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Upgrading the MBP myself

A

ajeyy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2010
3
0
hi, im planning to buy my very first mbp (2011) and i have a question about upgrading to a 3rd party ssd because what apple has it priced for is ridiculously expensive!! :(

Q1: if i buy a mbp stocked with the 500gb s-ata drive, can it easily be replaced, say, with the ocz vertex 2 ssd, considering its dimensions and what not? I don't know how it looks inside but am i also able to do it myself with ease? ( i have experience with building my own windows-based-pc; so hardware is familiar to me )

Q2: i will be using my mbp for architecture school and i'm assuming i'll use up a lot of space on the vertex 2 240gb ssd for music, pictures, 3d projects, videos,etc. is it wise to go with this and just carry around an external drive for these personal files? or should i stick with the 500gb 7200rpm HDD? (i'd liek to get an opinion from a student in my position or any other opinions would be nice)

thanks for your time !
 
wow awesome! thanks liquidspikes!

oh, and tell me how it turns out with the 7200rpm drive upgrade (it could be another option for me). im trying to look for stats with the 7200rpm vs any ssd drive. i hope ssd's dont run that much faster than the 7200rpm cause i can save alot more cash if i went HDD, right?
 
1. yes, its very easy. Only problem is installing the OSX and updating it will take a lot of time.

2. SSD would have a much greater difference than a 7200 rpm hd. Not to mention the battery gains and the solid construction. If you want a real noticeable boost in speed, go SSD.
 
oh i WANT the speed, alright.

my only concern is the disk space ssd's have. they're not as large as the hard drives and they're expensive as size increase :( thats too bad.. my best bet, from your guys' opinions, is to go ssd and ill just carry around an external/usb stick. what a hassle though..

thanks for your thoughts!
 
jetblk328i said:
1. yes, its very easy. Only problem is installing the OSX and updating it will take a lot of time.

2. SSD would have a much greater difference than a 7200 rpm hd. Not to mention the battery gains and the solid construction. If you want a real noticeable boost in speed, go SSD.
Click to expand...

I think I will try SSD... I hear a lot of people swearing by them...

Call me afraid but I hear recovery is a nightmare if it fails...just waiting to see the technology mature
 
Just because there are huge hard drives available, doesn't mean that you need them. I have a 500GB HDD on my machine and I could easily operate with smaller disk space.

If I were you, I would go ahead and do the HDD swap for the SSD if you need the speed. Then you could put your 500 GB drive into an external case and use it as an external hard drive; transferring your completed projects onto it when you can. 240 GB is a lot of space, and unless you are a hardcore audiophile, I am sure that it will do you fine. It's not like you will be storing BlueRay Disks on your computer, but if you are, then thats your problem.

Basically, as 1 and 2 TB Hardrives are becoming more common, people are becoming media/digital hoarders. You dont need to keep that movie, that you think you might-maybe want to watch some day, on your computer.
Just keep the space on your hard drive in check and clean it regularly if you think that space may be an issue.
 
You can also take out the optical drive and put a standard 2.5" HD in its place, and carry and external optical drive with a adapter.

But external HD is a smaller thing to carry than the optical drive.
 
Swapping out the HDD for an SSD is a quick process - getting the bottom off the MBP is actually the most time-consuming part. Note that you'll need a T6 Torx driver to get the little posts off the old drive.

Another option, if you need lots of space (especially for media) is to swap out the optical drive for an Optibay. The SSD goes in there (doesn't need shock-mounting) and the HDD stays where it is. I've got a setup like this right now, with a 240GB SSD and 750GB HDD. For my usage, this is a "best of both worlds" scenario: superfast access for the OS + work files (on the SSD), and loads of space for media (on the HDD). Best of all, no external bits to lose!

Your usage may differ though, especially if you're editing (not just watching) lots of video. At worst, you might end up shuffling files to the SSD for editing and back for storage - not as bad as it sounds, given that even a 5400 rpm HDD can manage 100+MB/s (sequential) on SATA.
 
that's the problem with SSD they can get very expensive when you want bigger space.

An awesome alternative would be the Seagate Momentus XT 500gb. It's got 4gb flash memory, so it's sort of like a ssd-hybrid. Look up the reviews on it, it's pretty fast! Biggest performance/price ratio you will see on the macbook or any type of laptop without having to shed out money for an SSD.

I'll upgrade to an SSD when 500gb can be had without having to sell an organ through the black market.
 
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