Mac Book Pro Upgrade questions

[ehazellmacbook]

Good Afternoon Everyone!

I am posting because I wanted to upgrade my ( MacBook Pro 17" Late 2006 2.33 Ghz Intel Core Two Duo ) and was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light as to whether or not the hardware I am looking to purchase would be compatible with my system.

I am looking to purchase and install

This Hard Drive

and a Crucial Recommended 2GB Ram Memory card in order to be at 3gb Peak for RAM


Would there need to be any special prep or adjustments done for this 6gb/s hard drive, and the 2gb stick of memory??
Are there any tips or hints you might be able to offer before I purchase and begin this upgrade?

Thanks for all your help and responses!!

 

[Wreckus]

I may be mistaken but I think RAM is not upgradeable. The Hard Drive may be upgradeable, but I think its difficult and you need to know what your doing..not to mention getting the right SSD.

 

[snaky69]

I may be mistaken but I think RAM is not upgradeable. The Hard Drive may be upgradeable, but I think its difficult and you need to know what your doing..not to mention getting the right SSD.

You are mistaken.

Both the hard drive and RAM are upgradeable on this model.

OP, I'll be honest, chucking a SSD in there won't do all that much, seeing as you only have SATA I. It's compatible, it just won't yield that big a performance gain. RAM is a good idea though.

Check out the guides on ifixit, that older MBP is a b*tch to open up but once you're in the upgrade itself is quite easy.

 

[Natzoo]

I think you deserve an upgrade to a 15" retina. I know macs can last a long time.

 

[yjchua95]

Good Afternoon Everyone!

I am posting because I wanted to upgrade my ( MacBook Pro 17" Late 2006 2.33 Ghz Intel Core Two Duo ) and was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light as to whether or not the hardware I am looking to purchase would be compatible with my system.

I am looking to purchase and install

This Hard Drive

and a Crucial Recommended 2GB Ram Memory card in order to be at 3gb Peak for RAM


Would there need to be any special prep or adjustments done for this 6gb/s hard drive, and the 2gb stick of memory??
Are there any tips or hints you might be able to offer before I purchase and begin this upgrade?

Thanks for all your help and responses!!

Even an SSD wouldn't give you that much of a performance increase since it's only SATA1.

Get yourself a new rMBP.

 

[maflynn]

I may be mistaken but I think RAM is not upgradeable. The Hard Drive may be upgradeable, but I think its difficult and you need to know what your doing..not to mention getting the right SSD.

Ram is upgradeable on the 17" MBP, only when apple rolled out the retina models was the ram soldered onto the logic board.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

My daughter was using the same computer until a couple of months ago when the power brick fried.... Sigh. (It was mine, she ended up destroying it and got it replaced with an 8" dell tablet, sucks to be her!)

I cannot believe you hadn't dome the ram already!

Good luck, and save for an upgrade (15" enters the house here Wednesday I hope!)

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote above:
[[ I am posting because I wanted to upgrade my ( MacBook Pro 17" Late 2006 2.33 Ghz Intel Core Two Duo ) and was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light as to whether or not the hardware I am looking to purchase would be compatible with my system. ]]

After almost ten years of service, rather than spend $$$ on upgrades, the best "upgrade" of all would be a new MacBook (or at least an Apple-refurbished one)!

You'll have to settle for a 15" display, however.

But I think you'll find a 15" retina MBPro very accomodating!

 

[alex0002]

Good Afternoon Everyone!

I am posting because I wanted to upgrade my ( MacBook Pro 17" Late 2006 2.33 Ghz Intel Core Two Duo ) and was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light as to whether or not the hardware I am looking to purchase would be compatible with my system.

I am looking to purchase and install

This Hard Drive

and a Crucial Recommended 2GB Ram Memory card in order to be at 3gb Peak for RAM

Would there need to be any special prep or adjustments done for this 6gb/s hard drive, and the 2gb stick of memory??
Are there any tips or hints you might be able to offer before I purchase and begin this upgrade?

Thanks for all your help and responses!!

It appears that you might be able to install 4GB of RAM in this model, with a small benefit over the 3GB option:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2.33-17-specs.html
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...ore-2-duo-3-gb-memory-limitation-details.html

But 3GB is better than leaving it at 2GB.

Regarding the SSD, you should still get a performance improvement over an HDD as you'll have much faster read/write speeds for small files, even if sequential read/write speeds aren't a great deal faster. Boot speeds and program loading should be quite a bit faster than before.

However I might be reluctant to go for an SSD from an unknown brand without a good track record. For a little more money there are better options.

In an ideal world, get a new (or refurb) macbook pro retina 15 inch like the others said. But since you are asking these questions I'm assuming you haven't got a huge amount of spare cash and just want the best machine you can get without spending a fortune.

Your plan isn't a bad one, but start saving for the day when the old macbook pro eventually dies.

 

[ehazellmacbook]

Update

Sorry guys, I had posted the wrong hard drive... This was the Drive she was looking to purchase >.< been looking at too many options, honestly its for my sister and she just needs more space and I suggested the RAM as a bump in speed for her to help with any heavy applications she may attempt to run

My MAIN concern is if there is any type of incompatability with the hardware, I am aware after installation the RAM and HD that I will need to reformat the drive using an Installation Disk/Drive to mac the new HD a Mac OS Journaled.

Just wanted to ensure the PC would be able to recognize the drive as a valid one.

Also do you suggest any type of procedural steps as far as the upgrade? Such as installing the Ram with the original hard drive first, letting the OS recognize the upgrade and then upgrade the HD and format it and install OSX?

Not sure if it matters, just trying to play it safe

 

[alex0002]

Sorry guys, I had posted the wrong hard drive... This was the Drive she was looking to purchase >.< been looking at too many options, honestly its for my sister and she just needs more space and I suggested the RAM as a bump in speed for her to help with any heavy applications she may attempt to run

My MAIN concern is if there is any type of incompatability with the hardware, I am aware after installation the RAM and HD that I will need to reformat the drive using an Installation Disk/Drive to mac the new HD a Mac OS Journaled.

Just wanted to ensure the PC would be able to recognize the drive as a valid one.

Also do you suggest any type of procedural steps as far as the upgrade? Such as installing the Ram with the original hard drive first, letting the OS recognize the upgrade and then upgrade the HD and format it and install OSX?

Not sure if it matters, just trying to play it safe

That HDD appears to be similar (but not identical) to one of the 500GB Hitachi drives that OWC offer for the same model MBP:
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=260&type=Internal+Drive

The one from OWC is a little cheaper, but has a smaller cache.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/0J38065/

I'd imagine that most HDD in that size range should be o.k.

 

[ehazellmacbook]

That HDD appears to be similar (but not identical) to one of the 500GB Hitachi drives that OWC offer for the same model MBP:
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=260&type=Internal+Drive

The one from OWC is a little cheaper, but has a smaller cache.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/0J38065/

I'd imagine that most HDD in that size range should be o.k.

My main concern is whether or not the Cache has to match up? The HD I posted has a 6gb/s speed, and I am concerned that that Processor, or Motherboard might not be able to handle it, or be compatible?

 

[snaky69]

My main concern is whether or not the Cache has to match up? The HD I posted has a 6gb/s speed, and I am concerned that that Processor, or Motherboard might not be able to handle it, or be compatible?

SATA is backwards compatible. It'll work.