The OptiBay drive really allows for the best of both worlds: using an SSD as the main drive to run Mac OS X and apps off of, and using the OptiBay drive to put a larger standard 2.5″ disk in to use as file storage. I have seen the performance boosts firsthand, a friend of mine recently added a 160GB Intel X25 SSD to his MacBook Pro as the main disk and it absolutely screams.

Plus installing an SSD on a MacBook/Pro is a really good way to boost performance, it’s a bit dated but you can see for more on SSD’s and Mac’s. So is this worth it? I think if you don’t use your optical superdrive, and you want more hard disk space – then absolutely yes. As you can see in the below picture from the LifeHacker walkthrough, it involves taking apart the entire back case on a Unibody MacBook & MacBook Pro:

If you’d like to do it yourself and you want to see in advance what the process involves, I’d highly recommend checking out the LifeHacker article to take a peak at the installation process. The OptiBay unit includes good installation guides or you can shell out $50 to have them do it for you by mailing in your Mac. It’s really worth mentioning that the $99 OptiBay unit comes with a caddy to turn your once internal SuperDrive DVD unit into an external DVD drive, which is a really great added bonus and allows you to still use the SuperDrive. MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) Crucial 8GB Kit (2 x 4GB) DDR3L-1333 SODIMM Memory for Mac CT2K4G3S1339M Configuration ID: CT3309334 DDR3-1333 CL9 NON-ECC SODIMM 204-pin 1.35V 2Rx8 PC3-10600 Memory for Mac 4.9 226 Reviews compare 62.99 40. * Patience, and comfort with disassembling computer hardware * Carbon Copy Cloner to make bootable backups * A superfast SSD drive, like the Intel X25 SSD, disk space and prices vary from $115 to $430 * MCE OptiBay for your MacBook Pro (starts around $99) The rear of the case is aluminum and is thicker in the middle and tapers to a razor thin 5 mm at the edges.Ĭonnectivity includes four USB 3.0 ports, dual Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.2.Ĭompared to its predecessor, this model essentially has the same external enclosure, but it has a more advanced processor and architecture, a brighter display, and Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports.What you’ll need to install a hard drive or SSD into the Optical Bay of a MacBook / MacBook Pro: This model has a 27' 5120x2880 LED-backlit 16:9 widescreen IPS DCI-P3 'Retina 5K' display. It also has a built-in 'FaceTime HD' webcam and stereo speakers. The iMac 'Core i5' 3.4 27-Inch Aluminum (Retina 5K, Mid-2017/Kaby Lake) features a 14-nm 'Kaby Lake' 3.4GHz Intel 'Core i5' processor (7500) with four independent processor 'cores' on a single chip, a 6 MB shared level 3 cache, and a Radeon Pro 570 graphics processor with 4GB of dedicated VRAM.

Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad Core Processor

Best ssd for macbook pro 2011