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Should I add SSD and new battery in 2009 MBP?

J

jiffry1017

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 18, 2009
64
4
Hey,

I have a June 2009 13.3" Macbook Pro (2.26 ghz Core 2 Duo, 8 GB Ram, 750 GB Scorpio Black 7200 RPM hdd) running latest 10.8.5. My battery currently last about 2.5-3 hours depending on usage. It's pretty heavy (with the charger and extension), so sometimes I take my iPad w/ keyboard to do some light word processing/email/internet/etc.

The speed is okay, but I could definitely use more (I use a resource intensive research software and do some light amateur photo editing in Lightroom).

I'm thinking about replacing the 750 GB hdd with an SSD (probably around the 320 GB range). Also, thinking about adding in a new battery.

Is it worth it or should I just wait until this dies to buy a Macbook Air (my next planned Macbook, but not for awhile). The MBP I have now I could see lasting me another two years probably.

So basically, I just want to not need to bring my charger around and to make it faster and to see if this is worth the price right now.

Thanks.
 
I would replace the HDD with the new SSD first and then decide if you still want to replace the battery. There will probably be a decent amount of battery life gains by using an SSD, and there are other ways to reduce battery consumption and improve life. Plus with Mavericks around the corner you'll probably see more battery improvements with that as well. If money isn't an issue, by all means replace both, but to me a $130 new battery isn't anything to laugh at so I'd just as soon try to stretch battery life on my own for as long as possible.
 
I upgrated to an SSD in a 2008 mbp and it helped a TON. you won't believe it.
 
I would definitely do those two upgrades. New batteries are always nice ;)

I swapped out the HDD in my alum MacBook for an SSD drive and the difference is incredible.

- Kyle
 
I have the same computer but upgraded my HDD to a 256GB Crucial SSD and gave a really nice boost to performance. I'd say it felt like I injected another year or 2 of life in the sucker.

My battery's probably lost about 30-50% of it's duration and has the 'Service Battery' warning but I don't ever need to use it unplugged for more than 2-3 hours anyways. If you're running into the battery dying too quickly during your regular use and want to at least keep the machine around for a year or 2 then it's probably worth it. Then again, I think I remember when the battery was fresh still only getting 5-6hrs of web use out of it. Only you can decide if a couple extra hours of battery life for a couple years is worth it.
 
Yes, SSD is a must in today's society. :D

I would factor in the cost vs buying an entirely new computer. How much longer do you plan on keeping it? It's outdated by 4 years already. Personally, I would purchase the air after the mac crapped out.
 
Replacing the battery depends on how much time you spend away from power. As to the SSD, I will never have another computer without one. I consider the best upgrade you can make to a computer. As to whether it's worth it, that depends on your financial situation. The drive will cost about 1/2 of what he computer is worth. If it buys you a year or two and cash is tight, it can be worth it. Also factor in what type shape you machine is in. Is it likely to have issues?
 
You can get 1TB laptop drives now, without having to pretty much ever rely on the external drive, you will never find an SSD of that size. I would go with bigger capacity hard drive. Of course, if you really dont need much space, then SSD would be the better choice.
 
Thanks for the responses guys.

I'm leaning towards buying an SSD now...though I hadn't thought about the boot SSD option. That may be an option, to save some money. I'm probably going to wait until Black Friday to see if there are any deals.

If I did a boot SSD, it'd probably be 128 GB. If not, then probably around 320 GB. Though I'm thinking now that if I did the boot SSD, I'd still have the scorpio black 7200 RPM in there...and my battery would probably be even worse off.

I saw Amazon had the battery for ~$50...It seems legit...guess it depends on the seller.
 
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