HD & Ram Upgrades to my 2008 macbook (Need a quick opinion)

The RAM would be a wise decision, although I think 4Gb will also be sufficient enough ( and a lot cheaper 2x 2GB). Also, I'd say an SSD (Vertex 2/3 IMO) is the best way to go. I've done the same to my early 2008 BlackBook.

60GB Vertex 3 SSD + 4GB RAM + Lion. I also did put an optibay in (removing the Optical drive) with another HD (500GB). So two hard drives inside.

SSD will set you back around 100 dollars for low capacity (60GB Vertex 3) and RAM will be like 30-40 dollars?

Congratulations!

I agree that 4GB RAM should be more than enough for most tasks; I upgraded to 8 & never use the additional 4 ....

If you're looking for cheap upgrades then an SSD is not it - they're pretty pricey. If you can afford a decent sized SSD then great, if not then I wonder if a fairly large & modern HDD, with a clean install, wouldn't give you a nice little speed boost & also give you the space to carry everything with you ...

If you have a DVD hanging around, I'd also be inclined to install Leopard / Snow Leopard rather than Lion, as the newer OSes tend to assume you have a powerful CPU. Just my opinion, mind ...

^^^Ignore

Get the 6 GB RAM. It's well documented that 6 runs as well as 4 but 8 is not used and can cause performance to decline. The more RAM, the less you have to access the slowest part of your computer, the drive.

The HD is a different story. There is a real cost difference between SSD and a mechanical HD. The decision usually comes down to how much on board storage you need. If space is important, max out a mechanical HD. if you can get away with a small drive, do the SSD.

I have that exact same macbook and plan to put in 4GB of RAM and an SSD when I have the budget for it. As mentioned above 6GB isn't really worth it, you can use that money for the HD.

Personally I suggest going for SSD and getting a firewire or even USB External drive for storage. That would add to the price of course though.

If you want more speed (although less than an SSD) and still the storage space I suggest looking into 7200 RPM drives rather than 5400. It's not as drastic a boost but it is faster. What you did say above would be able to run it fine as well though if that fits within your budget better. An SSD would handle everything better, of course, but it isn't the only option.

I do wonder though, what are your minecraft settings at? I run the game fine on the exact same mac. I just had to turn the render distance to short (it defaulted at far which lagged me a lot) and the particles down.

mt6272 said:

I probably just need to do what you are suggesting. When I ran it, it was more less to test my systems capabilities, and when I did that everything was set to default.
--------------------------------------------
The consencus seems to be that I should get 4gb ram, and focus on the hard drive... so I will do this. Being that I'm not taking the ssd route for price reasons, this is what i'm considering. It is purportedly a hybrid between ssd and hdd and the amazon reviews seem pretty glowing.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Momentus-7200RPM-Hybrid-ST750LX003/dp/B00691WMJG/ref=pd_cp_e_1

^^Has anyone had experience with one of these or would you recommend it for my budget?

Click to expand...

I have no exact experience with them but a 7200 RPM Hybrid will certainly be faster then the default.

Perfect timing for this thread. I've got a black mac late 07. UPgrading to 500 gb hd but think I need more ram as well. I'm getting the pin wheel quite often now and it's driving me crazy. Run Onyx, CCleaner, reapair permissions, etc but it keeps coming back.

Currently running 4GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM ; will the extra 2 GB get rid of the spinning pinwheel?

Thanks.

Boca said:

Perfect timing for this thread. I've got a black mac late 07. UPgrading to 500 gb hd but think I need more ram as well. I'm getting the pin wheel quite often now and it's driving me crazy. Run Onyx, CCleaner, reapair permissions, etc but it keeps coming back.

Currently running 4GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM ; will the extra 2 GB get rid of the spinning pinwheel?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Depends on usage. Check your activity monitor under the memory tab and post what it says.

mt6272 said:

I have long deliberated since making this thread, and am now considering getting a 120gb ssd & a portable external hard drive.

Can anyone tell me whether these 2 ssds will work with my MacBook (its specs and a link to its detailed specs are located in the original post of this thread)? If they will work, which one seems the best for the money?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236


... Would buying one of these babies be all that I need (or may I need any special tools/enclosures to make the switch?)

Click to expand...

You might be able to save money by buying a SATA II drive. Your macbook can't utilize the speed of SATA III anyway.

Also, to copy your current HDD over it's easiest to:

1) Get an external enclosure
2) Plug the SSD into it
3) Use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the drive over to the SSD
4) Remove the old HDD, put the SSD in

Then all your stuff is on the SSD, no hassle. Plus you can put the old HDD into the enclosure instead of having to buy another hard drive. Assuming you're fine with the amount of space.

mt6272 said:

Thanks aces. Do you know for a fact whether either of the 2 SSDs that I listed will work with my macbook anyway? I have indeed searched for SATA II drives but I can't find any (well reviewed) 120gb drives lower than the price of that 129.99 SATA III drive from Mushkin.

Click to expand...

As far as I know it will still work. The connector is the same, you just won't get anything above SATA II speeds. I see what you mean though about the drives being around the same price range anyway. Plus having a SATA III drive could be helpful if you ever upgrade to a new macbook as you could just pop the SSD into it and pull off the SATA III speeds.

mt6272 said:

Alright,
Now suffice it to say that I do want to replace my optical drive with an opti bay + hdd. How will I go about doing this? I have already found the right parts, but it would help to find a tutorial or some words from someone who has done it before to a similar model macbook. I haven't had luck with googling it yet, and all the youtube tutorials seem to be for late 2008 "unibody" MacBooks and onward.

How much did MacBooks change between my early 2008 model and late 2008? Could I just go off of someones advise for one of those MacBooks?

Click to expand...

Chacnes are the internals are similar but I've never done an optidrive and I don't plan to do it so not much help I can offer there. Closest thing I can find is:

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook_13_opt_h/

Which shows how to replace the optical drive. I imagine combining this (as far as how to get in / what to expect combined with one of the other guides would do. However you'd certainly want to have everything prepared before you go and open up the computer.