Need advice with possible upgrades

[scharnhorst]

I have a white MacBook 2007 with 2.16ghz. the software is mac os x 10.5.8. I got it a year ago from my bro who upgraded to a new macbook pro. Unfortunately I feel that the comp is slowing down a little and i'm a fairly tech savvy person i could just do some upgrades.

I've looked up how to install everything and that is simple but I need your guys' advice

which ssd? leaning towards the ocz vertex or agility 60gb ones as i've heard they are pretty good.

Ram: (figured 2gb would provide decent improvement) I like mushkin when I build PCs http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146683

Now this is truly where I am really worried. How to go about moving everything onto the new HDD. I don't have the software boot cds, I have external hdds but they are formatted to fat32 and all usb powered. Can this upgrade be done?

Thanks guys for the help, I appreciate it!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Get the Snow Leopard DVD for reinstallation or get an external HDD enclosure for your old HDD to put into and boot from it after the switch (SSD/HDD) and use CarbonCopyCloner to copy the current system to the SSD, excluding the big files in your Home folder.
I can't speak for the RAM, but the Vertex II SSD is quite good and often recommended.

Then there is also MRoogle, which is a search engine for searching MR Forums and will answer some or al of your questions, as they have been asked before and will be asked again.

 

[scharnhorst]

Thank you. I have used the search engine which is how I know what to do and what seems to be decent parts for upgrades. My main issue is I haven't found a step by step guy or anything that kind of relates to my situation as it concerns to transferring info to the new hdd.

I did not think of buying an external hdd enclosure. I just want to confirm though that you can boot from usb right? As for carbon copy wouldn't you make a copy while the hdd is still in the comp and then when used as an external transfer everything? this will just make a complete copy, i.e. word etc. will all work?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thank you. I have used the search engine which is how I know what to do and what seems to be decent parts for upgrades. My main issue is I haven't found a step by step guy or anything that kind of relates to my situation as it concerns to transferring info to the new hdd.

There are many step by step guides on how to transfer data across HDDs and SSDs or are you talking about the actual disassembly of the MB?

I did not think of buying an external hdd enclosure. I just want to confirm though that you can boot from usb right? As for carbon copy wouldn't you make a copy while the hdd is still in the comp and then when used as an external transfer everything? this will just make a complete copy, i.e. word etc. will all work?

Intel Macs can boot from USB connected HDDs, the MacBook included.
You can do the clone via CCC while the HDD is still inside the MB and the SSD in the enclosure, or you can do it the other way around. That is up to you.
And CCC copies everything, unless you exclude it of course.
And yes, CCC will make a complete copy, a 1:1 clone. It will copy every byte from the HDD to the SSD, unless you exclude something.

 

[scharnhorst]

Thanks for your help simsaladimbamba!

Seems pretty straightforward now I guess. Do you think this kind of upgrade will bring about any significant boost to system performance?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks for your help simsaladimbamba!

Seems pretty straightforward now I guess. Do you think this kind of upgrade will bring about any significant boost to system performance?

Yes. Switching to an SSD will increase the responsiveness of your system several times, applications load much faster and even dreadfully programmed websites like IMDB don't really bog down your browsing experience.
You get less storage capacity though, but you can always use the old HDD in a FW or USB enclosure and take it with you.
I have a 60GB Vertex II SSD and take my old 500GB HDD with me in a USB enclosure and have 1TB in a FW800 enclosure for 2.5" HDDs and have two additional 2.5" external HDDs without much additional effort, as those four HDDs take up less than one 3.5" HDD.

 

[scharnhorst]

Look forward to doing this swap. I'm largely in the same boat as yourself, where space isn't a prime concern of mine as I have three external Hdds plus this hdd i'll use.

Main issue is just with a few tabs with safari or firefox the comp really bogs down and forget about opening up a word document