Replacing your Superdrive with a SSD

[iWire]

I forgot to ask...which optibay did you buy? Where, who, how much?

 

[itssteve]

yep thats the plan, and ill install osx and my main apps etc on my ssd, and then use my regular hdd for file storage

I got my opti bay from ebay from "NYCOMPUTEK" it was listed as 19.99, but using the best offer option I got it for 14, from what I can tell its a nice product, good quality

 

[Solidww]

I have already done what you all are talking about. Its a very nice set up. Machine boots super quick, programs pop right up, and battery life went up. In fact battery life almost doubled.
A couple of things to note though. Your computer wont be able to sleep anymore. If you put the HDD in your Super Drive area you will get A LOT OF HEAT!!!!!!! I would advice using the SSD in that area. It doesn't get as hot. If you insist on using a 7200 RPM drive you will get A LOT of Heat as well and battery life goes down a little. MacBook Pros are known to run very HOT, so make sure you watch your temps closely. Mine over heated a couple of times. Thankfully, I still had Apple Care and they repaired it for me. It has been running like a champ ever since.

Let me know how your install goes when your done, itssteve. I do wanna hear your experience.

 

[itssteve]

My ssd is taking longer to arrive then i had hoped, so i am still waiting.

But why cant your computer sleep? I havnt read anything about that

 

[Solidww]

We have tried and tried. It just wont sleep for some reason. I couldn't tell you completely. The boot and reboot time is so fast I really didn't worry about it. Oh, I am using a 08 model. Right before the Unibodies. Maybe, yours will except it.

 

[itssteve]

ahh ok, well ill hope for the best and once my ssd arrives ill let you all know how it went!

 

[Solidww]

Please do. What kind of work do you do on your machine?

 

[BerndVP]

how is the status of switching the Superdrive with the SSD ?

 

[yuji22]

I can share my experience. I installed a 7200 RPM seagate drive in the optibay and it ran very hot. Too hot for my liking. I then added a SSD drive in the optibay and it ran normally. I now have two 64GB kingston SSD on my MBP. It is very fast.

I bought my optibay on ebay for $ 15 from a Chinese seller and shipping was free.

 

[jeroenimo]

My MBP from late 2008 has a chinese branded optibay (11$ plus 3$ shipping!) and it holds my 7200 rpm 500GB WD scorpio black, in my hardrive bay is a 120 GB vertex 3 ( I know its sata3 but it runs fine on sata 2 too) and I have not had any problems at all, according heat and so on.
The whole process took me like half an hour..
I have changed them around SSD in optibay and HDD is normal bay, but so far I have not noticed a difference..

My data (~/Music ~/Pictures ~/Downloads/ is on the drive and the OS on the SSD, all is superfast! Booting takes 11 seconds..
All Applications are "instant on" and my brothers i7 MBP with HDD from 2011 feels a lot slower.

I have ordered a sata to usb converter thingy and a micro sata cable for my superdrive, so I can still burn the occasional DVD/CD when needed.

Best upgrade ever!!