Help with SSD Upgrade for 2009 Macbook Pro 5,5

[chschn87]

Hello All,

Sorry to post after having reviewed this site (as well as plenty of others) for hours upon hours. I have a 13" 2009 Macbook Pro 2.26 Ghz 2GB/160GB. I want to upgrade this system so it works much better. I am not into heavy gaming, photoshop, etc. but I do multitask a lot between webpages and microsoft office. I just ordered 8GB of Mushkin RAM to beef up my system.

I now want to convert my 160GB HD to a 240-256GB SSD. I have read tons of review sites and prices are always changing. Can anyone recommend an SSD on the cheaper end of the price range. I see crucial M4 for around $160 - is that my best bet? Or is there a better option in the same price range that won't give me hangups?

I'm not looking for the quickest/most expensive SSD because I believe upgrading from where I am at will be a considerable change. I'm looking for something that will improve my system and not give me any headaches on install and boot up. Thank you all in advance!

 

[Orlandoech]

I saw the Crucial M4 on Amazon.com for $160 (256GB) which is a way good deal. I would snag it up. The M4 is also highly regarded and has good speeds.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-256GB...TF8&qid=1355173120&sr=8-2&keywords=crucial+m4

Or this is a steal for $314, http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technolog...id=1355173194&sr=8-1&keywords=ocz+agility+480

 

[fan09]

I have the same model as you do, and I upgraded my RAM to 8GB and installed a Crucial M4 SSD (128 GB) and it does speed up the MBP big time.
Crucial M4 256 GB will be great for your machine, especially at this price.

 

[chschn87]

Thanks for all of your help! Looks like that must have been a one day sale because the prices have gone up at the 2-3 websites I was looking at. At newegg today they have a mushkin, ocz vertex plus, ocz agility 3, ocz vertex plus, and ocz vertex 2 all today for around the price at $160. Are any of these better? I'm looking to purchase today so if there's a sale today, please post a link! Thanks again for all of your help.

 

[Orlandoech]

Thanks for all of your help! Looks like that must have been a one day sale because the prices have gone up at the 2-3 websites I was looking at. At newegg today they have a mushkin, ocz vertex plus, ocz agility 3, ocz vertex plus, and ocz vertex 2 all today for around the price at $160. Are any of these better? I'm looking to purchase today so if there's a sale today, please post a link! Thanks again for all of your help.

Avoid any Sandforce based SSDs with your Mac. Also, I dont care for Muskin or Sandisk SSDs. Keep in mind, customer service/RMA, and Firmware updates. See my guide for more help.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1442840/

Id snag this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147189

or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233341
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227808

 

[foto-max]

I have the same MacBook Pro 2009. I replaced the optical drive with a Samsung 830 256Gb drive and replaced the original HDD with a 1 Tb HDD. The machine now "smokes" and is stable as ever. Unfortunately, the bus is only maxed for SATA II, so the machine is not able to max out the potential of the two new drives.

With this upgrade, I've never looked back, and given the relative low cost, this upgrade has extended the usefullness of this once "slug" a number of years.

 

[T5BRICK]

I went with the Crucial M4 because I knew SATA II would limit my read write speeds, and at the time it was cheaper than most other options.

Here are my results: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1432670/