Upgrading '08 MBP Clunker

ifixit.com is probably the best place to get all OEM replacements. so I'd shop for a battery there. I'm guessing it's a SATA II? I would recommend a crucial MX100 SSD. whichever storage capacity you need is up to you? doing those 3 would be a big upgrade in a great way.

maldoror said:

this thing is making all kinds of noise, needs fans cleaned, a new battery, more memory and a SSD.

i need about 500gb. which ssd do you recommend? any adapters or anything i need to get with it to install?

memory...8gb crucial i suppose.
what's the best replacement battery?

thanks

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Early or late 2008? (Unibody or not?) Early 2008's do not support more than 6GB RAM and only use SATA I, so while being an upgrade, a SSD won't really shine in those machines.

I had good results with upgrading my mid-2009 MBP (MacBookPro5,4) now running 8GB RAM and 1TB internal hard drive. Replaced the battery too, about $70 on ebay, used, but less than 20 cycles down, I guess I lucked out there. The only problem I had was Crucial memory was not in stock locally. So, I tried PNY but it would not boot. Had to return the PNY and wait for Crucial RAM to get it running.

maldoror said:

i think i'd like to actually add the SSD in place of the optical.
what do i need to do this. and are all the connections compatible?
i think i read that sata 2 works in the optical but using a 3 will reduce the speed to sata 1?

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so no aftermarket batteries?

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OPTICAL? You mean magnetic... Hard drives are not optical? I got a 1TB internal SATA hard drive, 7200 RPM.

The USED battery I got on EBay was a very good buy. Less than 20 cycles down. The System Profiler shows "Manufacturer: topping-battery" so I guess it is not Apple.

The other problem was with the screw heads for mounting the battery. My MBP required a unique APPLE tool. Tried three equivalents from Amazon Prime, and then iFixit delivered one that worked.

I would recommend buying ifixit's tool kit. I've tried many other brands but none seemed to work as well. Some of the cheaper ones couldn't even turn the screws without stripping thrm .

maldoror said:

will the MX100 work at the full sata 2 speeds? or do i need an actual sata 2 drive like the M500?

is there a data doubler type mount for the crucial drives?

if i mount the drive in the optical bay can it be used as a boot drive or will i have to manually option boot from it?

any other advise on this?

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You can have the SSD in the optical bay without a problem. The connector is a regular SATA one. You only need a caddy to hold the drive in place.

The computer will boot from whichever drive you want, and stay that way until you tell it otherwise.

I have a late '08 unibody. Last year I pulled the optical drive, installed an OWC 256GB SSD in that slot, and bumped the RAM up to 8GB. I left the original HDD in the original bay w/ the rubber bumpers. Note that you will only achieve SATA III speeds w/ the 2008 bus, even if you install a faster SATA drive.

OS was installed on the SSD along with all applications, and the Music, Pictures, and Movies directories were symlinked to the platter drive. I also moved the virtual machines over to the platter drive to keep the SSD at around 50% usage.

It ran Mavericks perfectly, and as of this weekend is also running Yosemite perfectly. Don't get me wrong ... it's not going to be in the same realm as the new rMBP machines, but considering its age I'm honestly surprised at how well it does. It's no problem to have a Linux VM up, a Windows 7 VM up, Photoshop, Xojo, and various other programs simultaneously, and it handles it quite acceptably. Boot times are in the 12 - 15 second range, and most all applications launch within a few bounces at most.

All that said, I did just order a new 2014 rMBP 15". This was my year to upgrade, as 6 years is a bit long in the tooth for my daily use computer. But I won't be selling or giving the 2008 model away ... it runs too well to chuck it for the moment.

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Oh, one more thing. I had the fans replaced by Apple two or three years ago under warranty. The right fan is rattling again, but RPM is consistent so it's not completely dead yet. I did find these replacement fans if you're handy w/ tools:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055U8B1A...TF8&colid=2KMFHY9K1NWN9&coliid=I3OIF7AEV17LBR

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CO5KSI...UTF8&colid=2KMFHY9K1NWN9&coliid=IO172NU8YA4LI

If mine finally goes, I'll be replacing them myself.

I went with the OWC, but honestly the eBay ones are probably just as good. There's really not much to the SD caddy.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

This one has worked perfectly for the last couple of years for me.

Nabooly said:

I would recommend buying ifixit's tool kit. I've tried many other brands but none seemed to work as well. Some of the cheaper ones couldn't even turn the screws without stripping thrm .

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The grades of kit get better. Their new box of bits in the ally case is nice and fits the standard snap on hex drivers and wrenches like mechanics use. I would be far poorer if snap on made tools for the trade - ifixit are pretty good value and are less of a magnet for light fingers stealing my bits!

Optibay only if necessary but removing the logic board means it's not that big and drastic step to clean, re-paste and polish the contact plates of the CPU with and GPU with chrome polish to a flat mirror finish, cleaning all off with kitchen towel till gone then wiping with isopropyl to purify and allowing to dry to before refitting to have it running cool as a cucumber after. If the left speaker side is too warm its something to think about doing.

For a novice or if the Mac runs cool you just get the 8gb ram and mx100 512gb. Removing the screws off the fans, flicking the connector off and cleaning them out will help too if you feel more confident than the much bigger step of removing the logic board and optical drive.

maldoror said:

i'm sorry...i'm not sure exactly what your talking about in regards to 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. are you saying that i have to remove the logic board to install in the optibay? and that while i'm in there a cleaning of the contacts will help reduce heat or something to that effect?

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Yes logic board out for optibay. The MX100 and memory easiest though. New thermal paste and clean plates which go on GPU and CPU will help but progressively more difficult to do and depends on your skills at doing the harder tasks.

I didn't have to remove the logic board to install my optibay from OWC in my 2008 15" MBP. I've got pictures around here somewhere ... let me see if I can dig them up.

Photos below. You can see the logic board was not removed when I installed mine.

Gav Mack said:

Yes logic board out for optibay. The MX100 and memory easiest though. New thermal paste and clean plates which go on GPU and CPU will help but progressively more difficult to do and depends on your skills at doing the harder tasks.

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Wow, you took quite a detour to install an opti-bay, you definitely don't need to take the logicboard out to do it...

Apologies - got my years and models mixed up it was 1am when I hit the sack after :embarrassed: