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Upgrade 2006 white MB or wait for MBP 2012?

A

at7815

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
7
0
I have a white 2006 Macbook that works very well and I love. It's running Leopard. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB a while ago but the hard drive needs to be replaced asap. It's only 60GB and it's almost full. It won't even hold upgrades to Acrobat Reader.

The question is, do you guys think it's worth it to spend $80 or so on a new hard drive for an old machine or should I just try to stick it out for a while with what I've got. I only use it for web surfing, light photo editing and word documents. Do you have any recommendations for a hard drive?

Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to dump too much money into it but it's become impossible to do simple tasks like downloading pictures from my digital camera.

Thanks!!!
 
First all, back up your data. It will probably become unusable after a while so you want to make sure you have what you need

Two, the MacBook Pros were just recently upgraded. I see no point waiting.

Three, I would just go ahead and upgrade the MacBook and use it longer if the speed is fine for you. It won't be able to run Lion, so if you want that, then I'd upgrade.
 
Thanks for the responses. I do have an external hd for back-ups. I think I'll upgrade the internal hd and use the MB until it dies and I'll buy whatever MBP is out at the time. Do you have any recommendations for a hd?

Thanks so much for the help!
 
now would be a good time to pick up a new laptop - last gen macbook pro refurb might be a good choice.

but if you'd like to pop a new drive in the 2006 it's a piece of cake to do so yourself.

any 2.5" sata drive will work - check online for a 5400rpm seagate or western digital between 250 and 320gb - and don't pay more than $50 including shipping.

i don't know if i'm allowed to link to products but newegg seems to be a go to reliable mac friendly online retailer.
 
Apple 26.2 said:
If it comes out in January, it's 9 months away...

Buy now :D
Click to expand...

He sounds like a casual user; no new computer required at this stage.

My advice to the OP is to grab yourself a WD or Seagate 500GB drive and swap it in for your original. Can get these for about US$65.


Why buy whole new machine?!
 
If it's a 2006 CoreDuo, upgrade. If it's a 2006 Core2Duo, keep.
Or get a new MBP, upgrade it to 7200RPM ASAP and put the stock disk into your old macbook. Don't know if it's possible tho.
 
gpat said:
If it's a 2006 CoreDuo, upgrade. If it's a 2006 Core2Duo, keep.
Or get a new MBP, upgrade it to 7200RPM ASAP and put the stock disk into your old macbook. Don't know if it's possible tho.
Click to expand...

+1

The only thing I can add is if you keep your computer then buy a 128GB SSD. Because the 60GB is almost full then 128GB will feel huge and addition it will feel way faster and may last you another few years too. The 128GB have dropped allot in price too.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211471
 
Thanks again for the ideas. I am in fact a casual user and think I'm better off upgrading the hard drive and waiting a little bit before spending so much $ on a new laptop.

I was looking at this hard drive. Do you guys think this would be a good fit for my laptop? I think 500GB might be overkill but the difference in price between 500GB and 320GB is only like $15.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/YST9500420AS/

I welcome any other suggestions. Thanks!
 
I suggest the 500GB as once a drive reaches 75% capacity it slows down tremendously. Also with the 500GB drive the data is higher in density an therefore reads and writes quicker.
 
Yes, spending a few bucks more for lots of GBs always provides best value. But do you have a CD or C2D?
 
at7815 said:
Thanks for the responses. I do have an external hd for back-ups. I think I'll upgrade the internal hd and use the MB until it dies and I'll buy whatever MBP is out at the time. Do you have any recommendations for a hd?

Thanks so much for the help!
Click to expand...

Hitachi Travelstar 500 GB, 7200 rpm. Has the best reputation for not breaking down. Should make a major difference in speed for very little money. And when the MB dies, you can always put it into an external case, or reuse it if you buy a new MacBook with slower/smaller hard drive.
 
gnasher729 said:
Hitachi Travelstar 500 GB, 7200 rpm. Has the best reputation for not breaking down. Should make a major difference in speed for very little money. And when the MB dies, you can always put it into an external case, or reuse it if you buy a new MacBook with slower/smaller hard drive.
Click to expand...

Yep, I was going to recommend the exact same drive. This thing is amazing. I don't understand all the rave about WD and Seagate when Hitachi makes some incredible drives like this. It's dead quiet and snappy compared to a 5400 RPM drive.

I've had nothing but bad experiences with WD.
 
gpat said:
Yes, spending a few bucks more for lots of GBs always provides best value. But do you have a CD or C2D?
Click to expand...

It's a CD. Would 7200rpm be too much for it?

Is this the Hitachi Travelstar you guys mentioned?

http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-7200R-Internal-0S00157/dp/B002FYJQB8

The reason that other kit looked good to me is that it seems like it would make the process of the switch rather easy since I won't have to go out and buy the tools and I could also use my current drive as an external HD. The most important thing though is to get a reliable hd so if Hitachi is a better option, I'll go that route.

When it comes to switching out the drives, do I use my current back-up external hd to copy all of the info to the new drive once it is installed?

Thanks, everyone!
 
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flopticalcube said:
Some people don't notice it and there is certainly variability amongst drives but I really didn't like it in my MacBook. Given that it's a CD, I would be inclined to spend as little as possible on it since the resale value and expected future lifespan are shorter.
Click to expand...

I agree and really wanted to limit my spending on the drive to $50 but can't seem to find anything for that price. Now that I know 5400rpm is the way to go, maybe I'll find something cheaper.

I can't thank you enough for all the help.
 
Wait a month or two because the new MB's are overdue for a refresh. Historically, they have been very closely speced with the base 13" MBP except for backlit keys, firewire port (and likely thunderbolt), and less RAM. You might be able to pick a Sandy Bridge MB and later update RAM (and/or HD) down the road. I suspect the MB's will be released about the same time as the iMac's (they were upgraded together in Oct 09). I personally would be hesitant about putting money into a six year old computer which may last 2 month or 2 years longer
 
flopticalcube said:
7200 won't be too much but you may notice some vibration in the palm rests and perhaps more heat and shorter battery life.
Click to expand...

Not in my experience with the Hitachi drive. And comparing specs on Hitachi's site, I can't find any significant difference in power consumption. Hitachi's reputation comes to a large extent from statistics by a data recovery company, which didn't have _one single Hitachi drive_ except drives that were damaged by external force.


at7815 said:
I agree and really wanted to limit my spending on the drive to $50 but can't seem to find anything for that price. Now that I know 5400rpm is the way to go, maybe I'll find something cheaper.

I can't thank you enough for all the help.
Click to expand...

Don't thank the guy who posted rumors about vibrations and heat and battery problems. I am using this drive and have no such problems. The difference in speed is significant; I have seen Activity Monitor reporting > 4,000 read and write operations per second. And your link was to the older model; the newer model for $61 is here:

http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-Cache-Internal-0S02858/dp/B003SX0ORA/ref=dp_ob_title_ce
 
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If I were you I'd upgrade but of course it depends on what you're doing and how much you really need it. I have an 07 MBP but decided to upgrade cause I was tired of my old one lagging. I feel like its just personal preference.
 
Upgrade as soon as you have money. There is no need to wait till next year because they will not be ultra faster.

Get the 11" Air or something.

Or a 2010 Refurb for less than 1K.

Do you like computers? Do you use it everyday?

Treat yourself to a nicer experience whist doing something you do every day. A snappier lovable new machine that will get you excited about the simple things again.
 
I'd buy now, but I use my laptop daily to depend heavily on it.


The speed difference you'll get by waiting will be low...I supposed the GPU difference could be higher, but the upgrade coming from your MB should seem like a lot anyway.

You'll enjoy the new Sandy Bridge
 
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