MBP SSD conversion

[imcochrane]

Im looking to purchase a SSD for my wifes MBP, it is a 13.3 Mid 2009 model, i have already replaced the original HDD with a 1TB drive but she s finding it too slow. I have found a Crucial 480GB M500 CT480M500SSD1 SSD for a good price, cant see any reason why it wouldnt work in her MBP, can anyone explain to me why it may not work? I will most likely purchase one for my own MBP as a secondary Drive, any help would be much appreciated, thanks, Matt

 

[cwa107]

I have that specific unit in my machine and it works great.

 

[imcochrane]

rite on, my wifes MBP is a 3gbps machine, should still work ok?

 

[cwa107]

rite on, my wifes MBP is a 3gbps machine, should still work ok?

Yes, SATA3 drives should run at SATA2 speeds with no issue. I have the smaller 240gb version of that drive in my wife's old Dell and it works great there too.

 

[Slydude]

Ditto. I have the same unit in my 2008 MacBook Pro. My boot time was cut from roughly 70 - 75 seconds to about 38 seconds. Not as big an issue since I don't boot/reboot every day but all disk operations seem faster.

Think I got it for about $220 US.

 

[imcochrane]

would anyone recommend the mx100 over the m500?

 

[cwa107]

I'm not familiar with the mx100

 

[chas_m]

While the SSD upgrade will undoubtedly make the machine faster, I have to wonder if that's the real issue as to why she thinks it is "slow" with a 1TB drive installed.

I'm wondering if the RAM is maxed out or not, for example, or if she's in the habit of not really quitting applications, for example.

 

[MBP17•David]

Both my drives are M500 - no issues at all (mid-2010 MBP•17" 6,1)

 

[danipoak]

While the SSD upgrade will undoubtedly make the machine faster, I have to wonder if that's the real issue as to why she thinks it is "slow" with a 1TB drive installed.

I'm wondering if the RAM is maxed out or not, for example, or if she's in the habit of not really quitting applications, for example.

I'm not sure I follow you. A 1TB drive should be just as fast as a 200GB drive so long as they are both the same RPM. I think with most macs though an SSD will likely make a bigger difference at this point as they've all been coming with at least 4GB of RAM lately. Certainly maxing the RAM out along with an SSD should be looked into though.

 

[imcochrane]

ended up order from amazon 2 Crucial MX100 256GB SSD's for $127 CAD each, also got 8GB of 1067 mHZ DDR3 ram for the wifes MBP, and 2 optic bay brackets to house the old hard drives to run the dual HD setup. Total cost with free shipping was $414. Pretty good price IMO

 

[imcochrane]

And yes definetly the ram was an issue as well, it still has the original 2GB which was fine when it was new but as the new OS's come out, they demand more ram, so the combo of 8 Gigs and a SSD it should make the old MBP scream along at light sped compared to what it does now