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Upgrading all Macs to SSD
08/10/11
Upgrading all Macs to SSD
I recently ordered an SSD drive from OWC and proceeded to replace the stock drive on my good old MacBook Pro (one of the first unibody series).
The process was actually easier than I originally thought: just connect the new drive using an universal drive adapter and clone the internal drive using SuperDuper!. Then open the back cover and swap out the drives. Done! (Btw: OWC are doing a great job with their instruction videos that show you that, yes, you can actually do it yourself in no time! ;))
Reboot: the mac feels like it’s at least 3 or 4 times faster. Especially from Login to Desktop where it’s possible to start working instantaneously, compared to the painful wait in front of a half frozen screen I had before.
It’s like a new mac for a fraction of the price of an actual new one! And I now actually like using that laptop again ;)
...
My only mistake in the process was to assume I had all the necessary tools at hand. I was actually missing one of those really small torx screw drivers.
Next step for me: upgrade all my computers to SSD. I think the performance to price ratio has hit a mark where it’s totally worth doing it.
Annoying side note: the SSD drives sold by OWC offer better performance than those sold by Apple in new macs… AND they’re cheaper than the Apple upgrade too! WTF Apple!? Same thing with the RAM! You buy Macs with a stock drive and stock RAM that you’ll immediately swap out with something better at a lower cost than the Apple upgrades. Now, what do you do with the swapped out parts? Throw them away? :(
4 comments
Right you are - just did the same thing to my MacPro (without the book), was a bit more complicated, as I had to move the user folder to one of my 4 "normal" 500 MB disks. Due to the price of the SSDs I just could afford a 120 MB Intel drive. The SSD sits now on top of the DVD feeling quite ok there :-) So speed isn't as fast as it might be on your MacBookPro but still I like the little guy inside my huge machine...Cheers
Kai
How big of a hard drive did you get? Will a similar thing work in my Macbook (not PRO) which was manufactured in 2009? 
RE: What do you do with the swapped out parts? Throw them away? Ebay... or donate and get a tax deduction ;)
I got a 240 GB drive for the MacBook to try it out. Now I'm thinking about getting a 480 GB for the Mac Pro... and it's going to go into a real drive bay too... but my SATA controller is still just a 3 Gbps. No 6 Gbps here.@Sunil: I don't know but OWC has complete compatibility lists on their site. They say they have a drive for any computer made in the last 10 years!
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