[SOLVED] Upgrading Macbook (SSD or H-SSD)

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zealousalien

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Mar 26, 2012
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Hi!

My Macbook (mid 2009 model) is in need of a parts upgrade to tide it over for a bit. Budget is around $100 USD and I mainly use the laptop for heavy word processing.

The current specs is: 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2GB (two 1GB) 800MHz Pc2-6400 ram.

I feel like there are three viable options:
1) Upgrade to 4GB DDR2 ram and Seagate Hybrid Drives 500GB (5400RPM HD + 8GB SSD) for a total of $137.

2) Upgrade to Crucial m500 120GB for $97.

3) Upgrade to Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM HD and 4GB ram for $117.
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Which in your opinion would net the biggest gain?

Lastly, I am currently running Snow Leopard and I am wondering if it would be better to update to Mavericks or would it warrant more lag?

Thank you for your time!
 
Solution
Well if you want Mavericks you are definitely going to need more RAM. Obviously option 1 is your best option. If you decide on getting more RAM and using a hybrid drive you will be set.

Ry-Guy

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Jul 12, 2013
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Well if you want Mavericks you are definitely going to need more RAM. Obviously option 1 is your best option. If you decide on getting more RAM and using a hybrid drive you will be set.
 
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JellyJobey

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Dec 7, 2013
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Hi, I am running Mavericks and have an older MBP. It works perfect and I would recommend Mavericks and it is very minimal compared, only difference lag wise would be when using updated iMovie and iPhoto which are even heavy for my MBP (Mid '12, 8GB, 2.6GHz) Next, The ONLY noticeable difference with the HDD and SSD is boot-up and exporting. I seriously would ask for more RAM and a new HDD. The SSD is worthless with 2 GB of RAM. I would however recommend looking at the max RAM of the MBP, 8GB is a decent bit. Hope I helped!
 
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