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best Solid State Drive replacement for 2010 MacBook Pro 17 inch

I'm researching solid state drives for my old 2010 MBP. Any advice on what would be best would be much appreciated. Currently running a 2.5inch Hitachi HTS545050B9Sa02 (5400 rpm/500gb Sata); type TS5SAA500 (sep-10). Top runners are:


Samsung - 870 EVO 1TB SATA 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive ($99 at best buy; 5 year warranty)


1TB OWC Mercury Electra 3G 2.5-inch Serial-ATA 7mm Solid-state Drive ($97.76; 3 year warranty)


Any advice would be much appreciated.

MacBook Pro 17″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 15, 2022 4:18 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 15, 2022 7:03 PM

I thought I posted something earlier, but for SATA SSDs I'm rather partial to the virtually identical SanDisk Ultra 3D and Western Digital Blue 3D, where I have both in different applications. They've been flawless for me. The WD may only be sold as "WD Blue SATA SSD" now, but it still uses 3D NAND flash.



If Best Buy is convenient for you, they have the 1TB WD Blue now for $84.99. There should be no reason why it wouldn't work well, and had zero problem setting it up, although I'm not sure if the version I bought in 2019 may be different somehow.


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-blue-1tb-sata-2-5-internal-solid-state-drive/6025900.p?skuId=6025900


The other thing is that the SATA ribbon connector in some Unibody MacBook Pros can have issues because they're really thin and snake around corners. This seems to especially cause issues with SSDs when the insulator layer might be damaged. Some recommend replacing them. This was especially bad with the mid-2012 13" model, but supposedly this can cause problems with all models. I heard as a matter of course, Apple used to replace these (with an upgraded version of the ribbon connector) when a Unibody MBP was in for any service. Some have done their own hacks using electrical tape to prevent any exposed metal from contacting the case.


Diagnosing MacBook Pro Hard Drive Cable F… - Apple Community



Someone mentioned Samsungs. I've heard that sometimes they have issues with their firmware, which needs to be updated to work in Macs. Not sure if they have Mac software to do that though.

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6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 15, 2022 7:03 PM in response to NotNecessaryAgain

I thought I posted something earlier, but for SATA SSDs I'm rather partial to the virtually identical SanDisk Ultra 3D and Western Digital Blue 3D, where I have both in different applications. They've been flawless for me. The WD may only be sold as "WD Blue SATA SSD" now, but it still uses 3D NAND flash.



If Best Buy is convenient for you, they have the 1TB WD Blue now for $84.99. There should be no reason why it wouldn't work well, and had zero problem setting it up, although I'm not sure if the version I bought in 2019 may be different somehow.


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-blue-1tb-sata-2-5-internal-solid-state-drive/6025900.p?skuId=6025900


The other thing is that the SATA ribbon connector in some Unibody MacBook Pros can have issues because they're really thin and snake around corners. This seems to especially cause issues with SSDs when the insulator layer might be damaged. Some recommend replacing them. This was especially bad with the mid-2012 13" model, but supposedly this can cause problems with all models. I heard as a matter of course, Apple used to replace these (with an upgraded version of the ribbon connector) when a Unibody MBP was in for any service. Some have done their own hacks using electrical tape to prevent any exposed metal from contacting the case.


Diagnosing MacBook Pro Hard Drive Cable F… - Apple Community



Someone mentioned Samsungs. I've heard that sometimes they have issues with their firmware, which needs to be updated to work in Macs. Not sure if they have Mac software to do that though.

best Solid State Drive replacement for 2010 MacBook Pro 17 inch

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