SSD in MBP primarily for Win7

[cokedrinker]

Hey all,

Im looking to order a new MBP within next week, and also get my own SSD + ram. I will be using windows7 on bootcamp 95% of the time.

My plan is to replace the superdrive with the SSD, and to occupy it primarily with win7 -which i want to have as the default boot (and leave about 20gigs on there for osx - use the stock hdd for storage). Am i likely to experience any problems here? I believe i can use a usb stick for the win7 install, seeing as i will be without a dvd drive.

Also, can i have opinions on the choice of SSD and ram? At the moment i am thinking about:

OCZ Vertex2E 240GB (or anything up to £500)
2x OCZ 4gb DDR3 10666c9 sodimm

How does this sound? I will be using the system mainly for BIM apps, rhino/grasshopper.... and also for 2x ~30gb postgresql databases.

Any help would be much appreciated,

cheers!

 

[balamw]

I believe i can use a usb stick for the win7 install, seeing as i will be without a dvd drive.

Nope. It doesn't work reliably. See this thread for alternatives that do. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/601414/

Note I used my MBP in W7 for work for about a year before I gave up and bought a Dell to replace it. Macs can be so-so as Windows boxes, when they are excellent under OS X. So why the Mac if you will only use it as a Mac 5% of the time?

B

 

[cokedrinker]

I just prefer apple - im currently on an imac 27, and before that a 15'' MBP.

I don't like messing about in the ways suggested in that thread you linked - I guess i could just keep the superdrive and replace the HDD? For storage i think a time machine will do me - im really only concerned with using the MBP for the databases and about 5 cad programs anyway.

Is my choice of SSD alright?

 

[balamw]

Is my choice of SSD alright?

Not a clue. I'm not an SSD person myself. Always need more room than I can afford in an SSD.

If you just replace the HDD with an SSD then everything works fine. In one case I can recall someone did their install in that order. Replace HDD with SSD. Install Windows. Replace original HDD and move SSD to Optibay in optical bay.

The CAD/BIM apps are the problem, otherwise my guess is that you could easily run Postgres in a VM on either OS.

Note that there was a thread where someone was having a hard time getting SolidWorks to run on their new MBP due to incompatibilities with the video card. Make sure your CAD vendor supports our choice of hardware.

B

 

[cokedrinker]

hmmm, i would be up for doing something similar to that.

Replace HDD with SSD.
Install OSX, then bootcamp windows.
Remove superdrive and stick the stock HDD in there (keep SSD in the HDD bay)

I guess if i ever need to format windows i can rebuild it again.

Would i need to wipe OSX completely from the original HDD before i take it out? Just wondering if there will be conflictions when i stick it back in, and i have 2 hdds with osx? (actually im thinking i should clean this hd, and format as NTFS seeing as it will pretty much only be used for storage?)

Thanks for your help

edit: yea ill check out the compatibility issues - everything i need works flawlessly on the imac anyway

 

[balamw]

Would i need to wipe OSX completely from the original HDD before i take it out?

You should not have to.

If you pick up a cheap enclosure or USB to SATA adapter, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper or something like that to clone your HDD OSX over to the SSD without installing the drive internally. It's only Windows that has trouble being installed from/to USB (especially on the Mac).

B

 

[Gav Mack]

If you want to enable AHCI for windows on i5/7 MBP's when bootcamp prompts to restart for Windows setup check this post out.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=126089&view=findpost&p=1550201

You run the AHCI enabler before you reboot into windows setup and you arent stuck on ATA/133, disk performance is much improved once you install the intel sata drivers iata96enu.exe

Doing this from the start means the bootcamp control panel in windows still works cos it breaks if you convert to ahci post setup..

 

[cokedrinker]

Wow, thanks for that!