What SSD can i buy in 2023 for a 2009 macbook white?

[nottorp]

So I've decided to ressurect a 2009 macbook white gathering dust atm. It was set up with a 128 Gb SSD and its original hard drive in a Fusion Drive somewhere in the dark ages.

However, ssds are much cheaper and larger these days! So the smart thing to do is ditch the 128 Gb and the spinny disk and install just one larger ssd, 1 Tb or so.

Question is, which sata ssd should I buy so I don't have any problems? I fully expect the controller in the mbwhite to be finnicky with what it accepts. Can anyone recommend any models?

 

[richardt1994]

Hello Nottorp,
I have a white 2009 MacBook (13 inch late 2009) that originally had a 500GB HDD. This model MacBook has an NVidia chipset that is SATA II (3GB/s max) and can be a bit picky about what it will work with. I originally tried a Sandisk SSD that I has spare, but the NVidia chipset would only connect at SATA I (1.5 GB/s) speeds. I then tried a Crucial MX500 SSD and that one would connect at 3GB/s and has worked OK ever since. The most recent version of macOS that my MacBook will support is High Sierra and that will give you APFS support on an SSD. I booted from a High Sierra install USB stick and installed from scratch without any problems.

My suggestion would therefore be a Crucial MX500 series SSD. I do not know what max capacity the MacBook will support, mine is a 500GB MX500 and that works fine.

Good luck...
Richard.

 

[wordsworth]

I replaced the hard drive in my early-2009 white MacBook (and its base storage of 120GB). I too used Crucial – a 240GB BX series drive (just because the laptop was not intended for regular use and thus didn't require a larger storage option; the BX was a bit cheaper too). Crucial's site will give you all current options for your model of MacBook.

 

[nottorp]

That's two confirmations for the Crucial, thanks! Ordered a MX500 1 Tb.

Now to remember how to make a bootable High Sierra USB...

 

[nottorp]

And to end this, I put in the MX500 1 Tb and it was recognized just fine. System Information says 3 Gigabit speed. Ran a Blackmagic speed test and it said 200 mbytes/s write and 264 mbytes/s read.