Price for SSDs on Amazon seems to have gone way down!

[Bobby Corwen]

I have a 15 inch MPB I still use for streaming and I have a 256 SSD in it but I think I want to get a 2nd one and remove the optical bay.

Whats the best route for that these days?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Buy a conversion kit, there are many on Amazon and follow the instructions on ifixit.

 

[tubeexperience]

OWC Data Doubler

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Data_Doubler

 

[JTToft]

OWC Data Doubler

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Data_Doubler

- Agreed entirely. Solid product.

 

[MareLuce]

How does installing that affect AppleCare or the free initial warranty?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

How does installing that affect AppleCare or the free initial warranty?

Well there is currently only one MacBook still being sold that it is applicable to and if you are spending that sort of money on a design and components for a 2012 machine, made today, then I'd say you have more money than sense anyway, you can pick up a second hand one for 1/3 of the price.

That said I'd imagine that you would want to question Apple first before doing it on a cMBP that's still within warranty, as it may be a warranty violation, although the law is on your side unless your change did the damage.

 

[maflynn]

How does installing that affect AppleCare or the free initial warranty?

[if] You damage your laptop when doing the upgrade, you void the warranty. That voiding may be limited to what you damaged or could be extended to the entire computer, for example, breaking the USB connectors on the logic board will mean a new logic board and thus the warranty is mostly voided.


Edit: Added If to the beginning of my post

 

[jerryk]

You damage your laptop when doing the upgrade, you void the warranty. That voiding may be limited to what you damaged or could be extended to the entire computer, for example, breaking the USB connectors on the logic board will mean a new logic board and thus the warranty is mostly voided.

Did you mean to say "If you damage ..."

 

[MacInTO]

There are some good sales to be had also. I bought a 960gb Sandisk Ultra II for $165 last week!

OWC Data Doubler

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Data_Doubler

The cheap $10 versions of these off eBay and Amazon work just as well.

 

[maflynn]

Did you mean to say "If you damage ..."

Yup, though that might have been a Freudian slip

 

[JTToft]

The cheap $10 versions of these off eBay and Amazon work just as well.

- They might. And they might not.
With the Data Doubler you know you're getting something that works.

Personally, I think it's a shame to put something of shoddy build quality into a multi-thousand dollar MacBook Pro.

 

[MacInTO]

- They might. And they might not.
With the Data Doubler you know you're getting something that works.

Personally, I think it's a shame to put something of shoddy build quality into a multi-thousand dollar MacBook Pro.

I've never had one fail on me. I've installed at least five of them. There is not much technology in the items. One circuit board to connect the drive. It works the same for a fifth of the price.

 

[JTToft]

I've never had one fail on me. I've installed at least five of them. There is not much technology in the items. One circuit board to connect the drive. It works the same for a fifth of the price.

- True. But you can see that the Data Doubler gets a much higher average rating on places like Amazon and has many fewer 1 star ratings than the cheap ones. That's not coincidence.

 

[jlc1978]

I've never had one fail on me. I've installed at least five of them. There is not much technology in the items. One circuit board to connect the drive. It works the same for a fifth of the price.

It all comes down to one's tolerance for risk. You're saving $20 but if the part fails while writing data or corrupts the drive then you've lost a lot more than what you saved. For me, if you're dropping a couple of hundred for an SSD and taking the time to install it the savings aren't worth the potential hassle. YMMV.

 

[JTToft]

It all comes down to one's tolerance for risk. You're saving $20 but if the part fails while writing data or corrupts the drive then you've lost a lot more than what you saved. For me, if you're dropping a couple of hundred for an SSD and taking the time to install it the savings aren't worth the potential hassle. YMMV.

- Word. And when using the device for a cloned backup, which I do, I have no tolerance for errors or desire to save a few dollars over the several years I expect it to last.

 

[MacInTO]

It all comes down to one's tolerance for risk. You're saving $20 but if the part fails while writing data or corrupts the drive then you've lost a lot more than what you saved. For me, if you're dropping a couple of hundred for an SSD and taking the time to install it the savings aren't worth the potential hassle. YMMV.

I've not had an issue in the seven years I've been using them.

 

[jlc1978]

I've not had an issue in the seven years I've been using them.

That's great, but anecdote is not data and the real issues is not will they fail but what is the impact if they do? As with anything, there is a risk tradeoff that each individual needs to make.

 

[MacInTO]

That's great, but anecdote is not data and the real issues is not will they fail but what is the impact if they do? As with anything, there is a risk tradeoff that each individual needs to make.

Nor is there data that the OWC products do not fail.

These items are commodities. They all fail at some point. I'm sure we're not going to convince each other otherwise.

Macs fail.

 

[JTToft]

Nor is there data that the OWC products do not fail.

- There seems to be some Amazon review data that the OWC fails less often.

 

[jlc1978]

Nor is there data that the OWC products do not fail.

These items are commodities. They all fail at some point. I'm sure we're not going to convince each other otherwise.

Macs fail.

True. Every product, no matter how good, has failures. The question is what is the failure rate and how much risk are you willing to accept. I ask myself "What are the chances I will EOL the item before it fails vs. what is the price of a failure?" You appear to be more risk tolerant in this situation than I would be, and that's fine. There is no convincing to be done since we are both free to make the choice based on our requirements and what we feel best meets them. Since the cheaper ones do what you want then they are best for you. No disagreement there.

That doesn't always mean buying the highest quality product either. For example, when I built a fence I bought a dirt cheap air nailer because I only anticipated running a few hundred nails through it. It was half the cost of renting and I didn't have to worry about finishing the project in a day, and was 1/10 the cost of a quality tool. In this case, it was an acceptable tradeoff for me. OTOH, many of my hand tools are Snap-On or Mac because I want ones I know are up to the job and won't break under stress like ones from the Dollar Store.