2008 Macbook. Thinking of Upgrading, could use some help.

[nogoatsnoglory]

Hey

I have this macbook here
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...duo-2.4-black-13-early-2008-penryn-specs.html

I have an alienware PC as well so I don't really feel the need to upgrade to a brand new macbook, but I was thinking about upgrading the ram and the hard drive. My mac has all of the original parts (besides a new battery)

I was thinking of going with these two upgrades
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST1000LM024/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/5300DDR2S4GP/

I've seen tutorials on how to upgrade the parts so I don't think it will be much of a problem, I'm just wondering if it's worth the money to upgrade this old of a laptop and if these parts are the ones i should get?

*Edit* I also am running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 I believe.

 

[WildCard^]

I love the older macbooks, as they are functional and so darn cheap.

My favorite is a black 2008. I upgraded it to 4GB ram and put in an SSD 120GB drive. Common talk here about how to make the older devices is to do just that - SSD and RAM maxout.

I did not look at the items you linked to, but you can't go wrong. SSDs are nice in that you can move the drive to your next device, if/when your current macbook dies. The RAM, as it's older DDR2 standard, you won't be moving it to anything but another old MAC or on ebay/craigslist.

SSDs on newegg are under $100, 2GB pairs are selling for $40ish.

Upgrade and do it without worries. Great way to inject life into an old device.

 

[Nameci]

I love the older macbooks, as they are functional and so darn cheap.

My favorite is a black 2008. I upgraded it to 4GB ram and put in an SSD 120GB drive. Common talk here about how to make the older devices is to do just that - SSD and RAM maxout.

I did not look at the items you linked to, but you can't go wrong. SSDs are nice in that you can move the drive to your next device, if/when your current macbook dies. The RAM, as it's older DDR2 standard, you won't be moving it to anything but another old MAC or on ebay/craigslist.

SSDs on newegg are under $100, 2GB pairs are selling for $40ish.

Upgrade and do it without worries. Great way to inject life into an old device.

Same thing here, early '08 BlackBook, 4GB DDR2 and 120GB Intel320 SSD, quick and sleek on SL.

 

[borostef]

I also have a 2008 MacBook... Recently I maxed out the RAM and put a 90 GB SSD in it... ( 90 GB is enough for my needs, I understand it would not be for some... ) Since I did all that my MacBook really feels like a new machine...

 

[HMAletter]

I have two late 2008 Macbooks I'm ordering from OWC for. I'm maxing the mory on my own to 8 GB (did the EFI update long ago), and the other is going from 2 GB to 4GB.

On mine, I'm replacing a 320 GB HD with a 1 TB drive.

The SSD's are nice, trendy and fast, but too much to spend for large storage amounts IMO. I need the storage more than the speed.

Both drives are now almost full.

 

[Nameci]

I have two late 2008 Macbooks I'm ordering from OWC for. I'm maxing the mory on my own to 8 GB (did the EFI update long ago), and the other is going from 2 GB to 4GB.

On mine, I'm replacing a 320 GB HD with a 1 TB drive.

The SSD's are nice, trendy and fast, but too much to spend for large storage amounts IMO. I need the storage more than the speed.

Both drives are now almost full.

All of my important datas are in the cloud and of course backed up on two external drives. 120GB SSD is more than enough storage for me. My MB is my get go machine, travel companion. With an SSD, I don't have to worry about mechanical disk failure if I happen to drop my MB. Peace of mind.

 

[WildCard^]

I wasn't aware of the EFI update HMAletter mentioned above, but the mention of 8GB on a 2008 piqued my attention.

I googled 'macbook efi update 8gb' and found lots of info about it. This was news to me, maybe to you as well.

Macsales.com's blog post confirming 8GB 2008

And to anyone lamenting the issue of an SSD not having enough GB, you can always look into replacing your superdrive with a hard drive.

 

[HMAletter]

Not quite there yet Nameci, although I do have a huge Dropbox account, and about 4TB of externals to backup to. I'm moving further along so that when I can travel "lighter", storage-wise, I'll be ready. Too many legacy programs and files to undo it quite yet.

The interesting part of my iPad research shows that I really need to get a larger drive in an iPad as well. Disturbing given the cost. But with out year old ipad mini 16 GB, we're constantly juggling things around to fit the apps.

For computers, storage is cheap.