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Question

Should I upgrade my Macbook Pro 13 (again)?

Jul 11, 2011 5:03PM PDT

I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro 13", 2.26 GHz Inner Core 2 Duo. On purchase, I immediately upgraded the RAM to 4 gb (2x2GB DDR3 1067 MHz). Summer 2010, I upgraded the hard drive to a 640gb 5400 RPM (Western Digital Scorpio Blue).

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Probably minimal
Jul 11, 2011 11:14PM PDT

Probably minimal with either upgrade, unless you do a lot of photo or video editing, and then you have the problem of yours being a laptop.

Whether or not the upgrade has much of an impact really depends on what you use the computer for. Your average tasks of web browsing, email, word processing, etc, are not likely to see any real noticeable improvement. Same as if you upgraded to a new laptop. If you do more intensive work, like large spreadsheets, use any of Adobe's Creative Suite apps regularly, maybe if you're a developer... Those might see some benefit.

Also, having run into this at work, let me just state the following. I forget what the max CTO specs were for the Mid-09 MBP, but if you exceed those specs then that means Apple did not test the model in that configuration and the results may be unpredictable. Things may work beautifully, or they may crash and burn almost immediately, so be prepared for either possibility. At work someone with a Mid-2010 model tried installing their own drives, and they quickly started getting kernel panics. As soon as a drive meeting the CTO specs was installed, it stabilized, and if you went back over CTO specs, it would kernel panic again. OTOH, there are plenty of people out there who manage to do these kinds of upgrades without issue, but the point to stress here is that it's an UNTESTED CONFIGURATION: RESULTS MAY VARY.

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Now 640gb 5400; considering changing to 500gb 7200/SS Hybrid
Jul 12, 2011 5:09AM PDT

Dear Jimmy,

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Actually
Jul 12, 2011 10:38AM PDT

Actually, given the new info, I would say more RAM would be far more beneficial than a new HDD.

Also, I will add that the rotational speed of the drive can be significant. If a 7200RPM drive draws more power than a 5400RPM drive of a similar configuration, then that's likely going to be a problem. Apple designed the logic board around specific power requirements, so the SATA connector for the HDD is likely only going to supply a certain amount of power.

Anyway, more RAM is likely going to to help if you have a bad habit about closing things like I do, and then also have that spanning multiple users. The HDD is going to be up to you. From a performance standpoint, probably minimal impact, but it might be handy from an increased storage capacity standpoint.