Got a new SSD for my 2011 macbook pro!

[Minerva]

What should I expect?

It's a 256GB Crucial M4. I'm reading its firmware needs to be updated BEFORE installing in the MBP.

It should be faster than the 5400 rpm stock drive! Hopefully worth 400 clams.

 

[alfa147x]

It should be faster than the 5400 rpm stock drive!

I doubt that. :thumbsdown:

 

[Red Storm]

I doubt that. :thumbsdown:

Care to elaborate?

 

[slugg]

Care to elaborate?

Trollin'?

 

[alfa147x]

Yeah sorry about that. I was just messing around

 

[Emulex]

make sure you hack trim on and that ncq is showing enabled

 

[secretanchitman]

loving my patriot wildfire in my 2011 mbp literally the best thing ive ever done - every other computer i use now feels way too slow

 

[alfa147x]

I need to get one and replace my optical drive with it...

 

[Paperlantern]

I'm coming into a 2008 MBP. it had a 320GB drive in it prior... 5400 rpm I believe. i replaced it with a 64GB SSDNOW from Kingston because it was laying around the office and i would MUCH prefer the speed to the space. i don't use my laptop for movie storage or music storage, its mostly web surfing when used for recreation, and VM's when used for work... the VM I use is an XP machine with like a 12GB HDD, so 64GB should be plenty for me. The Air that its replacing had a 128GB SSD in it and i barely used 30GB of it in almost a year.

but I would expect much snappier response from programs starting up, faster installs for stuff you saved locally, etc.

 

[Eug]

How hard to replace drive in a 2009 13" MBP? The online instructions always sound moderately easy, but for my iBook it was a major PITA to replace the drive.

I was planning to just tough it out for now though with it, and then get an 11" MBA in 2012... hoping for a better battery. I'm not convinced it will get a better battery though so I've been considering getting the $1199 model now, with 4 GB and 128 GB SSD.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah sorry about that. I was just messing around

http://cdn0.knowyourmeme.com/i/000/082/156/original/u-jelly.jpg?1289437657

:awe:

 

[secretanchitman]

How hard to replace drive in a 2009 13" MBP? The online instructions always sound moderately easy, but for my iBook it was a major PITA to replace the drive.

I was planning to just tough it out for now though with it, and then get an 11" MBA in 2012... hoping for a better battery. I'm not convinced it will get a better battery though so I've been considering getting the $1199 model now, with 4 GB and 128 GB SSD.

very easy. unscrew the bottom panel, unscrew the hard drive, put in new ssd, screw everything back in, reinstall snow leopard/lion, done.

 

[alfa147x]

http://cdn0.knowyourmeme.com/i/000/082/156/original/u-jelly.jpg?1289437657

:awe:

Yup

 

[xanis]

I need to get one and replace my optical drive with it...

Thinking about doing the same thing. I want a ~64GB SSD for the OS and applications and to make my current 7200RPM 250GB drive file storage.

 

[alfa147x]

Thinking about doing the same thing. I want a ~64GB SSD for the OS and applications and to make my current 7200RPM 250GB drive file storage.

I bought a $20 adapter off of ebay to hold a drive. It fit my friends MBP perfectly. It did take a couple weeks to come in from china...

They are $10 now
Search for "9.5mm Serial ATA Optical Bay Hard Drive Adapter/cadd"

iFixit has them for $60
http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/9-5-mm-SATA-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-080

 

[slugg]

I bought a $20 adapter off of ebay to hold a drive. It fit my friends MBP perfectly. It did take a couple weeks to come in from china...

They are $10 now
Search for "9.5mm Serial ATA Optical Bay Hard Drive Adapter/cadd"

iFixit has them for $60
http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/9-5-mm-SATA-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-080

I did this. I had to rip off a piece of plastic from the adapter (not the laptop) to make it fit. Other than that, it was easy!

 

[Paperlantern]

Not sure whats "good" for boot times, but this 2008 MBP loaded with Lion boots in 30 seconds flat. From dead off to on the desktop ready to go in 30.0 seconds. Not that i usually turn off my laptops, i usually just shut the lid, but thats not bad in my opinion. Sporting that 64GB SSD.

 

[Red Storm]

Not sure whats "good" for boot times, but this 2008 MBP loaded with Lion boots in 30 seconds flat. From dead off to on the desktop ready to go in 30.0 seconds. Not that i usually turn off my laptops, i usually just shut the lid, but thats not bad in my opinion. Sporting that 64GB SSD.

I'm not sure what the specs of the 2008 MBP were, but the 2011 MBP w/ Lion and an SSD boots in about 13 seconds (from completely off to ready to use). An SSD really is quite noticeable.

 

[Eug]

So, Minerva: How is the SSD?

very easy. unscrew the bottom panel, unscrew the hard drive, put in new ssd, screw everything back in, reinstall snow leopard/lion, done.

Arggh... Reinstall. I'm not sure I'm totally liking this hidden restore partition business.

However, as you said, it really does look easy to install.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-13-Inch-Unibody-Mid-2009-Teardown/814/1

I'll have to pick myself up an inexpensive SSD soon. Hopefully it won't suck too much with just 2 GB RAM. I'm spoiled though since I have 12 GB in my iMac, and 8 GB in my Windows 7 box.

EDIT:

It's a Philips screwdriver for the back. What screwdriver for the hard drive? I have the Philips and torx, but no tri-wing.

 

[amdhunter]

I'm not sure what the specs of the 2008 MBP were, but the 2011 MBP w/ Lion and an SSD boots in about 13 seconds (from completely off to ready to use). An SSD really is quite noticeable.

Best damned upgrade I ever did to my MBP. Also, best damned upgrade I ever did to my main Windows computer. Also, best damned upgrade ever did to my file sharing box.

SSDs are great.

 

[Eug]

I'll have to pick myself up an inexpensive SSD soon. Hopefully it won't suck too much with just 2 GB RAM. I'm spoiled though since I have 12 GB in my iMac, and 8 GB in my Windows 7 box.

I didn't realize just how cheap 2 x 2 GB DDR1067 is now. $27 for Crucial RAM. Nice.

 

[TheStu]

So, Minerva: How is the SSD?


Arggh... Reinstall. I'm not sure I'm totally liking this hidden restore partition business.

However, as you said, it really does look easy to install.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-13-Inch-Unibody-Mid-2009-Teardown/814/1

I'll have to pick myself up an inexpensive SSD soon. Hopefully it won't suck too much with just 2 GB RAM. I'm spoiled though since I have 12 GB in my iMac, and 8 GB in my Windows 7 box.

EDIT:

It's a Philips screwdriver for the back. What screwdriver for the hard drive? I have the Philips and torx, but no tri-wing.

I think that the hard drive screw is phillips as well, so you should be good.

My 2010 Air cold boots to usable state in about 15 seconds.

 

[FaaR]

Will OSX lion support trim properly now for all SSDs and not just apple-branded toshiba junk?

Also, how does one make sure NCQ is enabled, considering there's no bios setup to fiddle in on a mac?

 

[Paperlantern]

I'm not sure what the specs of the 2008 MBP were, but the 2011 MBP w/ Lion and an SSD boots in about 13 seconds (from completely off to ready to use). An SSD really is quite noticeable.

Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz with 4GB RAM, 1066 Bus I believe.

I also put 2 64GB SSD drives in my tower workstation. The workstation is old, certainly not new running a Pentium D 3.0GHz, 3GB of DDR2 RAM at a 566MHz FSB? Somewhere in there? Somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 - 6 years old, but with those two in RAID 0... still tops out the Windows Experience Index at 7.9 for the HDD category. They really are a HUGE performance increase to ANY system.

 

[Eug]

What about speed? I see some "285 MB/s" 80-90 GB units in the same ballpark price range of later generation "500 MB/s" 60 GB units. I'm leaning towards the slower 90 GB units, since 60 GB is a little cramped.

I'm guessing the 90 GB will be fine, because what will really speed things up is the extremely low seek time.