Thinking of upgrading MBP hard drive and memory: a few questions

[earthbound]

Hi all,

I have an early 2008 MBP model (pre-unibody) and bought it with the stock 200 GB HD and 2GB memory. Although it still runs pretty well I want improvement in performance and I'm planning to upgrade to 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive with and 4 GB memory.

A few questions:

With these upgrades, can I expect significant or just a little improvement in performance? And do you think this can last me a couple more years?

I've never done hardware upgrades before so I really don't know much, but can I upgrade the hard drive and the memory at the same time? Or should I do them separately to make sure that one works properly before moving on to the other?

And just for reference, the most intensive task I do is editing photos in Photoshop and Lightroom (mostly with 18MB RAW files).

Thank you in advance!

 

[wrinkster22]

Hi all,
Hello to you too
I have an early 2008 MBP model (pre-unibody) and bought it with the stock 200 GB HD and 2GB memory. Although it still runs pretty well I want improvement in performance and I'm planning to upgrade to 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive with and 4 GB memory.
nice.
A few questions:

With these upgrades, can I expect significant or just a little improvement in performance? And do you think this can last me a couple more years?
in between Any upgrade will prolong the life
I've never done hardware upgrades before so I really don't know much, but can I upgrade the hard drive and the memory at the same time? Or should I do them separately to make sure that one works properly before moving on to the other?
does not make a difference
And just for reference, the most intensive task I do is editing photos in Photoshop and Lightroom (mostly with 18MB RAW files).


Note: Have you considered:
-getting 8gb of ram?
-getting an SSD? these are much faster than HD's
-getting a dual system w/optibay?
Thank you in advance!
Your welcome

 

[torid110]

I noticed a big difference when I did those upgrades. (My previous MBP was the 2007 2.2Ghz). As for upgrading, one at a time, i would say go for it since upgrading the RAM is easy on that model, so do that first. One thing i should ask is how you're going to do the HD swap. Are you going to clone your other HD to it first ?

 

[MarkMS]

With these upgrades, can I expect significant or just a little improvement in performance? And do you think this can last me a couple more years?

You'll be moving from a 5400RPM drive to a 7200RPM drive. Performance will improve, but it won't be significant. For you to hold on to your MBP for a few more years, think about getting a SSD. They're a bit more expensive, but the results are astounding! If you look for one, I'd recommend going for either Intel or one from OWC (Macsales.com). IF this isn't feasible, try doing some research on those hybrid drives like this one from Seagate.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/laptop-hdd/

I've never done hardware upgrades before so I really don't know much, but can I upgrade the hard drive and the memory at the same time? Or should I do them separately to make sure that one works properly before moving on to the other?

Yes, I'm almost 100% you can upgrade both at the same time. But what I would do is upgrade the RAM first since that's the easiest on the Non-Unibody MBPs. Just take out the battery and install the RAM. Boot the computer just to make sure it isn't defective. After that, then take the front casing off and install the new drive.

But honestly, think about getting an SSD for significant improvement in performance. If you need additional space, you can always install one of those dual-drive bays from Macsales.com which puts a HDD in place of the optical drive.

Note: Have you considered:
-getting 8gb of ram?
-getting an SSD? these are much faster than HD's
-getting a dual system w/optibay?
Thank you in advance!
Your welcome

I don't think 8GB works on the Penryn MBPs, max is 4GB.