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Can you upgrade parts for you MBP?

W

wubbie412

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2010
12
0
Sorry for all the noobish questions...


Can you upgrade certain parts of mbp down the road?
for example your processor, memory RAMs or the harddrive?
i assume upgrading your harddrive is easier than upgrading your processor?

i bought the base MBP 15" model and i would like to upgrade it to higher-end i7chip down the road (probably a good year from now)... would the switch possible?

lastly (i swear this will be my last question for the night)...
can i just buy any harddrive on newegg or is there a certain brand or type of harddrive that i need to buy?

the base 5400rpm is little too slow.


thank you.
 
Processor? No. You might as well buy a new machine if you want a new CPU, as it would require an entire new logic board.

However, the hard drive and RAM are easy to upgrade. RAM is 204-pin 1066MHz DDR3, and you will need a 2.5" SATA hard drive. Brand for those is more or less irrelevant. Everyone has their preferences, so you may just want to read and see what has the best reviews for the type of product you want to buy.
 
thanks!

so i guess im stuck with the i5...
it sucks that the i5 in the base model doenst have hyperthreading technology :(


what would you recommend for a upgrade for a noticeable jump in performance?
 
wubbie412 said:
thanks!

so i guess im stuck with the i5...
it sucks that the i5 in the base model doenst have hyperthreading technology :(


what would you recommend for a upgrade for a noticeable jump in performance?
Click to expand...

Performance-wise in a laptop...you are stuck with what you have. As far as laptops, in general, are concerned, you can only change the RAM which helps it think better. Harddrive to give more space, and battery when it starts to die... nothing really else.

Your only option to upgrade the performance is either finding stuff that runs in the background that may kill your RAM but Macs dont really have to worry about it OR doing your homework better before buying a laptop AKA: Getting a new one.
 
wubbie412 said:
thanks!

so i guess im stuck with the i5...
it sucks that the i5 in the base model doenst have hyperthreading technology :(


what would you recommend for a upgrade for a noticeable jump in performance?
Click to expand...

Well, it just really depends on what you mean. If you want stuff to load faster (launching apps, searching files, opening files), you will want a 7200RPM HD or an SSD. Personally, I upgraded to a 7200RPM disk, and it's a decent boost in performance/feel. Nothing mind-blowing, but appreciable nonetheless. SSDs are ridiculous fast, but even more ridiculous expensive and I personally can't justify one (but I'm a college student, so I have no money :p ) If you want to have a lot of apps open at once, more RAM would give you a boost there. But to use more than 4GB requires a lot of apps to be open, or some photoshop/Adobe CS stuff. The faster processor wouldn't necessarily make your computer "faster" either. Unless you are putting the processor to some heavy work, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the i5 and i7. Even at that, it wouldn't be that big. Just as a side note, your i5 does have hyper-threading, I believe all of the i-series dual cores do (or at least most of them)
 
ya.. im starting to regret not doing the homework/research before buying this laptop... i just sort of went in to an apple store and came out with the 15" in 10mins.. it was a total impulse buy lol... sigh... oh well.

15" base MBP isnt a bad laptop right? will it be sufficient for most day-to-day use?
 
wubbie412 said:
ya.. im starting to regret not doing the homework/research before buying this laptop... i just sort of went in to an apple store and came out with the 15" in 10mins.. it was a total impulse buy lol... sigh... oh well.

15" base MBP isnt a bad laptop right? will it be sufficient for most day-to-day use?
Click to expand...


you are fine, ENJOY. Really
 
wubbie412 said:
ya.. im starting to regret not doing the homework/research before buying this laptop... i just sort of went in to an apple store and came out with the 15" in 10mins.. it was a total impulse buy lol... sigh... oh well.

15" base MBP isnt a bad laptop right? will it be sufficient for most day-to-day use?
Click to expand...

Not a bad computer at all. Apple doesn't really do the whole budget sort of computer, so the base model of their products is equivalent to mid-range or higher for a lot of other companies. It will be way more than sufficient for any sort of daily tasks. It can even do some pretty heavy lifting without complaining.
 
wubbie412 said:
ya.. im starting to regret not doing the homework/research before buying this laptop... i just sort of went in to an apple store and came out with the 15" in 10mins.. it was a total impulse buy lol... sigh... oh well.

15" base MBP isnt a bad laptop right? will it be sufficient for most day-to-day use?
Click to expand...

Yea, I was guilty of doing that on my first laptop purchase, as everyone else was at one point in their life

Of course a 15" mac is a great laptop for everyday use. Its more than capable of more than just "most day-to-day use"
 
wubbie412 said:
thanks!

so i guess im stuck with the i5...
it sucks that the i5 in the base model doenst have hyperthreading technology :(


what would you recommend for a upgrade for a noticeable jump in performance?
Click to expand...

No, it does have hyperthreading. Apple uses i5-520M for the low end model.
The 520M does support everything the i7 series does. The only difference is 3MB vs 4MB cache.
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47341
 
alust2013 said:
Unless you are putting the processor to some heavy work, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the i5 and i7. Even at that, it wouldn't be that big. Just as a side note, your i5 does have hyper-threading, I believe all of the i-series dual cores do (or at least most of them)
Click to expand...

hey thanks again!
no from bunch of articles ive read so far tonight, the base model i5 2.4ghz is the earliest versions of the i5 and doesnt have HT...

i really hope you are right though.
it seems the most cost effective improvement for my laptop would be to upgrade to the 7200rpm hdd...

i would upgrade to SDD but they are not big enough.. most barely hold 160gb.. and i dont want to end up storing some stuff in an external harddrive (unncessary hassle).
 
wubbie412 said:
hey thanks again!
no from bunch of articles ive read so far tonight, the base model i5 2.4ghz is the earliest versions of the i5 and doesnt have HT...

i really hope you are right though.
it seems the most cost effective improvement for my laptop would be to upgrade to the 7200rpm hdd...

i would upgrade to SDD but they are not big enough.. most barely hold 160gb.. and i dont want to end up storing some stuff in an external harddrive (unncessary hassle).
Click to expand...

as said before...
Enjoy it, you are in good shape :)
 
wubbie412 said:
hey thanks again!
no from bunch of articles ive read so far tonight, the base model i5 2.4ghz is the earliest versions of the i5 and doesnt have HT...

i really hope you are right though.
it seems the most cost effective improvement for my laptop would be to upgrade to the 7200rpm hdd...

i would upgrade to SDD but they are not big enough.. most barely hold 160gb.. and i dont want to end up storing some stuff in an external harddrive (unncessary hassle).
Click to expand...

here is the same processor that your computer has. It does in fact have the hyperthreading, so no need to worry there.

If you want a 7200 RPM HDD, I would suggest the 500GB WD scorpio black. I bought the 320GB version before the 500 came out, but I really like this drive. No problems with it at all.
 
I love my current base model 2010 15" i5. It's a fantastic computer. If you really want it to feel fast though, look at an SSD. Best upgrade you can get for that machine. ;)
 
oh so the article i read applied to the imacs and not the macbookpros..
kk thanks for clearing that up. :)
 
wubbie412 said:
oh so the article i read applied to the imacs and not the macbookpros..
kk thanks for clearing that up. :)
Click to expand...

Until recently, they used the same everything with the iMacs capable of higher MHz versions of the laptop part..

Now they have started using more desktop components in the iMacs, so it takes a look at the take-apart guides to see where you are at ... or a thread listing the CPUs for you.

So not too long ago, those stories would have given you something to worry about. Now they can be there to really confuse you.
 
wubbie412 said:
ya.. im starting to regret not doing the homework/research before buying this laptop... i just sort of went in to an apple store and came out with the 15" in 10mins.. it was a total impulse buy lol... sigh... oh well.

15" base MBP isnt a bad laptop right? will it be sufficient for most day-to-day use?
Click to expand...

It all depends on your perspective. I'm using a Santa Rosa 2.2GHz MBP and it's smokin' fast compared to my older 800MHz PowerBook G4. So I would imagine that the i5 MBP would be smokin' fast compared to a Santa Rosa MBP........
 
Merkava_4 said:
It all depends on your perspective. I'm using a Santa Rosa 2.2GHz MBP and it's smokin' fast compared to my older 800MHz PowerBook G4. So I would imagine that the i5 MBP would be smokin' fast compared to a Santa Rosa MBP........
Click to expand...

LOL. It is all about perspective isn't it?
 
Merkava_4 said:
It all depends on your perspective. I'm using a Santa Rosa 2.2GHz MBP and it's smokin' fast compared to my older 800MHz PowerBook G4. So I would imagine that the i5 MBP would be smokin' fast compared to a Santa Rosa MBP........
Click to expand...

lol thanks that insightful comment. i guess i should be happy with what i have.
 
Gotta be honest with the OP here. Unless you're running intense apps like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, the i5 is going to run like a charm.

Apple has never been about hardware in terms of power, but about making software run amazing.

I have a 5 year old white Macbook. I got the low end model at the time and was starting to regret it the more I thought about it.

Here I am 5 years later and it is still running like a champ. I use Photoshop almost every day and the computer never really slows down. Still is faster than most of my friends'.

Just upgrade your RAM down the road and you'll notice a slight performance increase. It will feel like new again.
 
I have my MBP 2.16ghz (old!) still going quite strong...

All I've done is put the max amount of memory, and added a 7200 rpm drive. Also have a 32" external 1080i as the second monitor, and wireless keyboard/mouse. Use it both as a laptop and desktop (almost 50/50).

Just do the simple stuff, and you'll enjoy it for a long time!
 
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