SSD drive old MacBook Pro

dobbs2210

I've got an old 2008 MacBook pro and I would like to give it a boost of juice so I was wondering about the all round benefits of getting a computer shop to install a solid state drive into the MacBook. How much difference would it make? How big of a SSD drive should I add and also would adding ram memory be beneficial? Thanks in advance for any advice.

TBi

Adding an SSD will make a massive difference. I'd also add ram. One thing to note is that those laptops can usually take more RAM than apple says they can. I put 8GB into a macbook where apple said the max was 4GB.

Be careful about choice of ssd's though. I used a crucial MX200 and my friend has a BX200. Some of the samsung drives aren't compatible with older macbooks which could cause intermittent crashing.

drunkmonkey

Do the job yourself and put the extra money toward a bigger SSD, read this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057543426 , exact same procedure with a mac book pro and the Samsung software work with mac as well, I put a new 1TB evo in mine and only regret is I didn't do it years ago but was waiting on the price to drop.
Currently 143 for a 500GB Samsung Evo http://www.curiua.com/p/samsung-ssd-850-evo-500gb-mz-75e500b-eu/0758399113213

If you don't have a portable hard drive you can swap the drive out of for an hour or two just get one of these for 5.99, http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Portable-USB-2-0-to-IDE-2-5-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-External-Enclosure-Case-Caddy-/111567955118?hash=item19f9f7e4ae:g:t4oAAOSw7I5Tr8~j

That's all you need, the ssd (comes with the software), the hard drive enclosure and a small Philips screw driver.

When you've it all done you can use your old hard drive in the hard drive enclosure as back up drive or for extra storage.

If your going to add ram only use apple certified ram, I found that out the hard way, do the ssd first and see do you even need extra ram, probably not.

dobbs2210

Thanks for the info guys. Definitely going to do this to my MacBook pro. Wouldn't feel confident doing it myself. With my mid 2009 MacBook pro can I install a SSD and keep the hard drive as well? Would that ..ean I would have to get rid of the DVD drive??

drunkmonkey

It's a simple job, you won't be touching the inside of the laptop, turn your Mac book upside down and you'll see the screws just place the screws out as you took them out as I think 3 at the bottom are a different length than the rest. Literally if you can use a screwdriver your capable of doing it, the chap in that thread was in the same boat as you, no confidence he could do it but it really is simple, you'll have all the stuff on the new hard drive before you even turn a scew, I'd estimate taking off the bottom of the laptop installing the new hard drive into it as no more than a 15minute job. There's no where you could really go wrong.

dobbs2210

drunkmonkey wrote: »

It's a simple job, you won't be touching the inside of the laptop, turn your Mac book upside down and you'll see the screws just place the screws out as you took them out as I think 3 at the bottom are a different length than the rest. Literally if you can use a screwdriver your capable of doing it, the chap in that thread was in the same boat as you, no confidence he could do it but it really is simple, you'll have all the stuff on the new hard drive before you even turn a scew, I'd estimate taking off the bottom of the laptop installing the new hard drive into it as no more than a 15minute job. There's no where you could really go wrong.

Thanks, I'll have a go at it so. Fingers crosssed. What about the current hard drive, does that have to cone out or can I leave that in the Macbook, would that mean I'd lose the DVD drive?

TBi

You'd usually take out the old one and replace with the new one. You'll need to either install from scratch or clone your old hard drive.

Best practice is to
1. make a OSX bootable usb disk,
2. install new hdd
3. Install old hdd into a usb enclosure
4. install from scratch
5. then at a certain point in the install you can restore data from your old HDD

TBi

Mr.S wrote: »

Also max out the ram (use http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/apple-memory) and you'll see a decent step up in terms of performance.

Just note that crucial tell you the recommended max approved by apple. Most of the laptops will take more.

dobbs2210

Did it myself, very good advice on this forum. Absolutely delighted the Macbook is flying since I installed a Samsung Evo Pro 512gb.

Just out of curiosity would my macbook perform even faster if I installed a second SSD drive to replace the super DVD drive. Would it make much overall difference to the performance?

Doodah7

dobbs2210 wrote: »

Did it myself, very good advice on this forum. Absolutely delighted the Macbook is flying since I installed a Samsung Evo Pro 512gb.

Just out of curiosity would my macbook perform even faster if I installed a second SSD drive to replace the super DVD drive. Would it make much overall difference to the performance?

I replaced the superdrive with a SSD in my mid-2012 MBP and haven't noticed a significant improvement in speed. I do think that battery life has improved and I'm not sure why? I use the second drive for ITunes and it has improved my user experience already. Although it shows what a behemoth ITunes has become that it still stutters occasionally albeit dealing with a c. 100GB library of over 18,500 songs.

dobbs2210

tallpaul wrote: »

I replaced the superdrive with a SSD in my mid-2012 MBP and haven't noticed a significant improvement in speed. I do think that battery life has improved and I'm not sure why? I use the second drive for ITunes and it has improved my user experience already. Although it shows what a behemoth ITunes has become that it still stutters occasionally albeit dealing with a c. 100GB library of over 18,500 songs.

Do you have 2 SSD drives installed or just one? I'm thinking about adding a second SSD to Mac but just wondering how much difference would adding a second to it make??

glack

tallpaul wrote: »

I replaced the superdrive with a SSD in my mid-2012 MBP and haven't noticed a significant improvement in speed. I do think that battery life has improved and I'm not sure why? I use the second drive for ITunes and it has improved my user experience already. Although it shows what a behemoth ITunes has become that it still stutters occasionally albeit dealing with a c. 100GB library of over 18,500 songs.

Are you just using your SSD as a secondary drive? Or did you also replace the main hard drive? You'll only notice performance boosts if you replaced the primary hard drive and not really if you just added it as a secondary drive.. Some users replaced their main hard drive with an SSD and then used the old hard drive as a secondary storage area.

I replaced the hard drive in my mid 2012 MBP and the difference is unbelievable. Boots quicker than when I first bought it and its so quiet. The fans only run when I'm coding videos or other heavy duty tasks.

drunkmonkey

dobbs2210 wrote: »

Do you have 2 SSD drives installed or just one? I'm thinking about adding a second SSD to Mac but just wondering how much difference would adding a second to it make??

Absolutely no difference adding another SSD. Good man on chancing it yourself.

Doodah7

I have 2 SSD's in the computer. My main drive with the OS is a 512GB Crucial SSD while I put a 240 GB Crucial SSD in place of the disc drive. Thus a total if 750GB of SSD storage. I also have a Nifty sd adaptor with a 128GB micro SD card in the SD slot.