2007 MBP Needs Upgrading - Help Me Out!

[biodeezl]

Ok. You guys are gonna think I am a total technophobe. It's not true, really I'm just lazy and complacent.

But, my 2007 2.2GHz 15.4" MBP is... stock! Ugh.

Only 2 gigs ram, a teeny 160 gig internal, dead battery, and perhaps most shamefully, OS10.4.... still.

Don't get me wrong, it still runs great and gets me through my daily work. But the hard drive is continuously full and needing purging. The lack of ram occasionally shows up when I have 5+ apps running. And the old OS is getting pretty painful.

So, help me out! I have been researching upgrades, but there is a lot to sift through. Please keep in mind I am on a budget. For real.

Looking at:
- A 500 gig 7400rpm internal HD. Are there any affordable SSDs yet? Alternatives?
- 4 gig ram, max her out. Cruicial.com is an easy way to go, yeah?
- And an OS upgrade. I see 10.6.3 is current. Any reason to wait? I probably also want the new iLife to re-fresh my daily apps.. so I'm looking at the "box set", yeah?

I am looking to do the R & R work myself (again, on a budget). Anything to fear? This how-to seems pretty thorough:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2119530,00.asp

I would love to hear recommendations. I know I can get this beast back to running sweet. Thanks in advance!

 

[alust2013]

Sounds like you've got a good plan. I'd just go with a standard HDD, as SSDs in capacities larger than your current drive are still quite expensive. The current version of OS X is 10.6.6, however, it may be worth waiting until Lion in the summer, rather than spending all that money on the box set now. Or, as an alternative, wait for Lion, then just download the iLife stuff that you want off of the new Mac App store.

 

[mr.steevo]

Although 10.7 is coming out this summer it is expected to be a full upgrade as apposed 10.6 which was an Intel only clean up of 10.5. As a result 10.7 (Lion) should be around $129 whereas 10.6 (snow leopard) is $29. If you are really on a budget that should make impact on your decision.

Max the RAM and look for a 7200 RPM hard drive rather than the solid state drives. You would be amazed how much of a speed improvement you will see just from going to a higher density drive (500/750GB)

 

[biodeezl]

Thanks for the tips.

Wait, can my 2.2GHz core 2 duo MBP handle 6 gig ram? I always thought I knew it was 4 gig max. Wikipedia has me confused now....

 

[ddehr026]

Also I would check newegg for ram, it will probably be cheaper than crucial.com