2007 Macbook Pro 15" upgrade

[swifty168]

Hi,
Thanks in advance. I was wondering whether I can get some advice from the community.

I have a 2007 non-unibody Macbook Pro. I believe its the revision D. The identifier is 3,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz with 4mb L2 cache and 2GB DDR2 667Mhz SDRAM.

I was thinking of buying a new laptop but with limited funds the current laptop will need to last probably another year or so.

With that in mind I intend to do a complete reinstall of Snow Leopard and upgrade some components.

I was thinking of upgrading to 6GB RAM. I've read a thread where this is possible and provides the best performance where as there's some issues with trying for 8GB.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/573906/

Is it also possible to change the HDD to an SSD. If so, which one is recommended. I was only after perhaps 180GB or 256 GB.
Furthermore, is it possible to get rid of my optical drive and replace it with a second HDD (perhaps using my original HDD in a caddy). If that is the case I'm happy to settle with a smaller capacity (but fast) SSD to use as a boot drive, where my applications gets installed and current working files only.

Again thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[MoonshineSG]

for your last question, check out http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

Thats what I plan to do as well... I have not seen negative comments (except maybe the price...)

 

[randomrazr]

consider a refurb off the apple store.

for a 2007 computer....i think ur due for an upgrade

 

[orangepeel]

Unless your editing videos, or other intensive tasks 2gb is fine. That's how much the current 11" MBA comes with.

SSd drives are very expensive save your money and get next years model.

 

[accessoriesguy]

although I love SSD's you might be better getting a complete package then just doing some simple upgrades.

From what I been hearing (since i check often) is that there is no big difference between this macbook air and the previous. Only in processor intensive tasks can you feel a difference, but over all speed/graphics/battery are practically the same.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0JG0LL/A?mco=MjA2NTk5MTA
They still run $1,099 in the refurbished store. [13in - 4GB RAM - 128GB ]

If you can wait for the new i5 and i7's to come out in the refurbished store (typically happens 1-2 months after a new apple product has been released.) The prices of these would drop more. You could probably scoop one up fairly cheap. I've seen a couple previous generations go for 550-700 on ebay.

Wait for some time for supply and demand to kick in.

The great thing about these airs is that they are lightning fast with their flash memory. They are light and portable. you can get an external hard drive for less than 100 bucks to expand the hard drive. They have enough power to play games like Team Fortress and Star Craft 2 (don't expect over medium though). As long as you don't need too much power. This would be a viable alternative. hopefully sub 1000< so you can get a complete performance upgrade. You could still sell yours for a couple bills on ebay too and save some money.

 

[Lock]

I have the 2.2ghz version of your mbp and I am in a similar position. However, I realized that getting the ram (100), SSD (200-400), and battery (100) would sink at least 400$ into the machine and then there is no guarantee that the logic board wouldn’t fry the next week. (also, I’m pretty uninterested in swapping the HD in this thing. Too many screws).

So I’m looking at keeping the mbp as a desktop (to be replaced by an iMac when the mba can’t handle what I throw at it) and getting the 13inch i5 mba. It’s x2.5 the price of the upgrade, but I feel that after running the mbp hard for four years it’s time to give it a break.

 

[swifty168]

Yea, that's the thing. It's choking under the load I'm currently putting it under.
With the browser, lightroom and various miscellaneous programs running, switching between tasks sometimes becomes painfully slow.
Even running lightroom by itself is pretty slow when browsing through the photos and waiting for it to load.
I think I might take the advice and avoid touching the HDD and optical drive and just up the RAM to 6Gb.
Don't think I'll get refurb. I'll probably just spring for a brand new one eventually.
Cheers