ssd in optical drive - pros and cons

[photo-insight]

(I'm a newbie to this forum and to forums in general...)

Hi all,
I have a MBP circa 2009, Intel core 2 duo, 2.8ghz, 4gb RAM and have been advised that I should fit a SSD in the optical drive and leave the existing 500 HDD in place.

Could anyone out there offer some advice on the pros and cons of this set-up vs just replacing the HDD with the SSD and/or moving the HDD to the optical drive.

My priorities are as follows:

Speed - (as I'm working as a photographer, processing 180x 30mb images every day and uploading them)

Battery life - (as often I cannot find electricity points in remote places)

Weight - (as I travel for my work)

I don't have any problems carrying an external drive with me and doing away with the HDD on-board but if I'm carrying that in my bag anyway then it may as well be inside the laptop I guess... (except it would be more secure carrying the laptop and HDD in seperate bags.

Money is not really an issue unless it goes over £400 as I may as well sell the MBP and go to a pc laptop...

Many thanks for your help - David

 

[eneisch]

See this thread, it has very good info on installing a SSD:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1347247/

I think that the SSD should be used as your boot drive and should be housed in the main drive bay and that the HDD should be in the optical bay for data, but the OP of that thread says it doesn't really matter since the main bay and optical bay in pre-2011 models are both SATA II.

Good luck on your upgrade. The SSD will make a big difference and make it feel like a new Mac🙂

 

[simonsi]

For your age/model I would just put the SSD in the Optical - it should work fine. 2011 models have an issue which means it is likely to work better (if at all) with the SSD in the drive bay and move the HDD to the Optical but I am one of the few lucky ones.

Moot in your case AFAIK, just disturb less and put the SSD into the optical adapter and install the adapter in lieu of the optical drive, boot up (still from the HDD), format and clone your drive across the the SSD, switch boot drive and reboot.

Then you can format and re-use the HDD space as you wish...