[Igotyoubabe]

Has anyone here upgraded their MacBook (actually any laptop) with an SSD?

My friend has a 2008 MB pro and is thinking about taking the SuperDrive out and putting In SSD. It doesn't seem like much work, but just wondering if anyone has and does it really speed things up as much as people claim? Thanks

[Loobster]

An SSD upgrade to any computer will speed it up noticeably (usually in the range of a factor of 3-5 times for the bulk of operations). Once your computer has 3GB RAM, it's the most cost effective upgrade you can make.

As for upgrading a Mac, no doubt someone who cares about Macs or who even has one will be along shortly to chime in.

[cnbcwatcher]

I'm considering upgrading my 2010 MBP. I also want to put more RAM into it. I think it would make the thing a bit faster.

[Dazinho]

Originally Posted by cnbcwatcher

I'm considering upgrading my 2010 MBP. I also want to put more RAM into it. I think it would make the thing a bit faster.

RAM made my 2008 MBP a lot faster. I would not recommend getting it through Apple though. Crucial sell Apple compatible memory and it is significantly cheaper.

[cnbcwatcher]

Originally Posted by Dazinho

RAM made my 2008 MBP a lot faster. I would not recommend getting it through Apple though. Crucial sell Apple compatible memory and it is significantly cheaper.

I'm getting a local Apple reseller to do the upgrade. They'll charge me €86 for it and it's a 5-10 minute job. Gives me time to read The Sun

[flagpole]

Originally Posted by cnbcwatcher

I'm getting a local Apple reseller to do the upgrade. They'll charge me €86 for it and it's a 5-10 minute job. Gives me time to read The Sun

It'll take a lot longer than that if they copy the disk for you.

[cnbcwatcher]

Originally Posted by flagpole

It'll take a lot longer than that if they copy the disk for you.

They won't be doing that at the same time. It'll just be the RAM upgrade at first.

[nig6]

I upgraded my 7200rpm drive (The original drive at 5400 had already died!) to an ssd in my macbook - one of the OCZ drives, the difference was night and day. Mac boots up in a few seconds and everything runs massively quicker, I have a macbook for work too and when I go back to the standard HDD its so slow its really annoying!!

[flagpole]

my mate did his mbp with the kit from crucial. he's clever but not mad in to computers and it didn't present him with any challenges.

[nig6]

Memory made minimal difference for me, it was really easy to do though, got it from crucial too.

[tdenson]

Originally Posted by Igotyoubabe

Has anyone here upgraded their MacBook (actually any laptop) with an SSD?

My friend has a 2008 MB pro and is thinking about taking the SuperDrive out and putting In SSD. It doesn't seem like much work, but just wondering if anyone has and does it really speed things up as much as people claim? Thanks

I have upgraded half a dozen different Macs with SSDs including exactly the same MBP upgrade you are talking about - replacing the optical with a new drive bay to hold an SSD.

Go for it, the difference as someone else in this thread has said is night and day. It is the most cost effective upgrade you can do on any Mac.

[Igotyoubabe]

Thank you all for your replies. Just a quick update:

My friend was still making his mind up, but I decided to upgrade my own MBP.

I went and got an OCZ 120GB SSD today and have replaced my normal HD for the time being. Installed Mountain Lion as well. My laptop is stuck at SATA II speeds even though the SSD is SATA III, but it's blisterinlgy fast! Admittedly it's a clean install with minimum crap on it, but boot up, shutdown and app launching is making me laugh out very load - its really nearly instant.

I have ordered the SuperDrive replacement caddy and a usb enclosure to convert the removed SDrive to an external one and will then move the SSD to the bay and put my old HD back in its original place (Motion sensor only works on that bay).

[tdenson]

Originally Posted by Igotyoubabe

Thank you all for your replies. Just a quick update:

My friend was still making his mind up, but I decided to upgrade my own MBP.

I went and got an OCZ 120GB SSD today and have replaced my normal HD for the time being. Installed Mountain Lion as well. My laptop is stuck at SATA II speeds even though the SSD is SATA III, but it's blisterinlgy fast! Admittedly it's a clean install with minimum crap on it, but boot up, shutdown and app launching is making me laugh out very load - its really nearly instant.

I have ordered the SuperDrive replacement caddy and a usb enclosure to convert the removed SDrive to an external one and will then move the SSD to the bay and put my old HD back in its original place (Motion sensor only works on that bay).

Are you using the OWC one ?

[unique]

an SSD really souped up my old macbook. maxing out the RAM on old computers usually makes a difference too. i just cloned the existing install to save reinstalling apps and settings. i have mine dual booting with win7 as i'm not a fan of osx (why buy mac then they say, but there are a few programs that don't run on pc, and the mac was cheap)

[Igotyoubabe]

Originally Posted by tdenson

Are you using the OWC one ?

Do you mean the SSD?

I purchased an OCZ Agility 3 120Gb SSD, this one;

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Stora...roductId=47341

There was way too many differing opinions out there and I could have been looking for ever, so I read that this has been used and works well (with new firmware). There are faster ones, but almost everyone I looked into, there were positive and negative experiences. I am stuck at SATA II speeds because of the age of my laptop (late 2009 MBP) but it's much faster than my hard drive (250GB 7200rpm one).

Works perfectly. I have taken it out till the caddies arrive and have stuck it in an external USB caddy. I can boot into Mountain Lion just to have a play around and all seems fine.

[nig6]

Thats the same drive I got, works great in mine too, left the optical drive in but everything else the same!