Ram and ssd upgrade, MacBook Pro 15 early 2011

[Ishoel]

Hi,
Im thinking about upgrading my Macbook pro 15¨ early 2011, and have a couple questions for you.


Parts:

-Samsung SSD 840 PROSeries 512GB 2.5"
(Basic Kit, MDX controller, 540/520MB/s read/write)
(in the main bay)

-Seagate Momentus® XT 750GB
(SATA 6Gb/s, (SATA 3.0), 32MB, 7200RPM, HDD + 8GB SSD SLC memory, 2.5")
(in the optic bay)

-Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600MHz 16GB
(Kit w/2x8GB XMS3 DHX, CL9-9-9-24, Platinum)


Questions:

My macbook pro is stock. Will these three components work well together? And would you recommend this combination? It would be great if you have any other recommendations. Is there any other components i should change? (prosessor etc..)

Im using both os x and windows through boothcamp, and I am thinking about using the 750 hd for storage. Is it a good idea to part(split?) the ssd and hd in half?


Best Regards
Martinus

 

[seungboy]

how would you split up the HD between the 2 OS?

Hi Martinus,

I'm in the same situation as you. I just ordered the Samsung SSD 840 500GB drive. I plan on putting that in the main location and moving the 750GB drive that came with the MPB to the cd rom bay

I also ordered 16GB of ram as well.

the question is, what's the best way to split up the drive to have both OSes.

I am on Win7 most of the time (for work) and have very few files on the OSX side(mostly iTunes)

i was thinking 150GB OSX and 350 OSX on the SSD. i'm not sure about the 750HD though. what's the best way to setup this drive so i can use it in both OSes?

thanks,
Seung

Hi,
Im thinking about upgrading my Macbook pro 15¨ early 2011, and have a couple questions for you.


Parts:

-Samsung SSD 840 PROSeries 512GB 2.5"
(Basic Kit, MDX controller, 540/520MB/s read/write)
(in the main bay)

-Seagate Momentus® XT 750GB
(SATA 6Gb/s, (SATA 3.0), 32MB, 7200RPM, HDD + 8GB SSD SLC memory, 2.5")
(in the optic bay)

-Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600MHz 16GB
(Kit w/2x8GB XMS3 DHX, CL9-9-9-24, Platinum)


Questions:

My macbook pro is stock. Will these three components work well together? And would you recommend this combination? It would be great if you have any other recommendations. Is there any other components i should change? (prosessor etc..)

Im using both os x and windows through boothcamp, and I am thinking about using the 750 hd for storage. Is it a good idea to part(split?) the ssd and hd in half?


Best Regards
Martinus

 

[Budiosx]

I'm in the same situation but i don't want to use optibay and only change the main HD with faster one (SSD or Hybrid)

 

[Dwinguel]

You need to be careful about the sata 3 hdd in the optical bay, I'm pretty sure that it won't work on a 2011 model. There are specific issues with data 3 on these models. Normally you should stay with sata 2. You should double check.

Otherwise, the SSD and RAM should work together.

Splitting the SSD in half to get better performance in both OS's is a good idea. Not sure you also need to split the HDD (it depends if you are using both OS's actively and need the same storage for both), but why not? In any case you are going to have a lot of space with over 1TB of internal storage + the external drive (2TB in total).

I am managing with 256GB of internal storage and 500GB external and using both OS's. I need to be a bit disciplined with what I keep in the internal drive and what I store for infrequent use in the external one.

 

[Tydog07]

Hi there,

I'm kind of in the same boat is the OP (as I have a 2011 MBP 15") and was wondering if I'll notice any speed difference between the 830, 840 and 840 Pro drives?

Also, I've heard about SATA incompatibility with this model year, does anyone have a definitive answer if the main drive can handle SATA 3 (III)?

 

[niteflyr]

Hi there,

I'm kind of in the same boat is the OP (as I have a 2011 MBP 15") and was wondering if I'll notice any speed difference between the 830, 840 and 840 Pro drives?

Also, I've heard about SATA incompatibility with this model year, does anyone have a definitive answer if the main drive can handle SATA 3 (III)?

As per OWC:

Testing has demonstrated that Apple factory hardware does not reliably support a 6G (6Gb/s) Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive in the optical bay of 2011 MacBook Pros (ModeI ID8,1; 8,2; 8,3). If your OWC Data Doubler bundle comes with a 6G drive, you should ONLY install that drive in the main drive bay and utilize the Data Doubler to re-task your existing drive or install a new 3G SSD or HDD in the optical bay. PRE-2011 models can utilize a 6G drive in the optical bay, but will do so at a reduced 3G (3Gb/s) speed.

 

[Tydog07]

As per OWC:

Testing has demonstrated that Apple factory hardware does not reliably support a 6G (6Gb/s) Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive in the optical bay of 2011 MacBook Pros (ModeI ID8,1; 8,2; 8,3). If your OWC Data Doubler bundle comes with a 6G drive, you should ONLY install that drive in the main drive bay and utilize the Data Doubler to re-task your existing drive or install a new 3G SSD or HDD in the optical bay. PRE-2011 models can utilize a 6G drive in the optical bay, but will do so at a reduced 3G (3Gb/s) speed.

Cool, I'll just use the SSD in my main bay and use my old HDD in the opti bay!

 

[NewishMacGuy]

Hi there,

I'm kind of in the same boat is the OP (as I have a 2011 MBP 15") and was wondering if I'll notice any speed difference between the 830, 840 and 840 Pro drives?

Also, I've heard about SATA incompatibility with this model year, does anyone have a definitive answer if the main drive can handle SATA 3 (III)?

The main drive bay handles SATA III just fine, the optibay does not.

___

 

[tjgonzo]

I know this doesn't help too much but, I am actually wondering how well this upgrade will play out. I have the same machine and am possibly upgrading ram from 8GB to 16GB as well as getting an optibay. Thanks!

 

[seungboy]

All 2011 MPB?

I thought the problem was only on the early models.

do you have any link you can share where I can read up on this?

thanks,
Seung

As per OWC:

Testing has demonstrated that Apple factory hardware does not reliably support a 6G (6Gb/s) Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive in the optical bay of 2011 MacBook Pros (ModeI ID8,1; 8,2; 8,3). If your OWC Data Doubler bundle comes with a 6G drive, you should ONLY install that drive in the main drive bay and utilize the Data Doubler to re-task your existing drive or install a new 3G SSD or HDD in the optical bay. PRE-2011 models can utilize a 6G drive in the optical bay, but will do so at a reduced 3G (3Gb/s) speed.

 

[niteflyr]

I thought the problem was only on the early models.

do you have any link you can share where I can read up on this?

thanks,
Seung

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

Scroll down to "Special compatibility notes related to use of this product with 6Gb/s SSDs in the following machines:"

----------

I know this doesn't help too much but, I am actually wondering how well this upgrade will play out. I have the same machine and am possibly upgrading ram from 8GB to 16GB as well as getting an optibay. Thanks!

I put a Crucial M4 in the main bay and moved the original HDD to the optibay of my early 2011 17" MBP, as well as upped the RAM to 16 GB. This machine works flawlessly with this setup and really screams.

 

[seungboy]

that's too bad

Thanks for the link.

too bad on the limitation. oh well, i guess i'll just stick with the factory drive

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

Scroll down to "Special compatibility notes related to use of this product with 6Gb/s SSDs in the following machines:"

----------



I put a Crucial M4 in the main bay and moved the original HDD to the optibay of my early 2011 17" MBP, as well as upped the RAM to 16 GB. This machine works flawlessly with this setup and really screams.

 

[seungboy]

Best way to move to SSD

So... i just got the SSD but i'm not sure what's the best way to move the data over to the SSD while still keeping the bootcamp partition for me to use VM fussion.

from what i can tell, if i try to "clone" the drive, it only copies over the MAC OS side and not the Bootcamp side.

i currently have a 750GB harddrive and my new SSD is only 500GB.

Any suggestions?

is installing everything from scratch the only option?

thanks,
Seung