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Memory Leak Geek
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎07-22-2012
2

2011 MacBook Pro - SSD in optical bay - READ BEFORE ATTEMPTING

I've seen a lot of posts around the forum regarding poor SSD performance that do not mention the known issue/limitation described below.  For all of us installing a SATA 3 6Gb/s capable drive into the optical bay of the last generation (2011) MacBook Pro's, the following articles are a must-read:

 

MacBook Pro 2011 Models and SATA 3.0 (6.0Gb/s) – Update – 5/27/2011

Apple’s Latest 2011 MacBook Pro Refresh & Using SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s Drives

 

After buying the 17" MBP and installing two 512GB m4's (both updated with 000f firmware), I was extremely disappointed to learn that I was pretty much out-of-luck with the second drive (I had searched the Crucial forums, but saw no specific mention).  Luckily, OWC provides some insight... in short:

 

  • MacBook Pro 13” October/2011 models (2.4GHz and 2.8GHz)
    Main Drive Bay = 6Gb/s Good
    Optical Bay with Data Doubler = 6Gb/s Good
  • MacBook Pro 15” October/2011 models (2.2GHz, 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz)
    Main Drive Bay = 6Gb/s Good
    Optical Bay with Data Doubler = 3Gb/s Drives only, not stable for 6Gb/s capable drives
  • MacBook Pro 17” October/2011 models (2.4GHz and 2.5GHz)
    Main Drive Bay = 6Gb/s Good
    Optical Bay with Data Doubler = 3Gb/s Drives only, not stable for 6Gb/s capable drives

As my secondary drive is not a bootable drive, it is still workable; however, I get SWODs and other very slow performance any time any kind of search or index function is attempted.  Reading more into the initial trouble with the shielding of the SATA cable in the main bay, I attempted a fix myself: I completely encased both drives and SATA connections in a custom faraday cage (using DFAR-compliant 200 mesh .0021 aluminum) to eliminate any and all EF / RF interference that seemed to be at the root of the problem.  

 

On initial installation, the shielding caused my boot drive (main bay) to no longer respond.  After some troubleshooting, I found that removing only the shielding I made around the SATA cable resolved the issue.  This makes sense, as Apple had released EFI 2.2, which resolved most 6gB/s issues for the main bay.  I'm assuming that the firmware update managed to implement some phase-cancelling interference detection directly on the controller, meaning that by adding shielding I had actually reduced the noise too much.  The drive itself is still encased in the mesh - safe from EMP's, at least.  Smiley Happy

 

On the other hand, the same treatment of the drive in the optical bay had no noticeable effect.  In this instance, we can assume that there is an issue with the supposed 6gB/s SATA controller for this bay, or perhaps a run of bad SATA flex cables.  I have yet to inquire with Apple for a solution, but I have heard that some people have had luck after sending the Mac in for service.

 

The real issue here, however, is that any drive capable of full SATA 3 bandwidth is seemingly incompatible in both the 15" and 17" MBP optical drive bay.  So the question becomes one for Crucial support - can an m4 firmware installer be made available that actually decreases throughput to 3gB/s SATA 2 speeds?  These devices have all been successful in the given scenario.  It is fair that Apple should own this issue, but it is less likely that they will provide a fix.

 

Also, some on this forum have reported success with the 0309 firmware with similar issues, but I see no common thread with the type of computer used...  Can any technician of Crucial comment, given the information above, if this would in fact resolve any issues (does this firmware change the SATA II/III negotiation handling)?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  I'll provide more info if I find a resolution.  Hopefully someone at Crucial monitors this board and can answer the above.

JEDEC Jedi
Posts: 8,526
Registered: ‎08-27-2009
0

Re: 2011 MacBook Pro - SSD in optical bay - READ BEFORE ATTEMPTING

in reply to failureinc

I'm afraid I can't answer the question re: firmware but just wanted to post a comment thanking you for this very good info.

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Memory Leak Geek
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎07-22-2012
0

Re: 2011 MacBook Pro - SSD in optical bay - READ BEFORE ATTEMPTING

[ Edited ]
in reply to targetbsp

You're very welcome, thanks for the kind words.

 

As an addendum that I failed to mention in the original post, I did previously have both of these drives installed in my 2009/9 17" MBP, 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo in the exact same configuration.  They worked flawlessly on that machine, even though it had SATA II controllers.  When I initially discovered my issue on the newer model, I replaced them in the old model just to confirm it wasn't anything to do with the drives themselves.

 

I am still troubleshooting the issue and will post more soon.  In the meantime, I haven't yet put Mountain Lion through its paces - it was suggested to me that the new OS might perform better with this setup.

 

Further, I found some useful info on TRIM Enabler (which I had been previously using), here:

http://digitaldj.net/2011/07/21/trim-enabler-for-lion/

 

I'll replace the .kext that TRIM Enabler changed with the original from Apple, then update with these steps.  More to come...

Memory Leak Geek
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎07-22-2012
0

Re: 2011 MacBook Pro - SSD in optical bay - READ BEFORE ATTEMPTING

[ Edited ]
in reply to failureinc

Okay, so I think Mountain Lion may be the solution - initial testing all shows similar results to the SSD installed in the main bay!

 

Running BlackMagic's Speed Test, I was able to consistently get 512 MB/s reads and rougly 300 MB/s writes.  Activity Monitor confirmed these results (with both 1 and 5 GB tests).

 

Using Spotlight Privacy to index both drives repeatedly, performance was consistent.  The SSD in the optical bay indexed in ~10 minutes, while the main drive (with a fresh install of OS 10.8 only) took ~6 min.  As the SSD has half of its 512 GB used by fairly large audio files, I'd say that it may have even outperformed the OS drive in this task (which would be expected).  

 

Also - and the biggest tell here - is that in addition to stable read/write speeds, there was no long SWOD or pauses.  Several attempts at indexing in 10.6 Snow Leopard and 10.7 Lion all went well past the 12-hour mark and still had not completed (Activity Monitor would drop to 0 MB/s read for several minutes or hours at a time).

 

As a follow-up to my last post, I did NOT use the TRIM Enabler app, but instead followed the instructions to modify a system kernel extension supplied by digitaldj.net. TRIM is now showing as enabled for both drives.  I should also mention that I did the same task and stopped / removed the app in Lion, but the results did not change.

 

FYI - the recommendation that 10.8 might resolve the issue was hinted at by an Apple-qualified tech, who mentioned there had been some behind-the-scenes optimizations for SSD's in-general.

 

I've not ruled out the issue 100%, but I will say that it does look promising.  Hopefully whatever changes were made to 10.8 find their way to a 10.7.5 / EFI update soon - I'm still not ready to fully work in Mountain Lion yet.

 

I'll update again if anything changes or I see a stall or drop in speed, but I'm quite energized with the initial results!

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