Couple HDD and RAM Questions

[Hogester]

Im wanting to upgrade my "old" MBP. Its a 2.33 C2D with 2 Gigs of ram.

Now iv read conflicting things about whether this one will take 3 gigs or 4 max ram. I know my new MBP can do 4, but for some reason iv read a couple of times that my 2.33 will only take up to 3 Gigs.

Im also wanting to get a new HDD. I was pretty rough on this lappy when i was using it regularly and while the hard drive isnt showing any problems, its only a 120 gig, and i need to get around a 320. Iv disassembled this thing once completely, but my question is, do i need any special type of notebook hdd? or is any SATA notebook hdd going to do fine?

 

[CrimsonRequiem]

Go here

Click on Scan My system. You might have to download the scanner but when it finishes scanning it will tell you what you need.

The HDD should be SATA 2.5" which is notebook size. Make sure it's 9.5 mm there are a few that are 11 or something and that will not fit in a macbook they will on a MBP 17" though. >_>" I recommend 320 GB HDD the 500 GB are power hogs.

 

[Noels]

Hogester,

Here's the 320GB I have - Western Digital Scorpio - I paid $135 when I bought it, it's gone down to $109: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197

Nice drive, Noel

 

[CrimsonRequiem]

I have this HDD

Didn't buy it at Newegg though because they just recently added this HDD. It's very fast. ^-^"

 

[Hogester]

Well that answers my HDD Questions.

What about the RAM

 

[CrimsonRequiem]

Well that answers my HDD Questions.

What about the RAM

Did you even read my first post? >_<""

 

[Noels]

Hogester,

Not sure about 3 or 4GB for MBP, but I put 4GB in my fairly new Macbook. I think the older ones, like yours, are limited to 3GB, but since they all have 2 RAM slots, you could put 4GB in it and I believe you'd get a little over 3GB effective, like 3.3GB...

But do read CrimsonRequiem's first post to you.

Once you solve that question, though, here are some options for you to buy either a single 2GB stick or a pair of them: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=mac+memory&x=0&y=0

Good luck, Noel

 

[Hogester]

Hmmm Im not sure how i missed that first post. Sorry about that.

Thanks for the RAM Recomendations.

 

[Hogester]

It appears it does max out at 3gigs. Thanks for that scanner Crimson.

Anyone have this HDD in their MBP? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

im curious how much a 7200RPM drive would lessen my battery life. I do a lot of graphic design on the go with this one, and id love to have the speed of a 7200, but if its gonna kill my battery I might just stick with a 5400. Ill do some searching, but i'm also curious if anyone here has that drive.

 

[jamezh10]

i have a ? what are though ps stuff on your dock

 

[Hogester]

Those are Photoshop (Ps) Dreamweaver (Dw) Adobe Illustrator (Ai) Flash (Fl) and InDesign (Id) Graphic design and web design programs

 

[jamezh10]

okay thank you

 

[Hogester]

I think im going to get that scorpio.

Can i use Carbon Copy Cloner to just image, and put that image on my new HDD, and everything will be fine? or is it going to be easier to just do a fresh install. I just reinstalled leapard 2 weeks ago, and dont feel like reinstalling all my apps if i dont have to.

 

[empty_noise]

Not sure with CCC, never having used it myself.. so long as the 'image' you put on your new HDD is a bootable clone of the old drive it should be fine, just be sure to run repair disk permissions once the new drive is in.. Not sure you really need to but run it anyways just to be safe.

As for the RAM.. looks like you have a 2nd generation MBP, which while you can put in two 2GB RAM sticks, the system will only be able to access up to 3GB so it's best to only upgrade to 3GB of RAM.

 

[Hogester]

Thanks for the input everyone. Im going to go with the scorpie black, and follow the steps here http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45292