MBP mod: replacing optical drive with SSD

cornbb

http://lifehacker.com/5541774/how-to-install-a-solid+state-drive-in-your-macbook

Seeing as optical drives are going the way of the dinosaurs and SSDs can offer a serious performance boost, I was thinking that this would be a pretty cool way of turbocharging my 15" Macbook Pro.

Has anyone tried this?

conor.hogan.2

No, and was going to recomend a lifehacker link before I opened up the thread

If you have the money, do it as ssd's are ridiculously fast.

AlmightyCushion

Done the exact same thing in my dell laptop. Worked a treat. I say go for it. Make sure to get a decent SSD drive though.

Dorsanty

I've done it by swapping out my HDD with a SSD. Never done the optical route, as I do like putting in software CDs or DVDs when having a lazy morning in bed.

Oh and my 2GB RAM Core 2 Duo '06 MBP has superior performance to my GFs Core i5 4GB RAM '10 Tosh for everyday tasks. SSDs are where the performance is at, having the latest Core iWhatever is just marketing for the most part.

Stainless_Steel

Dorsanty wrote: »

having the latest Core iWhatever is just marketing for the most part.

Umm I wouldn't say that. The latest core architecture is a substantial improvement. But you're right, an SSD improves performance a lot. But your GFs core i5 toshiba would spank your laptop when encoding a movie file (for example)

Dorsanty

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Umm I wouldn't say that. The latest core architecture is a substantial improvement. But you're right, an SSD improves performance a lot. But your GFs core i5 toshiba would spank your laptop when encoding a movie file (for example)

Agreed for the most part. Though the superior IO of the SSD I have also found improves encoding. So I might tie with the Core i5 as it waits for data from the drive.

cornbb

Whether the MBP with SSD is faster than the Toshiba with i7 would depend on where the bottlenecks lie in the encoder - if the i7 is not being fully utilised because the Toshiba's 5400rpm drive can't keep up then the MBP will be faster, and vice versa.

The idea of a laptop with 2 drives is really appealing. I'd put my home directories (which contains bulky media, documents etc) on the HDD and apps/OS/everything else on the SSD. I think I'll start shopping around for an Intel X-25.

AlmightyCushion

cornbb wrote: »

Whether the MBP with SSD is faster than the Toshiba with i7 would depend on where the bottlenecks lie in the encoder - if the i7 is not being fully utilised because the Toshiba's 5400rpm drive can't keep up then the MBP will be faster, and vice versa.

The idea of a laptop with 2 drives is really appealing. I'd put my home directories (which contains bulky media, documents etc) on the HDD and apps/OS/everything else on the SSD. I think I'll start shopping around for an Intel X-25.

That's what I've done. Windows install and some applications on the ssd. User profile, data and some other applications on the hard drive. The ocz vertex 2 drives are great value for money right now. I'd pick the vertex 2 over the intel drives.

Dorsanty

Yeah I'm rocking 3 OCZ Vertex 2 drives of varying sizes. 1 for laptop, 1 for desktop, 1 for work laptop. I don't think I can put up with the ancient technology of spinning magnetic disks anymore.

whoopdedoo

this hack looks the business! when ssd's come down in price a little in 2/3 years time I'll be defo upgrading my machines, that and more ram should see me getting longer out of my purchases b4 needing to update )

K.O.Kiki

Just to let you know, you can pick up an "Optibay Caddy" on eBay for under €25.

And tbh you could use a hybrid drive instead of a pure SSD.

I'm gonna do it later this year so that my Windows partition has its own drive.
You can use the application "Winclone" to move it -- the developer is gone but you can still find the app.