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Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay

By | October 31, 2011, 12:01am PDT

Summary: Two essential upgrades for the MacBook Pro: Mercury Extreme Pro SSD from OWC and the OptiBay Drive Kit from MCE Technologies.

Two must-have MBP upgrades: SSD and OptiBay - Jason O'Grady

I took some time this weekend to upgrade my wife’s MacBook Pro 15-inch and hooked her up with two essential upgrades that give the MBP the best of both worlds.

First, I removed the stock 500GB hard drive — which was a dog — and replaced it with a scorching-fast 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD from OWC. The Extreme Pro SSD is the best upgrade that I’ve ever installed in a MacBook Pro because it was like instantly doubling its speed. I couldn’t put it in my 13-inch MacBook Air, so my wife’s the lucky recipient. 240GB costs $395, 480GB will set you back $860.

Second, I yanked the stock optical drive — which practically had cobwebs in it — and replaced it with an OptiBay Drive Kit from MCE Technologies. The OptiBay costs $99 blank (or $199 with a 1TB hard drive) and gets you a whole second drive worth of internal storage inside your MBP. Opting for the 1TB OptiBay offsets some of the pricey storage you might have to sacrifice by going with a SSD as your primary drive.

Two great upgrades that are essential for the MacBook Pro.

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Apple MacBook, Apple MacBook Pro, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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Good Advice!
zpino 5 days ago
Mac is not for rich people, is for people that wants a nice computer experience or that needs a remarkable professional development environment (without sacrifice neither elegancy nor confort). In my case, what I made was to buy the smallest configuration (because branded configurations are more expensive) and I've been doing an "as a money available pace" upgrading happy. These kind of advices (articles) make you save money. Thanks.
View in thread
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Advertorial
Tim Acheson 31st Oct
How generous of ZDNet to continue in their tradition of promoting Apple products in this way.

Not only are these extras beneficial; they earn more money for the corporation too.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
General C# 31st Oct
@Tim Acheson - What a douche!
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
eyecoin 31st Oct
@Tim Acheson How does Apple make money off some aftermarket add on?
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
mattmuir 31st Oct
@Tim Acheson You are a twit. Get off your preconceived ideas horse and read the article. Perhaps you can't read and that's your issue.
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The SSD alone costs more than a Dell Inspirion.
cym104 31st Oct
It only proves again that Macs are for the rich only.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
marcomar 31st Oct
@cym104 yeah and some sell their organs to buy an iPad. Apple gear is alluring. Some go to great saving lengths to buy stuff like this. It the Apple DNA. Some see the merit in buying more expensive stuff because they see the benefits.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
ewelch 31st Oct
@cym104 Nope. For the rich, yes. But also for those of us who use our laptops professionally. One lens for my camera can cost the same as four MacBook Pros. Get some perspective. If you're buying a laptop to play Rage, that's one thing. But professionals need professional tools. And when you compare laptops with the same specs as MacBook Pros, you'll find the MBP comes out rather competitive.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
Champ_Kind 31st Oct
@cym104 Thanks, I needed a laugh. The Optibay device is overpriced, I'll give you that much, but $100 for a notebook 1TB hard drive and $860 for 480GB of SSD storage is about the going rate for OEM-branded and non-name brand devices, respectively.

On a side note, I installed a 240 GB SSD in my wife's MBP and it's made a huge difference.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
eyecoin 31st Oct
@cym104 Ya but who would want one of those?
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
eyballgouge 31st Oct
Yes thats right. Statistically Mac buyers tend to be better educated and financially better off. Unlike their Dell owning cousins who tend to be lowly educated trailer park types
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WOW!
johnfenjackson@... Updated - 31st Oct
600 dollars for an SSD and a 1TB disk drive ...
... now that's what I call a 'must-have' upgrade happy

OWC kit is for creative pros pushing the limits of Photoshop and Premiere. Guess J DOG's wife has a bunch of gigapixel holiday snaps and 9GB movies wink wink
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MAC Performance
johnfenjackson@... Updated - 31st Oct
This site has some useful information ... for both Windows and MAC users ...

http://macperformanceguide.com/

... in particular it gives a good indication of the equipment quality and dimensioning required to process workloads at varying scales.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
frank@... 31st Oct
Very interesting. What model MacBook Pro, please? What speed is the 1TB drive. How much weight and heat did this mod add, if any.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
ewelch Updated - 31st Oct
I'd get a smaller, less expensive SSD drive, and then move my user folder onto the second drive. That way you can save money and still have plenty of space. Then an external Thunderbolt drive like the LaCie unit with two 240 gig SSDs would give me all the storage I'd need for any photo trip I'll ever make.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
griffsdad 31st Oct
Jason, you're perpetuating the "Apple Elite" stereotype needlessly. The basics of your article make sense, It's a good upgrade. But you're basically throwing away a 500GB stock drive because "it's a dog", then paying a big premium for a 480GB SSD, and adding an Optibay with a 1TB drive (which is 5400 rpm just like the dog you started with).
A much more practical choice would have been to buy the Optibay with a 128GB SSD included for $399. That would let you put in a 128GB system drive which should be plenty, in my opinion, and then put the stock 500GB drive in the Optibay. I also noticed that MCE is including an enclosure for your stock SuperDrive for no extra cost. That brings your cost down from $1060 to $399. And, for most people, it's much more realistic.
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Or ...
jscott69 31st Oct
@griffsdad ... get the 240GB OWC SSD for $395 and the blank OptiBay for $99 and stuff the "dog" 500GB drive into it. This just nets you a larger SSD, if that's important.

But griffsdad's suggestion or this each seem to be more practical and reasonable.

At least the thought was good: use an SSD for a big speed boost but pair it with a hard drive (instead of optical) for better long-term storage. And you still get to have the optical as an external drive for the occasional need. How cool is that?
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
ssaha 31st Oct
@griffsdad

Agreed. That's going to be my upgrade path once my AppleCare warranty runs out in 19 months (of course, by then, the specs might go up to 256GB for the SSD for about the same price). Right now, I'm okay with my 7200rpm 500GB BTO drive.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
syazbeck 31st Oct
Why not opt for the OWC Data Doubler solution and save some extra cash instead of the optibay?
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
syazbeck Updated - 31st Oct
Is there some advantage of the optibay over the data doubler bracket?
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
mainvision Updated - 31st Oct
For me, the whole point of subscribing to this blog is to find out about Apple products and accessories. Luckily I don't need to use Windows, so I don't subscribe to similar blogs for that OS - and I don't see the need to complain about their content. I don't understand people complaining about Apple in general and this blog in particular - if they don't like the company or its products - it's not compulsory buying Apple or reading about it. I agree with a critical attitude to any company or product, but it's computing, not a religion. My custom goes to the best product and changes as a new one comes up elsewhere. I DO want to know about new Apple and compatible products - so keep up the good job, guys. Don't get put off by the complainers. As for the cost, we decide what we buy and in what configuration, depending on our professional or private requirements and our budgets, according to the information available.
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
YouCanDoItAgain 31st Oct
@mainvision

Earth to "Mainvision", Are you the blog police?
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
YouCanDoItAgain 31st Oct
I was hoping for a good article, but I was disappointed in this article. Lets see.....assuming Jason purchased these items.

1. Didn't research to see if the $860 SSD actually fit in his Macbook Air
2. Wasted $199 on the OptiBay Drive Kit.
3. Waste of money (even if you have money). Should have installed a 60GB - 120GB SSD ($95-$250) and reused the 500GB and purchased a 2nd hard drive caddy ($15-$45)
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
NtAp 6th Nov
Love the commentary! LMAO!! The last one "Dell owning cousins.." is priceless! HAhahaha! One can spend ridiculous amounts of $$ on PC's as well. I think some may comment before they actually think things through. Performance costs $$ no matter where you're applying it. Better will usually cost you more. The perspective comment was spot on.
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In this world, we have those who just do it, and those who "don't know how"
greggwon@... 8th Nov
Those who "Just do", will be the ones making progress, and sometimes they make mistakes and learn from them. Those who "don't know how", are the ones who don't have education, experience or drive to "just do". Some of those are so far behind the curve that they only complain, because they don't even know how to "tell the difference" between themselves and others. It's sad to see places like this where the "Don't know how" just lash out and complain with literally no idea how to "Just do it". Opportunity to learn and be educated is everywhere now that the internet is at your finger tips. If you are setting here reading these forums and wanting to "complain" all the time, maybe you need to go read something else which will move you from the "Don't know how" mindset to the "Just do it" mindset so that you 1) don't feel like you need everyone's attention and help, and 2) you can actually succeed in life and contribute something amazingly good and helpful to society instead of going around all your life being that hole in the side walk or ball and chain around the ankle that everyone else wants to avoid.
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In this world, we have those who just do it, and those who don't know how
greggwon@... 8th Nov
Those who "Just do it", will be the ones making progress, and sometimes they make mistakes and learn from them. Those who "don't know how", are the ones who don't have education, experience or drive to "just do it".

Some of those who "Don't know how", are so far behind the curve of reality that they don't even know how to "tell the difference" between themselves and others who "Just do it".

It's sad to see places like this where the "Don't know how" just lash out and complain with literally no idea how to "Just do it". Opportunity to learn and be educated is everywhere now that the internet is at your finger tips. If you are setting here reading these forums and wanting to "complain" all the time, maybe you need to go read something else which will move you from the "Don't know how" mindset to the "Just do it" mindset so that you 1) don't feel like you need everyone's attention and/or feel the need to make others look worse than you so you feel better about yourself, and 2) you can actually succeed in life and contribute something amazingly good and helpful to society instead of going around all your life being that hole in the side walk or ball and chain around the ankle that everyone else wants to avoid.

Really, throwing nonsense at people about their choices is just plain childish and serves no purpose. If it props up your own ego to do so, you probably need some help with self esteem.

This mode of conversation is not beneficial to anyone...
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RE: Two must-have MacBook Pro upgrades: SSD and OptiBay
mhillebrand 21st Nov
The OCZ Vertex 3 is nearly twice as fast than the "OWC" drive mentioned here. Those OWC drives look like rebranded pieces of plastic. Something fishy about this article.

http://www.ssdreview.com/solid-state-ssd/?order_by=-review_points
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

OCZ Vertex 3 transfer rate is 500+ MB/sec
OWC transfer rate is only 285 MB/sec

Go with OCZ.
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Not Everyone has 860 for a SSD
Brandon Hart 20th Mar
The Corsair Force Series and the Patriot Pyro are also some you should consider. I honestly think you should go with whichever one is cheaper

http://www.squidoo.com/best-ssd

This shows the Force series with sequential read times (555MB/s) and write times (515 MB/s) VIA SATA III, and the Pyro with 550MB/s read and 515MB/s write... Right now the Pyro 120GB model is only $120 after the rebate. Personally that's the one I'd go with - even the larger versions aren't as much as the one mentioned in this post.

Pyro Model: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220603
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Awesome...
jauhar1 2nd Apr
We still try to find the best SSD for my MacBook Pro
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Good Advice!
zpino 5 days ago
Mac is not for rich people, is for people that wants a nice computer experience or that needs a remarkable professional development environment (without sacrifice neither elegancy nor confort). In my case, what I made was to buy the smallest configuration (because branded configurations are more expensive) and I've been doing an "as a money available pace" upgrading happy. These kind of advices (articles) make you save money. Thanks.

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