Help me decide what upgrades for my MacBook Pro

[bull156]

Im thinking a samsung 500 gb SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147187

and 8 gb of crucial ram ( I currently have 2 gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148606

I also need a new battery (its in check battery status) but that will be purchased as well.
Here are the hardware specs on my macbook pro
Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.47f2
Serial Number (system): W8924S5966D
Hardware UUID: B123917B-60AF-5410-B539-6BFC1C976C28
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Is it worth it to spend almost 600$ total for these upgrades on a mid-2009 macbook pro?
Are these good products to upgrade with or are the better products/brands in my price range?
I use it for some video editing and I like to make family DVDs as well. Thanks for any help.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Why a 500 GB SSD? Why not get a 256 GB SSD from Samsung (840, not the PRO model though) or from Crucial (M4) for 150 USD and use an Optibay adapter (20 to 80 €) and put your HDD in there and the optical disk drive (ODD) in an enclosure (comes with higher priced Optibay adapters like the one from Hardwrk). The OS and applications do not need that much storage space and the HDD you have is fast enough for video editing and storing data.

MacBook, MacBook Pro: Replacing the Hard Disk Drive, transferring data to the new HDD

the guide includes:

• 0. Identify your MacBook or MacBook Pro
• 1. Getting a new HDD
• 2. Guides to replace the internal HDD with a newer one
• 3. Transferring data from the old HDD to the new HDD
• 4. Using the optical disk drive (ODD) slot for placing an SSD or HDD inside the MB/P (OPTIBAY)

​

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Hard to help you with your questions when we don't know what you use your computer for.

 

[B...]

Hard to help you with your questions when we don't know what you use your computer for.

Last sentence. Video editing and DVD burning.

 

[ccapman670]

How much storage space do you need? To save money like someone previously mentioned you can move your current hard drive to the optical slot. I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro and am doing the exact same upgrades you are thinking about doing. I just ordered 8GB of RAM yesterday (from my original 4GB).

I'm also deciding between the 250GB or 500GB Samsung 840. I'm going to buy the optibay adapter to move my existing 500GB HDD over there. It's only $30 and for $20 more you can get an enclosure to make the superdrive you take out an external one that can be used via USB.
http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/...B&Category_Code=STORHDOPTIBAY&Product_Count=0

Also, you posted a link to Newegg for the 500GB 840, and while this isn't the whole kit, adorama seems to be the best price I can find right now and is on sale for only $325. http://www.adorama.com/SSG7TD500BW.html

 

[AlexMaximus]

Belive me, the upgrade is worth it. With an SSD, your computer will feel like brand new again. I just did the swap of the optibay. Highly recomended! I am also very happy with the Samsung 840. For the things you do, your machine will be fine I think.
In any case, If you decide to go for the upgrade, I would love to hear your experince once your upgrade is up and running.

 

[bull156]

Thanks so much guys. For $325 I'd rather get the 500 gb and just swap it out with my current hard drive and use the old hdd as an external maybe. That's a good deal for 325! I may not use all that memory but I bet I could come close. I was at full capacity on my 290 something gb hard drive before I sacrificed some stuff for space. I'm not extremely knowledgeable about all of this but definitely willing to learn. My MacBook Pro is really awesome but its sluggish on video editing. I'd like to keep this computer going for at least three years longer.

Thanks again and any more advice is appreciated as well.

 

[ccapman670]

Thanks so much guys. For $325 I'd rather get the 500 gb and just swap it out with my current hard drive and use the old hdd as an external maybe. That's a good deal for 325! I may not use all that memory but I bet I could come close. I was at full capacity on my 290 something gb hard drive before I sacrificed some stuff for space. I'm not extremely knowledgeable about all of this but definitely willing to learn. My MacBook Pro is really awesome but its sluggish on video editing. I'd like to keep this computer going for at least three years longer.

Thanks again and any more advice is appreciated as well.

I think I'm going to go ahead and order the 500GB as well! I thought about 250 but I just don't want to always be worried about running out of space. Using only about 290GB this isn't an issue for you, but I've been reading its good to keep about 20% of a SSD free for optimal performance.

There is a massive thread on here about the Samsung SSD's, and if you can skim through it there is some good information about how to install and using other options like enabling TRIM and doing firmware updates.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1508877/

 

[bull156]

So you're saying I could put my hdd in place of my DVD burner and have both hard drives? That would be awesome. Would I still be able to use my DVD burner somehow externally?

 

[ccapman670]

So you're saying I could put my hdd in place of my DVD burner and have both hard drives? That would be awesome. Would I still be able to use my DVD burner somehow externally?

Yes exactly. The optibay I mentioned earlier for $29.99 is a adapter plate that lets you fit a hard drive where your optical bay was. For $20 extra you can get an enclosure for the DVD burner you take out, that encloses it and makes it USB, so you can plug it in externally and use it for burning discs or watching movies when you want. If you use your Superdrive a ton I wouldn't do it, but I use mine to watch a DVD maybe once every few months when traveling so I really wouldn't miss it. That's why I'm going with that option. I will have the Samsung 840 in my main slot and will move my old HDD over to the optibay.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

So you're saying I could put my hdd in place of my DVD burner and have both hard drives? That would be awesome. Would I still be able to use my DVD burner somehow externally?

Yes, that was what I was saying, it is called OPTIBAY. I have a 2009 MBP with a Crucial M4 256 GB SSD in the Optibay slot and one 7,200 RPM HDD in my HDD bay, the SSD is used for storing and using the OS and applications and some files and the HDD is used for data storage and video scratch files.

Look at the guide I linked under •4 or use a www search engine to look for Optibay or even look at one of the hundreds of YouTube videos.

 

[bull156]

You guys are really helpful I appreciate it. Is there any specific website you would recommend to get an OEM replacement battery?

 

[Giuly]

You guys are really helpful I appreciate it. Is there any specific website you would recommend to get an OEM replacement battery?

Hit the Apple Store and have it replaced for $129, as a brand-new OEM battery will cost you $119.

Also, take a look at the 960GB Crucial M500 for $599, if you need that kind of storage, it's well worth it.

If you want to spend a bit less, I'd suggest you get a 256GB SanDisk Ultra Plus instead of the Samsung 840, as it's as fast (or in some areas even faster) when used on older Macs with SATA-II and is a bit less expensive, and to create a Fusion Drive by replacing the DVD drive with a HGST 1TB 7200RPM hard drive using the OWC DataDoubler.

Also, the correct RAM for the 2009 MacBook Pro is 8GB 1066MHz, not 1333MHz.

 

[ccapman670]

You guys are really helpful I appreciate it. Is there any specific website you would recommend to get an OEM replacement battery?

I would download Coconut Battery 2.8 for Mac and see what percentage of your battery charge capacity is left first. http://download.cnet.com/coconutBattery/3000-2094_4-75049.html

But if you need a new battery, I know Apple sells them for $129 if you have a Apple store near you. Pretty sure that includes disposing your old one and installing it.

 

[ccapman670]

Hit the Apple Store and have it replaced for $129, as a brand-new OEM battery will cost you $119.

Also, I'd suggest you get a SanDisk Ultra Plus instead of the Samsung 840, as it's faster when used on older Macs with SATA-II and costs a bit less. Also, the correct RAM for the 2009 MacBook Pro is 8GB 1066MHz, not 1333MHz.

Good catch on the RAM, it's definitely 1066mhz. I think he was looking at 500GB hard drives. Do they make a 512? I can't find one on Amazon. I also looked at the Ultra Plus but I've heard much better reviews of the Samsung 840. I haven't personally used one though.

 

[bull156]

I would download Coconut Battery 2.8 for Mac and see what percentage of your battery charge capacity is left first. http://download.cnet.com/coconutBattery/3000-2094_4-75049.html

But if you need a new battery, I know Apple sells them for $129 if you have a Apple store near you. Pretty sure that includes disposing your old one and installing it.

Im at 71% capacity 852 battery load cycles. Id much rather order it and install it myself. It takes 40 minutes to get to the apple store and its just incovenient; plus I can learn a little.

Hit the Apple Store and have it replaced for $129, as a brand-new OEM battery will cost you $119.

Also, take a look at the 960GB Crucial M500 for $599, if you need that kind of storage, it's well worth it.

If you want to spend a bit less, I'd suggest you get a 256GB SanDisk Ultra Plus instead of the Samsung 840, as it's as fast (or in some areas even faster) when used on older Macs with SATA-II and is a bit less expensive, and to create a Fusion Drive by replacing the DVD drive with a HGST 1TB 7200RPM hard drive using the OWC DataDoubler.

Also, the correct RAM for the 2009 MacBook Pro is 8GB 1066MHz, not 1333MHz.

Yes thanks for seeing that on the ram.

 

[Vulcan]

Random thought, but before putting ~$600 into a four year old machine, have you considered selling it for around $600 and putting in $600 into buying a new one? Haswell computers are expected to be in a matter of weeks and will be remarkably faster than your current machine. That is what I would personally do.

 

[bull156]

Random thought, but before putting ~$600 into a four year old machine, have you considered selling it for around $600 and putting in $600 into buying a new one? Haswell computers are expected to be in a matter of weeks and will be remarkably faster than your current machine. That is what I would personally do.

Yes but I don't think 1200 would buy a new MacBook Pro with a 500 gb ssd would it? That would be in the $2000 price range I think.

 

[bull156]

Also, you posted a link to Newegg for the 500GB 840, and while this isn't the whole kit, adorama seems to be the best price I can find right now and is on sale for only $325. http://www.adorama.com/SSG7TD500BW.html

It doesn't look like that comes with the USB cable? Does anyone know where to get one? Or I guess I could just swap in the old hd to the optical bay and clone from there

 

[ccapman670]

It doesn't look like that comes with the USB cable? Does anyone know where to get one? Or I guess I could just swap in the old hd to the optical bay and clone from there

You may want to get the kit then, if not you can find the enclosure with USB cable on Newegg or any other site. That's a really good question though, if you could just put the old hard drive in the optical bay and then the new SSD in the HDD bay and clone that way. I'm not sure but as I'm doing the same thing I would love to know as well! Hopefully someone chimes in.

 

[bull156]

Will this caddy and external optical drive work with my computer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817997055

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You may want to get the kit then, if not you can find the enclosure with USB cable on Newegg or any other site. That's a really good question though, if you could just put the old hard drive in the optical bay and then the new SSD in the HDD bay and clone that way. I'm not sure but as I'm doing the same thing I would love to know as well! Hopefully someone chimes in.

Ive pretty much confirmed that I can clone from the optical bay with the caddy by reading other threads. It wouldn't work if my HDD was a SATA III instead of SATA II because the connection for my optical drive is SATA II. Thats the way I understood it. In other words if my computer was newer it wouldn't work that way.

 

[ccapman670]

Will this caddy and external optical drive work with my computer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817997055

----------



Ive pretty much confirmed that I can clone from the optical bay with the caddy by reading other threads. It wouldn't work if my HDD was a SATA III instead of SATA II because the connection for my optical drive is SATA II. Thats the way I understood it. In other words if my computer was newer it wouldn't work that way.

That caddy doesn't specify and I can't seem to find anything online. I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I personally spent the extra few bucks for the MCE optibay since it's designed for and guaranteed to work with the Macbook Pros. Should be in sometime this coming week. That's good to hear about the cloning. I have a mid-2010 MBP so mine are both SATA-II as well. That would be much more convenient than buying an external enclosure for a 2.5" drive.

 

[bull156]

I placed the order for the samsung 500 gb ssd and I added the silverstone "conversion tray" with the external optical drive enclosure. I'll let you know if it works. I also added 8 gb of ram to my order and a SATA to USB cable to clone the drive before I swap everything out-I don't want to get everything in there and then it not clone for some reason. The price with shipping included was $506.

 

[bull156]

By the way the battery from apple is $149 and they had to order it. I went to the Mac experience not the apple store so maybe that's why it's a little more. They also have 126 gb ssd's for 250$. What a bargain lol

 

[ccapman670]

By the way the battery from apple is $149 and they had to order it. I went to the Mac experience not the apple store so maybe that's why it's a little more. They also have 126 gb ssd's for 250$. What a bargain lol

Ouch, I would rather spend $75 more and get a 500GB. I already ordered the optibay a few days ago along with the RAM. I need to order the hard drive before Adorama ups the price, just been trying to spread out the purchases so it isn't all at once! How much was the SATA to USB cable you got and where from? I need to find a cheap one of those. Thanks!