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    Optibay - heat?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by ifti, Jun 18, 2010.

  1. ifti

    ifti Undiscovered

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    At the moment I have a 240GB SSD in my MBP.
    Im considering purchasing an Optibay to install a second 500GB HDD to use as storage space for iMovie projects etc. At the moment I use an external HDD via Firewire800.
    I very rarely use CD/DVDs any more TBH.

    The only concern I have is the added heat.
    For those that have an optibay drive, did you notice an increase in heat from the system?
    Also, did you notice a reduction in battery life?

    Thanks.
     
    ifti, Jun 18, 2010
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  2. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    Yes, you will have a lower battery life, you're running two harddrives instead of just one.

    As for heat, where the drive is it will be physically hotter on the case, but I can't say if it will increase the cpu heat or not.
     
    sulkorp, Jun 19, 2010
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  3. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    I haven noticed no additional heat.

    as for battery life...a little less. I created a couple of automator processes that allow me to dismount my 500GB HDD when I'm not using it.

    I've not actually timed what my battery life is like with or without the HDD mounted. Might give it a try later and report back.
     
    ajreynol, Jun 19, 2010
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  4. E30kid

    E30kid Notebook Deity

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    You're adding an HDD, so there has to be some of heat increase when you are pulling files from the HDD.

    Battery life will decrease most likely, unless the superdrive operates at a higher idle power consumption than the HDD.
     
    E30kid, Jun 19, 2010
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  5. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    I've not noticed more than a few minutes of loss. this is probably why:

    WD Scorpio Blue Power Dissipation

    Read/Write 2.50 Watts
    Idle 0.85 Watts
    Standby 0.25 Watts
    Sleep 0.10 Watts

    she's using less than a watt most of the time.
     
    ajreynol, Jun 19, 2010
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  6. E30kid

    E30kid Notebook Deity

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    Did you guys mount the HDD in the optibay or the primary bay? Is the secondary bay bootable?
     
    E30kid, Jun 19, 2010
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  7. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    I have my HDD in the primary bay. SSD in the Superdrive bay.
     
    ajreynol, Jun 19, 2010
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  8. E30kid

    E30kid Notebook Deity

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    I assume that you boot off of the SSD, so the Superdrive bay is bootable.
     
    E30kid, Jun 19, 2010
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