Selling my late 2009 Mini to upgrade my 2009 Aluminum Macbook, SSD Advice needed

[Jason Beck]

I am selling my later 2009 c2d Mac Mini (2.26) ghz, which I put
4 gigs of ddr3 in and a 500gb hdd, and upgrading a used
Macbook Aluminum Unibody (2ghz c2d w/2gb ddr3). I am
keeping my 23" Acer 1080p monitor, and taking the 4 gigs
of ddr3 out of the mini and putting it into the macbook. I am
also leaving the hard drive in the mini and selling it.

Just selling it to get a 120 gig SSD drive for the macbook.
Also putting in the 4gb ddr3 into it so the performance gain
should be pretty good with a teeny loss in processor power.

My question is, is the OCZ Agility 120gb for 300 bucks pretty
easy to install in my Macbook? I am also going to buy a book stand
and a incase sleeve and a cover for the macbook since the outside
has some scratches.

I do graphic design, and the responsiveness of the SSD drives
is something I need, loading files, brushes, etc. And the added
ram in the macbook should make it fly. =)

Is the OCZ agility 120 pretty decent? And upgrading easy?

 

[Jason Beck]

Anyone? lol =p I just watched the Ipad commercial. ^_^

 

[gerabbi]

I don't know about the decent comment. My SSD is a Corsair and it's decent.
The swap is pretty easy, just like swapping out a HDD.

 

[Jason Beck]

I don't know about the decent comment. My SSD is a Corsair and it's decent.
The swap is pretty easy, just like swapping out a HDD.

Cool. I just never bought an SSD before so I didn't know about the install.
Thanks!
Anyone out there have the OCZ Agility SSD and put it in a macbook?

 

[Tech-Boy]

I just installed an intel SSD gen 2 in the latest mac mini. With great results 10sec boots, 2sec shutdowns. Opens everything in application folder in under 9sec.

For the price/speed the Intel gen 2 ssd is the best. Trust me I know SSD's. So if you can get by with 80gb get that, if not the agility is good enough, but not as good as the intel gen 2 drives. So what do you need? Pure speed for a cheaper Price? Or more space, for the sacrifice of speed?

Installation is a piece of cake. You can even get an adapter and take out your cd drive and place your old hdd in the cd bay and the ssd in the hdd bay. That way you have the best of both worlds for the price of a cd drive, (which now a days are almost worthless to me)

 

[rgarjr]

I have an Intel X25-m 80GB on both mac mini and alu macbook. The install is very easy man, u can do the swap in probably less than 5 minutes, it's just that simple.

 

[silverblack]

I have an OCZ vertex 128GB. For all SSDs, you get what you pay for. If it's cheaper, it's slower.

With the Al-unibody, you can see the drive as soon as open the battery cover. All SSDs fit exactly like the HDDs, the SATA plug and screw holes are identical.

 

[Jason Beck]

Okay cool guys! Thanks. Yah I popped the battery cover off and saw the
drive, so it should be painless. I think I can get by with 80. I am only using
42.. I think right now, and thats bloated. I have a WD my passport 500gb that
I use for iTunes and backup, so my boot drive doesn't have to be big. Okay
cool that was some good grade-a info. My auction for my Mini is up to
349$ now with 2 days to go, so I need to start looking seriously at these
drives.

Can you guys go one step further? Here is the results from an Amazon
query,
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Intel+X25-m+80GB&x=0&y=0
Which one of these would be the one I want? =)
I like the idea of having a Gen2 Intel. 80GB should be big enough. All I have on my boot is OSX,browsers,Adobe Creative Suite,and a few other Apps. Thanks guys!

 

[silverblack]

With the price came down 50%, Intel X25M Gen2 should be an excellent choice. One thing to watch for with installing the new drive, you need to get a hold of a Torx screw driver.

 

[Tech-Boy]

Okay cool guys! Thanks. Yah I popped the battery cover off and saw the
drive, so it should be painless. I think I can get by with 80. I am only using
42.. I think right now, and thats bloated. I have a WD my passport 500gb that
I use for iTunes and backup, so my boot drive doesn't have to be big. Okay
cool that was some good grade-a info. My auction for my Mini is up to
349$ now with 2 days to go, so I need to start looking seriously at these
drives.

Can you guys go one step further? Here is the results from an Amazon
query,
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Intel+X25-m+80GB&x=0&y=0
Which one of these would be the one I want? =)
I like the idea of having a Gen2 Intel. 80GB should be big enough. All I have on my boot is OSX,browsers,Adobe Creative Suite,and a few other Apps. Thanks guys!

I have ordered 3 gen 2 drives from the link you provided. Everyone is excellent. I suggest you pick one up! enjoy

 

[Jason Beck]

Thanks for the input. Yah I am pretty stoked. Told my wife about the
startup and shutdown times, and programs load so much faster.
We watched a few youtube comparisons a few months ago, and I even
had a 7200 in my Mac Mini for a while, but this is the first plunge with
a new product. Jeeze, seems like every 6 months the price of these
drives keeps going down. Platters will be obselete in a few years? =p

I am way excited about this! hahhaha

 

[weeman]

Sorry Jason, don't mean to hijack but I just had a question about installing the OS on the SSD...lookin to get an 160gb intel x-25...i know it should be a pretty simple install but what about loading OS X onto it? Is it just a simple swap of the drives then insert the OS X DVD to install or is there special formatting required?

 

[Jason Beck]

Sorry Jason, don't mean to hijack but I just had a question about installing the OS on the SSD...lookin to get an 160gb intel x-25...i know it should be a pretty simple install but what about loading OS X onto it? Is it just a simple swap of the drives then insert the OS X DVD to install or is there special formatting required?

I believe any formatting that needs to be done can be done with
Disk Utility, like usual, in the OSX installer. Right guys? You will
swap drives, then boot from the install disk and format the drive
for MAC OSX Journaled (right?), then load the installation or restore
from time machine. I will be restoring from Time Machine I think.

Anyways, havnt gotten the drive yet, although my Mac Mini auction
on eBay is up to 540$ so I for sure have the money. I can't wait
to get my Gen 2 drive! =) SSD! ^_^

 

[silverblack]

I believe any formatting that needs to be done can be done with Disk Utility, like usual, in the OSX installer. Right guys? You will swap drives, then boot from the install disk and format the drive for MAC OSX Journaled (right?), then load the installation or restore from time machine. I will be restoring from Time Machine I think.

Exactly. You could also get a 2.5" USB HDD enclosure to put your old HDD in, and restore straight from there (won't need a TM backup in this case).

A third option is to use CarbonCopyCloner. Put your SSD in the USB enclosure, format it with Disk Utility and then clone everything over from existing HDD. Swap the drives, and you are good to go.

 

[weeman]

Awesome! Thanks to the response from both of you guys! Sounds like a pretty painless process.

 

[Jason Beck]

Awesome! Thanks to the response from both of you guys! Sounds like a pretty painless process.

Yah I am on the Macbook right now, I just swapped the Crucial memory
out from the Mini to the MB. The MB is noticeably faster. Photoshop loads
in under 8 seconds to the workspace. I can't wait to see the added boost
the SSD will do.

On thing though, the battery in the used MB I got is at 250ish cycles and
a full charge holds less than 3 hours. I am thinking about picking up a battery
too when the mini sells.

So far here's what I (think) I will be buying. ahhaah

$239.00 Intel X25-M 80GB SATA HDD SSDSA2MH080G2C1 X25M X-25M
30.00 USED ASSASINS CREED 2
44.85 Speck SeeThru Satin Hardcase For Macbook 13" aluminum
34.40 Incase Designs CL57077 Neoprene Sleeve for MacBook
7.99 For APPLE Mac MINI DVI TO HDMI Monitor Adapter Cable

Gotta get my AC2! Part one was so much fun. I am opting for the black
Speck case =) Anyone else got any of that junk I am buying and have
an opinion?