OptiBay for MBP

[ChaosAngel]

Hi all,

I have a mid-2009 15” MBP. Last year I upgraded my 500GB HDD with a 160GB SSD. Overall I love the results and believe it’s one of the best hardware upgrades I have made in recent years.

However, 160GB quickly becomes difficult to work with (especially with multiple VMs) so I am keen to look for another internal storage solution.

This is where OptiBay comes in. Allowing me to remove my optical drive (which I never use) and add an additional HDD.

I am keen to understand if anyone has any experience with OptiBay? Any issues or things I should know about?

My other problem is which one to buy? There are loads on eBay, but I worry about quality. So I have narrowed my search to:

MCE OptiBay for $99 or iFixit OptiBay for $59.95?

Any thoughts? I consider iFixit to be a reparable company and it’s cheaper, but I don't want to drop quality.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Queen of Spades]

If you search this forum or use MRoogle and type in Optibay, you get some threads that will likely be useful to you. Here you go:

Selecting an adapter to install a second drive in the optical bay
MCE Optibay Alternative CHEAP
Where to get optibay?
Optibay Alterntatives?

 

[DivineEvil]

I use one of those cheap ones for more than an year! I'm very satisfied. Although I had to modify it a little bit it costed me about 10$.

 

[WesCole]

I am going to be installing the MCE Opti Bay tomorrow. Hopefully all will go smoothly. I will post and let you know how it goes.

I will be putting a 128GB SSD in the main drive bay and the stock 320GB HDD in the optibay.

 

[mcvaughan]

I use one of those cheap ones for more than an year! I'm very satisfied. Although I had to modify it a little bit it costed me about 10$.

Interesting you say that. I had to modify mine as well to get my Vertex 2 to fit in the OptiBay. I had to shave down some of the plastic to get the screw slots to line up properly. The MCE OptiBay is kinda flimsy, but it does seem to work just fine.

 

[tjb1]

I dont understand why you insist on spending $60+ on a converter board and bracket...everyone including myself have a lot of success with the one from smk312 on ebay and I believe its $20-$28. There are really no electronics on that board, it basically just converts from one plug to another.

 

[adcx64]

OWC has a few, they are very reptable.....

 

[kdoug]

Hi all,

I have a mid-2009 15” MBP. Last year I upgraded my 500GB HDD with a 160GB SSD. Overall I love the results and believe it’s one of the best hardware upgrades I have made in recent years.

However, 160GB quickly becomes difficult to work with (especially with multiple VMs) so I am keen to look for another internal storage solution.

This is where OptiBay comes in. Allowing me to remove my optical drive (which I never use) and add an additional HDD.

I am keen to understand if anyone has any experience with OptiBay? Any issues or things I should know about?

My other problem is which one to buy? There are loads on eBay, but I worry about quality. So I have narrowed my search to:

MCE OptiBay for $99 or iFixit OptiBay for $59.95?

Any thoughts? I consider iFixit to be a reparable company and it’s cheaper, but I don't want to drop quality.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Or this one; http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=348

Another option; http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_27&products_id=259

Lots of choices.......