SSD for Macbook Pro

yup you can use it afterwards as external storage.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rosewill-RDEE-12002-2-5-USB-3-0-SSD-HDD-Aluminum-Screwless-External-Enclosure-/300949971552?pt=US_Drive_Enclosures_Docks&hash=item4612042260

something like that would work fine, cheap but not a horrid brand so it should be a decent enclosure.

I am not familiar with mac so im not sure about OSX. It says they now offer it for 19.99 on the app store. But I honestly have no idea how to install osx. Should be lots of instructions out there heres the one directly from mac:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11273

obviously your drive will already be erased but id imagine from that same menu you can just use a blank drive and press install osx. I am not sure there id check around see what information you can find first. From what i read here you may need to find a OSX disc of some sort:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4697858?start=0&tstart=0

Thank you so much for your help! One last question (at least for now) Should I just use the old drive as an external and literally just copy over what I need to the new drive or should I use a cloning program and clone my old one and copy that on to the new one. I keep my drive very clean and I'm not replacing it for bad data or anything like that I just need more space. And if I do the copy route will I be able to copy over licensed products like photoshop and other products that ive purchased?

If you do the copy route you probably wont be able to copy programs youve purched but im sure you can just re-download them through the store so long as your on the same apple account that owns them.

Cloning will definitely be easier and save you all the trouble of having to re-install osx. Its just usually nicer to start from scratch, gets rid of any possible mistakes you may have made along the way . But if your confident your comp is clean and good to go then cloning it will work fine and you wont have to install anything

looks great

actually similar cost mushkin ssd is probably better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226237

Wow... I did a RAM upgrade less than a year ago for $40 - same capacity and frequency. Can't really fault you for that, but the RAM market sucks right now.

The SSD is a good one. I'm a fan of mine. Is this a SATA II or SATA III model laptop? If it's SATA III, then don't get that. Get THIS. It's basically an 840 but with a pseudo-SLC write buffer for faster writes. Basically, there are three kinds of SSDs: SLC is the enterprise variety nowadays. Each cell only holds one bit. MLC holds two and is the standard for consumer drives. TLC, like the 804 and 840 EVO, hold three bits per cell. As you add more bits per cell, the read speeds stay the same, but write speeds will begin to drop. The EVO emulates an SLC drive by allocating, in potentially your case, 9 GB of storage space into a 3 GB buffer. If your laptop is SATA II, then either the 840 or EVO would be good. I'm not entirely sure, but Samsung RAPID might be available for OS X. That is a program allowing 25%, 1 GB max, of your RAM to be used as an additional write cache. If it is, then you can potentially bypass SATA II speeds for writes under 1 GB, and will then be copied to the drive itself when idle. It's available for Windows for sure, but I don't know about Macs, sorry.

The enclosure: no idea. Just find one that's cheap and reliable, really.

When you transfer data over, cloning is the easiest option. Reinstalling the OS is also an option, but I'm too lazy to do that when I upgrade. Too much work downloading stuff and reconfiguring settings. And yeah - licensed programs will work. When you clone, it makes an EXACT image of the drive. All install keys are there, cookies are leftover from your browser of choice, those prawns you've been meaning to delete are still floating around somewhere...

And finally, you sure can use the old drive for external storage, but I'd rather have the old one for a scratch disk on my desktop. Most media goes on an HDD, but a large paging file and any current projects go on the SSD for ease of access, for example. That said, it wouldn't make a bad external drive at all. Flash memory is less prone to break when dropped, and when you're on the go, that's a very real possibility. The only issue right now is $/GB for that sort of application.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CynicalUnicorn

It's available for Windows for sure, but I don't know about Macs

Click to expand...

I checked the website. Only Win supported.

I'm looking for the same thing and will be getting the 840 evo 250gb if that means much to you. I can vouch for the 840 pro, I have that in my desktop and it loads win8 in under 10sec. I have a 2011 macbook pro base model 13" for school. Load times are pissing me off. Looking forward to the speed. OP let me know what you finally decide and how it goes!

dan.

Thank you guys so much for all the help! I am very new to the whole computer world, but learning quickly, my ultimate goal is to build myself an NLE Rig that will also be used for gaming in about a year when I graduate from college. Im not sure if my laptop is SATA II or SATA III, is there somewhere I can look that up? I have a Late 2011 Macbook Pro 15". As for the drive you guys have been EXTERMELY helpful and I thank you guys again for all the help I will for sure keep this thread updated as I go through the upgrading process. Right now I am waiting on a package from my Dad that will hopefully have the right screwdrivers that I need to do the work. Once I have the tools I will be making the purchases and doing the upgrades. I am very excited to breathe new life into my Macbook

I only confirmed my laptop was SATA II when I did a benchmark with my shiny new SSD. Even then boot times were half or a third the time compared to a 5400 RPM HDD, and I'm pretty sure I'm limited slightly by POST times and significantly by CPU power. I can't link because I'm on my phone but it is probable that it is SATA III based on a thread on the Apple forums. Good luck, have fun, and remember that you're about to jump into a money-pit and never come out. But you have a Mac, so you know that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rui-no-onna

2013: Haswell
2012: Ivy Bridge
2011: Sandy Bridge

Sandy Bridge is when Intel added native SATA III ports to their chipsets so I'm guessing your MacBook probably has SATA III.

Click to expand...

Awesome thanks!

So I think I'll switch to the EVO instead of the Pro based on what CyncialUnicorn said:
Quote:

If it's SATA III, then don't get that. Get THIS. It's basically an 840 but with a pseudo-SLC write buffer for faster writes.

Click to expand...

So I decided to go ahead and make the purchase now and if the right tools are not in the package I found a pretty fair priced set I can get at Home Depot.

Here is what I ordered:

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147248

Enclosure: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182276

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342