Want to Upgrade to a SSD - Old Pro, Need Help

[magicschoolbus]

Hello,

I want to upgrade my Dad's macbook pro and get him a SSD for fathers day.

I was able to look up the serial number and found out it the following:

2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo (P8700)
Intro. June 8, 2009 Disc. April 13, 2010
Family Mid-2009 13" ID MacBookPro5,5
RAM 4 GB VRAM 256 MB
Storage 250 GB (5400 RPM) Optical 8X DL "SuperDrive"

I looked in the SSD buyers thread but there was a ton of info and it was a little difficult to shift through. I just got a Samsung 1TB Evo drive for my 2012 pro; would one work for the one I am looking to upgrade? I read about different SATA speeds.. so thats why I have this question.

 

[JTToft]

Yes, Samsung 850 EVO as well as nearly any other 2.5" SATA SSD will work.
SATA speeds don't matter for compatibility, only for speed. The machine has SATA II, so there's not much sense in buying an expensive SSD - at least as far as speed goes.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Great; Im finding the new 500GB Option would be good for him; has anyone put an SSD in this model, and was it a good bump in speed? I can't believe what the SSD did to my 2012.. it really made it feel brand new again. I'm not looking for the core 2 duo to feel new, just respond quicker and feel faster. Given that its an older processor, will this help that much?

 

[JTToft]

It will help an enormous deal, no matter how old the machine is.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Thanks everyone. I know the RAM has already been upgraded to 8 gigs. He was saying sometimes he has to start word 5 min before a meeting because it just does not respond quickly anymore. My immediate thought after seeing what it did to mine was to get him one - I feel like this would help.

 

[jerryk]

He should really notice the difference. You are going from transfer rates in the 50 MB/sec range to 300 MB/sec. And should drop to near 0.