff enclosure that you have look like a Macbook Air superdrive? I've seen those on ebay a couple time and was intrigued, but I think they have a plastic body, right? Some even required you to cut off the 2 metal mounting tabs of the superdrive, which I didn't want to do if I ever needed to reinstall the drive (for selling the laptop for example).
Click to expand...

I did not have to modify the superdrive or the enclosure in any way to fit the two together (ebay link for the enclosure here). Forgive the link, I find it useful when someone references what they've bought.

The silver body is plastic, and the black bottom is metal. you have the snap the metal bottom all the way in, as the silver and black pieces sandwich the superdrive into the enclosure. It's a snug fit, and I was worried it would "pinch" the disc as it was spinning in the superdrive. However, I've put close to 20 discs through this enclosure, and it's been working without a hitch.

Here are some pics of the knockoff enclosure:
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JoeCo0611 said:
I did not have to modify the superdrive or the enclosure in any way to fit the two together (ebay link for the enclosure here). Forgive the link, I find it useful when someone references what they've bought.

The silver body is plastic, and the black bottom is metal. you have the snap the metal bottom all the way in, as the silver and black pieces sandwich the superdrive into the enclosure. It's a snug fit, and I was worried it would "pinch" the disc as it was spinning in the superdrive. However, I've put close to 20 discs through this enclosure, and it's been working without a hitch.

Here are some pics of the knockoff enclosure:
Image
Image
Image
Click to expand...


Holy crap, replace your
 
Hello all,
I've been following the thread for quite some time so I decided to register and ask some questions. I have an early 2008 macbook (white, non-unibody), or macbook 4.1 if that helps. I've already upgraded my laptop with 4GB ram and a 7200rpm disk but I think it's time for an SSD. So, here are my questions:

  1. Which is the right caddy for my macbook? (and an ebay cheap alternative)
  2. Which is the best place for the SSD? (DVD or HDD place)
  3. If I put the SSD in the place of the HDD, will I be able to spin down the 7200 disk when not in used?
  4. Will I be able to have RAID on my laptop if I get two identical SSDs?
  5. And a bit irrelevant, but will a Sata3 SSD work on my model?

Thank you all so much in advance for your time and I hope soon I'll be able to have two disks on my macbook too :)
 
For those of you who put their HDD in the optibay slot. Does your HDD sound louder now? Mine sounds like a jet engine for some reason. Its definitely not the sound of the fan I'm hearing.
 
negativzero said:
For those of you who put their HDD in the optibay slot. Does your HDD sound louder now? Mine sounds like a jet engine for some reason. Its definitely not the sound of the fan I'm hearing.
Click to expand...

hmm sound is something I didn't thought about... just the vibrations and I thought that by having the SSD under the palmrest will make things better... and the second thought was that if I put the HDD under the keyboard, then will make it worse... hmm decisions...
 
negativzero said:
For those of you who put their HDD in the optibay slot. Does your HDD sound louder now? Mine sounds like a jet engine for some reason. Its definitely not the sound of the fan I'm hearing.
Click to expand...

When I had a 7200RPM HD in the optibay it was definitely louder than the 5400RPM drive I have there now. Not sure if the 5400RPM drive adds any additional perceptible noise to the computer over the optical drive, but the optical drive adapter has no vibration dampening, whereas the main bay does. So if you really need a 7200RPM drive, I would put that in the main bay and stick with 5400RPM in the optical bay unless you don't mind the noise.
 
The 1TB (5400 RPM) drive I had was 12.5mm tall and would not fit in my optical bay. I now have a 750GB (7200 RPM) drive (which is 9.5 mm tall) in there instead, and it doesn't seem any louder to me.

I prefer to have the HDD in the optical bay and the SSD in the main bay, because the SSD is my boot drive, and the only way for this laptop to properly hibernate (a feature I use and rely on frequently) is with the boot drive in the main bay.
 
Fofer said:
I prefer to have the HDD in the optical bay and the SSD in the main bay, because the SSD is my boot drive, and the only way for this laptop to properly hibernate (a feature I use and rely on frequently) is with the boot drive in the main bay.
Click to expand...


That's good to know!
 
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