Optical Bay for MacBook Pro

[basketball762]

Hi MacRumors. I am currently looking into purchasing a new Macbook Pro since my current Macbook is falling apart . I am looking at the 13 inch models of the Macbook pro cause of the mobility. I am looking into either purchasing the Macbook Pro 2.3 GHz i5 or the 2.7 GHz i7 one. Though, I can't make up my mind on which one to get. I am going to be going to college next year and I will possibly majoring in broadcast journalism which could result in me having to use some higher end programs on my macbook pro. If I was to get the 2.3 GHz i5 macbook pro, I would be able to immediately upgrade it's RAM from 4GB to 8GB. I don't know if that makes a difference. Is it worth the extra $300 in my case to get the 2.7 or should I save the money? I want this Macbook to last me a while. Thank you a lot for your help in this!

 

[Mac-key]

get the base model. it'll serve you well. I spent 2 years cutting up video on a 2009 13" MBP using FCP.

As a former TV broadcaster, I can safely say the base 13" will be great for you

 

[alust2013]

Agreed with above post. Also, please don't buy the RAM from apple if you do upgrade. You can do it yourself for $50

 

[Oxonian3]

Yes the base,I've seen youtube benchmarks where the 2.7Ghz beats the base by at most 20secs on exporting test.

 

[basketball762]

Okay I am looking now at the 2.3 Ghz i5 macbook pro. Though I do have a question and please excuse my little knowledge about this kind of stuff. I am looking at possibly buying a SSD for my macbook pro because I heard the difference is night and day (and what I have seen through youtube videos). The only issue is my budget is $200 as of right now which would only allow me to purchase a 120gb SSD. I currently have 150 GB on my macbook and I have only used 98 GB of that space. From what I have seen on installation videos on youtube it looks like the HD that comes with the macbook pro is separate from the SSD, is that correct? If so, could I still use the HD from my original macbook and switch off to SSD when I wanted to or, not? If I can't do that then will 120GB be enough room for me? I was trying to see if they sold 150 GB SSD because that would be perfect but I haven't seen any. Is there a such thing? Thank you very much for the help!

 

[harmonica01]

SSD vs traditional HD really is night and day. For under a hundred you can get the hybrid HD from seagate who has finally gotten their act together on updating firmware. Have been using mine for long while under their sd26 firmware with no issues. It took about 2 days of typical opening applications and restarting as I do leaving work and coming home before I began to see a distinct difference between it and my wife's 7200rpm hitachi drive. The hybrid incorporates 32mb of cache as a solid state so you can get the best of both worlds for a decent price right now. 500gb for under a hundred when I ordered mine and they now come preloaded with the newest firmware already.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003NSBF32/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pithrevi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B003NSBF32

 

[randomrazr]

bettter value with base

u dont need the higher end

 

[DWBurke811]

. The hybrid incorporates 32mb of cache as a solid state so you can get the best of both worlds for a decent price right now.

I won't say anything about the usage of the drive as I don't have one(I have my doubts about them, so I'm sticking to separate HDDs and SSDs), but...

The hybrid either has 4 or 8 GB(too lazy to look it up) of solid state storage; 32MB is essentially nothing, like a less space than Chrome uses nothing.

 

[Dhelsdon]

I just purchased a refurb 2.7Ghz i7 13' and I plan on putting in 8GB RAM and my OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD (currently running in my 2006 MBP, boots up in under 30 secs and shutdown in 5 secs) Can't Wait!!

 

[basketball762]

Thank you for everyone's help on this. I am going to get the base model of the 13 inch MacBook Pro. Now that I have some extra money to spend I am going to get a SSD to replace the HD. Though I am going to get an optical bay to replace the CD/DVD drive so I can still use the original HD that comes with the MacBook Pro. My only question is I am looking at different optical bays for my MacBook Pro. I noticed one called optibay, but that item costs $100. When I look at items on ebay they generally sell for $10-20. I am looking at this item currently on eBayhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/9-5mm-Serial-ATA-Optical-Bay-Hard-Drive-Caddy-SATA-DV21-/290587239241?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item43a8596349#ht_2227wt_1190. Would this item work with my MacBook Pro, or is there specific opticalbay that I should be looking for on eBay. Also is there any down side to buying on eBay then getting the $100 opitbay? Thanks again for everyone's help. It is making my searching process a lot easier!

 

[dusk007]

Definitely get one from Ebay. All these things are is an Adapter from mSATA to SATA and some kind of frame to hold it in place. But really everything holds it in place. You could essentially just rip out the Adapter and use duct tabe to fix it.

I have one that looks very much like the one I have. I had to rip away the black plastic you can see at the bottom to make it fit but other than that it works fine.

Those 100$ optibays are truly a rip off for something that is essential nothing more than a passive adapter.