What would be the max upgrade for an old black Macbook

[1365281]

Hello everyone,

I have an old black Macbook:

Processor 2GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory 1.25 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive has 74 GBs total(55GBs occupied)

I wish I could purchase a new and powerful Mac, but I have to wait for better times to come. In the meantime, I wander, what there would to be done to speed up a bit my "old friend" ?
Thanks
P.S.: It's especially frustrating when I have to use Maple for a 3D multivariate function plots. It takes forever or doesn't plot anything at all in the end.

 

[Eidorian]

I'd get another 1 GB of RAM to a total of 2 GB. Laptop hard drives are getting cheaper as well with higher capacities. You might want to look at a 7200 RPM one for speed.

 

[1365281]

I'd get another 1 GB of RAM to a total of 2 GB. Laptop hard drives are getting cheaper as well with higher capacities. You might want to look at a 7200 RPM one for speed.

Thank you Eidorian.

I also have a further question related to decreasing occupied space on my hard drive.
I have two accounts on this Macbook (I'm the administrator). At the beginning I thought that both accounts would be equally able to access MS Office apps (Word, PPT, Excel), but it's not the case. Is there something to be done about it besides "a double" MS Office installation on the same computer?

 

[Eidorian]

All users have access to run applications that are in /Applications without any special privileges. What problems are you encountering?

 

[.adam]

Hi Pal,

I've got an older Macbook around the same age as yours (I bought mine Feb 2007).

It came with:

2.0GHz
1GB RAM
80GB HDD

I have since upgraded it to:

3GB RAM
250GB HDD

Apple said that it could only handle 2GB RAM but it can, in fact, utilise a maximum of 3.3GB if you were to put two 4GB sticks in. I didn't think it was worth the extra cost for the 0.3GB boost so put in a 2GB and a 1GB stick.

 

[1365281]

All users have access to run applications that are in /Applications without any special privileges. What problems are you encountering?

I see... Futhermore, I suppose the second user thought that MS Office icons somehow have an obligation to always be visible on the deck if it is accessible and didn't check the Applications folder (I do not have the access to that account).

Thank you, all my questions have been answered for now

 

[Eidorian]

I see... Futhermore, I suppose the second user thought that MS Office icons somehow have an obligation to always be visible on the deck if it is accessible and didn't check the Applications folder (I do not have the access to that account).

Thank you, all my questions have been answered for now

A new user account would have a the default Dock which would not have the Microsoft Office icons in it. You would have to drag them manually into the Dock.

You mentioned in your first post that you have the Core Duo. I'd like to point out that you're limited to 2 GB of DDR2 RAM on the Core Duo. If you have a Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz then you can get more then 2 GB of RAM.

 

[1365281]

Hi Pal,

I've got an older Macbook around the same age as yours (I bought mine Feb 2007).

It came with:

2.0GHz
1GB RAM
80GB HDD

I have since upgraded it to:

3GB RAM
250GB HDD

Apple said that it could only handle 2GB RAM but it can, in fact, utilise a maximum of 3.3GB if you were to put two 4GB sticks in. I didn't think it was worth the extra cost for the 0.3GB boost so put in a 2GB and a 1GB stick.

Thank you adam,

I think your advise will be very useful. In addition, I think I will challenge a bit the Apple Store personnel with this knowledge. Even though here in London they're very well prepared to accept any challenging questions/suggestions

 

[Poncho]

Is 2 x 4GB sticks mean 8GB? I have a Macbook same age and am very interested in this...

 

[misterredman]

Thank you adam,

I think your advise will be very useful. In addition, I think I will challenge a bit the Apple Store personnel with this knowledge. Even though here in London they're very well prepared to accept any challenging questions/suggestions

The MacBooks with Core Duo CPU will only support 2GB of RAM and won't boot if you put more in (it doesn't support 2GB RAM memory sticks, so to achieve the maximum you must use 1GB sticks).
The MacBooks with Core 2 Duo CPU may support 3.3GB of RAm (with 2x2GB sticks) or 4GB, depending on the model.

So if you have a Core Duo CPU the maximum is 2GB.

 

[1365281]

Some useful links

Unfortunately, my Macbook wasn't able to handle more than 2GB of RAM. Just found out at the store. Where they didn't have 1GB extra memory for my update, however, they provided me with a very useful link
http://www.crucial.com/

where I purchased that 1GB for around 12 pounds whereas at the Apple Store that would have been 30 pounds plus 27 pounds charge for replacing the chips.

 

[jamin100]

where I purchased that 1GB for around 12 pounds whereas at the Apple Store that would have been 30 pounds plus 27 pounds charge for replacing the chips.

£27 for 30 seconds work!!
I just replaced the inverter in my macbook and it took me nearly 3 hours.. I'd hate to think what apple would have charged for it!!! ouch!