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What would be the perfect upgrade to do to a MBP 13" low-end model?

K

kubota99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 31, 2009
14
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I would like to know what upgrades I should do to my 13 incher...

I currently own the low-end model, 2.26 GHZ, 2 GB of ram :(, 160 GB HDD :S....

Hek, its a LOW ENDER :apple: notebook....

What upgrades would be necessary for it to be a good rig?



I run XP SP3 with bootcamp and play lots of games, and i recently installed COD4, but was disapointed to see it LAGGED.......... would that be the ram, or the integrated GPU?
 
I would upgrade RAM first to 4GB, then look to put in a SSD in the future. I personally would stop there.

What settings are you playing COD4 on? It should run okay on medium settings with your set up...as good as the 9400M is for an integrated chip, it still is...an integrated chip. You bought the wrong machine for modern gaming but if you like to play old school games from now and then from a few years back, it works pretty well (AOE III for me).
 
cababah said:
I would upgrade RAM first to 4GB, then look to put in a SSD in the future. I personally would stop there.

What settings are you playing COD4 on? It should run okay on medium settings with your set up...as good as the 9400M is for an integrated chip, it still is...an integrated chip. You bought the wrong machine for modern gaming but if you like to play old school games from now and then from a few years back, it works pretty well (AOE III for me).
Click to expand...

I play with opttimal settings.....

And I also play Steam games, i play them Full res, no lagg ( valve games ) i have all the valve games until this day and the only one i encountered problems with was left 4 dead, but that's an issue with steam and Bootcamp i think...
 
Pull out the optical drive - put the SSD into a MCE optibay. Make that your boot drive.

Keep the HD in it's current place for the drop sensor.

Fast as hell and pretty cool.
 
VideoShooter said:
Pull out the optical drive - put the SSD into a MCE optibay. Make that your boot drive.

Keep the HD in it's current place for the drop sensor.

Fast as hell and pretty cool.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, can you explain or give me a link to where it explains it more precisly?
 
kubota99 said:
What would be the best SSD drive to replace my current 160 gb SLOW hdd?
Click to expand...

As listed above, the Intel X-25M looks like a great SSD to choose. However, for now, the price for the storage is a little too high for me personally right now. I am happy with the stock 250GB 5400RPM HDD and will maybe wait until the 160GB SSD comes down in price next year.
 
cababah said:
As listed above, the Intel X-25M looks like a great SSD to choose. However, for now, the price for the storage is a little too high for me personally right now. I am happy with the stock 250GB 5400RPM HDD and will maybe wait until the 160GB SSD comes down in price next year.
Click to expand...


Well i have the stock 160 5400 rpm.......

and i need to upgrade my ram.
 
I have that same low end 13" mbp and I love it. I put 4 GB of ram in it and I put a 500GB drive in it because I needed more disk space.

The SSDs are nice but they are pricy for the amount of storage they have. Maybe in a few years they will be at my price point.
 
I pimped my ride out by adding the X25 160GB G2 SSD as the main disk drive, a WD Scorpio Blue 500GB in the SuperDrive spot via optibay and 4 GB of RAM.

It drives a 24" monitor w. bluetooth mouse and keyboard when in the office and uses a modified MBA Superdrive for the optical disk when needed.

Not real cheap but I can yank it all out and install it in the new MBP's when they get released. ;)
 
NC MacGuy said:
I pimped my ride out by adding the X25 160GB G2 SSD as the main disk drive, a WD Scorpio Blue 500GB in the SuperDrive spot via optibay and 4 GB of RAM.

It drives a 24" monitor w. bluetooth mouse and keyboard when in the office and uses a modified MBA Superdrive for the optical disk when needed.

Not real cheap but I can yank it all out and install it in the new MBP's when they get released. ;)
Click to expand...
hmm i would do the same as you the xm 25 and the scorpio blue, but i use the optical drive and i dont feel like having a macbook air with out the air side of it, u get my point?
 
kubota99 said:
hmm i would do the same as you the xm 25 and the scorpio blue, but i use the optical drive and i dont feel like having a macbook air with out the air side of it, u get my point?
Click to expand...

I hardly ever use the DVD drive except to legally rip DVD's to store on the Scorpio to view at my leisure.

Having had Air's before, I got pretty used to using Remote Disk in a pinch and i have a bootable copy of Snow Leopard on SDHC card. The 500GB drive is bootable to Leopard too for those pesky app.'s that don't quite work as they should w. Snow Leopard. An onboard Time Machine backup is also a beautiful thing and I used to have to plug in an ext. drive for backups much more than plugging in an optical drive.
 
NC MacGuy said:
I hardly ever use the DVD drive except to legally rip DVD's to store on the Scorpio to view at my leisure.

Having had Air's before, I got pretty used to using Remote Disk in a pinch and i have a bootable copy of Snow Leopard on SDHC card. The 500GB drive is bootable to Leopard too for those pesky app.'s that don't quite work as they should w. Snow Leopard. An onboard Time Machine backup is also a beautiful thing and I used to have to plug in an ext. drive for backups much more than plugging in an optical drive.
Click to expand...


Can you explain what your setup consits of? i'm VERY interestes now that youve told me that.....
 
NC MacGuy said:
I pimped my ride out by adding the X25 160GB G2 SSD as the main disk drive, a WD Scorpio Blue 500GB in the SuperDrive spot via optibay and 4 GB of RAM.

It drives a 24" monitor w. bluetooth mouse and keyboard when in the office and uses a modified MBA Superdrive for the optical disk when needed.

Not real cheap but I can yank it all out and install it in the new MBP's when they get released. ;)
Click to expand...

I'm looking to do pretty much the same mod (X25 + 500GB in the SuperDrive spot + MBA SuperDrive).

Some questions:
1) Where did you buy the USB-PCB-E1 part to mod your MBA SuperDrive?
2) Why did you decide to go for a G2 X25 instead of G1? Why 160GB and not 80GB if you have the extra 500GB internally?
 
kubota99 said:
Can you explain what your setup consits of? i'm VERY interestes now that youve told me that.....
Click to expand...

Paul B said:
I'm looking to do pretty much the same mod (X25 + 500GB in the SuperDrive spot + MBA SuperDrive).

Some questions:
1) Where did you buy the USB-PCB-E1 part to mod your MBA SuperDrive?
2) Why did you decide to go for a G2 X25 instead of G1? Why 160GB and not 80GB if you have the extra 500GB internally?
Click to expand...


I got the IDE ATA - USB thin bridge board used for the MBA SuperDrive from eBay. It was less than $11 from China. Works great and goes with my MBP nicely. You have to remove the USB/power piggyback board from it like before soldering on the SD USB connections and reassembling. Not a big deal.

Also bought a silver thin SATA-USB DVD enclosure from ebay. I now have two ext. DVD's. One the removed SD from my MBP in the ebay silver enclosure for home. The other the MBA modded SD for work/travel.

You should keep the removed SD from the MBP in one piece so if the laptop ever needs to go in for service, you can make it factory so Apple doesn't deny service. It's a funny drive with nubbins on the front that don't lend themselves to being used w. a front bezel so it's not real beautious in the enclosure but it works very well.

I also bought the optibay SATA enclosure for the WD 500 HDD from ebay. I'd have to look up the particulars for it but the only thing that needed changing is removal of the front plastic bezel.

Used the 160 X25 because I wanted Windows & Snow Leopard on the SSD w. most of my app.'s. The G2 because when I bought it, it was the day it was released and because of the Intel recall got it for $430 shipped from Newegg. That is a long story but I buy a lot from Newegg and they took care of me.

The 500GB gets eaten away if you do put another OS on it. Considering I have a working copy of Leopard and all my photos, docs, music, movies plus my Time Machine backup I've only got 280GB left. Kind of wish I'd have waited a week or two and got the 640GB Blue when it came out...

I did all this new and never even tried out the HDD that came with the MBP short of booting it to make sure it worked. Again, I keep it in the same shape as it was so if it has to go back, throw it back in the MBP & I don't have to worry about any of my data or Apple complaining about fault for hardware failure.

Sorry for the long post but the questions don't lend themselves to real short answers.
 
NC MacGuy said:
I got the IDE ATA - USB thin bridge board used for the MBA SuperDrive from eBay. It was less than $11 from China. Works great and goes with my MBP nicely. You have to remove the USB/power piggyback board from it like before soldering on the SD USB connections and reassembling. Not a big deal.
Click to expand...
Could you post a link for what I should be looking to order? When I search eBay for "IDE ATA - USB thin bridge board" I get no results, and when I search for "IDE ATA USB" it shows USB2.0-SATA adapters, which I'm pretty sure have nothing to do with the MBA SD mod.

Follow-up question: If the part that you bought is not the same as the "USB-PCB-E1" part that tnkgrl used for her mod, did the particular bridge that you ordered fit properly in the SuperDrive without any tinkering?

Also bought a silver thin SATA-USB DVD enclosure from ebay. I now have two ext. DVD's. One the removed SD from my MBP in the ebay silver enclosure for home. The other the MBA modded SD for work/travel.

You should keep the removed SD from the MBP in one piece so if the laptop ever needs to go in for service, you can make it factory so Apple doesn't deny service. It's a funny drive with nubbins on the front that don't lend themselves to being used w. a front bezel so it's not real beautious in the enclosure but it works very well.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by nubbins? You weren't able to find another enclosure that you could combine with the MBP SuperDrive to make it look seamless?

I ask because I'm thinking about taking the riskier option of selling the MBP SuperDrive (and praying I never have any problems with my MBP) since it would basically be obsolete due to having a modded MBA SuperDrive as an optical drive.

I also bought the optibay SATA enclosure for the WD 500 HDD from ebay. I'd have to look up the particulars for it but the only thing that needed changing is removal of the front plastic bezel.
Click to expand...
Is this Thinkpad caddy adapter the "optibay" that you bought?

Used the 160 X25 because I wanted Windows & Snow Leopard on the SSD w. most of my app.'s. The G2 because when I bought it, it was the day it was released and because of the Intel recall got it for $430 shipped from Newegg. That is a long story but I buy a lot from Newegg and they took care of me.
Click to expand...
Lucky! :)

Thanks for the responses.
 
This was the optibay type caddy I used for the HDD. It can be had in similar and maybe the same form for cheaper, IDK... I bought it because it doesn't have plastic thing that need to be cut off. The front bezel unscrews. He takes offers ($20 shipped?):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Universal-SATA-...e_Internal?hash=item2ea83ade12#ht_2622wt_1127

This is what I used for the MBA SuperDrive mod.:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-Notebook...ltDomain_2?hash=item2a01f24b9f#ht_3651wt_1032
The dc/usb board needs to be unsoldered and the USB wires from the removed Apple to DVD board soldered to it.

This is the connector needed for the MBP removed Superdrive:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-Notebook...ltDomain_2?hash=item2a01f247bf#ht_3408wt_1032

This is what I meant by "nubbins." They are just mounting points on the MBP DVD that I can't see how to remove short of hacking them off or replacing top.:
Photo on 2009-10-23 at 18.49.jpg

This is what I used as the case and interface board for the removed MBP SuperDrive to make it an ext. It doesn't look all that bad and works great.:
http://cgi.ebay.com/U97-BOX-EXTERNA...e_Internal?hash=item3ca6b5a4a6#ht_3959wt_1082

MBA SuperDrive compared to eBay ext. SuperDrive made from removed MBP drive:
Photo on 2009-10-23 at 18.49 #4.jpgPhoto on 2009-10-23 at 18.49 #3.jpg
Photo on 2009-10-23 at 18.49 #2.jpgPhoto on 2009-10-23 at 21.48.jpg
 
WOwow thank you so much. ^^^ Thanks to your help, this thread is basically the guide on "How to Turn Your Low-End 13" MBP into a Studly Machine."
 
kubota99 said:
I would like to know what upgrades I should do to my 13 incher...

I currently own the low-end model, 2.26 GHZ, 2 GB of ram :(, 160 GB HDD :S....

Hek, its a LOW ENDER :apple: notebook....

What upgrades would be necessary for it to be a good rig?



I run XP SP3 with bootcamp and play lots of games, and i recently installed COD4, but was disapointed to see it LAGGED.......... would that be the ram, or the integrated GPU?
Click to expand...


SSD, More RAM, Anti-Glare Screen.
 
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