Where to buy SSD to upgrade unibody Macbook Pro?

[stagmeister]

My wife has an old 13" Macbook Pro (mid-2009, I believe, MacBook Pro 5,5) which she uses for day to day activities but not for work. She has been complaining that it is slow but it doesn't make sense to buy a new computer as it is (a) really expensive and (b) she wouldn't use it for work. Mostly watching videos, email, Facebook, stuff like that. No denying that it's slow. I've decided that it would be nice to upgrade it with 8gb ram and an SSD. The RAM is easy - I've done that a bunch of times and that's a fairly simple task. The SSD is new territory for me. There are lots of SSD options. What is a good place to buy it from, and do you have recommended brands for reliable SSD products? Macsales? Newegg? Amazon? Mercury? OCZ?

 

[BigBuns]

My experience

Fairly recently I replaced the original 250GB 5400RPM HDD in my mid 2010 13" MBP. I chose the Crucial MX100 SSD as it was very reasonably priced, has good reviews for it and offered a good GB/$ ratio. After cloning the old HDD onto the SSD, boot times for the computer went from 1+min to around 15 seconds. And now loading apps is way snappier. A BIG improvement!

I wasn't looking for the absolute fastest SSD on the market as my MBP only contains SATA2. Newegg, OWC, and Amazon are all reputable places that have decent/good customer support. Just look for a good deal on the SSD you have your eye on. Maybe use PC Part Picker to compare the price of that SSD to other sites and it also gives you an idea of the GB/$.

Best of luck and enjoy the speed of your future SSD!

 

[SkimMilk168]

My vote goes to Crucial MX100 as well.
Got a 256GB to replace my brother's dead hdd on his Acer laptop and he has never been happier.

Price is really good too.

 

[sheppy1]

In the past when I had a Windows machine I had one of the Crucial M550 drives and they were just fine. I decided to go for a Samsung 840 Evo 120GB SSD for my MacBook Pro though after hearing good things about them and so far it seems good too. A bit lighter than the Crucial drive as well if the weight of your laptop will be a concern? I know it was with me as I also have another 1TB drive inside my MBP too.

Take a look at Amazon I'd say, the SSDs are cheap enough on there and you have the Amazon return policy as well in case you need to return it

 

[SkimMilk168]

In the past when I had a Windows machine I had one of the Crucial M550 drives and they were just fine. I decided to go for a Samsung 840 Evo 120GB SSD for my MacBook Pro though after hearing good things about them and so far it seems good too. A bit lighter than the Crucial drive as well if the weight of your laptop will be a concern? I know it was with me as I also have another 1TB drive inside my MBP too.

Take a look at Amazon I'd say, the SSDs are cheap enough on there and you have the Amazon return policy as well in case you need to return it

The evo 830s were great but the 840s have got the degradation problem whereby accessing older data took longer than usual. Samsung just came up with a solution: to rewrite those data from time to time. To me, that's not an actual solution...

 

[freeskier93]

One thing to keep in mind is the older Macbook Pros are only SATA II. Don't get caught up on speed comparisons and spend more money than necessary, any SSD on the market will saturate the SATA II and is your limiting factor. I have a Seagate SSD which I got on sale at Newegg, 240GB for $130.

 

[stagmeister]

Thanks for chiming in, everyone - I was looking at the MX100 and it looks pretty promising. Two questions:

1. If I wait a few weeks, should I expect to find good discounts on SSDs on "cyber Monday" (god I hate that term)? At this point it's not a huge deal to wait, but finding a good deal is always awesome.

2. Another issue is the MBP's battery life, it can't hold too much of a charge these days. If I can get the MBP to last another 2-3 years -- that would be simply unbelievable, as it is 5 years old now! -- then I totally think that the cost of replacing the battery ($129) is worth it, it would bring the whole operation (SSD, 8gb ram, new battery) to about $400 including taxes, maybe less if there are good deals around Thanksgiving. But if I do the upgrades (SSD & RAM) first, will Apple upgrade the battery or say no, we won't do it because you tampered with the system? Obviously (it's 5 years old) the computer is out of warranty so I'm not worried about voiding any warranties, but I just want to make sure that if I do the upgrades first (which I think is reasonable to do, just to make sure that the computer is actually fast enough to meet my wife's needs before investing more money in it), that it won't cause any problems.

 

[SkimMilk168]

MX100 offer just went out last week.

Just spotted one for Intel 530: http://slickdeals.net/f/7284864-240gb-intel-530-series-2-5-sata-iii-mlc-internal-solid-state-drive-ssd-109-99-or-98-99-w-visa-checkout-today-only

As for the battery portion: can't advice cos I've never tried Apple service before so I don't know if they will reject you.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for chiming in, everyone - I was looking at the MX100 and it looks pretty promising. Two questions:

1. If I wait a few weeks, should I expect to find good discounts on SSDs on "cyber Monday" (god I hate that term)? At this point it's not a huge deal to wait, but finding a good deal is always awesome.

2. Another issue is the MBP's battery life, it can't hold too much of a charge these days. If I can get the MBP to last another 2-3 years -- that would be simply unbelievable, as it is 5 years old now! -- then I totally think that the cost of replacing the battery ($129) is worth it, it would bring the whole operation (SSD, 8gb ram, new battery) to about $400 including taxes, maybe less if there are good deals around Thanksgiving. But if I do the upgrades (SSD & RAM) first, will Apple upgrade the battery or say no, we won't do it because you tampered with the system? Obviously (it's 5 years old) the computer is out of warranty so I'm not worried about voiding any warranties, but I just want to make sure that if I do the upgrades first (which I think is reasonable to do, just to make sure that the computer is actually fast enough to meet my wife's needs before investing more money in it), that it won't cause any problems.

Replacing the RAM and adding an SSD will not cause any issues with future repairs. Even if it was still under warranty, you would still be okay.

IMO The Crucial MX100 and the Samsung EVO are about the best bang for the buck SSDs right now. Just get whichever you can find cheapest.

 

[freeskier93]

Looking at prices on Newegg I'd go with either the Intel 530 or Crucial MX100. Crucial is cheaper but Intel has a better warranty.

 

[BigBuns]

Thanks for chiming in, everyone - I was looking at the MX100 and it looks pretty promising. Two questions:

1. If I wait a few weeks, should I expect to find good discounts on SSDs on "cyber Monday" (god I hate that term)? At this point it's not a huge deal to wait, but finding a good deal is always awesome.

2. Another issue is the MBP's battery life, it can't hold too much of a charge these days. If I can get the MBP to last another 2-3 years -- that would be simply unbelievable, as it is 5 years old now! -- then I totally think that the cost of replacing the battery ($129) is worth it, it would bring the whole operation (SSD, 8gb ram, new battery) to about $400 including taxes, maybe less if there are good deals around Thanksgiving. But if I do the upgrades (SSD & RAM) first, will Apple upgrade the battery or say no, we won't do it because you tampered with the system? Obviously (it's 5 years old) the computer is out of warranty so I'm not worried about voiding any warranties, but I just want to make sure that if I do the upgrades first (which I think is reasonable to do, just to make sure that the computer is actually fast enough to meet my wife's needs before investing more money in it), that it won't cause any problems.

1. If you do wait for Cyber monday or whatever, I would expect you to save on the higher end SSD models but not so much for the already budget friendly options. I would think maybe up to $20 or so. And RAM never really goes on sale imo. It would be a small discount for that as well. I couldn't see 50% off or something.

2. Not sure about the Apple battery replacement thing, but I would imagine you replacing the SSD and RAM would have no impact on their ability to replace it. Check with them. After I swapped out the HDD for an SSD I noticed considerable battery improvement as SSD is more energy efficient than the spinning disks (no moving parts, less heat). I stopped using Chrome and now use Safari for my browser. Chrome is a a battery pig I guess, safari is better optimized for efficiency. My computer gives me 7-8 hours browsing time with over 50% brightness and it is the mid 2010 model.