MacBook Pro upgrades

[Tan]

Hi

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro and am contemplating some upgrades to it as I am nearing capacity on my 250GB HDD and would like to be able to keep more photos, data and movies on it.

1st upgrade that I will do is the RAM, increasing it from 4GB to 8GB.

However, where i need some advice is on the HDD, I fancy an SSD, is this a viable option for a 2009 machine, I know the SSD is lighter but any idea on how much?

Also, what is a good brand of SSD drive to buy and is the technology stable now as I have heard about issues with earlier drives.

Finally, is it worth doing these upgrades on a 2009 machine or would it be better to just buy a new machine?

Thanks

Tan

 

[spinaltap]

Just like office desk space, the size of required hard-drive is proportionate to the amount of stuff you have to fill it. Even if you buy a larger hard-drive you will fill it sooner or later.

There are alternatives...

1) Buy an Apple Time Capsule and wirelessly back-up your data to it when required via Time Machine. The problem, though, is that you opt for either a 2Tb or 3Tb disc. Eventually, that will fill-up too.

2) Buy a NAS - such as a ReadyNAS - that has integral Time Machine. If, say, you buy a four-bay NV+.v2 at £150, you add as many hard-drives as you wish up to a maximum of 12TB. That is, 4x3Tb - or 4x4Tb drives as they become available = 16Tb of disk space. When the ReadyNAS is connected your router - or an Apple Airport Extreme (as I have), you can then back-up your data wirelessly. Also, you can access the ReadyNAS remotely. That is, your ReadyNAS is at home and you access the data on it from the office.

 

[shanksy]

Im kind of in the same boat at the moment with Hard Drives.
I have 2 x 500GB drives in my G73 and would like to replace one with a SSD.
If you go for a SSD you need to be prepared to take a hit on storage space unless you have a bottomless pit of money.
Take in as many reviews as you can on performance as they can vary wildly, also check your motherboard to see if it can handle SATA II or SATA III. SATA III is backwards compatible but theres no point in paying for headline speeds you don't have the capacity to reach.
The sweet spot for price / performance seems to be either the 120GB or 240/256GB models and I believe one that is generally touted as a good all-rounder is the Crucial M4.

If you only have the one hard drive bay in your Macbook though, you would need an external drive / NAS / Cloud option to compensate.

 

[shanksy]

As to whether its worth upgrading or buying a new one, you'd have to tell me the specs of the machine and what you generally use it for.

 

[BiKenG]

...
1) Buy an Apple Time Capsule and wirelessly back-up your data to it when required via Time Machine. The problem, though, is that you opt for either a 2Tb or 3Tb disc. Eventually, that will fill-up too.

2) Buy a NAS - such as a ReadyNAS - that has integral Time Machine. If, say, you buy a four-bay NV+.v2 at £150, you add as many hard-drives as you wish up to a maximum of 12TB. That is, 4x3Tb - or 4x4Tb drives as they become available = 16Tb of disk space. When the ReadyNAS is connected your router - or an Apple Airport Extreme (as I have), you can then back-up your data wirelessly. Also, you can access the ReadyNAS remotely. That is, your ReadyNAS is at home and you access the data on it from the office.

Time Machine and/or a Time Capsule will NOT help with storage space on your Hard Drive. They are BACKUP solutions and no more. Having said that, there is no doubt that Time Machine is the finest backup solution that's ever been available and I've tried a few over the years. Those who complain about what it doesn't do simply do not understand the meaning of the work BACKUP. That is NOT the same as ARCHIVE. With a backup, old stuff will eventually be deleted - automatically, whereas an archive can be kept forever.

If you want to add storage capacity, either add network storage (a USB drive connected to a Time Capsule or just an Airport Base Station can suffice if NOT specified for TM backups), a bigger internal HD or add an external USB HD to your Mac.

SSD is fast and silent, but expensive. Regular HDs are massive and cheap nowadays, so for cost effective storage, I'd install a bigger internal HD and use Time Machine with a Time Capsule to maintain backups.

 

[Nik_Endeavour]

Try RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.com

1. They will have the RAM you are after
2. They also will recommend their brand of SSD which I have found to be reasonably priced

 

[johny5_uk]

Tan, I sold my Mac Pro tower to run both work and personal on a MacBook Pro 13".
I missed the speed of an ssd in the tower along with massive storage space but found a great fix.
Buy a hdd caddy that is shaped like an internal dvdrom drive and fit a 1tb drive in this and then into your DVD bay.
Install your DVD drive into an external USB DVD caddy (matches the MacBook).
Then install a 120gb ssd as a boot drive into the normal hdd space.

The drive bay kit and external caddy came to about £30 and is brilliant.
I rarely if at all use the writer but its there should I need it.

 

[spinaltap]

For clarification....

On a ReadyNAS you can assign a portion of your disk space for TimeMachine (backup), while the remainder can be used for storage (archive).

On my ReadyNAS, I can have section of disk space for TimeMachine, another for my music library, another for my movies library, another for photo library, while x-raid provides expanding/additional storage for the remainder.

The ReadyNAS is therefore a very flexible device.