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Macbook 2010 ( polycarbonate ) SSD upgrade

T

TheCaptain95

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 22, 2012
25
0
Hi all,

Just saw a video on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKtCR5Z5CpU , installing a new ssd onto a macbook. Im new to this but appears to be a good investment as i am a student and always seem to be tight for cash! So, the overall Geekbench score rose very slightly, and it looks like not much was improved. So is upgrading to an ssd worth it? or should I just buy a new laptop as i want a laptop to last as long as it can. thanks :)
 
SSDs make things much "snappier" but are by no means necessary. Unless you're doing a lot of gaming/video editing there really isn't any reason you'll need a new computer anytime soon.
 
riptideMBP said:
SSDs make things much "snappier" but are by no means necessary. Unless you're doing a lot of gaming/video editing there really isn't any reason you'll need a new computer anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Its just irritating to constantly have a slow laptop, even after clearing the memory to an external hard drive, and regular shut downs. I was thinking a 256gb ssd for performance, yay or nay?
 
There are a lot of things can improve performance, and an SSD is definitely one of them. You also have to consider things like how much space you're using on your current drive, and whether or not you have enough ram... What do you use the computer for?
 
riptideMBP said:
There are a lot of things can improve performance, and an SSD is definitely one of them. You also have to consider things like how much space you're using on your current drive, and whether or not you have enough ram... What do you use the computer for?
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a little bit of everything, emails, itunes etc. But I also do alot of video and photography (cs5) on it
 
Wouldn't space be a major issue, or do you work off an external drive? Anyway, yes an SSD is always a nice upgrade, but you need to consider the possibility that performance issues could also be due to excessive paging... How much ram do you have? and could you post a screenshot of your "system memory" section of activity monitor?
 
riptideMBP said:
Wouldn't space be a major issue, or do you work off an external drive? Anyway, yes an SSD is always a nice upgrade, but you need to consider the possibility that performance issues could also be due to excessive paging... How much ram do you have? and could you post a screenshot of your "system memory" section of activity monitor?
Click to expand...

I'd say 95% of all my stuff is on my 2tb external hard drive so space won't be an issue. I store it all on the external HD. Have 2gb of ram and was thinking of upgrading it to 4gb, now honestly, I'm by no means a pro. It's a hobby I'm lucky enough to b payed for so I wouldnt really need a new laptop. What I have at the moment, it works, it's slow enough. Exporting a 1080p video will take more than 30 minutes, so anything to boost overall performance I'm all for
 
Without question you should upgrade the ram then, 2gb is too little for anything beyond web browsing nowadays. I would definitely do that before getting the SSD. As I said earlier, an SSD would be nice, but if you're tight on cash its not quite as necessary as more ram.
 
RAM is dirt cheap, so that would be the most bang for your buck. Seeing as how you only have 2GB, I'm guessing your HDD is also fairly old. Upgrading to a larger and faster HDD (7200rpm) with a decent cache could also noticeably improve your performance while increasing your capacity as well. It will cost a fraction of a SSD of comparable size, although obviously won't compare to a SSD's speed.
 
I think you really can't replace a hard drive with an SSD, so why not get both? :)

If you rarely use the DVD drive, why not open up the computer, pull out the DVD drive and install an enclosure like the Optibay to hold a second hard drive. I keep a 128GB SSD in the main drive bay and a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive in the secondary bay. That way I get the speed of an SSD plus the cheap and large storage space of a hard drive. The SSD will make the machine feel a lot snappier.

RAM upgrades can come later... if you rarely open up a ton of browser windows and have multiple virtual machines running, you won't need the full 8GB RAM the machine can handle.
 
soapsudz said:
I think you really can't replace a hard drive with an SSD, so why not get both? :)

If you rarely use the DVD drive, why not open up the computer, pull out the DVD drive and install an enclosure like the Optibay to hold a second hard drive. I keep a 128GB SSD in the main drive bay and a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive in the secondary bay. That way I get the speed of an SSD plus the cheap and large storage space of a hard drive. The SSD will make the machine feel a lot snappier.

RAM upgrades can come later... if you rarely open up a ton of browser windows and have multiple virtual machines running, you won't need the full 8GB RAM the machine can handle.
Click to expand...

I have the same set up in my Mid 2010 MacBook... with the full 8GB of RAM. With these upgrades it FLYS :D! But the major downfall is battery life :mad:.
 
slomo86 said:
I have the same set up in my Mid 2010 MacBook... with the full 8GB of RAM. With these upgrades it FLYS :D! But the major downfall is battery life :mad:.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I have the setup too and I get 4:15 with normal use and 9:20 if im writing with low brightness, no wifi etc.
 
riptideMBP said:
Interesting, I have the setup too and I get 4:15 with normal use and 9:20 if im writing with low brightness, no wifi etc.
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I will haven't really timed it... I am running Battery Health, right now its got about 97% charge and it says I can get about 5 hours of internet useage, but I am not currently connected to a wifi and wifi is off so that number would change. I am at work right now, I will use it tonight and see what kind of battery life time and what I have open to see. By chance do you know what your battery's current max charge is? Mine will only charge to 4940 mAh... The factory's max charge is 5770. This will be interesting to see.
 
slomo86 said:
I will haven't really timed it... I am running Battery Health, right now its got about 97% charge and it says I can get about 5 hours of internet useage, but I am not currently connected to a wifi and wifi is off so that number would change. I am at work right now, I will use it tonight and see what kind of battery life time and what I have open to see. By chance do you know what your battery's current max charge is? Mine will only charge to 4940 mAh... The factory's max charge is 5770. This will be interesting to see.
Click to expand...

are you sure? mine is at 6176, and i remember it being somewhere around 6600 or 6800 when it was new
 
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