Apple :: Late 2007/Early 2008 MacBook HD Upgrade
Jan 16, 2009
My photography hobby is getting more complex than originally anticipated, so I now want to upgrade my HD from the standard 120GB to something bigger, since I only have about 10 GB left.
I have been looking at the WD Scorpio Black (320GB, 7k200, priced $89 at newegg and 150 on WD site), but was wondering if it would work with my MacBook (late 07/early 08) and if there would be any difference with the sales package from Newegg and WD own site..
Also I was wondering how the performance is, and if there would be any noticeable difference between the 320 Black and a 500 Blue (both WD)?
Also, what is the procedure, when upgrading? My present drive is backed up via TimeMachine (with all docs, pictures, music and apps).
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Mar 1, 2009
My university had a brand new early-2008 MBP model (one left) for $1,399 so I bought it a couple of weeks ago. It has the 2.5Ghz processor, 2GB ram, 250GB HDD, 8600m GT w/ 512 vRam, and the matte display. I was trying to decide whether to buy a 2.4Ghz unibody MB, a 2.4Ghz unibody MBP, or refurbished of both. I went to talk to the people at the tech store and they showed me a brand new early-2008 model MBP (a design I happen to like more than the unibody because I am not a fan of the Sony chiclet keyboard or the new "no button" button touchpad) and I purchased it immediately.
So far I have been pretty happy with the purchase and the performance of the machine although it does get quite hot on its own. The main thing I am wondering about is upgrading the ram to 4GB and swapping out the hard drive for a 7200RPM one. The hard drive is less important to me as of right now because the higher RPM will cause more heat and drain the battery faster but what I DO want to do immediately is upgrade the ram.
The machine has 2GB PC2-5300 in it which is 667 Mhz. The bus speed on the machine is 800Mhz. I am wondering whether or not I can match the bus speed and install PC2-6400 which are 800 Mhz. If not that is fine I'll just go with PC2-5300 and pick up 4GB from Fry's today but running the faster speed would be nice.
On the hard drive front how exactly does this work? I know on a PC I can just swap out the hard drive and load a saved system image or install a new OS but does it work the same with Apple? If I swap the hard drive do I just pop in the install disks and install it?
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Jan 30, 2009
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if I touch the area, and when I close the lid during shutdown. Need to know if yall have the same issue before I get a replacement.
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Aug 22, 2009
Does anyone know if it's possible to install the new mid-2009 Macbook Pro 15" battery in the late 2008 macbook pro 15"? I looked at the pictures and it seems to be an identical fit, just no screw to secure the battery but from what I see all it is is a simple change in battery./
Has anyone debated trying this? I would love the extra battery life and I don't see why we couldn't do this aside from maybe the charging being 80w compared to the 73w for the new battery...
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Nov 1, 2009
I got my aluminum Macbook back in February 2009. When I first turned it on, I noticed the DVD sound make some noise every time I turn it on.
My girlfriend who uses the 13" Macbook Pro heard that noise and asked me what the heck that was..
I told her that I hear that noise every single time I turn on the laptop. She said that its not the case for her....
Is what I'm hearing normal? I do not know of anyone with my particular version of the Macbook!
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Jan 1, 2009
I worked my off to get this laptop. So I want to protect it as much as I can for as long as I can. I realize that since this is aluminum, it may experience corrosive pitting if I'm not careful.
SO, what case is the best to prevent this and to keep scratches off? I dont care if it changes the look, just give me the best one!
Another question, how are u supposed to pull out the magsafe anyway? Everytime I try to take it out, it always feels like the edge is going to scratch near the ports
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Jun 5, 2009
I just got my 4GB crucial kit in today, 2x2GB 800MHz DDR2. Since the new white macbook update just came out (2.13GHz), and it reportedly supports 800MHz RAM, I decided to try and upgrade mine (2.0GHz model). I just wanted to report that my macbook recognizes it no problem, and reports the speed at 800MHz.
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Jan 31, 2009
I've been gaming on my MBP's 9600M GT since I got it in October and I've been pretty satisfied with the results. I just started Mirror's Edge and I get an average of 30fps outdoors on Med/High settings at max 900p res and 2x AA (I'd take off AA, but it just looks ugly to me without it). The trouble is that when I enable PhysX my fps drops down to about 26fps avg. I'd like to make up this difference with overclocking, but wasn't sure if I should.
I game about 1.5 hours at a time, and usually GPU-Z reports nothing higher than about 74C (I'm running 181.22 drivers from LV2G). I have a dinky little plastic cooler with three 80mm fans underneath it, too. I was thinking of a modest overclock, say maybe 10-15%, but was wondering what the dangers were, if any and what temps I would see. IMO the newer MBPs are MUCH better at dissipating heat than last gen, so hopefully that won't be much of a concern, plus I could always grab a program to boost the fan speeds as well right, SMTFan I think it's called. If I do go ahead and overclock, which speeds should I increase, core/shader/mem and by how much?
What say you NBR? Worth the performance gains or stupid risk on a relatively new laptop?
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May 6, 2010
after getting a new 13" I have been noticing that it seldom gets warmer than 50C while in a speck case on a soft surface, while my 15" on the other hand is normally running at the high 70s and mid 80s and easily reaches the 90s if I begin watching a video on youtube when not in any sort of case and kept on a hard surface. I have been ramping up the fans using SMC Fan Control whenever I witness the machine getting warm but it makes me wonder if I have a faulty machine and is reason for me to get it checked out(it is still in warranty).
And just recently I switched to using the 9600M GT graphics card(for the first time since I got it really) and the temperatures hover at about the high 70s to mid 80s as usual but this time the fans are up to 3500-5000rpm on average without me setting anything with SMC Fan Control. Even just letting the machine idle for awhile doesn't get the fans to lower to 2000rpms(which I would assume is the expected normal speed considering my 13" seldom revs up a hair past 2000rpm).
I generally leave my 15" MBP on all the time(5 days/week), or put it to sleep whenever I am going to transport it(as I am sure most of us do). What I constantly have running is:Firefox(with around 40 tabs)Xcode or Eclipse(maybe both, but definitely one of them)Terminal(with a handful of tabs[3-7])AdiumPreview(with up to 15 or so documents open)iTunes
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Feb 23, 2009
I was thinking to buy a MBP soon and im wondering if the 9600m GT graphics card is upgradable? I heard it was choppy Playing L4d, Far cry 2.
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Feb 27, 2009
I have an issue with my MBP when I'm using vista. It just freeze after a few hours and I don't know why (I don't think that it is the network card driver, as suggested in other posts because I installed the driver provided there.
I just know that it is a driver issue because I got a blue screen with a notification from windows and it said that windows is shutting down to prevent damages to the computer because of a problem with a driver.all the drivers are from the Leopard DVD (excluding the network card driver).
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Apr 19, 2010
I just wanted people's opinions on how they compare the two model lines, and whether or not they would make the upgrade. The specs of my MBP are:
C2D 2.53 Ghz
500GB 7200RPM HDD
4GB DDR3 1066 MHZ RAM
512MB 9600mGT w/ 9400m Integrated Graphics
Performance wise, I havent been disappointed with the laptop, but one of the main drawbacks I see in the machine is its battery life - Apple has taken strides in improving battery life over 2009-2010, and its kinda annoys me that I'm stuck with the battery I have now.
I commute a lot to/from school, work on the bus/train, and have to use my laptop in places where power outlets are not readily available (some lecture rooms). Realistically, I get about 3-3.5 Hours with screen brightness on minimum, wifi and bluetooth turned of, and doing some basic word processing, as well as reading pdf's.......
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Mar 11, 2009
I've had my MBP for about 4 month now and have been having problems with its keyboard since I bought it. First, the "Z" key sank in (I think there was a problem with the spring). I took it to the Apple Store, and they "fixed" on the spot (it's much harder to press and only registered a key press 70% of the time). The lower right corner of the "E" has noticeably sunk in, and I need to resort to pressing the upper left corner. Also, the left side of the keyboard feels "mushy", not hugely so, but definitely noticeable after typing a few sentences. Can I request that Apple just replace the entire keyboard instead of just individual keys?
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Apr 27, 2009
I just wanted to know if this is normal. In XP, my early 2009 macbook (check my sig) only downclocks the processor to 1.59GHz (from 2.0GHz) in power saver mode. My 2008 macbook (intel) would downclock to 800MHz (from 2.1GHz). That just doesn't seem right, is that normal? Just doesn't seem like much of a power saver to me.
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Feb 8, 2009
Assume for a second that you need to frequently exchange documents with people using Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007, and that you need to use an Office Suite that has a great UI, so that you can make great, professional looking Word documents in particular with ease.
Which office suite is the best, or if you selected "other", please say what office suite you are referring to.
I have ordered a Macbook Pro, but am totally stumped as to what I should do for an Office suite. If it helps, I can use Office 2007 like a pro and I love it!
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Aug 17, 2009
I was just wondering if anybody knew if you can take a optical drive out of a apple ibook and put it in a Macbook 13 mid 2007, and if it would work?
I ask because my Macbook 13 mid 2007 optical drive has died and I have a drive from a ibook just laying around, please any info on this or if you know of a ibook model that would work with the macbook 13.
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Nov 25, 2009
I am planning on purchasing a new hard drive for my mid-2007 Macbook Pro. My MBP currently has a 120GB FUJITSU MHW2120BH, which runs at only 1.5Gb/s. However, the hard drive I want to purchase, Seagate Momentus 7200.4 runs at 3.0Gb/s. I don't know if there will be issues with this and if so, what are possible solutions?
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Apr 14, 2009
I've been using my new Macbook for a few weeks now. I must say, I'm impressed with the hardware and the OS. Definitely don't regret making the switch from Windows.
There is one issue that I have been having. The availability of only 2 USB ports has made using my peripherals difficult.
I am in the process of looking for a USB hub so that I can work more efficiently. I did some research and was able to find limited information. From what I know, the only thing I should be aware of is whether the hub draws its power from the port or powers itself.
Are these newer Macbooks about to power the port without any problems.
I'm looking to use an external HD (has its own power supply), wireless mice, iPods, and Blackberry. These aren't too power intensive.
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Mar 7, 2009
I have a late '08 unibody MBP. Every once in a while, generally not every day but once every few days, I have a split-second issue where half of the screen on my MBP flashes black for a split-second. Everything's perfectly normal before and afterwards, just that. I suppose it's not terribly bothersome, but it is noticeable. I've done some searching and it seems to be happening to many people and may be software based.
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May 29, 2010
My son's MacBook Pro (15 inch) has a case warp problem that's probably caused by something in the superdrive pushing out the plastic strip on the front of the laptop. I suggested taking it to the Apple Store to see what it would cost to fix (probably a Superdrive replacement at a minimum). I also asked him if he'd like a new 15 inch MBP but he likes his current system despite the problems. It has a Windows XP partition and all of the software that he likes on it which would have to be moved over. I'm disappointed with this generation MBP with the nVidia problem, the failed superdrive and now the current problem.
I have the 17 inch model of the same generation but I haven't had any problems with mine. I'd personally just prefer getting him a new one and I might just go ahead and get one and set it up (he's at a university for the summer and uses his MBP for his job there).
In general, are the Aluminum MBPs more problem free than the previous generation plastic models? Are there fewer Superdrive issues?
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Sep 17, 2009
I had received my refurbished MBP last monday, and have been using it frequently since then. It takes on average 4-5 hours to charge it fully, which is ridiculous in my opinion. And the most I can get it to last is around 2:40 with lowest brightness, microsoft office 2008 open, bluetooth off and wifi on. Shouldn't I be getting more battery time?
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Feb 20, 2010
I'm buying one or the other. My next computer will run OSX, that is the only thing I have set in stone.
13" MBP over 13" MB:
SD Card reader
(This would be nice, but I can do without. I only use the reader on my current laptop like once every 2 months)
FireWire 800
(Absolutely no need for this)
Backlit Keyboard
(Absolutely no need for this, people look at their keyboard while typing?)
Screen Color Gamut
(60% more than that of MB I heard ... I know this applies to the older MB but not sure about the late 2009 MB. Can anyone comment on the difference?)...................
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Jul 14, 2009
I have an early 08 MBP (non unibody) and I want to hook it up to my samsung HDTV to play movies. I have a DVI to HDMI cable that covers video and it works fine but so far that makes it work like a really REALLY big monitor. Since DVI doesn't output sound what do I use to get the sound to output to the tv as well?
Does this work?
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I notice in one of the reviews one person states they used this to connect their MBP to their HDTV, I was just wondering if it would work for my model as well?
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May 16, 2010
Yesterday, everything was running smoothly. My MBP was churning away running Fusion with an instance of XP, nothing too major. Today though, the video is out completely. I can't even get to the option menu on bootup to get it to switch to a Boot Camped Windows 7 (the boot up screen doesn't even show). So... what do I do now? The warranty is out. Am I out of luck? Any tricks I can try? I do plan on taking it to the nearby Apple store to see what they can do. I vaguely remember hearing something about the NVidia chips burning out, but the thing is I wasn't doing anything graphics intensive to begin with.
I even thought I might have dimmed the screen all the way, but using the keyboard to brighten it up didn't solve it. It wouldn't work anyway since even the boot screen doesn't show anything (not even the grey screen).
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Jul 21, 2009
I'm planning to buy a MacBook pro 15 soon and I need to know the following
1. Are the processors 25w or 35w, the 2.66 ghz, 2.88 ghz.
2. Are the SSD's apple sell with the MacBooks fast and worth the upgrade?
3. Do the MacBook 15 overheat or get hot often
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Apr 25, 2010
I got a last gen MacBook Pro 15in and I'm wondering what I should upgrade first.
SSD Drive
8GB of RAM (I do a lot of DB work and gaming)
Dual HDD's (twin 1TB Drives)
Dual drives (1SSD, 1TB)
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Apr 30, 2009
My girlfriend has a Macbook 13' and recently she told me a problem with it, everytime she opens Word the system slows down, big time. It sounded like a Ram problem because I know Word is mem hog, plus all her other programs running. Anyway the Macbook comes with 512mb which is crap and can barely run much of anything, I looked it up and its fairly easy to install, so this is where you guys come in.
I need to find out how much Ram I can install (only 2? or up to 4? and can OSX even recognize 4?) and what Ram is compatiable (I thought Ram was universal, but I could be wrong)
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May 17, 2009
have had my macbook pro for a year and a half...figure it's time to experiment. I want to upgrade to either a 7200 RPM drive OR a solid state drive AND add Vista Ultimate either through boot camp or another piece of software. So two questions:
1) Where can I get apple HD's
2) How hard is it to swap an HD in a 2008 model MBPRO
3) What software makes it easiest and WORKS the best with Vista?
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May 1, 2009
i had a macbook pro that i bought last year in april, its not the unibody. i would like to upgrade the ram to 4 gigs, do i have to use apple ram? like ram from sites like tigerdirect.ca but written apple, would this work? [url] also, how many ram slots are there and how fast can they go?
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Sep 21, 2009
I recently got my macbook pro 13 and am loving every minute of it, so much better than windows for me personally.
The mac was running really fast to start with with internet pages loading immediately on firefox. However, yesterday i installed office for mac and now things are loading more slowly, sometimes a 1-3 second delay while it loads.
Does anyone know if this is just something random or is it caused by installing office for mac? If it is caused by office for mac, would upgrading from 2gb to 4gb make webpages load faster? And generally make things more snappy on the mac?
I only use the laptop for office documents, internet browsing, movie watching and listening to music...so no intense video editing or any thing like that.
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