SATA III in Optical Bay Early 2011 MBP 13"

[mar2194]

Hello everyone,

I've read mixed answers on the question about this, so hopefully someone out there can clarify this for me...

A year ago I upgraded the stock HDD in my early 2011 MBP 13" to a hybrid solid-state/disk Seagate 1TB SSHD with SATA 6Gb/s (SATA III) w/ 64MB Cache.

Today, I purchased a second drive, a Crucial MX100 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s III Solid State Drive (CT512MX100SSD1). I was planning to move the hybrid SSHD to the optical bay with a caddy and put the solid state drive in the HDD bay.

Will I be able to do this swap or will I get weird read/write errors? I've read that you can't put a SATA III drive in the SATA II optical bay on early 2011 MBPs, but most of the posts I've read concern the 15"/17" models with very little info out there if this is possible in a 13" machine.

If anyone has an answer, please reply.

- mar2194

 

[Dadioh]

Hello everyone,

I've read mixed answers on the question about this, so hopefully someone out there can clarify this for me...

A year ago I upgraded the stock HDD in my early 2011 MBP 13" to a hybrid solid-state/disk Seagate 1TB SSHD with SATA 6Gb/s (SATA III) w/ 64MB Cache.

Today, I purchased a second drive, a Crucial MX100 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s III Solid State Drive (CT512MX100SSD1). I was planning to move the hybrid SSHD to the optical bay with a caddy and put the solid state drive in the HDD bay.

Will I be able to do this swap or will I get weird read/write errors? I've read that you can't put a SATA III drive in the SATA II optical bay on early 2011 MBPs, but most of the posts I've read concern the 15"/17" models with very little info out there if this is possible in a 13" machine.

If anyone has an answer, please reply.

- mar2194

You are probably OK. Usually the issues occur with the SSD going into the optical bay but you are putting your SSHD there which is really more like a hard drive than an SSD. I have done lot's of Fusion upgrades for people on 13" pros with the SSD in the optical bay and they have all worked fine. The only machine I had an issue doing that with was a 2011 MBP 15" where it refused to behave with an SSD in the optical bay. I put the hard drive in the optical spot and it worked fine.

You won't know until you try it though. Good luck.

 

[mar2194]

You are probably OK. Usually the issues occur with the SSD going into the optical bay but you are putting your SSHD there which is really more like a hard drive than an SSD. I have done lot's of Fusion upgrades for people on 13" pros with the SSD in the optical bay and they have all worked fine. The only machine I had an issue doing that with was a 2011 MBP 15" where it refused to behave with an SSD in the optical bay. I put the hard drive in the optical spot and it worked fine.

You won't know until you try it though. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply Dadioh. In your opinion, would it be wiser to keep the SHDD (hybrid SSD/HDD) in the HDD bay because of the sudden motion sensor? Will the SSD in the optical seem much slower than if it were in the HDD bay? I know the link speed is slower - SATA II is 3 Gb/s (375 MB/s) - and the SSD I purchased can read 550 MB/s and write 500 MB/s... so I'd lose about 1.4 Gb/s (175 MB/s) of my theoretical max link speed, since the link speed wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the read/write speed on the SSD. In your experience (if you've tried this setup), is the difference very noticeable? Does the SMS work in the optical bay somehow?

Thanks again.

- mar2194

 

[gngan]

Thanks for the reply Dadioh. In your opinion, would it be wiser to keep the SHDD (hybrid SSD/HDD) in the HDD bay because of the sudden motion sensor? Will the SSD in the optical seem much slower than if it were in the HDD bay? I know the link speed is slower - SATA II is 3 Gb/s (375 MB/s) - and the SSD I purchased can read 550 MB/s and write 500 MB/s... so I'd lose about 1.4 Gb/s (175 MB/s) of my theoretical max link speed, since the link speed wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the read/write speed on the SSD. In your experience (if you've tried this setup), is the difference very noticeable? Does the SMS work in the optical bay somehow?

Thanks again.

- mar2194

I've put the HDD into the optical bay and SSD into the OEM bay for more than 2 years. No issue with my 1TB HDD so far (i.e. without sudden motion sensor).

 

[Dadioh]

Thanks for the reply Dadioh. In your opinion, would it be wiser to keep the SHDD (hybrid SSD/HDD) in the HDD bay because of the sudden motion sensor? Will the SSD in the optical seem much slower than if it were in the HDD bay? I know the link speed is slower - SATA II is 3 Gb/s (375 MB/s) - and the SSD I purchased can read 550 MB/s and write 500 MB/s... so I'd lose about 1.4 Gb/s (175 MB/s) of my theoretical max link speed, since the link speed wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the read/write speed on the SSD. In your experience (if you've tried this setup), is the difference very noticeable? Does the SMS work in the optical bay somehow?

Thanks again.

- mar2194

The 2011 models are SATA III in both positions. I don't know if the sudden motion sensor circuit sends the "park heads" command to both the devices but i would suggest that the SSHD go in the main drive slot as first option anyway. In that spot the drive is mounted in shock absorbing pads whereas the caddy used to mount in optical bay has no shock absorption.

 

[niteflyr]

This per OWC:

product with 6Gb/s SSDs in the following machines:
2011 MacBook Pro 13" (Model ID MacBookPro8,1)
2011 MacBook Pro 15" (Model ID MacBookPro8,2)
2011 MacBook Pro 17" (Model ID MacBookPro8,3)
MAIN BAY: A 6G SSD may be utilized in main bay (move drive or second SSD into Optical Bay*) for reliable SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s performance in excess of 500MB/s.

(Model ID MacBookPro8,3) models. After successfully applying this update, your Boot ROM Version will be: MBP81.0047.B1E. Please read our very informative Blog Post for additional information.

OPTICAL BAY: The optical bay interface may either be SATA Revision 2.0 3Gb/s (300MB/s max) OR SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s. There is no way to specify/order this data interface with Apple, but you can confirm what interface version your optical bay offers by using 'About this Mac, More Info, Serial-ATA' info display.

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.

MacBook Pro 13" models: Apple does not support the use of 6Gb/s drives in the optical bay. While we have observed a high rate of success using SATA 3.0 6Gb/s drives in Apple 13" bays where 6Gb/s link is present, some systems may not operate properly with this setup. For guaranteed reliability/compatibility, we suggest 6Gb/s drives be used in the main drive bay only, and 3Gb/s hard drives or SSDs be used in the optical bay when a two-drive configuration is desired. We cannot guarantee proper or successful 6Gb/s drive operation in the Apple MacBook Pro 13" optical bay.

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

 

[Dadioh]

This per OWC:

product with 6Gb/s SSDs in the following machines:
2011 MacBook Pro 13" (Model ID MacBookPro8,1)
2011 MacBook Pro 15" (Model ID MacBookPro8,2)
2011 MacBook Pro 17" (Model ID MacBookPro8,3)
MAIN BAY: A 6G SSD may be utilized in main bay (move drive or second SSD into Optical Bay*) for reliable SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s performance in excess of 500MB/s.

(Model ID MacBookPro8,3) models. After successfully applying this update, your Boot ROM Version will be: MBP81.0047.B1E. Please read our very informative Blog Post for additional information.

OPTICAL BAY: The optical bay interface may either be SATA Revision 2.0 3Gb/s (300MB/s max) OR SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s. There is no way to specify/order this data interface with Apple, but you can confirm what interface version your optical bay offers by using 'About this Mac, More Info, Serial-ATA' info display.

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.

MacBook Pro 13" models: Apple does not support the use of 6Gb/s drives in the optical bay. While we have observed a high rate of success using SATA 3.0 6Gb/s drives in Apple 13" bays where 6Gb/s link is present, some systems may not operate properly with this setup. For guaranteed reliability/compatibility, we suggest 6Gb/s drives be used in the main drive bay only, and 3Gb/s hard drives or SSDs be used in the optical bay when a two-drive configuration is desired. We cannot guarantee proper or successful 6Gb/s drive operation in the Apple MacBook Pro 13" optical bay.

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

Good catch! Supports what I have observed first hand. Wish I read that before struggling a couple of hours trying to get an SSD into the optical bay of that 2011 MBP15

 

[imorton]

I have a Early 2011 MB Pro 13" and I have two Samsung SSD's in it. I have a 840 Evo SSD in the main bay, and a 840 SSD in the optibay.

The link speed in the mainbay is 6Gbs, and it is 3Gbs in the optibay. Both work well. I wish the optibay link speed was 6Gbs, but I am sure that in real world speed, there is very little noticeable speed difference.

Just my thoughts.,