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160gb SSD in a 2007 MBP. What would you do?

A

ab2650

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 21, 2007
714
0
Howdy Folks,

I can't make up my mind, so I come to you for your opinion. Here's the deal:

I recently came into ownership of a 160gb Kingston SSD drive (rebadged Intel X-25M). I wouldn't have dropped the $650 they ask for it, but Buy.com recently mispriced the 160gb for the 80gb price ($350).

Now I'm faced with the dilemma of what to do with it... If I decided to use it, I'd put it in a 2007 MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo, 2.16Ghz, not the unibody.) The task to change the drive doesn't bother me all too much, but I still have 7 months of AppleCare left. The other option is to sell it and make a decent profit.

So what would you do Mac Rumors? Make about $300 or give the MBP a hot upgrade, albeit at some minor risk?
 
ab2650 said:
Howdy Folks,

I can't make up my mind, so I come to you for your opinion. Here's the deal:

I recently came into ownership of a 160gb Kingston SSD drive (rebadged Intel X-25M). I wouldn't have dropped the $650 they ask for it, but Buy.com recently mispriced the 160gb for the 80gb price ($350).

Now I'm faced with the dilemma of what to do with it... If I decided to use it, I'd put it in a 2007 MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo, 2.16Ghz, not the unibody.) The task to change the drive doesn't bother me all too much, but I still have 7 months of AppleCare left. The other option is to sell it and make a decent profit.

So what would you do Mac Rumors? Make about $300 or give the MBP a hot upgrade, albeit at some minor risk?
Click to expand...

Sell it; no boot camp support and you can be sure these things are due for some price drops soon enough :cool:
 
You're not going to get the full benefits of the drive because you don't have a SATA2 connection but it will still be fast.

This is the biggest reason I haven't upgraded to SSD's yet.
 
It would boost the performance, but it would also be a waste of the speed; see if you can sell it for a profit and then in a few months when a bigger capacity drive comes out, buy that.
 
m1stake said:
I'd keep it, it's the best way to tangibly speed up your computer, bar none.
Click to expand...

Agreed - putting in that SSD will make it seriously fast. If you're doing stuff on your MBP that is more CPU bound than disk bound then you might not feel the benefit though. I was considering an X25-M but decided 80Gb is too small and the 160Gb too expensive.. just upgraded to a Scorpio Black until prices come down... :(
 
shreddy said:
Agreed - putting in that SSD will make it seriously fast. If you're doing stuff on your MBP that is more CPU bound than disk bound then you might not feel the benefit though. I was considering an X25-M but decided 80Gb is too small and the 160Gb too expensive.. just upgraded to a Scorpio Black until prices come down... :(
Click to expand...

I bought my MBP two days ago, and the reason I chose the $1,999 model was to buy the 160GB SSD on top of it. Otherwise, the $2,500 model is identical -- no one notices the .26Ghz difference.
 
m1stake said:
I bought my MBP two days ago, and the reason I chose the $1,999 model was to buy the 160GB SSD on top of it. Otherwise, the $2,500 model is identical -- no one notices the .26Ghz difference.
Click to expand...

yes but the 2.66 has the ability to put 8GB of RAM in it. not to mention double the cache size and double the VRAM. so it's not just the 266Mhz.
 
nickcliborne said:
You're not going to get the full benefits of the drive because you don't have a SATA2 connection but it will still be fast.

This is the biggest reason I haven't upgraded to SSD's yet.
Click to expand...

Ergh! I forgot about SATA1 and SATA2. What model did the MBP line go SATA2?
 
I would keep it. You can always hold on to it until Applecare is over, then put it into your MBP. It would speed things up a lot more.
 
tm.chen said:
I would keep it. You can always hold on to it until Applecare is over, then put it into your MBP. It would speed things up a lot more.
Click to expand...

I'm so conflicted. I thought of this, but then why not sell it now, and buy another in 7 months, possibly after some price drops... I think I'm going to take the plunge and put it in my MBP regardless of AppleCare status; I just have to google up how to update the firmware.

Thanks everyone for your opinion. Wish me luck!
 
ab2650 said:
I'm so conflicted. I thought of this, but then why not sell it now, and buy another in 7 months, possibly after some price drops... I think I'm going to take the plunge and put it in my MBP regardless of AppleCare status; I just have to google up how to update the firmware.

Thanks everyone for your opinion. Wish me luck!
Click to expand...

I wish you luck, but if you need it in seven months I don't think you will match the price you brought it now, so if you think you will buy it in seven months, definitely keep it.

In my previous post I suggested to sell it because I thought you were not sure weather it was the right purchase for you or not. Your MBP is fast enough now and there is no need to add the SSD, sure it would be slightly faster but I think it would be best to wait a little more than 7 months to have acceptable price, and $350 isn't worth it. It would be wiser to sell it and hold back for an SSD till your next :apple: purchase. ;)
 
ab2650 said:
I'm so conflicted. I thought of this, but then why not sell it now, and buy another in 7 months, possibly after some price drops... I think I'm going to take the plunge and put it in my MBP regardless of AppleCare status; I just have to google up how to update the firmware.

Thanks everyone for your opinion. Wish me luck!
Click to expand...

Tell us how you get on! I have an older MBP too and would like to see how it gets on with an SSD!!
 
ViciousShadow21 said:
yes but the 2.66 has the ability to put 8GB of RAM in it. not to mention double the cache size and double the VRAM. so it's not just the 266Mhz.
Click to expand...

Another 256MB of memory for an underclocked mid range card doesn't make much difference either. Cache on the other hand, is a better argument. It's just not a $500 argument, in my opinion. The SSD makes a bigger difference in normal tasks.

ab2650 said:
Ergh! I forgot about SATA1 and SATA2. What model did the MBP line go SATA2?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter, even SSD's are nowhere close to the 1.5GB/s that SATA1 provides.
 
bmacir said:
I wish you luck, but if you need it in seven months I don't think you will match the price you brought it now, so if you think you will buy it in seven months, definitely keep it.

In my previous post I suggested to sell it because I thought you were not sure weather it was the right purchase for you or not. Your MBP is fast enough now and there is no need to add the SSD, sure it would be slightly faster but I think it would be best to wait a little more than 7 months to have acceptable price, and $350 isn't worth it. It would be wiser to sell it and hold back for an SSD till your next :apple: purchase. ;)
Click to expand...

My post was a disorganized mess.. I was saying I had considered selling it, making $300 and using that towards when I felt SSDs had come to an acceptable price. I'm not going to do that now.

I'll be using the SSD in my 2007 MBP as soon as I get the T6 and T8 tools (Tuesday). I'll report back with info on the upgrade in anyone wants to know, not that it hasn't been done a million times before.
 
Well the update is done. I've exposed the innards of my MBP, swapped drives, and migrated my data onto the new drive.

It's pretty snappy, just maybe not quite as fast as I had dreamed (but it's noticeably faster). I'll probably notice it better after I've used it for more than 30 minutes.

Overall I was impressed with how easy a drive swap was on a C2D MBP, aside from the umteen million screws. Thanks everyone for your input!
 
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