How to keep my 2006 MBP truckin'

[CaptainKebab]

Hey all, after following the 2010 MBP update and thinking I was going to get a new 13" MBP, I finally thought to myself, "do I really need a new computer?". Surprisingly the answer came back as a resolute "No".

I know many of you need the latest technology for what you do (or simply would just like to keep current with the times, which I totally get), but I've decided to see how long I can keep my early-gen 15" mbp working for my needs. I do software development for a living, mostly in Textmate (not a fan of heavy duty IDEs), so pretty much just an advanced text editor, as well as database work, managing servers remotely, surfing the internet, listening to music, working with photos, watching movies, the general kind of stuff.

And while I'm not upgrading to a new MBP, its been 4 years since I've made an upgrade to this Macbook Pro so I'm looking for some suggestions of what I can do. It's a 2.16 Core Duo with 2gb ram and is running Snow Leopard. The battery doesn't last too long (maybe 1.5 hours), but its not that big of an issue for me. Mainly I'm just looking to see what today's technology can do for my trusty 15" .

As of yesterday, I made my first major upgrade by putting in an OWC Mercury SSD (which has made an incredible difference). What else can I do? I'd like some more ram, but its my understanding that this model won't support more than 2GB, is that right? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can lend!

 

[gonzaload1987]

Hey all, after following the 2010 MBP update and thinking I was going to get a new 13" MBP, I finally thought to myself, "do I really need a new computer?". Surprisingly the answer came back as a resolute "No".

I know many of you need the latest technology for what you do (or simply would just like to keep current with the times, which I totally get), but I've decided to see how long I can keep my early-gen 15" mbp working for my needs. I do software development for a living, mostly in Textmate (not a fan of heavy duty IDEs), so pretty much just an advanced text editor, as well as database work, managing servers remotely, surfing the internet, listening to music, working with photos, watching movies, the general kind of stuff.

And while I'm not upgrading to a new MBP, its been 4 years since I've made an upgrade to this Macbook Pro so I'm looking for some suggestions of what I can do. It's a 2.16 Core Duo with 2gb ram and is running Snow Leopard. The battery doesn't last too long (maybe 1.5 hours), but its not that big of an issue for me. Mainly I'm just looking to see what today's technology can do for my trusty 15" .

As of yesterday, I made my first major upgrade by putting in an OWC Mercury SSD (which has made an incredible difference). What else can I do? I'd like some more ram, but its my understanding that this model won't support more than 2GB, is that right? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can lend!

Congratulations with your acquisition, can you tell me how about battery performance (i know that your notebook's battery is kind of old, but i will like to know if you have any improvement from your original hard drive)

What SSD size did you get? How much usable space did you have for your use after formatting?

Cheers!

 

[cluthz]

What else can I do? I'd like some more ram, but its my understanding that this model won't support more than 2GB, is that right? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can lend!

If it's the Core Duo, then you can't do anything else, you're stuck with 2GB RAM.
The Core 2 Duo was introduced in 2006 as well so if it is a Core 2 Duo it can use 3.3GB RAM.

Anyways, with 2GB RAM I guess things will speed really up with SSD, since you rely on virtual memory, which is a lot faster with SSD.

 

[xi mezmerize ix]

Well you cannot put anymore RAM in and you have already put in an SSD, so you can only really clear as much useless info off your SSD to speed it up a little. Other then that there really isn't anything you can do.

 

[CaptainKebab]

Congratulations with your acquisition, can you tell me how about battery performance (i know that your notebook's battery is kind of old, but i will like to know if you have any improvement from your original hard drive)

What SSD size did you get? How much usable space did you have for your use after formatting?

Cheers!

I did notice an increase in battery life, though its hard to estimate since my battery was almost toast to begin with. I'd say an extra 20 minutes? I got the 100gb size. After partitioning it read at 99.69 out of the 100.03 total size. I almost got the 50gb as I don't store any movies on my laptop and my music collection is on an SDHC card. But it would have sucked if I ran out lol so I bumped it up.


And thanks for the replies everyone. It seems as though I've reached the maximum for this guy. Upgrading laptops is such a PITA sometimes, but at least Apple designs its software to run quicker with each iteration. Now its time to run it until explodes! I'm thinking it can last at least another year and a half... Wish me luck!