So I'm recently just getting into Mac's as more than a passive hobby and I have have acquired a Macbook from 2009/2010 with a Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz with a soon to be upgraded 4gb of RAM. I want to use this for simple tasks such as Chrome, Excel, Word, and some form of Publisher equivalent (newsletter for work). I currently have Yosemite on this Mac with a thought in my head to upgrade to El Capitan. I am on the fence about an SSD as I want to be able to use this Macbook for a while to come for the aforementioned simple tasks. Should I take the plunge and get a simple cheap 60gb Mercury Electra from OWC (are they even any good?) or just deal with what I have? Thanks guys!
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Help convince me to upgrade to an SSD
- Thread starter jimbob200521
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You might like to know that your MacBook8,1 (Mid 2010) can be upgraded to 16GB of RAM, should you want to do that.
The SSD upgrade will make more difference than a RAM upgrade, but doing both would give you a system that will work very nicely for you.
I don't think I would get a 60GB SSD. 120GB from OWC is only about $20 more - but that's a choice for you to make...
The SSD upgrade will make more difference than a RAM upgrade, but doing both would give you a system that will work very nicely for you.
I don't think I would get a 60GB SSD. 120GB from OWC is only about $20 more - but that's a choice for you to make...
You also don't need to stick with OWC. There are plenty of deals out there to be had - any 2.5" SATA SSD will work like a champ in your MacBook, and will certainly make a noticeable difference
You also don't need to stick with OWC. There are plenty of deals out there to be had - any 2.5" SATA SSD will work like a champ in your MacBook, and will certainly make a noticeable difference
Some SSDs (e.g. OCZ Trion 100) have been troublesome with Macs that use NVIDIA chipsets (such as OP's), but there are plenty of drives that work fine e.g. Samsung 850 EVO.
Just my 2c but my OWC SSD failed after 2 years and then again after another 2 years on a Mid 2012 MBA that I upgraded from a 256 to 512SSD
In my experience, if one needs a total stranger to "convince" them to purchase anything, they probably don't need it.
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Buying an SSD isn't much of a plunge anymore; they've gotten pretty cheap in the last 2 years especially. You can now get a 512GB SSD for about the same price I paid 5 years ago for the 120GB that's sitting in my iMac. My recommendation, without knowing any specifics: get a 256GB SSD and upgrade to 8GB of RAM. You can probably do that for about a hundred bucks if you can get the RAM on Craigslist or used somehow.
Lots of replies here, some good and other...are replies.
I wound up ordering a 60gb Muskin unit that should be in Wednesday. I also have already installed a 4gb RAM upgrade and that will do me for now, at least until I decide how much I want to really use this machine.
And FWIW, the price/device choice never really was an issue. I've been around PC's for quite a while (was my career at one point doing new builds, repairs, and tech support). I was more interested in the "is this Mac worth the time and money or will I not get a good user experience" question, guess I should have posed it better.
Anywho, thanks for the advice guys.
Now all I need to do is figure out how to get this darned bottom repaired or replaced, it's rubber coating is falling off. Already contacted Apple and they won't replace it, wouldn't even give me a price on a replacement bottom unless I took it into a Genius bar, the nearest of which is almost 2 hours away. No thank you. Google, here I come.
I wound up ordering a 60gb Muskin unit that should be in Wednesday. I also have already installed a 4gb RAM upgrade and that will do me for now, at least until I decide how much I want to really use this machine.
And FWIW, the price/device choice never really was an issue. I've been around PC's for quite a while (was my career at one point doing new builds, repairs, and tech support). I was more interested in the "is this Mac worth the time and money or will I not get a good user experience" question, guess I should have posed it better.
Anywho, thanks for the advice guys.
Now all I need to do is figure out how to get this darned bottom repaired or replaced, it's rubber coating is falling off. Already contacted Apple and they won't replace it, wouldn't even give me a price on a replacement bottom unless I took it into a Genius bar, the nearest of which is almost 2 hours away. No thank you. Google, here I come.
Just rounding the numbers up
worst still it cost over $600 3.5 years back