Total upgrade on my MacBook Pro...Help

[coopertron]

Hey guys and gals...to start off with I can only apologise now for the fact that I am no tech guru. Just an average 22 year old guy from England UK who loves using Apple for work.

My Macbook Pro is in a bad state and I am looking to upgrade it.

My Macbook Pro is 15-inch 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo (2006 or 2007 I think)

A SSD looks good instead of my hard drive because it sounds like it was made in the industrial age, my CD drive doesn't work, and I know that I need a new battery and charger (last time I used the charger sparks flew out of it)

I know its old so should I just buy a new Macbook, or upgrade this one, and if so, any tips on what to use or what you would do to it?

SSD i'm thinking of buying

Any replies would be much appreciated

 

[Doward]

Have you maxed out the RAM yet? If not, do that. SSD for sure!

Battery and charger, yes. Then I'd just use the system lol.

 

[davidlv]

The Crucial should work, even though your ancient (these days a computer more than 3 years old can be called ancient! ) C2D MBP only has SATA II connections, so you will not get the true speed the drive is capable of. Still, compared with a "spinner" you will see a real improvement in response.
Save your money and buy a new MBP when you can, makes work even easier. The older machines are still capable of getting things done, the human behind the wheel is the slowest part!
Check out the SSD thread, lots of good info there.

 

[maflynn]

How much ram do you have, and are you experiencing high levels of swapping out?

What apps do you run and how do you use your mac, i.e., lots of games, photoshop and office running at the same time, things that would consumer a lot of resources on your computer.

C2D based computers are still very capable machines but it does depend on what you're using it for. Waiting for Maya 3d renders or stuff that is demanding will be slow and no amount of upgrades will fix that.

On the other hand, most users usually see better performance with a ram upgrade and installing a SSD.

 

[appleisking]

Idk id say ur macbook is very close to the end of its life and it could die out on u at any moment. I would hate to spend hundreds on a battery, charger, RAM, and ssd only to have it crap out in like a year. Perhaps it would be better to invest that money in a new machine?

 

[cledet]

Adding a SSD to your MacBook will give it new life. Best upgrade possible.

 

[Badrottie]

If it is a 2007 MacBook Pro then it is great!! You can max it out to 4GB and find a cheap SSD. I had 2007 MBP 2.2 core 2 duo with 4GB I installed Intel 320 160GB SSD it worked so perfectly. I paid 100 for SSD via eBay.

 

[coopertron]

How much ram do you have, and are you experiencing high levels of swapping out?

What apps do you run and how do you use your mac, i.e., lots of games, photoshop and office running at the same time, things that would consumer a lot of resources on your computer.

C2D based computers are still very capable machines but it does depend on what you're using it for. Waiting for Maya 3d renders or stuff that is demanding will be slow and no amount of upgrades will fix that.

On the other hand, most users usually see better performance with a ram upgrade and installing a SSD.

the trouble is i have no idea about the RAM, the battery is kerput and the charger is bust (also, hate to be branded with the word newb but i have no idea what swapping out is)
I would be running Logic Pro on it, mainly, so it would be a work computer.

so would i have to install a new RAM and SSD? or would it be better to cut my losses and go for a new MBP

 

[Stetrain]

so would i have to install a new RAM and SSD? or would it be better to cut my losses and go for a new MBP

From my understanding basically any of Apple's current machines would far outperform your MBP, even the Macbook Air. If you have the budget for it and having a good working machine is important for your work then it may well be worth it.

Maybe take a look at Apple's refurbished section, where you can get a like-new machine with a full Apple warranty with pretty good discounts:

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac


If you do choose to keep your current machine, an SSD upgrade and RAM upgrade are basically the most you could do, along with a new battery and charger as you said.

Does your computer by chance have the 8600M GT graphics chip? If you do then it may not be worth spending money to try to fix it as the graphics card will most likely fail at some point.

 

[maflynn]

so would i have to install a new RAM and SSD? or would it be better to cut my losses and go for a new MBP

No, you can at purchase time choose a SSD and ram or you can or after the fact upgrade the ram and storage.

the Retina MBP, has ram soldered on, so what you ordered is what you have to live with. The SSD is not considered user replaceable on the retina MBP.

My point is you have upgrade options on the cMBP even if you don't take advantage of them during the configuration/purchase process