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SSD on 2006 MacBook

yusukeaoki

yusukeaoki

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Mar 22, 2011
2,550
6
Tokyo, Japan
Hi guys

Im thinking to put a SSD on my moms 06' MB to speed it up.
But I was wondering if the SATA III SSDs are backward compatible
with the SATA I on the 2006 MacBook.

Its the 1.83GHz/512MB/60GB HDD model.
Ive upgraded the RAM to 2GB and OS to 10.6.8 SL.

And I was wondering if SATA III SSDs like M4 was compatible with it.

If not, that means I have to buy a SATA II SSD.
Are there any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!
 
You can put any SATA III drive in there without a problem. But as you are aware it will run at SATA I speeds.
 
I put a Crucial m4 in a late '06 iMac and it ran perfectly, their newer m500 now should work fine for your MacBook. Just realize there's no point getting a superfast SATAIII drive because you won't see the speed benefit.
 
I put a Crucial M500 120 GB in a friend's Mid-2007 white Macbook (10.6.8) one year ago, and it works perfectly (SATA1 speeds of course).

I installed Trim Enabler.
 
Real World Improvements with SSD?

Given the limitations with 2006 MacBook, how much real world performance improvement should one expect to notice with SSD.

Assume you'll see faster boot time and opening up apps, but besides that, will you notice much difference?

Thanks.
 
There's a very large, highly noticeable difference. The startup is much quicker, apps open nearly immediately, the system no longer slows down as horridly when it has to swap to disk. It's a very nice upgrade and I do suggest it.
 
What am I doing wrong?

I upgraded the memory and storage in an older MacBook and am now having trouble with the install. It gets hung up / frozen on the "Preparing to install" screen.
Here's what I'm working with:

MacBook 13.2", late 2006.
2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo White
s/n W87070YKWGL.
Model: MA700LL/A

RAM: Crucial 4GB Kit (2GBx2) DDR2 667MHz (PC2-5300) CL5 SODIMM 200-Pin Notebook Memory Modules CT2KIT25664AC667

SSD:Crucial M500 240GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm Internal Solid State Drive CT240M500SSD1

The original hard drive has long been dead and I'm basically working from scratch. I purchased OSX Lion online and then, using an 8g thumb drive, created a bootable USB for the install. The new SSD was formatted with a GUID partition using an external enclosure and my iMac.
I tried reformatting the drive and digging around online for solutions, but maybe I'm not using the right search words.
Can someone help me troubleshoot?
Edit: here are a few pics to show what I'm working with:
http://i.imgur.com/qZmVh6u.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3hxF396.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/n6NWAwO.jpg

Other forums suggested the SSD is incompatible. Others cite Lion being the problem and TRIM being unsupported. Seems the SATA is simply limited to SATA1 and not incompatible, Lion has been successfully installed on other MB here, and, as I understand it, TRIM is something I'll deal with after install. This is the most positive thread on the subject of SSDs I've read so far.
 
Last edited:
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