Questions about upgrading an Early 2008 MacBook Pro with SSD and OptiBay HDD.

[botsmack]

I have an Early 2008 MBP (MacBookPro4,1) that I've been running an upgraded WD 500GB hard drive on for the past 1.5 years. I want to put an SSD in it and keep the HDD as well. Here's what I know:

1) The Early 2008 MBP only has SATAI (1.5Gbps), so I realize I'm not going to see the full speed benefits of SATAII 3.0Gbps SSDs. But I also know that with this being true, I'm going to see speeds faster than I ever could with a HDD.

2) I think the SuperDrive bay for my model only supports PATA, which is why I'm putting the SSD in the main drive bay.

3) I want to use an MCE OptiBay since I'm pretty sure it supports SATA-to-PATA.

Questions:

A) What are your suggestions for an HDD with built-in motion sensing? An HDD in the OptiBay won't be able to use the Mac's SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor), so I should be looking for a HDD that has this built-in. I currently use a WD Blue 500GB, which I don't think has this feature.

B) Should I go with an Intel X25-M over an OWC Mercury Pro (or any Sandforce-based SSD)? I was decided on the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 120GB. It uses a SandForce 1200 controller, which I've been reading about having sleep/wake issues. I'm not worried about it, because this seems to be fixed by requesting an older 310 firmware flash from OWC. I read that Intel's SSDs don't suffer from this problem, because it's mainly a Sandforce issue. I realize that the Intel SSD are reportedly "slower" than the Sandforce SSDs, but would I (operating from an SATAI 1.5Gbps) even notice that? My MBP is going to be capping the speeds anyway, right? Is there anything the OWC might offer over the Intel besides the 3.0Gbps speeds? It seems like the Intel's have a better track record than the Sandforce-based one's.

C) I read in a Newegg review of the Intel X25-M that it doesn't suffer problems from running a SATAII drive on a SATAI controller. I had never read about this before, so I was just curious if this is common.

Thank you!

 

[DustinT]

I have an Early 2008 MBP (MacBookPro4,1) that I've been running an upgraded WD 500GB hard drive on for the past 1.5 years. I want to put an SSD in it and keep the HDD as well. Here's what I know:

1) The Early 2008 MBP only has SATAI (1.5Gbps), so I realize I'm not going to see the full speed benefits of SATAII 3.0Gbps SSDs. But I also know that with this being true, I'm going to see speeds faster than I ever could with a HDD.

2) I think the SuperDrive bay for my model only supports PATA, which is why I'm putting the SSD in the main drive bay.

3) I want to use an MCE OptiBay since I'm pretty sure it supports SATA-to-PATA.

Questions:

A) What are your suggestions for an HDD with built-in motion sensing? An HDD in the OptiBay won't be able to use the Mac's SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor), so I should be looking for a HDD that has this built-in. I currently use a WD Blue 500GB, which I don't think has this feature.

B) Should I go with an Intel X25-M over an OWC Mercury Pro (or any Sandforce-based SSD)? I was decided on the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 120GB. It uses a SandForce 1200 controller, which I've been reading about having sleep/wake issues. I'm not worried about it, because this seems to be fixed by requesting an older 310 firmware flash from OWC. I read that Intel's SSDs don't suffer from this problem, because it's mainly a Sandforce issue. I realize that the Intel SSD are reportedly "slower" than the Sandforce SSDs, but would I (operating from an SATAI 1.5Gbps) even notice that? My MBP is going to be capping the speeds anyway, right? Is there anything the OWC might offer over the Intel besides the 3.0Gbps speeds? It seems like the Intel's have a better track record than the Sandforce-based one's.

C) I read in a Newegg review of the Intel X25-M that it doesn't suffer problems from running a SATAII drive on a SATAI controller. I had never read about this before, so I was just curious if this is common.

Thank you!

I wanted to respond to your question about motion sensing. If you are using your existing 500g drive in the expansion bay then you don't need to worry about it since you already own the drive.

SSD's have no moving parts so they do not benefit from any type of motion sensing system.

The only way you'd want to worry about motion sensing is if you plan on replacing your 500g drive with a different one.

 

[voyagerd]

Looks like this is the newest thread on Optibays for Early 2008 MBPs.

Does anyone have any performance data on what speeds they are getting on their HDD that they put on the Optibay compared to when it was in the main bay on SATA?

I’m concerned about how much slower my main hard drive might be in the Optibay since Mactracker says the optical drive interact is only running at Ultra ATA/66.

Thanks!