So I installed an SSD in my MacBook Pro

[Vice]

I bought this 17" MacBook Pro in 2009 and it has served me great in that time not a single problem with any part of it. But I felt recently it was feeling a little sluggish. Especially when compared to my desktop hackintosh.

So I had a few SSD's laying around. None of them were big enough for all my data (Music, Images etc) but big enough for the operating system and my applications. So I bought one of these: http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280857760565?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&cbt=y

Basically it is an optical drive shell that lets you put a 2.5" hard drive in your laptop where the optical drive was. I never use my optical drive anyway and I do have a USB optical drive for my desktop so if I really needed one I could just use that.

So anyway the reason I'm making this thread is to share just how amazingly fast my laptop feels now. I reinstalled Lion on to the SSD (fresh install) and everything is just so fast. It boots in 1/6th the time. Apps open with not even a single bounce on the dock. On my old Hard Disk chrome would bounce 3-4 times before it opened now it opens instantly after clicking its icon.

I'm really impressed. Also if any of you are considering doing the same thing I have a few tips. You know the OS X Alias system? Where by you right click a file or folder and select "Create Alias" these aliases are not just dumb shortcuts like on Windows. These aliases are recognized by the operating system as symbolic links. What this means is for example I can go to my iTunes folder on my Hard Disk right click it, create an alias then move that to where the iTunes folder should be on my SSD. Then when I open iTunes it thinks its accessing my music from my SSD but instead it's using that alias and retrieving it from my hard disk.

By using this Alias feature I've been able to keep all my data (Video, Music, Pictures, Virtual Machine Disks etc) on my Hard Disk but seamlessly use them as if they were on my SSD without losing the fast boot times the SSD provides or the instant launching of all my Applications.

So have any of you guys done this kind of upgrade yourselves?

[BoneyardBrew Member]

I know we're in the Mac section of Neowin and I don't own one, but I have to give you two thumbs up on the upgrade. From the day I installed my first SSD on my desktop PC I knew I couldn't use a computer without one.

It's one of the best upgrades you can make considering even pre-built systems come with at least 4GB of RAM and dual-core CPUs.

[Wombatt]

Wow, thanks for the hot tip with the Alias feature.

I upgraded my 2011 model to a Vertex 3, and just laugh when I see other people opening up Photoshop or Avid. :rofl:

Its a great upgrade, although you naturally sacrifice space.

It's not really a problem for me though, I like to keep all the important stuff centrally organised on my NAS. :)

[Wombatt]

And thanks for the share of the eBay link.

Gives me confidence that I won't have to shell out 70+ for a model which is advertised as "fits in Mac's" :laugh:

[crazzyyfool]

I take it you've enabled TRIM support in Lion?

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

You know the OS X Alias system? Where by you right click a file or folder and select "Create Alias" these aliases are not just dumb shortcuts like on Windows. These aliases are recognized by the operating system as symbolic links.

Welcome to 2006 ;)

Enjoy your SSD, ive done the same thing on My PC and totally love it. I really don't know why i never got an SSD sooner!

POST screen to ready PC in around 12 seconds, still amazes me 8 months later.

[Elliot B.]

Welcome to 2006 ;)

<image snipped>

Mac OS X has had it for ages also - and I believe Windows only "tracks" certain system folders (such as Pictures) and not any of your choosing.

[Vice]

Welcome to 2006 ;)

Enjoy your SSD, ive done the same thing on My PC and totally love it. I really don't know why i never got an SSD sooner!

POST screen to ready PC in around 12 seconds, still amazes me 8 months later.

Actually OS X has had this feature since Jaguar in 2002. I've been using it since Panther when I got my first OS X machine but I thought I'd mention it in this post because it was so relevant :)

I take it you've enabled TRIM support in Lion?

Yup!

[WelshBluebird]

Defiantly going to do this after I start my new job in August, just need to figure out what size SSD to get really.

I have a 750GB HDD currently, so am thinking a 128GB SSD should be enough.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Actually OS X has had this feature since Jaguar in 2002. I've been using it since Panther when I got my first OS X machine but I thought I'd mention it in this post because it was so relevant :)

Oh indeed i agree, its almost like it was created for people with SSD's. I can see more people using it in the future now SSD's are really taking off.

Windows does appear to be able to do it with folders outside the Documents folder, just with the command line so OSX has actually implemented it much better if you can do it anywhere with a click.

[Vice]

Oh indeed i agree, its almost like it was created for people with SSD's. I can see more people using it in the future now SSD's are really taking off.

Windows does appear to be able to do it with folders outside the Documents folder, just with the command line so OSX has actually implemented it much better if you can do it anywhere with a click.

Yes it can be done with the command line in Windows. However you can install this application: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html#download

To do it by right clicking folders / files the same way it can be done on OS X. I use this application on my Windows install to run certain steam games on my SSD even though my steam folder and the majority of my games are on a 2TB Hard Drive.

[AnthoWin]

Done the upgrade with my 2010 MBP. The 7200rpm drive beforehand was noisy and vibrated the table whenever I was studying. It was annoying. So you also get quiet operation advantages not just speed. I wouldn't want to go back to life without ssd.

[AltecXP]

Enabling TRIM on OS X actually hurts performance:

http://recoverymonkey.org/2011/05/05/os-x-ssdtunings-plus-performance-with-and-without-trim/

[Vice]

Enabling TRIM on OS X actually hurts performance:

http://recoverymonke...d-without-trim/

Those tests were performed with Snow Leopard. I'm running Lion. I don't know if that affects anything but Lion has Trim built in and Snow Leopard didn't so the hacks for it back then were more intrusive than the little kernel modification that is done on Lion to enable it.

I've not noticed any speed differences after I enabled it.

[AltecXP]

SL does have trim built into it, it was enabled in 10.6.8, and the SL hack is the Lion hack, it's just modifying a kernel extension.

[ConAmor]

Is there any guide to follow after installing an SSD in a mbp? I know that when you install it in a PC you have to make several changes so it doesn't affect performance and drive life.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Is there any guide to follow after installing an SSD in a mbp? I know that when you install it in a PC you have to make several changes so it doesn't affect performance and drive life.

There shouldn't be any changes you have to make if you are using Windows 7. It automatically disables disk defragmenting, and that's really the only thing you have to worry about. I personally disable the paging file since it doesn't affect anything and it's a waste of space on a SSD, but that's just me.

[Sikh]

Vice: you do know that instead of alias use the home folder location under users > right click on user and advance settings.

I've done this for 3 MacBook pros I own. 2007/2008/2010

Works great. I always felt the alias wasn't the real way to do it. For me it's changing each registry value to your data drive which is annoying. They need a true "user location" during windows setup so then your boot drive strictly the ssd. And data drive user and application folder. l

[Vice]

Vice: you do know that instead of alias use the home folder location under users > right click on user and advance settings.

I've done this for 3 MacBook pros I own. 2007/2008/2010

Works great. I always felt the alias wasn't the real way to do it. For me it's changing each registry value to your data drive which is annoying. They need a true "user location" during windows setup so then your boot drive strictly the ssd. And data drive user and application folder. l

I don't want everything running from my old home directory on my hard disk. Only my music, pictures and stuff.

I much prefer the Alias way otherwise I would have done it the way you said as I'm aware of it.

[Sikh]

Oh I'm glad your away of it! Only think I wanna let you know is that the home directory is only the users. Which is music movies data etc.

Applications will always look for your HD with Mac system files on it.

But now we both know. I never knew aliases would work in the way you wanted.

[Shadrack]

I bought this 17" MacBook Pro in 2009 and it has served me great in that time not a single problem with any part of it. But I felt recently it was feeling a little sluggish. Especially when compared to my desktop hackintosh.

So I had a few SSD's laying around. None of them were big enough for all my data (Music, Images etc) but big enough for the operating system and my applications. So I bought one of these: http://compare.ebay....&var=sbar&cbt=y

Basically it is an optical drive shell that lets you put a 2.5" hard drive in your laptop where the optical drive was. I never use my optical drive anyway and I do have a USB optical drive for my desktop so if I really needed one I could just use that.

So anyway the reason I'm making this thread is to share just how amazingly fast my laptop feels now. I reinstalled Lion on to the SSD (fresh install) and everything is just so fast. It boots in 1/6th the time. Apps open with not even a single bounce on the dock. On my old Hard Disk chrome would bounce 3-4 times before it opened now it opens instantly after clicking its icon.

I'm really impressed. Also if any of you are considering doing the same thing I have a few tips. You know the OS X Alias system? Where by you right click a file or folder and select "Create Alias" these aliases are not just dumb shortcuts like on Windows. These aliases are recognized by the operating system as symbolic links. What this means is for example I can go to my iTunes folder on my Hard Disk right click it, create an alias then move that to where the iTunes folder should be on my SSD. Then when I open iTunes it thinks its accessing my music from my SSD but instead it's using that alias and retrieving it from my hard disk.

By using this Alias feature I've been able to keep all my data (Video, Music, Pictures, Virtual Machine Disks etc) on my Hard Disk but seamlessly use them as if they were on my SSD without losing the fast boot times the SSD provides or the instant launching of all my Applications.

So have any of you guys done this kind of upgrade yourselves?

Yes, this is the setup I'm using. I've had some flakiness with my optical drive bay adapter and the HDD that is currently connected to it. I think I need to pop my MBP open and reconnect everything...or it could just be that my HDD is going bad. I don't know. Occasionally the HDD will just disappear from the system until i do a reboot. It doesn't happen but maybe once a week or so, but when I had my user accounts on the HDD it caused all kinds of issues when it flaked out on me so I had to move those to my SSD drive.

In all honesty, I wasn't very pleased with my performance while my user accounts were on the HDD. So now my setup is to have them all on the SSD and I have moved my major media off my user home folder and onto the HDD. I've also forwarded my iOS backups to the HDD using a symlink.

[shivs]

My Mid 2012 15" MBP arrived today and after using a SSD in my old Mid 2010 15" I decided to try something a little different. Since the SATA port for the optical drive is more reliable in the newer models, with a OWC Data Doubler I've managed to setup a Stripe RAID with two Corsair Force GT 120GBs (one in optical drive bay and one in standard hard drive bay).

It was a lot easier than I thought and it's unbelievably quick. I too set up my actual user account on my SSD on my previous MBP and just stored media files on the HDD.

I'm currently searching for a decent USB 3.0 External Drive for storage with my current setup (any suggestions?)

Also, does anyone have any particularly good benchmarking tools for SSDs they use?