New hard drive still slow?

[mecolema]

I recently purchased a new hard drive for my 3.5-year-old Macbook; it was getting very slow and even opening folders would cause the computer to freeze. So I decided to buy a 250GB 2.5" Hitachi Travelstar Z5K320 5400RPM SATA 7mm Notebook Drive with 8MB Cache from OWC. (I transferred the data to the new drive using Carbon Copy Cloner.)

Although I didn't expect the hard drive to perform faster than the original (since the RPM is the same), I'm a bit disappointed by this new drive. The computer isn't freezing up as much as it used to, but I still have to force quit applications pretty frequently. Opening applications like iPhoto can be a hassle, and large PDFs scroll very slowly.

Was I wrong to purchase a new drive? Was the issue something else entirely (e.g., RAM?). I have 1GB of RAM (512 MB in each bank), so should I get more?

I'm currently running Snow Leopard, and I don't want to switch to Lion because I've got PowerPC apps and not enough RAM.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks!

 

[tug]

a new hdd would not make any significant change in the performance of your mac. unless of course the drive has got to the point where it is filling up.

however you say you only have 1gig of ram, you really should consider to at least upgrade to 2gig, you should then see a significant change in performance.

here is one place to check out;

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/drammemory.aspx

 

[wpotere]

Max your RAM out. You don't have enough to really do much in todays computing world.

 

[mecolema]

Am I correct that these old Macbooks can only handle 1GB per bus? (And if so, will the switch from 1GB to 2GB really make a significant difference?)

 

[tug]

Am I correct that these old Macbooks can only handle 1GB per bus? (And if so, will the switch from 1GB to 2GB really make a significant difference?)

yes! of course it will make a difference, the early macbook the op refers to will handle 2gigs, and it will make a substantial difference.

 

[wpotere]

yes! of course it will make a difference, the early macbook the op refers to will handle 2gigs, and it will make a substantial difference.

My Macbook (2008) can handle 4 Gigs. The OP may have the same model.

Can you post the spec of your Mac Book? Is it a Core 2 Duo?

 

[mecolema]

Yeah, it's an Intel Core Duo 2. I just confirmed that the max is 4GB (thanks, wpotere), and I'm planning on ordering it from Crucial.com for $50 (http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=6540BB19A5CA7304#).

Has anyone bought RAM from Crucial?

 

[wpotere]

Yeah, it's an Intel Core Duo 2. I just confirmed that the max is 4GB (thanks, wpotere), and I'm planning on ordering it from Crucial.com for $50 (http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=6540BB19A5CA7304#).

Has anyone bought RAM from Crucial?

That is what is and has been in my Macbook since the beginning. Crucial is a great site with a solid product.

 

[mecolema]

Thanks so much!