Optibay Thoughts/Questions

[bunnspecial]

I'm still holding out with an MBP 9,1(mid-2012 15", HR-AG screen). It's working fine for me, and I have no intention of upgrading(plus short of spending $6K+ no current model would solve my problem).

I'm running off a 1TB Evo 850, and still have my Optical drive. My Nikon D800 is causing my Lightroom libraries to eat me alive, and even though I faithfully back them up externally I still like having everything with me.

For that reason, I'm thinking of fitting an Optibay and getting a big spinner for storage. I'm looking at something in the 2TB-4TB range. I would, of course, keep my OS, programs, and files currently in use on the the SSD-the spinner would just be for files not in active use.

From what I can find, though, it seem that the sudden motion sensor(SMS) doesn't work in the Optibay. Can anyone confirm that?

For that reason, I'm thinking that if I go that route, I need to put the spinner in the original HDD bay and put my SSD in the Optibay. Are there any downsides to doing that? Will I see a speed hit on the SSD? Are there any other issues I need to be aware of with doing this?

 

[treekram]

From what I see on the Internet, it appears that the SMS doesn't work for the optical port.

For the mid-2012 MBP, the optical bay should have SATA3 speed (what the HDD port has). For my mid-2012 13" MBP, I get SATA3 speed on the optical port. OWC originally said the optical bay for the mid-2012 MBP would work at SATA3 then sometime in the last couple years they said that it's iffy.

I would guess that there's a small chance your SSD won't work at SATA3. What you need to do is get a caddy for the SSD to fit in the optical bay. OWC has a "Data Doubler" (I have this), others have cheaper models. The caddy has electronics in it and sometimes the electronics doesn't work on the cheaper model. Chances are if you exchange it, you'll get one that works. If you don't like to worry about that, get the OWC - you pay more but it's more likely it will work the first time. Don't buy the HDD until you find out if your optical port can run at SATA3. You should run the System Information app to see if you get SATA3.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203001
Press on the SATA/SATA Express listing and you should see a couple of entries for the "Intel 7 Series Chipset" on the right side of the window. One will be for the HDD bay, one for the optical bay. Click on this and the bottom-right portion of the window, you should see "Link Speed" and "Negotiated Link Speed". Both should read "6 Gigabit" if you're getting SATA3 speeds for the SSD. If you're not getting SATA3, then you should consider putting the SSD back in the HDD port and put the HDD in the optical port. The problem would be that you need to find a HDD that has an accelerometer (may not be easy to find that information). Given the nature of the HDD business, I would guess that most HDD's sold today don't have an accelerometer although they may have other features to minimize loss due to shock. Or it may be a specialty drive that costs significantly more than a regular drive.

I know there's a lot of if's and but's in my answer BUT it is what it is.

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks for the information.

I buy from OWC a lot-both for myself and when I buy stuff for folks at work-so I trust their products. I don't(usually) mind paying their mark-up if I know I'm getting something that will work without headaches(it's the same reason I'll also pay a premium for brands like Sonnet).

I haven't bought a spinner in a while(or at least not a new/current one) but I tend to put a lot of faith in Western Digital. I'll see what I can find on the specs on their drives. I have to admit that the thought of a 4tb 2.5" drive without some sort of shock protection sends a shiver up my spine, since the data density is going to be so high that the slightest disturbance could cause issues.

 

[treekram]

You have another issue here. The maximum height seems to be 12.5mm in either bay and it seems that the maximum capacity at that height is 2TB.
http://tips.tinyiron.net/whats-the-biggest-hard-drive-you-can-fit-in-a-macbook-pro/

The article is originally from 2012 or 2013 with updates until 2016 - information about the drives may be outdated but information about what size drive will fit in the bays shouldn't be. They also have a picture of what happens if you do try to fit a larger size HDD (>12.5mm) into the MBP.

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks-I'll research heights on the drives before I buy-honestly I'm okay if I can "only" get 2TB even though I'd hoped to go whole-hog on 4tb..

If 4tb SSDs weren't over $1K, I'd just bit the bullet and do that
[doublepost=1532229148][/doublepost]Alright, per New Egg it looks like I'm still at 2tb max to avoid 15mm drives. Like I said, though, I can live with that.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...86971 601189459 601273164 600458204 600458205

 

[bunnspecial]

I wanted to report back that I have all the bits and pieces together. I picked up a 2tb WD Blue from NewEgg, and also just a generic brand Optibay attachment.

Since I was concerned about the SMS, I put it in the standard HDD bay and then put my Evo 850 in the optical bay. The installation was straight-forward, and when I powered the computer up it booted right off the SSD.

I'm in the process of migrating my photo library over to the 2TB drive, and am going to re-route my default Lightroom catalog over to the 2TB drive. I'll see how that goes-I may end up still doing the initial import to the SSD and later migrating over to the HDD, but I'll try that.

All I know is that between my Nikon D800(36mb) and D600(24mp), I can chew up a LOT of storage space pretty quickly.

I know newer MBPs have their advantages, but this just goes to prove to me that in a lot of ways the 2012 9,1 is still king .