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When should I update my Unibody Macbook

C

CoffeeWarrior

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2009
114
0
When should I update my unibody macbook aka The bastard Child of the family.

I have the stock 2.0 ghz model

I am planning on a 4 gig or 8 gig RAM update from crucial

Also a 30 gig SSD.

The question will be when is the next ssd price drop, also will there be an update to allow 8 gig of ram
 
Mostly maximum RAM capacity is tied to the chipset, so there won't be any unlocking in the future to have a maximum of 8GB of RAM.
Mostly it will be 4GB, as stated on Apple's website, but some people managed to get 6GB of RAM into that bastard of yours.

Also SSD price drops are developing over time, the more people buy SSDs the cheaper they get as manufacturing masses of them will get cheaper too as the manufacturing process matures and components get cheaper.
 
CoffeeWarrior said:
When should I update my unibody macbook aka The bastard Child of the family.

I have the stock 2.0 ghz model

I am planning on a 4 gig or 8 gig RAM update from crucial

Also a 30 gig SSD.

The question will be when is the next ssd price drop, also will there be an update to allow 8 gig of ram
Click to expand...

Well, update your macbook when it doesn't do what you require of it. I also have the 2.0 and will be going for 4 gigs of ram shortly, plus a 500 gb 7200 rpm hdd.

I do believe that you will regret getting a 30 gig SSD to be honest. You'll hardly have room for anything on it, other than OSX.

I personally wouldnt do it.
 
That bastard macbook of yours has enough self-esteem problems without decking it out with a puny 30gb SSD. Hold out for something bigger and make the lil' guy proud.

Afterall, size *is* everything.
 
Sweeperdk said:
Well, update your macbook when it doesn't do what you require of it. I also have the 2.0 and will be going for 4 gigs of ram shortly, plus a 500 gb 7200 rpm hdd.

I do believe that you will regret getting a 30 gig SSD to be honest. You'll hardly have room for anything on it, other than OSX.

I personally wouldnt do it.
Click to expand...

The 30 gig will most likely be around 24 usable space due to its formatting etc...

I tried a western digital 7200 rpm in mine and I noticed the extra vibration and around 20 minutes decrease in battery life. Its more noticable because of the unibody alluminum body, the vibration has no where to go except your wrist.
 
Richard1028 said:
That bastard macbook of yours has enough self-esteem problems without decking it out with a puny 30gb SSD. Hold out for something bigger and make the lil' guy proud.

Afterall, size *is* everything.
Click to expand...

I'm naming him Fred, the macbook.

OCZ has a nice SSD 30 gig for about 120 dollars. Lets say there is 15 gig left after the install. I think that might be enough for PDF's and word documents. My I-tunes library is only 7 gigs.
 
CoffeeWarrior said:
I'm naming him Fred, the macbook.

OCZ has a nice SSD 30 gig for about 120 dollars. Lets say there is 15 gig left after the install. I think that might be enough for PDF's and word documents. My I-tunes library is only 7 gigs.
Click to expand...


If u want an SSD, then go for a 128 gigs. Yes, it costs quite a bit, but seriously, you WILL regret a 30 gig.

I'm unsure if you'll actually even be able to run OSX on a 30 gig
 
Sweeperdk said:
If u want an SSD, then go for a 128 gigs. Yes, it costs quite a bit, but seriously, you WILL regret a 30 gig.

I'm unsure if you'll actually even be able to run OSX on a 30 gig
Click to expand...

How so ? Leopard uses around 13 gig ??? And snow leopard is going to use much less
 
CoffeeWarrior said:
How so ? Leopard uses around 13 gig ??? And snow leopard is going to use much less
Click to expand...

Its run just fine, not a ton of room for media, but it will run

I'd go for a larger SDD because I'd like my laptop to be truly portable(with only backups elsewhere)..but its a personal call
 
CoffeeWarrior said:
How so ? Leopard uses around 13 gig ??? And snow leopard is going to use much less
Click to expand...

It was the size of my installation that got me wondering... 98 gigs available when I got the machine. (120 gb harddisc). I personally could not have a machine without any programs installed. I do need the space.

Plus, a lot of available space on the harddisc equals a smoother running machine.

But hey, it's your machine, and your money :)
 
CoffeeWarrior said:
How so ?
Click to expand...

For one, a disc with not a lot of free space will need to be defragmentet more often, since fragmentation takes up space.

I believe the recommendation to do it, is when a disc is more than 90% full to allow for smooth running. Luckily OSX does most of this by itself, but takes up ressources to do so.

Another (major) factor with having enough discspace, is updates. If I remember correctly, OSX places updates "far away" from the systemfiles already on the disc, and require a fair amount of space to be installed. Once installed, the problem is gone IF the installation can be carried out.

I had a friend have this problem no later than last tuesday. His machine had enough room to download the install, but during the install process his machine was bogged down, and restarted, but could not fully load OSX due to errors while updating (not enough available disc-space).

Result? He had to do a full wipe to get his machine up and running again.
 
I'd say OZC. It seems to be a really fast drive, judging from the reviews I've read. Plus, it's 50% bigger for only 20% extra.
 
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