Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PCIe SSD for Macbook pro 2012 unibody?

rosher

rosher

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2015
8
0
Wales
Hello, this is my first forum post and am relatively new to the computing world. Currently I have a 13 inch macbook pro(mid) 2012 unibody and in the process of upgrading. Laptop was purchased prior to myself releasing that Matlab is a pain to work with on Yosemite.
Current Spec:
2.9 GHz Intel Core i7,
500 GB SATA Disk,
16GB Ram (2x8Corsair Vengeance).(16GB needed for dual booting and heavy CAD use)
My initial plan was to upgrade from the SATA to the samsung evo 500GB SSD based upon reviews. I am considering the possibility to purchase a second and to use in raid 5. Though this would bring the total cost to around £260. However I heard that intel were releasing their new 750 SSD range for the PC starting from £326(400GB); they posted crazy read and write speeds. Does anyone know if there is a PCIe SSD that would be compatible with my laptop? Many thanks in advance.
 
Those PCI-E SSDs from Intel with crazy read/write speeds are for desktop computers.

Just get a Sata III SSD and call it a day. They are still a huge improvement over spinning drives.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LarryJoe33
Okay thanks z31fanatic for you reply. I understand that it will be huge improvement. But are there any compatible PCIe SSD currently out there(or will be) for my laptop? PS This is purely for my interest.
 
Yeah though as much, Apple uses proprietary connection for their PCIE SSD's and standard OEM drives are incompatible. Was hoping that there was a was around this in which I had missed.
 
rosher said:
Okay thanks z31fanatic for you reply. I understand that it will be huge improvement. But are there any compatible PCIe SSD currently out there(or will be) for my laptop? PS This is purely for my interest.
Click to expand...
No. You don't have a PCIe slot anywhere in the computer. If you upgraded your RAM yourself, you should know.

The only thing you can do is upgrade to a normal, run-of-the-mill SATA SSD.

Unless what you do in MATLAB is very read/write intensive, it'll do nothing to help performance in MATLAB though.
 
Thanks for the quick reply, as mentioned before this is purely for my interest. Okay bear with me, this may potentially be a "noobish" question. But has anyone had any experience using PCIe Express Expansion System. I understand that these were originally used for a networked RAID storage servers. However on there website they state that there "PCIe slots outside ANY computer - laptop, workstation".
http://magma.com/products/pcie-expansion/
 
rosher said:
Thanks for the quick reply, as mentioned before this is purely for my interest. Okay bear with me, this may potentially be a "noobish" question. But has anyone had any experience using PCIe Express Expansion System. I understand that these were originally used for a networked RAID storage servers. However on there website they state that there "PCIe slots outside ANY computer - laptop, workstation".
http://magma.com/products/pcie-expansion/
Click to expand...
Again, there is nowhere to plug in such a device in your computer. You do not have a PCIe slot anywhere on the mainboard.

What makes you think a PCIe SSD would be of any help to your performance? You have failed to answer my question as to what you actually do in MATLAB.
 
Okay, Matlab is basically a more advanced version of Microsoft excel IMO. I'm a second year mechanical engineering student so i've been told i'll be using it frequently next semester.(which is why i'm upgrading to SSD raid 5).

I've been reading articles about the new line of apple computers running PCIe SSD systems and also intel's new 750 range; both posting amazing read/write speeds. I thought that higher read/write speed meant: faster reading data from the drive and saving information to the drive. I understand that there is PCIe slot on the mainboard. What peaked my interest was magma stated that it would be possible to connect PCIe system to any thunderbolt equipped laptop or computer.
http://magma.com/products/thunderbolt-expansion/
 
rosher said:
Okay, Matlab is basically a more advanced version of Microsoft excel IMO. I'm a second year mechanical engineering student so i've been told i'll be using it frequently next semester.(which is why i'm upgrading to SSD raid 5).

I've been reading articles about the new line of apple computers running PCIe SSD systems and also intel's new 750 range; both posting amazing read/write speeds. I thought that higher read/write speed meant: faster reading data from the drive and saving information to the drive. I understand that there is PCIe slot on the mainboard. What peaked my interest was magma stated that it would be possible to connect PCIe system to any thunderbolt equipped laptop or computer.
http://magma.com/products/thunderbolt-expansion/
Click to expand...
I know what MATLAB is, I've used it quite a bit during my own studies as a mechanical engineer. It's definitely in no way, shape or form comparable to Excel, apart maybe that both can make graphs. MATLAB is used to program calculations for all sorts of things. It's a programming language based on Fortran that runs inside it's own compiler.

You definitely do not need SSD raid 5 to do student level stuff in MATLAB. Unless you do very read/write itensive stuff in MATLAB (which as a student, you won't) there is zero benefit. You're likely to be doing a bunch of finite element analysis and Simulink during your studies, neither of which tax a hard drive. If anything, you're pretty much limited by your CPU speed and nothing else.

I think you just have too much money to spend and are looking for an excuse to spend it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: old-wiz
rosher said:
Okay, Matlab is basically a more advanced version of Microsoft excel IMO. I'm a second year mechanical engineering student so i've been told i'll be using it frequently next semester.(which is why i'm upgrading to SSD raid 5).
I've been reading articles about the new line of apple computers running PCIe SSD systems and also intel's new 750 range; both posting amazing read/write speeds. I thought that higher read/write speed meant: faster reading data from the drive and saving information to the drive. I understand that there is PCIe slot on the mainboard. What peaked my interest was magma stated that it would be possible to connect PCIe system to any thunderbolt equipped laptop or computer.
http://magma.com/products/thunderbolt-expansion/
Click to expand...
Those devices are Thunderbolt 2 (up to 20 Gbps). Your 13 inch macbook pro(mid) 2012 unibody has the first generation Thunderbolt (up to 10 Gbps), so already your connection speed is halved. What do you think all of this would cost you? would it not be cheaper to sell your 2012 and buy a used Mac with a PCIe SSD? I think MATLAB is more processor and RAM intensive anyway.
 
z31fanatic said:
Agree, and in this case he should sell his current machine and get the 15" rMBP. :D
Click to expand...
I'll have to disagree with that statement. New rMBP costs £1599. 500GB SSD around £130.

The reason I am upgrading/adding another SSD is because i'm running out of storage space. External hard drive is around £50. I don't mind spending an extra £80-100 for the extra speed plus convenience(plus i find it enjoyable working with computers).

However we have gone on a tangent.
 
CoastalOR said:
Those devices are Thunderbolt 2 (up to 20 Gbps). Your 13 inch macbook pro(mid) 2012 unibody has the first generation Thunderbolt (up to 10 Gbps), so already your connection speed is halved. What do you think all of this would cost you? would it not be cheaper to sell your 2012 and buy a used Mac with a PCIe SSD? I think MATLAB is more processor and RAM intensive anyway.
Click to expand...

Okay thanks for your reply. This is a hypothetical scenario. I was just curious to see wether it would be possible. I understand it makes no economic sense, just trying to understand the possibilities in running this setup would be. There is not really any information on google about the topic.
 
rosher said:
Okay snaky69 thanks for your opinion and quick reply.
Click to expand...
Just remember that you're just a student.

If you ever need to work with MATLAB later in life, as an engineer, chances are you'll have a very powerful machine provided by your employer.

Same goes for CAD work. As a student, I could easily get by with my 2008 MBP back then. What I worked on for school projects was not very complicated or demanding.

Today, I'm on a HP ZBook 17 with dual SSDs, Quadro graphics card, 16GB of RAM and I'm a bit limited by its power.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rosher
rosher said:
Hello, this is my first forum post and am relatively new to the computing world. Currently I have a 13 inch macbook pro(mid) 2012 unibody and in the process of upgrading. Laptop was purchased prior to myself releasing that Matlab is a pain to work with on Yosemite.
Current Spec:
2.9 GHz Intel Core i7,
500 GB SATA Disk,
16GB Ram (2x8Corsair Vengeance).(16GB needed for dual booting and heavy CAD use)
My initial plan was to upgrade from the SATA to the samsung evo 500GB SSD based upon reviews. I am considering the possibility to purchase a second and to use in raid 5. Though this would bring the total cost to around £260. However I heard that intel were releasing their new 750 SSD range for the PC starting from £326(400GB); they posted crazy read and write speeds. Does anyone know if there is a PCIe SSD that would be compatible with my laptop? Many thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Hey mate, yeah it's a shame no PCIe connection inside, I'd also love to get the faster SSDs in my similar 15" mid-2012 non-retina MacBook Pro. Although I'd have to come on this forum and justify it to certain people first - sorry you had to experience that!
 
natshaw said:
Hey mate, yeah it's a shame no PCIe connection inside, I'd also love to get the faster SSDs in my similar 15" mid-2012 non-retina MacBook Pro. Although I'd have to come on this forum and justify it to certain people first - sorry you had to experience that!
Click to expand...

It’s not about justification it’s about whether the OP needs that sort of ssd speed for their use case, they don’t and if they did then a new computer with a quadcore cpu would be far more useful than a PCIe connected ssd on a 2012 dualcore laptop. Also they would be limited to 700mb/s on the PCIe 2 lane slots on motherboards that old anyway, as is the 2013 retina MBPs with a PCIe ssd. An extra 150mb/s in sustained read writes just won’t be noticeable from a 550mb/s sustained read/write with a SATA 3 ssd in anything but transferring huge files where it might save a minute or two.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back