Chosen Solution

Hey guys. I have went through similar posts, but still can’t find answers to the following questions.

  1. Is there a limit to the size of SSD for my Mac Book Pro? Apple website: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP544?local… says 128 or 256, but you can actually get larger one right?
  2. How do you figure out the connection speed supported by the HDD and ODD cables? I only see 5400-rpm listed instead of data per second. I am trying to figure out the fastest connection speed for my model.
  3. Install the SSD in the HDD slot or ODD? It seems that you really throttle the speed of the SSD if you install it in the ODD slot.
  4. Any recommendation to which brand for the SSD? SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series seems to get quite a few votes. I see that Crucial advertise Mac Book Pro compatibility as well.

1 - No limits from the MacOS side, I doubt you’ll hit the 8 EB limit! So far the largest physical SSD that would fit into your system is 4 TB! The largest HDD is 2 TB. 2 - Your systems specs is one of these: MacBookPro5,3 If you look at your system you’ll see the SATA port speed is SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) so you’ll need to make sure the given SSD drive you get has this listed in the spec sheet. 3 - The speed of the SATA ports is the same! So thats not what you need to focus on. If you are planning on leaving the HD in the system it needs to stay in the HD port as the crash guard protection is only available on that port so if you swap it over you’ll risk the HD drive crashing! 4 - The brand is not that important as all need to comply with the SATA interface. Presently we are using 1 TB & 2 TB Samsung 850 EVO drives. As I stated above you do need to do some research to make sure what you think on getting will work at the slower SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) speed. But! Before you make the jump here, make sure to keep in mind your system won’t support anything newer than OS-X El Capitan 10.11.x. So don’t go hog wild with the biggest & baddest SSD here. I’m sure a 512GB SSD maybe large enough for your needs. Or look at going with a hybrid drive like Seagate’s SSHD. I would also look at maxing out the RAM (8 GB) if you haven’t already.