OptiBay Local Supplier

StuntmanMike said:
All other data like images, music, archived documents will be stored on the hdd. I am prepared for a bit of performance knock when playing music from that drive. But I want my day to day operations to fly
Click to expand...

iTunes is the one app that doesn't appear to suffer any penalty from the library being on the spinny disc.
 
It is going to quite the task reinstalling and getting everything back to the state it was, but the payoff is going to be well worth it.
 
So I received my MCE Optibay yesterday. A few observations:

The MCE optibay is made to a much higher standard than the bay I got off Amazon. The metal feels more solid, the finish is nicer, all the holes are there to screw it down properly (the Amazon one had none). If fits properly in the bay.

They also shipped a bag with extra screws, a CD with installation instructions, a tool with two sizes Philips head at either end, and a USB bay for the optical drive coming out of the MBP.

My only gripe is that the two holes at the back, where the bracket in the MBP attaches to, didn't have screw thread. The only thing I had to (force) make it with is the screws, and in the process I damaged the head of one.

Mone well spent, IMHO. It fits propery, it's properly attached, my laptop doesn't have that annoying micro-rattle sound anymore.
 
Thanks for the update koffiejunkie. Glad to hear the MCE Optibay is worth the cost at the end. I decided at the last minute to go for the Nimitz bay as it is featured in this article. I will post a review on this alternative once I install it.
 
Thanks for the info. I have decided to go for a Vertex 3 as my primary drive and will move my current hdd into the optical bay. So it looks it will al work fine.
 
I've just installed the Nimitz one. They include screws to mount the drive in the caddy, and the caddy has all the right holes to screw into the same location as the optical drive. It fitted in perfectly. The enclosure for the optical drive isn't the greatest quality, but it's perfectly serviceable. My main complaint would be that the upper side of the disc touches the case when being inserted and ejected. The bottom doesn't though, so the data surface won't get damaged. For me 99% of what goes into the optical drive is disposable anyway. They also include a second USB cable with a power plug on the other end in case one USB port does not supply sufficient power to run the drive (it worked fine for me without it) and screws to attach the optical drive.

Overall I think it's a good product and you can't argue with the price. I'd recommend this one to anyone wanting to add a second hard drive.
 
Just ordered one of these.
It's a little bit more expensive than the MCE, but the reviews say the build quality is good and their documentation is good.
It's going to be interesting getting my data sorted out to live on the HDD connected to the optical bay SATA.
 
OWC is generally well respected for goodies that has to fit in a Mac, and my colleagues in the US buy almost exclusively from them.

For MCE (the Optibay makers) I can only say that I have one and the workmanship on it is tops. It fits perfectly, comes with all the screws and even the tools you will need.
 
Just a question about this thread instead of creating a new one.

Does anyone know of a local supplier for an Optibay or similar in order to convert my optical drive into a SSD ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X