Looking for some SSD reccomendations

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Hello!
Based on some recommendations I am looking for a SSD for the main bay on my early 2011 17 inch MacBook.

I would like 128gb but beyond that I am a little confused by all the other options available, and the price difference seems huge based on details I can't tell.

What should I be looking for?

Anyone have any recommendations? Would like to keep it as reasonably priced as possible....

NewEgg has a deal today, or any others on there that fit?

Thanks all!
 

RavingMac

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16Gb Mac Mini 2018, 15" MacBook Pro 2012 1 TB SSD
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Thanks Razormac, the link will go to their 2 deals of the day, click the image at the top for the SSD.

I have the 750gb 5400 drive for storage, so a smaller, lower priced SSD is all I need for the OS and Apps. I wouldn't just use it as the only drive, unless I win the lottery :)

I have seen a few OCZ branded drives for a reasonable price, any input on them? Octane vs Petrol etc?
 

RavingMac

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Thanks Razormac, the link will go to their 2 deals of the day, click the image at the top for the SSD.

I have the 750gb 5400 drive for storage, so a smaller, lower priced SSD is all I need for the OS and Apps. I wouldn't just use it as the only drive, unless I win the lottery :)

I have seen a few OCZ branded drives for a reasonable price, any input on them? Octane vs Petrol etc?

Harry and some others have a lot of experience with SSD installations on Macs. What I do know from their posts is don't shop by price. Find out what works well first, then get a good price for it.
Do a thread search and you can probably find reccommendations, positive and negative.
 
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Gotcha, I have searched some, alot of the info seems old or contradictory, will check user names :)
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Have used two SSD's from OWC, a Mercury Extreme 3GB and a Mercury Electra 6GB. Both have and do work extremely well, boot time on a Quad Core Mac Pro is seventeen seconds and really flies. The upgraded 1.1 with Intel X5355 has a Geekbench score of 9118 with the SSD, beating the later 3.1 and 4.1 models.

Also have used Kingston and G.Skill Falcon drives. The G.Skill failed within four days and the Kingston within six months so OWC for me. One thing when you do get an SSD, OWC technicians strongly recommend doing a clean OS install, and not cloning the drive from a platter hard drive.

Sure SSDs are dear but provide the best boot for your buck. Others no doubt will disagree.

My current set up uses the Mercury Electra with a Velociraptor drive in Bay 2 ro run SuperDuper backups and Windows 7 Ultimate via Bootcamp.
 
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Thanks Harry, I have read your posts mentioning the clean install and will go that route for sure. I'll start looking at OWCs now too.

So to reinstall the OS I assume I will need to burn some sort of recovery disks? The MBP did not come with any install disks at all.

As I see it, I will:
  • Burn or get OS disks
  • Remove HDD
  • Place SSD in HDD place
  • Turn on MBP and fresh install OS from Burnt Disks
  • Ensure a working install
  • Remove SuperDrive
  • Install HDD in caddy
  • Boot up, from SSD
  • I should then see 2 drive options?
  • Somehow remove the OS install from the HDD
  • Somehow move installed Apps from the HDD to the SSD (Can I just drag them from Applications Folder 1 to Applications Folder 2?

Profit!
 
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I think your Newegg choice is the best move. 139+$ for a 120GB SSD is a great deal. Jump on it.
 
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15in i7 MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 500GB HD
I too recommend the OWC SSDs. I have one in my 2011 MacBook Pro. Works great, and is extremely fast.

Best installation method, and its what I did.
Remove optical drive, place SSD in Optibay, and put in the optical bay. I'm guessing you have Lion, so boot and hold Cmd + R, and you should boot into the Lion Recovery partition. Format the SSD, then install Lion on it.

Copy over everything you want on the SSD, leave behind the stuff you want to keep on the HDD, then delete the System, Library, and Applications/Users folders. This will probably require an admin password, and take a while to empty trash.

After than, check your Start-up disk settings in System Prefs, make sure the SSD is the selected drive and you should be good.
 
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Seems too easy Stretch! Will that actually remove OSX from the HDD?

I have read a few places that the caddy is a better place for the HDD storage drive and the SSD in the original drive space, is there merit to this or just preference?

Thanks!
 
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Seems too easy Stretch! Will that actually remove OSX from the HDD?

I have read a few places that the caddy is a better place for the HDD storage drive and the SSD in the original drive space, is there merit to this or just preference?

Thanks!

It is just preference. Same with putting the SSD in the optical bay. Although there have been reports that with the SSD in the optical bay the computer wouldn't boot.

I put mine in the main bay and move the spinner to the optical bay.
 
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Seems too easy Stretch! Will that actually remove OSX from the HDD?

I have read a few places that the caddy is a better place for the HDD storage drive and the SSD in the original drive space, is there merit to this or just preference?

Thanks!

Yep. That's how I removed Lion from my HDD when I installed the SSD. As for SSD and HDD locations, I prefer to leave the spinning drive in the cushioned location. The factory 2.5in drive location is a cushioned mount, where the optical bay, with the optical bay adapter is hard mounted to the computer frame, where shocks, bumps and bangs don't matter for solid state media.
 
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If you are yet to purchase Lion, Magjua, prior to installing burn to a USB thumb drive.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/08/make-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-installer-from-a-usb-flash-drive/

If you have already purchased Lion, go into the App Store, hold down the Option key and hit purchases and when Lion comes up click on it to download a new copy f.o.c.

The thumb drive will be bootable simply by popping in the USB port, rebooting holding down 'C' and proceed with a format and install on the SSD in the optical bay.
 

cwa107


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Having done extensive research on the matter, I opted for the Crucial M4. My M4 has been flawless to-date, and they are priced very competitively. It's not the fastest 6Gb/s drive on the market, but it's still near the top and the firmware is very mature (be sure to research firmware stability - this is a big deficiency for some manufacturers like OCZ).

The 256GB will run you about $315, which is way down from the $379 I paid in December 2011.

With that said, the OWC drives seem to be well-liked by this community and the professional reviews I've read. And you can't beat their Mac-specific support and customer service (although Crucial has a solid reputation for this as well).
 
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Thanks Harry, I have read your posts mentioning the clean install and will go that route for sure. I'll start looking at OWCs now too.

So to reinstall the OS I assume I will need to burn some sort of recovery disks? The MBP did not come with any install disks at all.

As I see it, I will:
  • Burn or get OS disks
  • Remove HDD
  • Place SSD in HDD place
  • Turn on MBP and fresh install OS from Burnt Disks
  • Ensure a working install
  • Remove SuperDrive
  • Install HDD in caddy
  • Boot up, from SSD
  • I should then see 2 drive options?
  • Somehow remove the OS install from the HDD
  • Somehow move installed Apps from the HDD to the SSD (Can I just drag them from Applications Folder 1 to Applications Folder 2?

Profit!
1. ssd as external drive
2. install osx to it
3. using migration assistant to migrate over your apps whatnot to external
4. boot from external drive, run software updates to the new drive.
above steps main thing is to get it clone as close as the old hard drive.
5. swap the drives you are in business.

the following links will get you to get owc done
How to Transfer Your Data From Your Old Drive to a New Drive

Mac OS X v10.6: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac
 
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If you are yet to purchase Lion, Magjua, prior to installing burn to a USB thumb drive.

Make a Bootable Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Installer from a USB Flash Drive

If you have already purchased Lion, go into the App Store, hold down the Option key and hit purchases and when Lion comes up click on it to download a new copy f.o.c.

The thumb drive will be bootable simply by popping in the USB port, rebooting holding down 'C' and proceed with a format and install on the SSD in the optical bay.

Sounds good, thank you.

It came pre-loaded with Lion, and is 100% up to date. I'll make the thumb drive tonight.
 
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This went very well! The ram was a snap and the SSD to optical bay was great. I had to trim the Fendi Optical Bay case a little to fit.

It is definitely alot faster now, Photoshop loaded in just a couple seconds etc.

Any suggestions on optimizing it? Any diagnostic tools etc?

Will the Apple updater update the SSD firmware now?

Thanks!
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 13, 2.4, 8GB, 120GB SSD OCZ
Have had my OCZ SSD 120GB Vertex Plus now for more than 2 months. Absolutely no issues. Bought it off the shelf at CompUSA. $130 with a $30 rebate. Came out to $100. Haven't installed the latest firmware since it seems to be a fix for installing on older Mac. Mine is a fairly current MBP mid 2010. The drive works fantastic. 15 seconds startup. No noise. Rarely any significant heat. Read about no TRIM support on the Mac. That hasn't been an issue either. I just use and enjoy the drive.

I didn't really need to replace my 7200rpm HDD. And was really debating whether to spend money on less space but faster SSD. Glad I went with the SSD.
 

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