OWC MacBook Pro 5,1 upgrade

[ReggieUK]

Hello

I have a 2.93 GHz 4GB 15" MBP 5,1 and I am about to get whatever turns up as the new MacBook Air 11" as my main portable machine.

I am therefore thinking about upgrading my MBP using the OWC kits. What I had in mind was a 120 GB SSD and a conversion kit ot use the existing HD in the optical drive bay. I was going to put the OS and aplications on the SSD and everything else on the HD. I was also going to get the RAM upgraded to 8GB, the OWC site seems certain that my model of MacBook Pro can be upgraded to 8GB.

Predictable question:

Has anyone done this?
How easy is it?
The bit I am wondering about is installing the OS and apps to one drive and everything else to the other drives, easy enough?
Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

R

 

[rkmac]

Hello
Has anyone done this?
How easy is it?
The bit I am wondering about is installing the OS and apps to one drive and everything else to the other drives, easy enough?
Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

R

1. yes
2. if you can use a screwdriver and are careful not to break anything its actually very easy to put the drive in the optical bay. RAM is very simple to replace.
3. This is how I currently have it, however it is recommended that you actually have everything on an SSD for max speeds (of course) because stuff in your personal folders "Library" are regularly accessed I believe.
4. I wouldn't put the old HDD in the optical bay space as I did that originally and had to change them around because the sound of the spinning HDD leaked out of the optical drive slot. When it is in its original space, these sounds are muffled.

 

[jwilcox09]

Hello

I have a 2.93 GHz 4GB 15" MBP 5,1 and I am about to get whatever turns up as the new MacBook Air 11" as my main portable machine.

I am therefore thinking about upgrading my MBP using the OWC kits. What I had in mind was a 120 GB SSD and a conversion kit ot use the existing HD in the optical drive bay. I was going to put the OS and aplications on the SSD and everything else on the HD. I was also going to get the RAM upgraded to 8GB, the OWC site seems certain that my model of MacBook Pro can be upgraded to 8GB.

Predictable question:

Has anyone done this?
How easy is it?
The bit I am wondering about is installing the OS and apps to one drive and everything else to the other drives, easy enough?
Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

R

I had this same setup except with 6gb of RAM untill yesterday when i upgraded to the new 8,2 model. Worked great and was a beast of a machine.

Also i am fairly certain that as long as you have the most recent EFI your MBP should support the 8gb's just fine

 

[ReggieUK]

Thank you everyone for the replies

3. This is how I currently have it, however it is recommended that you actually have everything on an SSD for max speeds (of course) because stuff in your personal folders "Library" are regularly accessed I believe.

Thanks. I need the space however, I can't afford a large enough SSD