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MBP 5,4 - 2009 Model - New SSD - OSX/Upgrade Recommendation?

jasko

jasko

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 26, 2006
471
5
Hi all.

My 500GB Yosemite loaded HD crapped out about two weeks ago. (I think resulting from me accidently letting my laptop slowly drop to the floor from my lap on the couch :eek:) It worked for a while after that, but I got the gradual beach-balls then resulting to a crawl with anything I tried to do. I eventually formatted the hard drive and installed Snow Leopard on it - clean install. It seemed to work faster since it was an older OSX, but my thoughts and hopes of thinking that Yosemite was making my MBP extremely slow due it being an older MBP were quickly destroyed. I tried to repair permissions in Disk Utility, but received some errors in red that I can't remember at this point in time. All I remember was that the my hard drive label on the left side column was red also.

I then rebooted and got the blank gray screen. After many reboots and attempts to boot into safe mode, I got the do not enter type sign screen... then the blank folder image upon boot screen. I did my research and I tried and ordered a new SATA cable, as I've read that those have a high failure rate on these models. I replaced the SATA cable and the drive would still not boot. It still wouldn't even boot into safe mode. I booted from my Snow Leopard CD and then it wouldn't even recognize/mount the hard drive when I went into Disk Utility. When it got to this point, I couldn't even attempt to try and use DiskWarrior. Furthermore, I didn't have an external case to try and test the drive that way either.

So after many nights of frustration, I took the plunge and bought a new 512GB Crucial SSD for about $230and received it a few days ago. I installed Snow Leopard clean and copied all my important files over to my SSD from an external HD that I have. I'm already impressed at how much snappier my computer feels with the SSD.

Anyway, I'm trying to make my MBP last as long as I can and enjoy using it at the same time. I'm presently running Snow Leopard and was wondering what you guys thought the best OSX would be for me to have on a machine of these specs?

Also, with this being said, is there anything else I can do to upgrade my laptop to boost performance?

15" MacBook Pro - 2009 model
Core 2 Duo 2.53
8GB Ram

Thanks all.
 
Last edited:
Let me simplify:

What's the best OSX to run on:

15" MacBook Pro - 2009 model
Core 2 Duo 2.53
8GB Ram

to get the most features out of the OSX..>? ;)
 
You can run Yosemite with those specs quite easily, especially with the SSD

My daughter has a C2D 2010 MBP with 4gb Ram and without a SSD that is running Yosemite just fine
 
Mik3F said:
You can run Yosemite with those specs quite easily, especially with the SSD

My daughter has a C2D 2010 MBP with 4gb Ram and without a SSD that is running Yosemite just fine
Click to expand...

thanks for the input!
 
I have a mid '09 13". Crucial MX100 256 SSD and Crucial 1066mhz 8GB RAM. Running 10.10.2 and smooth as can be. Go for it OP, you will love it.
 
Brittw1 said:
I have a 2009 white unibody with SSD and 8gb of RAM. Runs very smooth.
Click to expand...

Cool. What OS you running on that?

got556 said:
I have a mid '09 13". Crucial MX100 256 SSD and Crucial 1066mhz 8GB RAM. Running 10.10.2 and smooth as can be. Go for it OP, you will love it.
Click to expand...

That's reassuring to hear. The reason why I made the thread was in fear of more lag with 10.10 like I experienced on my HDD. Downgrading back to Snow Leopard is a PITA!
 
Brittw1 said:
Just download Trim Enabler for trim support.
Click to expand...

Ok. If I go to install Yosemite on this computer, will it boot up into Yosemite after install and allow me to download and use Trim Enabler? or do I need to do anything beforehand?

Thanks again.
 
jasko said:
Ok. If I go to install Yosemite on this computer, will it boot up into Yosemite after install and allow me to download and use Trim Enabler? or do I need to do anything beforehand?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

You can download Trim Enabler anytime before or after you upgrade.
 
If you have a crucial SSD then you don't need to use TRIM, they have there own inbuilt solution
 
I have the exact same model and updated mine with a Samsung 840 EVO SSD a few months ago. Fresh installed Yosemite on it and it runs pretty good :)
I use it as a webdeveloper (adobe package 70% of the time) and I don't plan to upgrade any soon.
 
Mik3F said:
If you have a crucial SSD then you don't need to use TRIM, they have there own inbuilt solution
Click to expand...

Ah ok that's good to know. I'll go ahead and uninstall Trim Enabler then :)

diegie said:
I have the exact same model and updated mine with a Samsung 840 EVO SSD a few months ago. Fresh installed Yosemite on it and it runs pretty good :)
I use it as a webdeveloper (adobe package 70% of the time) and I don't plan to upgrade any soon.
Click to expand...


Cool. I installed Yosemite last night and it's been pretty smooth so far. Just trying to do some tweaks still to try and optimize the performance.
 
You don't need TRIM, but it does make a difference.

My recommendation is that if your usage contains a lot of write-heavy activity, such as photo or video editing, then you would benefit more from having TRIM enabled than if it was somebody that was merely using their system for word processing and browsing the web.

You can find additional data on the effects of running with or without TRIM here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-m550-ssd-review,3772-10.html
 
duervo said:
You don't need TRIM, but it does make a difference.

My recommendation is that if your usage contains a lot of write-heavy activity, such as photo or video editing, then you would benefit more from having TRIM enabled than if it was somebody that was merely using their system for word processing and browsing the web.

You can find additional data on the effects of running with or without TRIM here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-m550-ssd-review,3772-10.html
Click to expand...

I'm that guy using it for word processing and browsing the web :cool: If that's the case, though, I will keep the TRIM enabled for better performance ;)
 
No worries. Just remember to disable it if you eventually upgrade to OS X 10.10 (and re-enable kext signing) before you install the upcoming OS X 10.10.3 update (as well as any future OS X updates or upgrades). Should be able to do that using the same tool you used to enable it.
 
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