Hard Drive Upgrade

Hello. I'm looking for some feedback on upgrading the hard drive in my Early 2011 MacBook Pro. When I first got it I immediately swapped out the stock HD for a Seagate Hybrid 500GB drive. It seems pretty fast, but not as fast as I hoped it to be. Over time it did seem to speed up... I since replaced it with the new Seagate Hybrid 1TB drive and am not happy with it at all. I know I went fro ma 7,200 RPM drive to a 5,400 RPM, but reading online it seems like it wasn't that big of a difference.

So the question now is, I'm looking at the SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE1T0BW 2.5" 1TB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive. This drive is a little pricy, but seems to have some pretty great reviews.

How will this drive work in my MBP? I know we had to use a "jumper" to slow down the Seagate drive, which I'm not real sure why...

The Seagate Hybrids are kind of a crapshoot. You are reliant on the drive controller being able to efficiently reorganize your storage based on your most often used files. That may be why it improved over time.

If I recall correctly, the Samsung 840 series uses TLC NAND, which has a lower threshold for write cycles than MLC, which just about every other SSD uses on the market. This is why they are on the less expensive end of the spectrum. Beyond that, I have found Samsung HDDs to have poor reliability in my professional life, so I'm not sure that I'd trust their SSDs either, particularly with nascent TLC NAND technology.

More information on the 840 series is here: AnandTech | Samsung SSD 840: Testing the Endurance of TLC NAND

If I were buying an SSD at the moment, I'd be looking at the Crucial M500 in 480GB capacity, or the OWC Mercury 6G drives.

cwa107 said:

The Seagate Hybrids are kind of a crapshoot. You are reliant on the drive controller being able to efficiently reorganize your storage based on your most often used files. That may be why it improved over time.

If I recall correctly, the Samsung 840 series uses TLC NAND, which has a lower threshold for write cycles than MLC, which just about every other SSD uses on the market. This is why they are on the less expensive end of the spectrum. Beyond that, I have found Samsung HDDs to have poor reliability in my professional life, so I'm not sure that I'd trust their SSDs either, particularly with nascent TLC NAND technology.

More information on the 840 series is here: AnandTech | Samsung SSD 840: Testing the Endurance of TLC NAND

If I were buying an SSD at the moment, I'd be looking at the Crucial M500 in 480GB capacity, or the OWC Mercury 6G drives.

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Thanks for the reply. I really need at least 750GB capacity. I just seen a video that a guy installed (2) 512GB SSD's and it looks to be VERY fast. Maybe I will go that route with a couple of the Crucial M500's. What is your thought on going that route? i very rarely use the optical drive and couple always purchase a USB one if needed.

BWilliams said:

Thanks for the reply. I really need at least 750GB capacity. I just seen a video that a guy installed (2) 512GB SSD's and it looks to be VERY fast. Maybe I will go that route with a couple of the Crucial M500's. What is your thought on going that route? i very rarely use the optical drive and couple always purchase a USB one if needed.

Click to expand...

Though 750GB isn't extremely huge, having those kinds of requirements makes me think you might be working with very large files, maybe doing video editing. If that's true, you may wish to consider an SSD for your OS and applications, and a traditional HDD as your scratch drive / mass storage.

If I'm wrong in that assumption, you'd be fine with doing two SSDs. Crucial also has a 960GB M500:

Amazon.com: Crucial M500 960GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter/spacer) Internal Solid State Drive CT960M500SSD1: Computers & Accessories