Making the fastest MacBook possible

Discussion in 'MacBook' started by hldomster, Mar 22, 2009.

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  1. hldomster, Mar 22, 2009

    hldomster macrumors member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2009
    #1
    Hello,

    I'm an aluminium MacBook 2.4ghz owner and I feel that it beechballs a little more regularly than I would like.

    So my question is how do I make my Mac as fast as possbile.

    A RAM upgrade is the most obvious thing to do, but I've been told that if I'm not doing anything particularly intensive, so I'm just browsing the net, listening to iTunes etc, then I'm probably not using all the RAM I have now, and therefore an upgrade is pointless. How true is this - if I seldom use the full 2GB of RAM I have now will a 4GB upgrade not give me any noticable speed increase at all?

    I've also been told that HDD upgrade will make the Mac faster. I've been told to get a 500gb one, as the larger the drive the faster it will be - how true is this? I've been told that I should get a WD Scorpio Blue, have these been known to give performance boosts? Is there any risk of voiding the warranty? Finally, is a 7200rpm HDD plausible for a MacBook? I know a SSD would be the best option, but one with a decent capacity is well out of my price range.

    So please let me know what I can do to make my Mac faster. Is there any other way to make it faster without upgrading hardware?

    Thanks.
     
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  2. thesmoth, Mar 22, 2009

    thesmoth macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Oct 7, 2008
    #2
    1)Wait for a year
    2)Upgrade ram for cheap, and upgrade to an intel SSD for cheap (they will be much more reasonable in a year)
    3).....
    4)Profit???
     
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  3. m1stake, Mar 22, 2009

    m1stake macrumors 68000

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    Jan 17, 2008
    Location:
    Philly
    #3
    Bigger hard disks don't make your computer faster. (LOL). 7200rpm 2.5" drives don't have much of a performance edge over their 5400rpm brethren. It's just marketing. If you're looking for some speed, SSD.
     
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  4. darngooddesign, Mar 22, 2009

    darngooddesign macrumors G3

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    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    #4
    Bigger drives make a difference if you don't have much space left on your old one. A 7200rpm definitely makes a difference in boot time (I noticed a 10 second decrease in boot times) and application launching time. Not as much as a SSD, but they're far less expensive and available in much higher capacities. Buying an SSD isn't the best solution especially when you price out the high capacity drives.

    The ultimate speed upgrade is:
    4GB RAM and OptiBay kit with a smaller SSD for OS and applications and a large 7200RPM drive in your optical bay for all your media.
     
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  5. steve31, Mar 22, 2009

    steve31 macrumors 6502a

    steve31

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    Jul 20, 2007
    Location:
    Edmonton Canada
    #5
    I agree. I did not notice a difference with a 7200rpm drive over a 5400rpm and the extra virations where bad also lost some battery life. Now I have a 5400rpm with 500gb:D...I will wait till SSD drives become cheaper and are larger...256gb min for 500.00 then I'm in!;)
     
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  6. xkRoWx, Mar 22, 2009

    xkRoWx macrumors regular

    xkRoWx

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2007
    Location:
    Canada
    #6
    SSD and RAM. That's about it..

     
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  7. iJimmy, Mar 22, 2009

    iJimmy macrumors regular

    iJimmy

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    Feb 4, 2008
    #7
    I believe the single best upgrade would be getting a ssd.

    I recently upgraded my 320GB WD Scorpio blue (5400rpm) to a Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 (320GB 7200rpm). It shaved ~7 seconds from my boot time. As far as loading apps, there isn't that much of a difference. My hitachi drive is louder than my WD.

    I just came across a good deal for an Intel ssd on ebay. I'm sure it still wasn't worth it because by the end of the year they'll probably be like ~$100 for the 80GB ssd.
     
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