:::::..:..::::::..:..:::.: — The Macbook Upgrade Project (SSD 120GB, HD 1TB)

17 July 2011
- Hardware
- SSD
The Macbook Upgrade Project (SSD 120GB, HD 1TB)

Let’s see what’s in the bucket:
- SSD, 120 GB, Intel, 320er Series
- HD, 1 TB, Western Digital, WD10TPVT
- Optobay Kit
- The hope to gain enough performance to run Final Cut Pro X at a decent speed
… and a first Gen Unibody Macbook

Open & Remove

HD & Optobay

Oh, oooh…

While the 1TB Western Digital with its 1,3cm fits perfectly well into the standard hard drive slot, it does not in the Optobay/DVD slot.

Funnily it is still possible to screw down the case (with some slight force). Nevertheless here’s why you might not want to do it.

Against the general advice I switched the drives again. Now the 1TB drive is in the Standard hard drive slot and the SSD in the Optobay.

Downsides
- There’s a problem with the hibernate mode when the primary boot drive is not the one in the default slot. This causes problems when putting the Macbook to sleep as well as waking it up again - takes forever, not reliable.
To solve this you need to disbale automatic hibernation to disk.
```
pmset -a hibernatemode 0
```
But please be aware that now you also need to be more careful with your sleep mode as the RAM content is no more written to the hard drive when the battery is drawn. Just be aware of that and remember to no put your Macbook to sleep when there’s only a few percent of battery power left. Otherwise you increase the chance of a data loss when the battery is gets empty while in sleep mode.
- With the additional SSD the Macbook actually runs shorter in battery mode. I forgot to check what this is in minutes but it is significant (~30min.).
- Sometimes when booting cold the boot drive is not recognized. You need to press ALT while booting and manually select the SSD as boot drive again. Annoying.
So, while having all this painful side effect there’s one thing that still makes it worth the consideration:

Performance Comparison

1 TB Harddrive (boot drive, prior to the upgrade)
```
XBench Results  52.41   
    System Info     
        Xbench Version      1.3
        System Version      10.6.7 (10J869)
        Physical RAM        4096 MB
        Model       MacBook5,1
        Drive Type      WDC WD10TPVT-00U4RT1
    Disk Test   52.41   
        Sequential  92.38   
            Uncached Write  111.87  68.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Write  118.73  67.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
            Uncached Read   54.28   15.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Read   133.03  66.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
        Random  36.59   
            Uncached Write  13.81   1.46 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Write  99.75   31.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]
            Uncached Read   57.70   0.41 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Read   104.81  19.45 MB/sec [256K blocks]
```
120GB SSD (boot drive, after upgrading)
```
XBench Results  307.06
    System Info     
        Xbench Version      1.3
        System Version      10.6.8 (10K540)
        Physical RAM        4096 MB
        Model       MacBook5,1
        Drive Type      INTEL SSDSA2CW120G3
    Disk Test   307.06  
        Sequential  204.99  
            Uncached Write  184.21  113.10 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Write  223.13  126.25 MB/sec [256K blocks]
            Uncached Read   133.69  39.13 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Read   471.05  236.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]
        Random  611.61  
            Uncached Write  471.11  49.87 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Write  408.04  130.63 MB/sec [256K blocks]
            Uncached Read   1950.96 13.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
            Uncached Read   687.68  127.60 MB/sec [256K blocks]
```
Additional Notes

I tested the perfomance of the SSD in the Optobay/DVD slot and the standard drive slot. It’s basically the same. You have to consider this when you are using a current Macbook Pro model and a SATA-III SSD as the Macbook supports the full speed/SATA-III only for the default drive slot.

Notes