For $35, Hacker Will Swap MacBook Optical Drive For Blazing SSD Drive

Leander Kahney ()

SSD_hack

For just $35, a professional hardware called Reid will swap out your MacBook Pro’s optical drive for a super-speedy SSD drive.

Why would you want to do this? Because the SSD drive is an unbelievable 7x faster than a traditional hard drive, even a fast one. Use it as your boot disk, and the OS will fly. Store your movies and pron on the regular hard drive, which remains intact.

Reid already has this two-drive setup running on his new MacBook Pro. Reid took out the optical drive, which opened up a spare SATA interface. Apple doesn’t use standard SATA connectors, so Reid had to make his own by chaining together a couple of adapters from Fry’s and Amazon. It’s not pretty, but it works.

Reid is using the SSD as his boot disk and discovered that it runs an incredible 7x faster than his already fast 7200 rpm hard drive (which he’d upgraded also).

It cost about $300. “So, FOR LESS THAN APPLE CHARGES for the single 128GB SSD upgrade (which really is a POS, if you ask me), I got 280GB of reliable hard disk space. FmyWarranty!” he writes on his blog.

He’s now offering to sell the adapter for $30 apiece (plus free shipping). Or he will perform the upgrade himself for $35 (he’s a pr0). The customer supplies the parts. An 80GB SSD runs about $200.

“Just send me a heads up, a check, a second sata drive*, and your MacBook Pro (with a tracking #, PLEASE) and I’ll return the computer to you a day after it arrives (UPS $14.00).”

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Email Reid at: (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)

Via Gadget Lab.

14 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Customer Services, Hardware, Hardware Hacks, News |

  • expert

    is that a WIRE NUT? is he serious?

  • whyknot

    Why not use the replacement tray found here then you dont have to use a wire nut or cram in the sata cable
    http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/index.html

  • Paul

    “hardware hardware!”

    • http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney

      @Paul. thanks. going blind in old age. actually copy checked that post — and still couldn’t see it after you pointed it out.

  • ryan

    sure bub, lemme send you my laptop. SSSSSSSSure

  • John

    My God, what a mess. That guy most certainly ISN’T a pro. I wouldn’t let him anywhere near a computer of mine. It’s a botched amateurish job. It really isn’t difficult to do this in a far more professional and reliable way. Don’t waste your money. There are a few well designed DVD>HD replacement drive carrier frames out there, complete with the correct wiring (of the correct length and no bloody Wire Nuts) for a reasonable price.

  • http://jimmerish.com theguycalledtom

    I wish Apple would release a 13″ Macbook Pro that replaces the optical drive with an extra battery. A small laptop that has the battery life far beyond a Macbook Air would be perfect.

  • Paul

    it’s not age… it’s really hard to copy check your own stuff

  • http://www.mr2.org.nz John

    I just wish Apple would put E-Sata on the Mac Mini, then adding a second fast permenant drive would be an “It Just Works” no brainer.
    Firewire 800 make sense on laptops where you need hot swap, but not a desktop where the extra expense and slower speeds are not wanted.

  • ged

    please can we have a real benchmark, rather hearsay?
    common COM!

  • fred edison

    What would Woz say?

  • Ace

    Amongst the other glaring issues … the drive just sits in there without any screws holding it into place?

  • imajoebob

    And how do I use my optical media after this? Is there an external box that fits my SuperDrive, or do I have to buy an entirely new one? It seems a lot smarter to swap the HD for the SSD, then pay 8 bucks for an external drive caddy.

    And wire nut-free.

  • John

    I see everyone is harping on the wire-nut, which is not pretty but gets the job done. If you look closely, the nut is connecting the splice between two red power cables. He could have soldered it and… left it bare? Or would electrical tape look better? If the wire nut is causing so much turmoil, even though it is unseen on the finished product, then I dont know what to say. If it works, it works. Its certainly better than shelling out a bunch of money that only goes towards severely limited warranties and bottom line profits for a company that can easily afford to do a recall once in their lifetime. Toyota did it, and hell, none of us would even give a damn if our drives weren’t so touchy. My MacBook would read the worst of all DVD’s, as long as it was a regular mainstream motion picture dvd. But… God forbid the home made movie is even slightly blemished, then all hell breaks loose and now were “skipping over damaged area,” while trying to watch a simple home movie. I hate to say it, but the only thing thats worth a damn about these machines is the OSX. Other than that, its over priced, and underwhelming for the money. Ive loved macs for a long time, but like the democratic party, all of their products inevitably let me down. One can only make so many excuses until they realize their own dilemma. HackBook anyone? I hate the idea of buying an extremely expensive product while knowing that in less than 6 months, that same company will release another product to make mine obsolete. Make an effort at least… but alas no… we all know that the ipod nano you bought 3 weeks ago is now obsolete… sucks huh? So give this guy some credit, wire nut or not. If he can make your “old” mac a little better than it was before, than more power to him. Unless you want to spend $1500 on a nearly “un-upgradable” version of the same thing you already have with another 40 gigs of storage and 2 gigs of memory…..