MCE OptiBay Configuration for Photography

[cosmokanga2]

I'm looking at purchasing a MCE OptiBay for my unibody Macbook Pro to add another 500GB 7200rpm alongside my nearly full 500GB 7200rpm.

First of all do any photographers or videographers have a similar setup and how do you like it?

I would set the drives up with one with just my Aperture libraries and the other with everything else. Where should the Aperture app go though? Would it be performance wise best on the same drive or should they be on separate drives?

Does the optibay drive spin down when not in use? I realize I may take a slight hit in battery life when it is running.

Finally, has anyone in Canada purchased one from some where? NCIX, Newegg and other Mac stores don't seem to carry them. Thanks.

 

[chiefroastbeef]

I have a MCE optibay clone in my 2008 mbp right now, bought on ebay for I think $30usd. It is definitely one of the best upgrades I have made for the laptop. It frees up space for my growing Aperture library (currently at 265gb).

My bootdrive in the HD bay is a 500gb Seagate Momentus XT, and there is where the Aperture app resides. my optibay scratch drive is a hitachi 500gb 7,200rpm, and that is where the Aperture library resides, like a scratch disk.. The set up runs very well besides the 3-4 second photo load times (the time it takes before the "loading" icon disappears and the photo becomes sharp), due to lower gpu/cpu performance I suppose.

I don't notice much of a battery decrease with the extra drive, I do chose "put hard drive to sleep when not in use." You can also unmount the disk in disk utility, but it really isn't necessary. I get terrible battery life once I open up Aperture 3 and do stuff, I then get half the battery life or worst compared to just have mail, firefox, or even word open.

 

[davegregory]

I'm from Canada, and instead of spending $90 or $100 on the MCE optibay, I bought this from newmodeus.com. It's the same thing, a hard drive caddy and the 9.5" version fits perfectly into any SATA macbook, only it's half the price. Just remember to remove the plastic end cap that comes with it. I used it to install an SSD drive as my boot drive and then a 500gb HDD for iTunes and what not. It worked perfectly and it's super easy to install, especially on unibody macbooks.

 

[cosmokanga2]

Thanks guys. I ordered a optibay last night and picked up another 500GB 7200rpm drive for it. Now if it would just arrive so I can stop moving files between hard drives! This will officially now max out my MacBook Pro in addition to 4GB of RAM I have. Should be good for awhile.