Selling an SSD

[lazypoet]

Hello, I'm upgrading to the newest macbook pro. My 2010 Macbook Pro has kernel panics and a button that falls off, so I don't really think its resellable.

However I have a 480 gigabyte SSD (OWC Mercury Extreme) that I installed on it, I imagine it might be worth something but I don't know what. Any hardware experts here that could give me a reasonable selling price? The kernel panics are apple graphics card related, so that shouldn't affect the ssd.
[doublepost=1499355005][/doublepost]

Hello, I'm upgrading to the newest macbook pro. My 2010 Macbook Pro has kernel panics and a button that falls off, so I don't really think its resellable.

However I have a 480 gigabyte SSD (OWC Mercury Extreme) that I installed on it, I imagine it might be worth something but I don't know what. Any hardware experts here that could give me a reasonable selling price? The kernel panics are apple graphics card related, so that shouldn't affect the ssd.

The SSD I bought in 2012

 

[ZapNZs]

It's not worth much today, even though I am sure you paid a fortune in 2012. $150-225 is the range of most brand new 1/2 TB SSDs (and even the flagship Samsung 850 PRO, the golden benchmark of SATA SSDs, ranges from around $220-240), so you might be best off throwing it in an external and using it for Time Machine backups or bootable clones.

 

[lazypoet]

It's not worth much today, even though I am sure you paid a fortune in 2012. $150-225 is the range of most brand new 1/2 TB SSDs (and even the flagship Samsung 850 PRO, the golden benchmark of SATA SSDs, ranges from around $220-240), so you might be best off throwing it in an external and using it for Time Machine backups or bootable clones.

I paid 300 euros for it yeah, but its a quick SSD why would it be worth so little?

 

[EugW]

It's a used SSD with some write wear, and it's likely quite slow by today's standards. Also, it's quite possible its power characteristics aren't as nice as current ones either.

Note that you can buy a way faster credit card sized name brand external model that is completely bus powered and which has a USBC connector these days for less than 200 Euros.

Thus, I would not pay you even 100 Euros for that drive. Just use it as a backup or something.

 

[jerryk]

100 E

It's a used SSD with some write wear, and it's likely quite slow by today's standards. Also, it's quite possible its power characteristics aren't as nice as current ones either.

Note that you can buy a way faster credit card sized name brand external model that is completely bus powered and which has a USBC connector these days for less than 200 Euros.

Thus, I would not pay you even 100 Euros for that drive. Just use it as a backup or something.

100 Euros would be a lot for a used 500 GB SSD. You can buy a new for $145 on Amazon and get a multi year warranty.

 

[lazypoet]

100 E


100 Euros would be a lot for a used 500 GB SSD. You can buy a new for $145 on Amazon and get a multi year warranty.

Thanks for the replies, my knowledge of hardware is limited I was still imagining a 500 gb SSD to be freakishly expensive I guess
[doublepost=1499366215][/doublepost]How do I throw it into an external harddrive sorry?
[doublepost=1499366271][/doublepost]It was the fastest available in 2012 but I'm sure speeds have changed

 

[jerryk]

Thanks for the replies, my knowledge of hardware is limited I was still imagining a 500 gb SSD to be freakishly expensive I guess
[doublepost=1499366215][/doublepost]How do I throw it into an external harddrive sorry?
[doublepost=1499366271][/doublepost]It was the fastest available in 2012 but I'm sure speeds have changed

To use the drive externally just get a external USB enclosure like one of these (there are dozens of brands and models on Amazon).

https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-In...37&sr=1-2&keywords=mac+external+usb+enclosure

It only takes a couple of minutes to install the drive in the enclosure. And then you have a nice portable drive.

 

[EugW]

I would recommend getting one with an option for external power. I find that some of the third party enclosures can be a little bit flaky on bus power alone, even with low power SSD.

One with both bus power and AC power support might cost you 20 Euros or something.

 

[lazypoet]

Thanks for the tip guys How do I know if my ssd model is applicable to the device?

 

[jerryk]

Thanks for the tip guys How do I know if my ssd model is applicable to the device?

Since you have it plugged into a 2010 MBP it should have the standard SATA interface connector that these enclosures support.

 

[ZapNZs]

I paid 300 euros for it yeah, but its a quick SSD why would it be worth so little?

The price of the flash storage itself has come down considerably since 2012. IIRC many of the OWC SSDs from that era used SandForce controllers, which are now considered dated and have historically had some speed issues with certain kinds of data. From a speed perspective, it gets bested-to-massacred by the Samsung 850 PRO and EVO lines, especially in regards to writes.

As one can purchase a new SSD with a warranty that uses a more reliable controller to achieve faster overall speeds for so little, most of the SSDs purchased in that era sold on the used market will return such a small fraction of their initial investment that IMO it is best to just use it as an external.

 

[Fishrrman]

Take the SSD out of the old MacBook, buy an external USB3 enclosure, and use it for extra storage and/or a "bootable backup" drive.

It will continue to serve you for years.

 

[TheTruth101]

Sell the MBP as parts with no HD and keep the HD as an external. Still fast.

 

[lazypoet]

Sell the MBP as parts with no HD and keep the HD as an external. Still fast.

How much can I get for the parts of a 2010 15 inch? Is it worth the trouble?