2011 MBP Upgrades: 8GB Ram/SSD/New Battery. Quick questions!

[WestC07]

Okay so for some unknown reason my battery crapped out on my 2011 MBP despite having fewer than 100 cycles and still reading at 80% health the week before it failed.

I figured since I'll be opening the thing up, I might as well install an SSD and new memory. I'm going to be bumping up the memory to 8GB 1333Mhz, SSD will be a Samsung 840 Evo, and the battery is a factory replacement.

I already have a #0 screwdriver and a tri-wing screwdriver for the battery removal.

Can I simply pop out the old items, put the new ones in, then boot straight into a clean install? Do I need to format the SSD first, update firmware first? Anything at all I need to know beforehand?

Also, I would like to do a fresh OSX install on the machine as well. I've learned how to create a bootable OSX Maverick USB Drive, but aside from taking some extra time, would just doing a fresh install of OSX10.6 then using the app store to install Maverick be just as effective? Or would I see some benefits going with a direct Maverick USB install?

Thank you guys, sorry for so many questions.

 

[themumu]

You do not need to prep the SSD in any way prior to putting it into the laptop, you can format it using the tools on the installer immediately before installing the OS.

As for installing 10.6 and then upgrading, vs installing 10.9 right away, I'm not sure if there is any other advantage to a clean install of 10.9 aside from time saved, but even that seems like a significant advantage to me.

 

[Jaben3421]

Okay so for some unknown reason my battery crapped out on my 2011 MBP despite having fewer than 100 cycles and still reading at 80% health the week before it failed.

I figured since I'll be opening the thing up, I might as well install an SSD and new memory. I'm going to be bumping up the memory to 8GB 1333Mhz, SSD will be a Samsung 840 Evo, and the battery is a factory replacement.

I already have a #0 screwdriver and a tri-wing screwdriver for the battery removal.

Can I simply pop out the old items, put the new ones in, then boot straight into a clean install? Do I need to format the SSD first, update firmware first? Anything at all I need to know beforehand?

Also, I would like to do a fresh OSX install on the machine as well. I've learned how to create a bootable OSX Maverick USB Drive, but aside from taking some extra time, would just doing a fresh install of OSX10.6 then using the app store to install Maverick be just as effective? Or would I see some benefits going with a direct Maverick USB install?

Thank you guys, sorry for so many questions.

When you say your battery crapped out, do you mean that it won't run at all off battery power, or it's just not meeting the battery life you want?

Anyways, you can just replace everything. But, make sure you have the USB boot stick already made! When you boot up from it, you will need to format the SSD, but it'll give you a prompt to do so. When you boot, it's basically the recovery portion of your Mac, just on a USB stick, so you have all the same utilities. I don't know if you will notice a performance increase from a clean install unless the Mac has been used for a few years and upgraded several times, but it'll be easier to make the Mavericks stick since a clean install of Snow Leopard would require an update to 10.6.8 plus then downloading 10.9 and installing. It only takes an extra minute anyways. When I ordered a 840 Evo for my dad's MacBook on Black Friday, it arrived with the latest firmware, so you won't need to burn a firmware disk this time. Make sure you're careful around the battery! If you puncture it, you and your Mac could be harmed.

Hope this helps. If anybody else can correct me, feel free.

 

[saturnotaku]

It is preferable to do a clean installation of the operating system you plan to run.

 

[WestC07]

Thank so much for the answers, guys! I'll go with a clean install from a thumb drive (I forgot about having to update to 10.6.8 beforehand).

When you say your battery crapped out, do you mean that it won't run at all off battery power, or it's just not meeting the battery life you want?

Battery completely stopped functioning. I shut the MBP down one evening after paying rent, the next time I opened it to use it it said the battery required service, was at 0%, and would no longer charge. As of right now I can only use the computer while plugged in. I tried unplugging the battery/plugging it back in thinking by some extreme chance that would help, but it didn't.

 

[desi1]

Before you play around with the battery, did you take out AppleCare? The battery issue should be covered by that considering it's only done 100 cycles.