Talk about a slick “MOD” for the MacBook Pro line, thanks to OWC ( Other World Computing) it’s an attractive buy at $64.99. This isn’t exactly a NEW item, though we are definitely convinced on this MOD and wanted to inform the uninformed Apple power users out there for those who have not yet heard how to add 2 hard drives into your MacBook Pro’s. It works by allowing you to remove your systems Optical Drive, and uses that same bay along with the OWC adapter to add SATA 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s drives. Now, there is a small catch with some of the MacBook 8,2 models, as some of the SATA controllers are not in fact supported at 6Gb/s drives, so you will be stuck with staying on the 3Gb/s speeds.
Now, if you feel like staying future proof, then you can always pickup one of the new Intel SSD’s that are 6Gb/s as well as backwards compatible with 3Gb/s controllers. In the example below, we found out the hard way, that the much anticipated SanDisk SSD’s are fixed at 6Gb’s and are not backwards compatible, so after boot up we had some issues getting a partition and proper format using Mac OS X journaled.
Note: The bottle of Excedrin in the photo, sums up what we were feeling like after the SSD was running into problems, but no fault of the SSD’s, instead more of a “user error” for not fully checking compatibility first. ( Oops. ) We then later switched to the INTEL SSD 180Gb, and it works flawlessly.
(Photo Removed, Source Lost)
It’s a great, and cost effective way to getting more storage out of your Apple laptops, and being the hardcore techies we are, we couldn’t help but trying it out with dual SSD’s. The purpose was to see how fast a virtual machine could run with the application on one drive, and the virtual machine files on the newly installed SSD with the help of the OWC hardware.
While it’s not exactly a product meant for those who are afraid of cracking open the MacBook Pro cases from underneath, and if you ever need to service your laptop we highly suggest putting the optical drive back into your system before taking it in for repair to reduce any beef the “Appleese geeks” may give you. ( Update – See Grants comments from MacSales Below ) The install is a bit simple, but does take about 10-20 minutes if you are not in a rush.It also includes , all of the tools you need which is extremely surprising. One of the reasons we are also very fond of OWC, they go the extra mile most will not and the products look great which is the icing on the cake. Oh they work too, that’s important right?
It’s also important to note that this adapter from OWC comes with additional screws, which comes in handy for “Justin Case”.
Pictured below, answers another question such as “Well, now what do I do with my optical drive I took out?” . You pickup this gadget to create a new home for the Apple Optical Drive you just removed, and convert it into a sleek External Super Drive, which saves you from needing to buy the 79.00 drive from Apple “Justin Case” you ever picked up a MacBook Air in the future.
