So unfortunately I have a 2013 MacPro. Its slow and crap. I was thinking of putting as SSD in it. I was wondering if anyone had any success just simply installing an SSD then installing Windows on it? Is it really that easy? Once I back it up I might try it but just wondering if someone was able to provide me with some advice. Thanks in advance, cheers!
i have a hard time believing a mac pro can be slow, and i guess you mean a macbook pro.
but for the case you mean the actual mac pro:
for the windows part bootcamp is your answer, for the ssd part... you're pretty locked down with your trash can. (no sata, no e-sata, probably proprietary msata SSD inside)
if you meant macbook pro: if you dont have luck finding help here, i suggest tweeting @barnacules, he did some tinkering to his macbook pro.
Yeah sorry I meant MacBook Pro.
I'll try tweeting him and see if he's got any ideas. I have a feeling that it won't be that easy but not sure, cheers!
I have not installed an SSD in a mac, however OS X has bootcamp, which allows easy installations of Windows. Putting Windows on a Mac is very simple. Be sure to give the Windows partition enough space. On my iMac at home I gave it about 200GB's, its not enough for what I needed.
Your 2013 Macbook Pro is slow? I guess you got the 13 inch non Retina Macbook Pro with the 5400rpm hard-drive. You can swap this out. In fact, Unbox Therapy did a video on this where he took out his Macbook's hard-drive and optical drive and replaced them with two SSD's, which he of course put into a RAID 0 configuration. Here is the video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDXSDnEv9uY&list=PL7u4lWXQ3wfJPdfLF-PICgkRbW9F1z1FV&index=3&spfreload=10
I have a 2008 hand-me-down macbook. It's not my main machine. It was ridiculously slow. Putting an SSD in made it semi-usable but if I am doing too much on it, it will occasionally lock up.
2008 with a modern SSD does NOT work well under load. Watch out for that. 2013, if you can change the drive, probably doesn't have that issue but worth double checking.
OP you said "installing an SSD - and then installing Windows on it"
You made no mention of keeping your original Mac OS X. Do you need to keep OS X on it?
Installing Windows as your only OS:
You can, since the hardware is essentially 100% windows compatible.
Windows 8 installs very easily and will get almost all the drivers working right from the get go. I think Eyesight camera and maybe bluetooth chipset you have to go driver hunting. Might have to driver hunt for Thunderbolt - but I believe Windows 8 doesn't have any problems there if I recall correctly.
Windows 7 is a bit of a pain - but again just go driver hunting and you'll get it working 100%.
Both of those OS's can be installed just as easily as installing on a PC.
Boot and hold Option to get boot menu - boot into installation CD - format and install OS.
Once you're done the machine will boot straight into windows without any issue because it'll be the only OS on the SSD.
If you're keeping Mac OS X on the drive then the most common suggestion is to Boot Camp. Easy enough as the wizard is built right into Mac OS X. Only need installation media.
Note: I'm historically a PC user, but have been supporting Mac workstations for 2yrs in a corporate media/print environment. If you have any Q's - don't hesitate.