It's raining Macs (yet again! - part 2)

[magilla]

As luck would have it, something that happened to me a couple of months ago has happened yet again!

Driving to work last night, I spotted what turns out to be a late 2009 Macbook (6,1) being tossed out by my neighbor.

Turns out this guy is a foreign national who thinks the garbage pick up guys will send this to a computer recycling center. He's also the same guy who tossed out a perfectly good 2011 iMac back in August that I spirited away.

This new-to-me Macbook has 6GB with a 250GB HD installed and 10.6.8 still loaded on it.

How tough is it to 1) upgrade the internal memory (and what is the max it'll take) and moreover, 2 ) replace the 250GB HD with a 1 TB HD?

As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with this unit but I'm also assuming that I should probably replace the battery at this point.

God bless this poor stupid sod! He's provided me with 2 viable FREE computers in the past couple of months. Now all I need him to do is to start tossing out iPhones/iPads and I'll be happy as a lark!

 

[allthingsapple]

As luck would have it, something that happened to me a couple of months ago has happened yet again!

Driving to work last night, I spotted what turns out to be a late 2009 Macbook (6,1) being tossed out by my neighbor.

Turns out this guy is a foreign national who thinks the garbage pick up guys will send this to a computer recycling center. He's also the same guy who tossed out a perfectly good 2011 iMac back in August that I spirited away.

This new-to-me Macbook has 6GB with a 250GB HD installed and 10.6.8 still loaded on it.

How tough is it to 1) upgrade the internal memory (and what is the max it'll take) and moreover, 2 ) replace the 250GB HD with a 1 TB HD?

As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with this unit but I'm also assuming that I should probably replace the battery at this point.

God bless this poor stupid sod! He's provided me with 2 viable FREE computers in the past couple of months. Now all I need him to do is to start tossing out iPhones/iPads and I'll be happy as a lark!

Wow! Well done you're incredibly lucky. The Max Ram you can put into a late 2009 Macbook in 8GB. Replacing the Hard dive is fairly straightforward too and can be done in less than 10 mins with a small cross headed screwdriver. As for the battery check the amount of cycles and the overall condition of the battery. You may be able to get a few more cycles out of it before it needs replacing. As for replacements I would only recommend the use of genuine Apple batteries, although they cost slightly more, they are reliable and come with a warranty.

 

[dylin]

I must say i am quite jealous of your find.

But as allthingsapple said, 8GB of ram, and as far as 1TB, it should be fine. I installed a nice SSD into my old unibody 09 macbook before giving it to my little cousins.

 

[magilla]

Wow! Well done you're incredibly lucky. The Max Ram you can put into a late 2009 Macbook in 8GB. Replacing the Hard dive is fairly straightforward too and can be done in less than 10 mins with a small cross headed screwdriver. As for the battery check the amount of cycles and the overall condition of the battery. You may be able to get a few more cycles out of it before it needs replacing. As for replacements I would only recommend the use of genuine Apple batteries, although they cost slightly more, they are reliable and come with a warranty.

Never having had a laptop before, how do I "check the amount of cycles and overall condition of the battery"? I know that resellers/eBray/Craigs List abound with sellers fobbing off remanufactured (or otherwise) batteries and that, for the paltry few $$$ more, the Apple offered replacement batteries provide exact replacements and longevity.

 

[allthingsapple]

Never having had a laptop before, how do I "check the amount of cycles and overall condition of the battery"? I know that resellers/eBray/Craigs List abound with sellers fobbing off remanufactured (or otherwise) batteries and that, for the paltry few $$$ more, the Apple offered replacement batteries provide exact replacements and longevity.

There are 2 ways to check the amount of cycles and overall health of the battery. The first is to hold down the option key (Left alt key) and simultaneously click on the battery icon in the menubar at the top of the screen. This will tell you the condition of the battery. The other method is to download a program such as coconut battery or stat menus, launch the app and see what it displays under battery cycles.