On the iMac there is some thermal sensor that connects to the hard drive and makes this a bit tricky since non-Apple SSDs don't have that feature. Is this true for the 2011 MacBook Pros?
MacBook – Do the 2011 MacBook Pros support a user-installed SSD in place of the HD
macbook prossd
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From the Manual for the 13inch, here is a picture that shows you where the IR port is located.
The two processors Seem to be:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=50067
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52219
and the differences are more than just clock speed - the faster one also has faster memory bandwidth, along with plain old 'more features' such as VT-d Virtualization for directed IO, Execute disable, Quicksync video, wireless display, mywifi, 4G wimax... but what it means for those things to have built in support in the CPU, I don't know.
I'd predict that the memory bandwidth, which is about 20% higher in the faster chip, would have more of an observable effect than the 10% faster CPU, but that unless you have an intensive use planned the difference wont be worth much worrying about.
Far better to look at an SSD instead of a normal hard disk, that will provide a big shift in the feel of how responsive everything is - the hard disk is the biggest bottleneck in normal computers these days. (Where a hard disk can shift 20-40Mb/s sustained, an SSD can shift 100-200Mb/s sustained. Where a hard disk can handle 100 operations per second, an SSD can handle many hundreds or a few thousands).
For which types of applications will the different graphics cards have an observable effect in performance?
- Graphics heavy games, racing and running around shooting, flying and the like (not cards, dice, board, web/flash games, etc).
- Graphics heavy apps like architecture modelling, 3D scene rendering, Pixar style film rendering.
- Currently niche apps which make use of the graphics card as a spare processor - at the moment this means things like distributed computing project SETI@Home, and PowerDirector 7 video encoding software. However, there is a push in the industry to make this more widespread, but that's probably still too far away from every day uses to bother about for another year or three.
My vote is that unless you have a particular intensive workkload or unusual use which you haven't mentioned, the 2.0Ghz will be fine, and if you can spare the money then see if you can find a machine with a good SSD to compare, and consider one as an upgrade, for an everyday snappiness boost. (Apple supplied, or aftermarket).
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Best Answer
I replaced the stock 500GB 5400rpm hard drive in my Early 2011 Mac Book Pro (MacBook Pro 8,2) with a 120GB OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD a few weeks ago. There was no thermal sensor attached to the stock drive. So far the replacement has worked fine, no issues at all.
Hardware Monitor application reports the temperature of the SSD, so the computer must be properly polling the internal temp sensor in the drive (over the SATA interface,) and/or there may be a permanent sensor attached near the drive on the inside of the MacBook Pro's case. (But not actually attached to the drive.)
Screen capture of output from Hardware Monitor:
There was no difference in the software install process (vs. a regular hard drive.) In fact, I used 2 external cases (and a 3rd, separate, bootable drive) to do a block copy from the original 500GB to the new 120GB SSD. No issues.
About TRIM support: The drive itself is capable of it (See "TRIM Support" at the bottom of the specs page for this drive.), however, Mac OS X 10.8.2 does not support TRIM for this drive, at this time. The drive vendor OWC says you don't need TRIM anyway because SandForce's firmware makes it unnecessary or even counterproductive. I agree with their explanation.
Screen cap from my System Profiler:
As another data point on SSDs -- I had a 60GB OWC Mercury 3G SSD in a 2009 Mac Mini for about 3 years, never had any problems with it whatsoever.
2013-04-30 UPDATE -- I had some firmware problems with the new 120 GB OWC Mercury 6G drive. The drive would not be recognized at system startup time without doing multiple (10 or more) PRAM & SMC resets. Finally it would "catch on" & then start up and run fine for weeks. Eventually it stopped responding altogether. (OWC had suggested that I apply a firmware update, but I wasn't able to do this because I don't have a working DVD reader / writer.)
I am returning the drive to OWC for a warranty replacement. It always pays to BACK UP YOUR DATA every single day, or even several times a day.