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Worth it or not?

A

Archduk3

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2012
56
0
Hi there,

I have been googling this quite a lot but have gotten no straight answer due to a lot of reasons.

I have a powerbook 6,2 12" with 768 in RAM as a fairly portable notebook. I've been thinking investing in a new one, but this one still works. Or well.

The old harddrive was a 5400 RPM, now I have 7200RPM, that used to be able to run HD material without any problem in leopard.

Now recently it has gone real bad I guess, youtube stutters and many other apps are real slow.

So I have been considering upgrading the hardrive to a ATA SSD from macsales, the 40gigabyte.

But what I am asking myself, will I see a performance difference? Will it help or mess up my battery life? And if possible, can I run Tiger on it?

//C
 
You can upgrade the RAM to 1.25 GB RAM (768 MB RAM is the minimum for Leopard) and you can run Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on it, it originally came with 10.2.7.
With an SSD you will see a performance difference, as the Mac reacts faster to user input, which needs access to the storage device, and as random access to the HDD is much, much, much slower than random access to the SSD, it is an improvement.

As YouTube uses Flash to display its videos and Flash is not supporting older hardware architectures, YT stutters. Thus you either can use ClickToFlash or the HTML5 beta of YT to watch YT content or have a look at MacTubes.


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simsaladimbamba said:
You can upgrade the RAM to 1.25 GB RAM (768 MB RAM is the minimum for Leopard) and you can run Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on it, it originally came with 10.2.7.
With an SSD you will see a performance difference, as the Mac reacts faster to user input, which needs access to the storage device, and as random access to the HDD is much, much, much slower than random access to the SSD, it is an improvement.

As YouTube uses Flash to display its videos and Flash is not supporting older hardware architectures, YT stutters. Thus you either can use ClickToFlash or the HTML5 beta of YT to watch YT content or have a look at MacTubes.


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Click to expand...

So basically a RAM and a SSD would do a big difference?

//C
 
I don't think that Leopard will Support TRIM for an IDE SSD. AFAIK TRIM is a drive dependent thing, and with everything about some of the Macbook Air's not supporting trim, i feel like it would be unlikely that TRIM would be supported.

Go for it, and keep using your computer for as long as you can :)
 
SimonUK5 said:
I don't think that Leopard will Support TRIM for an IDE SSD. AFAIK TRIM is a drive dependent thing, and with everything about some of the Macbook Air's not supporting trim, i feel like it would be unlikely that TRIM would be supported.

Go for it, and keep using your computer for as long as you can :)
Click to expand...

The downside is that in theory, after some years my ssd would be screwed? :D
 
Archduk3 said:
The downside is that in theory, after some years my ssd would be screwed? :D
Click to expand...

Yeah pretty much.. hah, I wouldn't worry about it too much though, Unless the SSD is hella expensive, or you plan in using it in another computer? Which i doubt as well as everything is SATA now :)
 
SimonUK5 said:
Yeah pretty much.. hah, I wouldn't worry about it too much though, Unless the SSD is hella expensive, or you plan in using it in another computer? Which i doubt as well as everything is SATA now :)
Click to expand...

184 dollars for ram and ssd, for a computer mainly used for internet, typing and maybe now even lighter Photoshop or FCP work.

//C
 
I'd say buy the ram first, it is the cheapest part, if it is ok for you don't spend money on a ssd.
If it still isn't ok, do a clean install...it is ok?not?so go to ssd.
I think SSD is too much money for a powerbook, it may be a good upgrade,but if you don't have the ram it is from my point of view kinda stupid to buy it...
You can always check the FAQ on my sig, it has some tips about making your powerbook faster (software tweaks,etc).
 
tom vilsack said:
512 is the minimum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Leopard#System_requirements

i run leopard with 512 on my 12" pb 1.5GHz and it runs fine...

unless your in love with your powerbook spending $184 might be more wisely put towards a macbook...(184 + your pb est 120-150=$300+ towards macbook)
Click to expand...

I just ordered the things anyways. Because A, I am at bit sentimental. B, the superdrive is broken and I live in Hong Kong, getting anything more than 50 USD for a used computer would be amazing.

There are old black macbooks here for 3200 hkd but still, I dont have that cash inbetween and rather spend half to make something work.

Also, funny story. The store I bought the harddrive from said it was a 7200rpm but after some checking, it is a 5400 rpm. So I reckon I will see huge improvements.

//C
 
Last edited:
skinniezinho said:
I'd say buy the ram first, it is the cheapest part, if it is ok for you don't spend money on a ssd.
If it still isn't ok, do a clean install...it is ok?not?so go to ssd.
I think SSD is too much money for a powerbook, it may be a good upgrade,but if you don't have the ram it is from my point of view kinda stupid to buy it...
You can always check the FAQ on my sig, it has some tips about making your powerbook faster (software tweaks,etc).
Click to expand...

Please don't kill me for doublepost, this is a different followup question.

Since my superdrive is done for. Can I in theory switch it out for my hardrive that is the main one at the moment. And by doing so, have two hardrives running in it?

//C
 
Archduk3 said:
Please don't kill me for doublepost, this is a different followup question.

Since my superdrive is done for. Can I in theory switch it out for my hardrive that is the main one at the moment. And by doing so, have two hardrives running in it?

//C
Click to expand...

Yes, that is a common mod in macbooks/macbook pros.
Ebay is your friend =)
 
skinniezinho said:
Yes they are.I just said that the mod is common, I didn't say that the attachment is equal.
Click to expand...

Sorry, after a quick google check I found that I just need a way to make it stick.

No more stupid questions.

Thanks everyone for the help. :)
 
Archduk3 said:
Sorry, after a quick google check I found that I just need a way to make it stick.

No more stupid questions.

Thanks everyone for the help. :)
Click to expand...

look at this one, maybe you need some diy, but maybe not..for the price it worth a try.
Check with mactracker app what kind of connection does your powerbook have on the optical drive...sometimes ebayers don't have right info.
I bought one of this (but with special fixations for macbook) + usb optical drive case for less than 30eur shipping included.
 
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