OWC Data Doubler - Second SSD

Hey everyone,

I've tried searching for an answer to this question so I thought I'd ask here. I currently have the 1st gen Unibody 15" MBP and have an OWC Data Doubler running a 128GB SSD as the main drive and a 640GB Samsung HD as the second. I'm interested in switching out the second HD in favor of an SSD since I just started getting into photography and could use the boosted speed to run my apps off of since I don't want to buy another machine right now.

Does anyone know if there is a size limit for putting in a second SSD where the current secondary drive is? I've seen some decent prices on 480-500GB SSD's so I'm curious to know if it would work. Thanks in advance.

-Sukh

For what it's worth. Given that the SSD you currently have is only 128gig…and to maximize total internal storage capacity. Why not replace the 128gig SSD with the new 480-500 SSD you mentioned…and leave the traditional 640gig HD where it is?

This would give you a total of 1140gig of internal storage (500 SSD + 640 HD)…versus 628 gig (128gig SSD + 500gig SSD).

Just a thought.

- Nick

My main goal with this is to get rid of the lag I have with the traditional HD in the second slot. Since I run my iTunes, iPhoto and keep my Lightroom photos on the second drive, there is somewhat of a lag when it needs to fire up during application usage and such. Unless there's a way to keep it running continuously, but more speed and less lag is the overall goal here.

sukh18 said:

...but more speed and less lag is the overall goal here.

Click to expand...

Understandable. Some folks are looking for speed…some folks are looking for total storage amount.

I guess once you have an SSD…the "lag" of traditional HD's is more noticeable.

For what it's worth. The data transfer rate for the device in the optical drive slot is supposed to be somewhat slower than the storage device in the "regular" HD slot. So an SSD in the optical drive slot will certainly be faster than a traditional HD (like you have now)…but the transfer rate of the SSD in the optical drive slot will be slower than the transfer rate of the SSD in the HD slot.

Whether this difference is a noticeable or not to the average human you will have to see.

- Nick

That is precisely right Nick.

When I went from the Mac Pro with an OWC SSD, the new iMac without SSD seemed so slow to boot in particular, and other things generally. Solved this by using an iBox UPS so the iMac never gets turned off, other than Sotware Updates etc.

What speed is the regular HD that you are using. I can tell you that for some tasks the difference between 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm is quite noticeable.