Ready to buy my first SSD for Mac

DarraghR

I have finally decided to buy a 256GB SSD for my 7 year old MacBook Pro 17"
It has become quite slow in the past 2 years so this seems like a good option to give it a speed boost. It would also be quite use full in my gaming desktop at some stage.

My eyes are on a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro or Evo. Can anyone recommend which would be the best value for myself and most importantly where is the best place to buy from price wise. €134.78 is the best I have found so far.

Another thing to mention is that it will be going into a 17" MacBook Pro that is about 7 years old now. Below is a link to the breakdown of the specs

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2.8-aluminum-17-mid-2009-unibody-specs.html

So I will also have to buy conversion kit that will allow me to remove the optical drive and put the SSD in its place. This is what I am looking at buying

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A0HBJLW/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1XCZIZ45GM7DH

I would still like to keep my 500GB HDD but the SSD will be for the OSX nad commonly used software. Is it a straight forward process to make the SSD the primary hard drive considering where it will be?

ED E

Just buy the cheapest drive you find, you won't be able to use any SSD more than about 50-60% anyways as its a SATA2 laptop.

If you get a "kit" SSD with the USB-Sata adapter included then you can image the existing disk (Assuming you reduce contents to smaller than the size of the SSD) over onto the SSD so you don't need to reinstall OSX from scratch.

Eoinmc97

You could grab a Crucial BX200 240GB SSD for about €65. It's not the fastest SSD, but Read and Writes of 300/400MB/s are decent for most workloads.

DarraghR

ED E wrote: »

Just buy the cheapest drive you find, you won't be able to use any SSD more than about 50-60% anyways as its a SATA2 laptop.

If you get a "kit" SSD with the USB-Sata adapter included then you can image the existing disk (Assuming you reduce contents to smaller than the size of the SSD) over onto the SSD so you don't need to reinstall OSX from scratch.

Where does it say it is a SATA 2? I trust you but just wondering if my desktop is SATA 3 so I can't use it on that in the future?

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP546?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

So do you guys think its even worth doing this upgrade? I use Adobe Suite when I'm on the move. Really just want it to be more responsive

Riesen_Meal

DarraghR wrote: »

Where does it say it is a SATA 2? I trust you but just wondering if my desktop is SATA 3 so I can't use it on that in the future?

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP546?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

So do you guys think its even worth doing this upgrade? I use Adobe Suite when I'm on the move. Really just want it to be more responsive

I have a similar MBP that I bunged in a Samsung Evo 840 250gb SSD into, its night and day the difference...

Eoinmc97

SATA works off of the same connector, so you will be fine. Besides, most SATA ports cannot saturate the majority of SSDs on the market (except if you got a PCI-E Drive) so you will be fine.

ED E

DarraghR wrote: »

Where does it say it is a SATA 2? I trust you but just wondering if my desktop is SATA 3 so I can't use it on that in the future?

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP546?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

So do you guys think its even worth doing this upgrade? I use Adobe Suite when I'm on the move. Really just want it to be more responsive

It doesn't but Core2 series chips (775) predates common use of SATA3.

Basic SSD Read Speed: 500MB/s +
Basic HDD Read Speed: 120MB/s

SATA 2 Max: 300MB/s
SATA 3 Max: 600MB/s

So instead of operating around 500MB/s your new drive will do about 300, but its still way faster. And what that stat doesnt show is SSDs dont have seek times so responsiveness is WAY better.

I've a similar vintage machine with an 830 Pro. Its totally still worth it upgrading, just dont splurge on a super expensive one.

DarraghR

Sorry to ask a silly question but is SATA 3 backwards compatible with SATA 2? So if I buy a 840 Evo or Pro will it still work in a SATA 2 machine?

Eoinmc97

If you have a SATA connector, then yes it would.

DarraghR

I cant order the caddy from any Amazon seller. I wonder why ...
Anywhere else I can get one?

grindle

Probably eBay, it's where I found mine (albeit for a Thinkpad).

RoyalMarine

Amazon sellers post to parcel motel with no issues.
You could get free delivery in the UK, and pay 3.95 for parcel motel to deliver it to your nearest parcel motel station

DarraghR

I have my new SSD fitted and ready. What is the easiest way of moving everything including OSX and installed software onto my new SSD? Is it possible to use Time Machine?

Would this method work

Apple's Disk Utility (10.3.x or Later)
Disk Utility does have the ability to clone your hard drives just as well as any other software out there. All you will need to do is...
1. Select your new volume (indented) and click on the "Restore" tab.
2. Drag your old volume to the Source field.
3. Drag your new hard drive to the Destination field.
4. Click the check box for "Erasing Destination".
5. Click restore at the bottom and it then will start copying over to your new hard drive.

I have followed the instructions but get the following message

Could not validate source - error 254