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Macbook CoreDuo Harddrives and Memory

M

MacAodh

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 3, 2006
247
0
Dublin, Eire
Hi all,
I've had my macbook for 2 years now and i think its time for a bit of an upgrade. I want to put more memory and a larger hard drive in her. I just need a bit of help.

Memory: I am right in saying that first generation Macbooks can only take 2Gig memory (2x1 gig)? Is there much of a difference between brands?

Hard drive: Can i use Sata-300 or only sata-150? Is there any size restrictions or the largest 9,5mm one i can find? Which would ye consider better, larger size or faster (7200 rather then 5400)?
 
MacAodh said:
Memory: I am right in saying that first generation Macbooks can only take 2Gig memory (2x1 gig)? Is there much of a difference between brands?
Click to expand...

Correct - core duo's have 2GB limit - if your's is 2 years old then it is Core duo - Apple use a number of suppliers - Nanya, Hynix, Micron (Crucial) and Samsung. I have not noticed any difference between brands. 2 x 1GB should not cost much more than around £25 (€30).

Hard disc - sata 1 and 2 is a minefield of misinformation. Sata 1 is faster than the hard-disc can work anyway so sata 1 is fine. Some of the 7200rpm discs access slower than 5400 rpm drives ! I have never had any problems with Western Digital sata laptop drives.
 
You can put 4GB in it if you like, you'll only be able to address 3.3GB of it but you get the dual channel goodness (between 6-10%, as I recall). Otherwise, 2GB + 1GB, or just 2GB :p. CanadaRAM has kindly reminded me this information only applies to to Core 2 Duo machines.

Are you in the U.S.? Your top-end choices are between size, in which case you want this 320GB Western Digital hard drive, or speed, in the form of this 200GB Hitachi 7200rpm drive.
 
Ok, thanks. The hard drives i was looking at were
Hitachi Travelstar 5K250 250GB 5400RPM SATA 2,5"
Samsung SpinPoint M5 250GB 5400RPM SATA 2,5"
Western Digital Scorpio 250GB 5400RPM SATA 2,5"

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kcp.aspx?sku=338821&sku=338821&sku=336007&sku=338050

I'd heard samsung arn't meant to be great hard drives but the other two i don't know. Do they all work with the anti-drop on the macbooks?

In terms of memory I'm getting them for 41€. It's from the same site but i checked two others and there around the forty mark too.
 
Try Play.com for the memory - pc5300 sodimms - Kingston are about €15 each delivered - Play's own memory is even cheaper. Kingston ValueRam works fine in a Core Duo MacBook.

I would go for the Western Digital 250GB.

Check the guides on this site "understanding Intel Mac Memory" from the list on this forum.
 
MacAodh said:
Do they all work with the anti-drop on the macbooks?
Click to expand...

Forgot to answer this bit - the anti-drop must be on the logic-board because it will still be enabled whatever make of drive you put in.

I agree with CanadaRAM - don't waste your money on 2GB chips - 2 x 1GB will give you a big improvement if you only have the base 512MB in there at the moment !!
 
CanadaRAM said:
Sorry, wrong. If it is a CoreDuo, it will crash with 2 GB SODIMMS. It can only recognize 1 GB SODIMMs.

Your info is accurate only for Core2Duo machines.
Click to expand...

Bah, yes, of course. Sorry for the misinformation there, I'd forgotten about that. Have edited my post to avoid spreading FUD!
 
That's it done so, Just brought 2xCrucial DDR2 SO-DIMM PC5300 1024MB CL5 and 1xWestern Digital Scorpio 250GB 5400RPM. Now here's to hoping they arrive soon so i can mess :). Thanks for the help lads
 
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