MCE intros 1TB hard drive kit for 17-inch MacBook Pros

No stranger to taking Macs beyond their standard issue capabilities, MCE has now pulled yet another entirely unofficial trick out of its hat, with this one giving 17-inch MacBook Pro owners a significant storage boost. As with some of its other mods, this one replaces the MacBook Pro's optical drive with a 2.5-inch hard drive (500GB in this case) and, to hit the magical 1TB mark, it also replaces the laptop's standard hard drive with another matching 5,400 rpm 500GB drive. To ensure none of that original hardware goes to waste, the kit also includes external USB 2.0 enclosures for both the original hard drive and the optical drive, although we wouldn't expect any less given that the kit costs a hefty $800 (or more if you want MCE to install it for you).

[Via PC World]

[helloUser @ May 13th 2008 5:37PM]

How is it a '1 Terabyte Hard Drive' (meaning single) if it replaces both the standard HD and the optical for two hard drives (meaning, plural) ???

Kind of exaggerated claim, dont you think...?

[Macha88 @ May 13th 2008 6:52PM]

Its a 1TB hard drive KIT... a 2GB RAM KIt is usually more than one RAM stick right?

[Luke @ May 13th 2008 5:40PM]

500MB?

Do my eyes deceive me?

[Andrew @ May 13th 2008 6:55PM]

I was going to mention I had a 500MB hard drive in my old IBM Thinkpad (360CSE no less!)

Otherwise, don't Dells and Thinkpads have this already, something about ultraports or something. I know dells did it with batteries.

[max654000 @ May 13th 2008 5:40PM]

For MacBooks anytime soon? haha

[Stranger @ May 14th 2008 4:18AM]

This will most likely fit on any normal Macbook as well since it's only a piece of plastic to make a hard drive fit in the same space as an optical drive. This has been standard on Thinkpads for the last 7-8 years.

[Ryan @ May 13th 2008 5:40PM]

Seriously! I have made this comment multiple times the past few days but who the fuck is proof-reading Engadget?!

"this one replaces the MacBook Pro's optical drive with a 2.5-inch hard drive (500MB in this case)"

I mean seriously, it is not rocket science to read an article at least one time before publishing it!

[Slyk @ May 15th 2008 2:46AM]

^ shut up.

[01 @ May 13th 2008 6:35PM]

I was going to mention the same thing, but a bit more tactfully...

[tiuk @ May 13th 2008 6:51PM]

Seriously!

;)

[nVidiot @ May 13th 2008 5:44PM]

It's a "1tb hard drive KIT".

It's a kit that makes your total hard drive space on your MBP 1tb.

The most you can configure an MBP for is 300gb if I recall.

Engadget is just re-using the same terms that MCE are using.

Anyways, this :"kit" might be crap, but don't blame Engadget for MCE's marketing speak.

[Nick @ May 13th 2008 5:45PM]

500MB??? that's like standard 1995 junk!

[Scott Feit @ May 13th 2008 8:03PM]

500 GB, not MB.

[Nick @ May 13th 2008 8:13PM]

To Scott:

Until just recently corrected, the moron that wrote the article (probably on his iPhone) didn't proof read his blog. He wrote 500MB instead of writing the correct 500GB.

Your comment is just a bit slow on the draw there. ;p

[dan @ May 13th 2008 6:12PM]

You've been able to replace a Thinkpad optical drive with a second hard-drive for a while.

[fieldcar @ May 13th 2008 5:50PM]

Oddly, the graphic looks like a 3d perspective mapped texture placed over a drive tray. I call Photoshop shenanigans!

I agree with ryan here, a single run of proofreading would have caught it. But if you must know, I didn't proofread this post.

[chickenator @ May 13th 2008 5:49PM]

yay 500MB, my CD is higher in capacity than that, no thanks.

[Pochi @ May 13th 2008 5:51PM]

CD prices have fallen, you can go get more than that one you've got there.

[Nick @ May 13th 2008 5:50PM]

Should be a 1TB (500GB x2) Hard Drives Kit. Kind a misleading imho. Anyhoo. it's not really big news considering 500GB hard drives are already being made. Just requires some fancy plastic work. Dell did this with my Inspiron 7500 back in 2000.

[Theo Detweiller @ May 13th 2008 6:10PM]

Wait... is there a 500GB 2,5" UltraATA drive? or they're just using an adapter?

[Theo Detweiller @ May 13th 2008 6:12PM]

Lesson of the day: RTFA. They're just using an adapter.

[Brian @ May 13th 2008 6:12PM]

ooh! Christmas came early this year!

[webman @ May 14th 2008 4:43PM]

http://www.algarvegolftravel.com
wow i wish i could get this baby in my macbook pro now it looks so cool

[Lee @ May 13th 2008 7:06PM]

ZFS could create a instance that spans both drives.

[BorisBorf @ May 13th 2008 6:26PM]

No... The article is titled wrong. This mod is actually about how to get your MacBook to store 500.5gb.

The 500mb is for nostalgia sake and the 500gb is for real work.

[Michael LaFramboise @ May 13th 2008 6:28PM]

Just one question... why go though all the trouble... would it not be easier to just hook up the external 500gb HD via FW400/800? --- I mean since you're already caring the optical drive externally... :/

I'd MAYBE consider this for my MPB, but for 800? hahahaha, come on, I can get 4TB external for that much :/

[Raymond @ May 13th 2008 7:56PM]

It’s useful.

There’s less chance using the SuperDrive.
So swap the SuperDrive for a Hard Drive makes sense.
You could do an Internal RAID 0 for both the capacity and performance benefits. Backup could be taken care by Time Machine to an External Drive or Time Capsule or a AFP Share Folder.

MCE has the OptiBay Kit for MacBook and MacBook Pro 15” too.
The difference is that they use 9.5mm SuperDrive, so the largest Hard Drive they can swap inside is an 250GB IDE Drive.

[blackfeathers @ May 13th 2008 6:34PM]

it's cheating.

might as well just get an external 1tb drive without sacrificing any piece of hardware. then you'll have over 1tb, your optical drive, & original hard drive -a simpler & more practical solution.

[Jon Doe. @ May 13th 2008 6:45PM]

Meh. Wake me when there is a 2.5" 500GB 7200RPM drive. This is interesting but data recovery would be a colossal bitch unless you get a 1TB external drive to go with it. To be honest I would rather have this thing do a RAID 1 mirroring "just in case"

[Scott @ May 13th 2008 8:06PM]

Why isn't this for the 15" MBPs?

[Raymond @ May 13th 2008 8:22PM]

There are a 250GB Product for the MacBook Pro 15"

So you can use a SATA 320GB Hard Drive + a 250GB IDE Hard Drive in the OptiBay.

[Fed @ May 13th 2008 8:43PM]

5400 RPM...lame

I'll stick with my 200GB 7200 drive. Thanks but no thanks.

[AlphaTeam @ May 13th 2008 9:29PM]

$800? I think I'll spend the extra $200 and get myself a Blu-ray burner and some rewritable discs instead!

I'll pass.

[contractcooker @ May 14th 2008 1:10PM]

you can by just the enclosure for $99 and get the hard drives from newegg or some such place.

[Rick @ May 13th 2008 10:50PM]

I have one of their kits and I love it. I run Mac OS on my 17" MacBook Pro all the time and boot Windows under VMWare when I have to. I used to run VMWare off an external HDD but it was a real pain picking the mess up to go to meetings. Now, I get the performance boost of running VMWare off a second HDD while not having the risk of yanking a cable out when I need to move.

Btw, I just purchased the MCE mount for $99 and added my own drive that I got from Newegg.

[Spiritusindomit @ May 14th 2008 1:33AM]

Call me when they release one for the macbook air (lawsuit pending by michael jordan)

[foxfoobar @ May 17th 2008 6:14AM]

Damn guys, this is so stoopid, unbelievable. It's just a regular Multibay with a regular 160/250/320/500GB disk in it. A 100 bucks for a piece of plastic? Yeah sure!

[kal326 @ May 14th 2008 9:48AM]

With some many people complaining about a GB versus MB typo, did nobody noticed the price tag? $800 for a 2 x500 drives and some plastic, even 2.5 drives? That's a bit pricey....oh wait, its for a Mac never mind......

[Seunghan Nam @ May 14th 2008 9:19PM]

i also have this hard drive kit in my macbook pro core duo.

I am not very impressed, it's simply a device that allows you to have additional hard drive.

What's inside is PATA drive, not SATA drive, so it's more expensive, whether you buy the drive from MCE or newegg.

i am just surprised to find there is 500gb PATA 2.5 drive. This is quite difficult to find. 2.5 SATA is quite easy to find, and there are many deals. But when it comes to PATA....

Last time I contacted them about PATA, they were like "didn't you know?" And I was like, don't you have to specify clearly in your product page? If I had known this beforehand, I would not have purchased the kit. I would have purchased airport extreme 500gb, something like that.

They told me that they are looking to find an adapter, but I am not sure if it had arrived. Anyway, it's not a cost effective way to increase your hard drive. If you max out your SATA and then still need more space, this is the only internal option. Or you can use something like NAS, airdisk etc.

[DrTheopolis @ May 14th 2008 8:20PM]

I bought one of MCE hard drives to replace the optical drive last year. It worked great, especially for my heavy Photoshop usage... but the CD/DVD drive —once removed from my MacBookPro and placed in the external case they supplied— never worked. Ultimately had to return the internal drive to MCE and re-install my old CD/DVD back into my laptop.

MCE tech support could not have been nicer or more responsive, though.

[Pete Steege @ May 15th 2008 6:04PM]

1 TB in a laptop? Ya gotta love video! Video content will continue to push the storage needs for desktop and notebook. But where will it be backed up?