2006 MBP SSD upgrade

[sportsnapper]

My daughter is using my old 2006 MBP (Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz)

She's off to Uni to do Photography, and currently we're a bit pushed financially to get her a new machine. I thought we might be able to breathe more life into this by adding an SSD.

I'm a bit concerned about doing this, and then having to perhaps support/trouble shoot this remotely from 150 miles away.

I plan to add a samsung 830 (128Gb) into the hard drive bay, and move the existing 320GB hard drive (7200 rpm) into the optical bay, using a para/sata caddy.

So, questions:
Will the hard drive spin down in this type of configuration, or will that be an issue?
Is not having the shock protection an issue?
Is this really worth it? - Though there will be different opinions here

The alternative is perhaps to add a 256Gb SSD as the sole drive. If it doesn't work out I could then use that in my MPB (early 2011), wiuth a similar configuration.

BTW we're in the UK

 

[Orre]

I would recommend getting the cheapest ssd you can find for as much space as possible. The 2006 Macbook Pro only has SATA1 and is somewhat capped to 100 mb/sec transfer speeds, so you won't gain anything by buying the latest and fastest ssd's for this mac.
As far as shock protection goes I think there are harddrives with such protection built in. Look closely at the product specs.

I still use my 2006 macbook thanks for the OCZ Vertex ssd i put in a couple of years ago. It only struggles with HD video and heavy javascript websites, otherwhise a great mac!

 

[Queen6]

I would be more inclined to just install a larger faster HD say 750Gb - 1Tb, as i would definitely want the HD to spin down, for the sake of battery life, speaking of which you may need to buy a new battery as she will definitely need reasonable use off mains.

In many respects you might just as well be far better off with a new PC with a onsite support package from the likes of Dell. By the time you spend on an SSD, parts, potentially a battery you may find that you are almost halfway to the PC and your daughter will likely have a faster machine that is covered in the event of a failure.

Dont get me wrong your Mac is a great machine and i have just passed my own Early 2008 15" MBP to my daughter, however these are now old machines relatively speaking and very expensive to repair and to be completely frank your daughters work will become far more valuable than the cost of any computer, whatever the decision ensure she backs up regularly, as for our Early 2008 MBP my daughter is far from uni so it`s not used for anything critical, in your situation "like it or loath it" i would take the PC route, just a function of economics.

 

[gangzoom]

In many respects you might just as well be far better off with a new PC with a onsite support package from the likes of Dell. By the time you spend on an SSD, parts, potentially a battery you may find that you are almost halfway to the PC and your daughter will likely have a faster machine that is covered in the event of a failure.

I would completely disagree, my current laptop is a Early 2008 MacBook Pro, which is similar spec wise to the 2006 machine, mine is my main machine, it serves me well for the work i need it to do (MD writing, light photoshop work, Lightroom room, runs VMware for me to use SPSS for my work).

Previously I had a Pismo PowerBook G3, that machine lasted me 8 years and was still working when I sold it, and I fully intend to put a SSD into my current machine some time this year and cannot see my self replacing it for a long while yet!!

My wife has a macbook Air, and despite having a weedy processor the SSD hard drive means it runs fabulously.

Do BACK UP regularly though, I've experienced several hard drive failures in various machines and now have 2 backups of main hard drive. Interestingly its not always the oldest hard drives that fail, the last 2 failures i've had occurred in brand new hard drives less than 2 months old (one WD and one Seagate). To be honest nothing else ever seems to fail much on the older macs, our Mac Plus which my dad bought in the 1980s still work!!

SSD hard drives are falling in price very nicely, even a 500 gig one is now £250, so for £300 you can easily get a nice SSD and battery. Do a clean install of which ever MacOS X you have and your have a nice quick machine which is going to be perfect for Uni work .

 

[AlexMaximus]

One more reason for an upgrade

The 2006 MBP model has come with an X1600 Radeon graphic processor that has performed very well, when it comes to longevity. The 2008 model was a big failure because of the nvidia 8600GT.

For you, this means you have got a very solid machine with less design flaws then the 2008 model. Chances are that your machine will run much longer. Because of the low prices on some SSD HD's, I would go for the SSD.
Since a SSD drive never really gets old, I would go for one. And your daughter can easily swap the SSD anytime to other machines or use it as a boot drive in a MacPro down the road. My advice, go for an SSD!

 

[killerrobot]

I would be more inclined to just install a larger faster HD say 750Gb - 1Tb, as i would definitely want the HD to spin down, for the sake of battery life, speaking of which you may need to buy a new battery as she will definitely need reasonable use off mains.

I second this idea, especially if she's doing photography. 128Gb or 256Gb will fill up way too fast unless she's going to spend as much time deleting photos as she is taking them.

Also, the 2006 maxes out at 3Gb RAM which is a limiting factor for running CS. I sold mine off last year because it was noticeable how slow it was at processing large photo files. I know it's a good machine and it will last a long time, but I feel your money would be better spent by saving it for a new machine.

 

[sportsnapper]

Thanks for the valuable considered input folks.

It's quite hard to find a new low spec SSD, but looks like the Crucial V4 would suit the bill - approx. £115 before tax for 256Gb. It's deliberately 'low spec' for pre 2011 machines according to Crucial.

Backup will be handled by Time machine - though I'm not sure if I can set it up as OTA or via a plug in USB drive. She's pretty well aware of the importance of backups (I'm a photographer and I've Terrabytes of data backed up).

The 2006 MBP model has come with an X1600 Radeon graphic processor that has performed very well, when it comes to longevity. The 2008 model was a big failure because of the nvidia 8600GT.

- didn't realise this - sounds positive

In many respects you might just as well be far better off with a new PC with a onsite support package from the likes of Dell.

- Not really an option - going back to a PC (unless it was a hackintosh) is not an option - and all the machines provided on the course are iMacs of various types. The excellence of the computing facilities was one of the reasons she chose that particular course.

I'm not inclined to install a lager hard disk - the issue is not storage capacity. Granted RAW files will fill the capacity quickly - but it will be good practice to back off old work, and be selective with whats kept - and keep multiple copies. I'm more worried about application speed, and reading files to/from disk - esp with lightroom/cs6.

Also, the 2006 maxes out at 3Gb RAM which is a limiting factor for running CS

- yes - big issue.

BTW I'm seeing this as a stop gap until early next year - when hopeful we'll be in a position to get a MBPr or at least a more capable machine.

 

[killerrobot]

- Not really an option - going back to a PC (unless it was a hackintosh) is not an option - and all the machines provided on the course are iMacs of various types. The excellence of the computing facilities was one of the reasons she chose that particular course.

BTW I'm seeing this as a stop gap until early next year - when hopeful we'll be in a position to get a MBPr or at least a more capable machine.

In that case, I'd just let it be and have her use the provided iMacs whenever she needs to do editing/photo work. They'll be much faster no matter what and she'll save a lot of time. The MBP will definitely last throughout the next year as a stop gap measure without the SSD.