Hi all,
I've done a fair bit of reading already, but I've got a few questions I'm still unsure on. Before I get into it, I'm a bit of a novice and not entirely up with the lingo so bare with me hopefully I can get my points across!
Basically looking to upgrade my mid-2009 Macbook Pro 17" with an SSD. Currently I'm looking at the Crucial M4 256GB. (I could get away with the cheaper V4 as the max SATA on my model is 3GB/s, but the controller is supposedly pretty bad.) My preference would be to keep my 7200RPM HDD where it is and install the SSD to the optical drive with an appropriate enclosure. I know the reverse can be done but from my layman's perspective, it makes more sense to leave the spinning drive where it has a bit more protection. Plus, it's less for me to muck up!
My questions are as follows:
- I've read reports of sleep / hibernation issues when installing the SSD to the optical drive. Are these still applicable and if so, avoidable?
- I've also just read, anecdotally, that the 17" MBP which has issues with 6GB/s SSDs. I know the Crucial M4 is backwards compatible to 3GB/s what's the deal here?
- Would I be doing myself a disservice by maintaining the HDD as the bootable drive and placing programs, apps, files, etc. on the SSD? Am I only seeing a shorter boot time by making the SSD the bootable drive or is it more significant than that?
- Any recommendations on the enclosure front? Seems the Optibay is perhaps the original and best, but this one is a good deal cheaper:
http://www.macfixit.com.au/macfixit...r-macbook-and-macbook-pro-unibody-models.html
I've got another question or two to ask which currently escapes me, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the above.
Many thanks,
Thom.
I've done a fair bit of reading already, but I've got a few questions I'm still unsure on. Before I get into it, I'm a bit of a novice and not entirely up with the lingo so bare with me hopefully I can get my points across!
Basically looking to upgrade my mid-2009 Macbook Pro 17" with an SSD. Currently I'm looking at the Crucial M4 256GB. (I could get away with the cheaper V4 as the max SATA on my model is 3GB/s, but the controller is supposedly pretty bad.) My preference would be to keep my 7200RPM HDD where it is and install the SSD to the optical drive with an appropriate enclosure. I know the reverse can be done but from my layman's perspective, it makes more sense to leave the spinning drive where it has a bit more protection. Plus, it's less for me to muck up!
My questions are as follows:
- I've read reports of sleep / hibernation issues when installing the SSD to the optical drive. Are these still applicable and if so, avoidable?
- I've also just read, anecdotally, that the 17" MBP which has issues with 6GB/s SSDs. I know the Crucial M4 is backwards compatible to 3GB/s what's the deal here?
- Would I be doing myself a disservice by maintaining the HDD as the bootable drive and placing programs, apps, files, etc. on the SSD? Am I only seeing a shorter boot time by making the SSD the bootable drive or is it more significant than that?
- Any recommendations on the enclosure front? Seems the Optibay is perhaps the original and best, but this one is a good deal cheaper:
http://www.macfixit.com.au/macfixit...r-macbook-and-macbook-pro-unibody-models.html
I've got another question or two to ask which currently escapes me, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the above.
Many thanks,
Thom.