You've made me think about buying an SSD, question!

[Obsidian6]

As I said in my post, the OP has a Mid-2012 MacBook Pro. That means both the optical bay AND the hard disk bay are full 6gbps SATA III. It's why a lot of us are able to get blazing speeds with two SSD's in RAID0 (I'm hitting 975MB/s read speeds, which is about 7.6gbps)

It's one of those classic internet forum cases of outdated information still getting perpetuated. A couple years ago, the HDD bay was faster, so everyone was swapping stuff around. That changed, but, apparently internet forums didn't get the memo so they still suggest moving the hard drive to the optical bay! It won't hurt anything, but it's a total waste of time and it's extra steps. Plus, the HDD may last longer in it's original position.

Correct, and while I'm not the OP of the thread. What I had mentioned with my own machine was that it was a 2012 macbook pro, which (As mentioned above) does indeed have SATA III in both the original HDD bay and the optical bay. I did my homework before doing all of this, don't worry .

I did the swap yesterday afternoon with the second SSD and there was a noticeable increase in performance already with Photoshop / Illustrator and Lightroom (my main programs). It was costly to go this route, but for me I think it was the right move as I've been trying to keep less things on my computer overall anyways so I don't have clutter issues. If space becomes an issue, I'll simply put the 1TB back in and use the 512GB as a super fast scratch disk over USB 3.0.

I did want to clarify one thing though, in my research of installing SSDs into computers, I came across multiple responses saying that there was issues with using the SSD as the boot drive if installed in the optical bay. It didn't matter what manufacturer, there seemed to be numerous reports of this problem, that's why I moved them around when I installed the 256GB SSD originally.

 

[Macaroooon]

My friend has just told me if you put the SSD into your optical drive, apple will not help you out and will void your warranty, he's a know it all so probably wrong but is this true?

 

[Orlandoech]

SSD all the way!

See my signature for Guides to help optimize the SSD experience.

 

[el-John-o]

My friend has just told me if you put the SSD into your optical drive, apple will not help you out and will void your warranty, he's a know it all so probably wrong but is this true?

Half-true.

Apple will not support your aftermarket SSD, or help you with any hard-drive related issues because of your unsupported configuration. However, the MBP IS a user-serviceable machine. It will not void your warranty should something ELSE fail. You may need to re-install the optical drive and put it back to 'normal' before taking it in for repairs though.

Basically, if the SSD fails, Apple isn't going to repair it for you, you'll need to go through the manufacturer of your SSD for that. Of course, if you DAMAGE anything in the process of installing it, Apple won't cover that either. But otherwise, no, your warranty will not be void as I understand it. Plenty of folks have had no issues taking dual-drive MBP's to Apple for repair, it's a pretty common 'mod'.

 

[Orlandoech]

Half-true.

Apple will not support your aftermarket SSD, or help you with any hard-drive related issues because of your unsupported configuration. However, the MBP IS a user-serviceable machine. It will not void your warranty should something ELSE fail. You may need to re-install the optical drive and put it back to 'normal' before taking it in for repairs though.

Basically, if the SSD fails, Apple isn't going to repair it for you, you'll need to go through the manufacturer of your SSD for that. Of course, if you DAMAGE anything in the process of installing it, Apple won't cover that either. But otherwise, no, your warranty will not be void as I understand it. Plenty of folks have had no issues taking dual-drive MBP's to Apple for repair, it's a pretty common 'mod'.

Spot on.

Dont even chance it, put it back to its normal state prior to taking it in for service ever. Or chance getting a douchebag "genius" who wont be of any assistance.

 

[Ledgem]

It's one of those classic internet forum cases of outdated information still getting perpetuated. A couple years ago, the HDD bay was faster, so everyone was swapping stuff around. That changed, but, apparently internet forums didn't get the memo so they still suggest moving the hard drive to the optical bay! It won't hurt anything, but it's a total waste of time and it's extra steps. Plus, the HDD may last longer in it's original position.

You're correct about the speeds, but I believe people still have problems with stability of using your boot drive in the optical bay. I don't have a good explanation for why it should be. Either way, it'd take what - maybe five to ten extra minutes to remove your standard hard drive and place it into the optical bay, and then to install the SSD into its slot? I'd just do it to be safe. Better than potentially having to deal with system problems, and then having to open up the computer all over again and then swap two drives around.

 

[el-John-o]

You're correct about the speeds, but I believe people still have problems with stability of using your boot drive in the optical bay. I don't have a good explanation for why it should be. Either way, it'd take what - maybe five to ten extra minutes to remove your standard hard drive and place it into the optical bay, and then to install the SSD into its slot? I'd just do it to be safe. Better than potentially having to deal with system problems, and then having to open up the computer all over again and then swap two drives around.

The threads I've seen, they forgot/didn't know how to change the startup drive. There's also the issue of the HDD being subject to more vibration and heat in the optical bay. But perhaps there's another issue with the drive being in the optical bay I don't know about, who knows.

I know I and many many others have had no issues though with RAID configurations where we are booting off of BOTH drives!