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Suggest SSD for an old Macbook?

chinchillas

chinchillas

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 3, 2015
136
30
Hi, I hope someone here can help me give my old Macbook a little boost ;). It's a MA700LL/A Late 2006 Macbook 2,1 model, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with two RAM slots currently occupied with 2GB in one and 500MB in the other. It also has an 80GB Serial ATA 5400-rpm (SATA I), hard disk (TOSHIBA MK8034GSX) with about 12% of free space. Software is OSX 10.6.8, which can technically be upgraded to Lion but I've read this would cause instability, so I'll stick to Snow Leopard.

I've been having problems in the past 3 or 4 months with its video capabilities, but only when video is played on a browser. Both Chrome and Firefox keep crashing the whole system. I'm thinking it's related to both lack of space in the hard disk and also the bad combination of RAM. I'm upgrading the RAM to 2GB in each slot, as combining different amounts of memory is not advised (according to Other World Computing), and I'd also like to get a new hard drive. The crashing is not as constant since I cleared around 8GBs of space, but it still needs tweaking.

I'd like to get a max. 120GB SSD. OWC suggests this: http://eshop.macsales.com/search/Mercury+Electra+3G+120GB, and a Google search leads me to Crucial http://guides.crucial.com/Guide/MacBook+Core+2+Duo+SSD+Installation/288, but I'm not in the US and the only brands I can get here are well known ones, such as ScanDisk, Samsung, Adata and the like. Is there any model of a well known brand compatible with my Macbook? I'd like to squeeze at least one more year of this solid little machine, which has never failed me. Thanks :)
 
I've put three Samsung EVO 840 120 GB drives in my customer's white MacBooks. They have all been happy. The new Samsung EVO 850 drives are even faster and pretty decently priced. I would definitely recommend Samsung. I also agree that matching the RAM will probably help. Just make sure all your new hardware is returnable in case you are actually dealing with a logicboard problem. Hopefully, that's not the case but it's good to be prepared. (I have had two bad white MacBook logicboard issues over the past year as well--luckily, my parts supplier does take stuff back without issue.)
 
I'd just get the cheapest available at the size you require. The MacBook is old and unlikely to really benefit from the small differences between an average SSD and the top of the range ones.
 
happyslayer said:
I've put three Samsung EVO 840 120 GB drives in my customer's white MacBooks. They have all been happy. The new Samsung EVO 850 drives are even faster and pretty decently priced. I would definitely recommend Samsung. I also agree that matching the RAM will probably help. Just make sure all your new hardware is returnable in case you are actually dealing with a logicboard problem. Hopefully, that's not the case but it's good to be prepared. (I have had two bad white MacBook logicboard issues over the past year as well--luckily, my parts supplier does take stuff back without issue.)
Click to expand...

These are what I use. I've bought three with no issues.
 
If you have 2 gigs now,going to 4 gig's isn't going to be as big a deal as installing a ssd (as 2006 macbook cannot fully utilize beyond 3 gig's...so is it worth the cost?)

A nice new ssd will make all the difference in the world! Your old macbook will feel like a whole new machine!

Right now ncix has the samsung evo 850 on sale for $90 cdn.

Note: After you do install the ssd,I would recommend you do a clean install of Snow Leopard.

ps: If your up to it,redoing the stock thermal paste would be a great idea,but would require some effort...
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll get this and post the results ;)

happyslayer said:
I've put three Samsung EVO 840 120 GB drives in my customer's white MacBooks.
Click to expand...


----------

I guess I'll try the SSD before buying new RAM. I've also thought about adding thermal paste, but I don't know where to acquire it. Will look it up.

The logicboard thing sounds scary. I hope it's not the case.

tom vilsack said:
If you have 2 gigs now,going to 4 gig's isn't going to be as big a deal as installing a ssd (as 2006 macbook cannot fully utilize beyond 3 gig's...so is it worth the cost?)

A nice new ssd will make all the difference in the world! Your old macbook will feel like a whole new machine!

Right now ncix has the samsung evo 850 on sale for $90 cdn.

Note: After you do install the ssd,I would recommend you do a clean install of Snow Leopard.

ps: If your up to it,redoing the stock thermal paste would be a great idea,but would require some effort...
Click to expand...
 
Samsung 840 or 850?

One more question: is it ok to buy the Samsung EVO 850 120 GB instead for my Macbook model? It's WAY cheaper.
 
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