Need help with MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) upgrades.

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Deadlierduck21

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Jun 14, 2013
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Hello,

I need help upgrading my MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009). It says that the max amount of ram is 4gb but I have heard you can use 8Gb. Is this true? I also would like to know how hard putting a SSD in is. What all do I need? I want to replace the optical drive with a SSD. I only want a 60-64 gb SSD. The more ram the more video ram right? Not familiar with Mac hardware. Please link thinks (SSD, Optical drive thing, RAM).

Thank You, Caleb
 
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Ok. Unfortunately the max RAM you gan have on this model is 4Gb. I have previously posted the link of a compatible memory in case you have 2 gigs today and want to upgrade to 4Gb. If you have 2Gb today the upgrade to 4Gb will deliver a significant performance improvement, especially on multi-tasking.

The SSD will work just fine, although you wont be able to fully utilize the performance the SSD delivers because of the older SATA port in your Mac, but the improvement will be certainly noticeable nonetheless.

vmardegan

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Jul 31, 2008
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You can upgrade your memory up to 16GB if I am not mistaken, but 8Gb is certain and a fairly easy process. Essentially you just need to buy 2 sticks of 4Gb SoDIMM DDR3 RAM (laptop memory), unscrew the back cover, replace the two sticks inside the laptop, close it and restart. It should take 10 min of your time and a set of torx screwdrivers to do it.

As for the hard drive, you can do it as well, but I would recommend replacing your current drive instead of removing the disc drive unless you really need two drives. I have done this in my wife's computer with a Samsung 240Gb SSD drive a couple months ago spending about 250 USD and the results in performance were fantastic.

The Samsung drive that I bought came with the kit for easy transfer, so all you have to do is to plug the SSD on the bundled USB adapter, make a mirror copy of your current drive to the SSD through USB with the bundled software, open the back cover again, replace the drives, close everything and turn on the machine. The process of physically replacing the drive also takes about 10 minutes or so, but the mirroring process can take hours, depending on how many files you have in your current drive.
 

Deadlierduck21

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Can you link 8gb of ram and a 128 SSD that will work good.

 

vmardegan

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Just a quick update.

If your MacBook is the one with aluminum body you can go to 8Gb because it uses DDR3 RAM
Just buy 2 sticks of this memory or similar and you should be fine.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233178

Now, if it is the white/black polycarbonate case, then you can only go up to 4Gb of DDR2 RAM.
This memory or similar should work
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134370

As for the SSD, this is the one that I have used and comes with the easy transfer kit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147185
 

vmardegan

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Jul 31, 2008
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Ok. Unfortunately the max RAM you gan have on this model is 4Gb. I have previously posted the link of a compatible memory in case you have 2 gigs today and want to upgrade to 4Gb. If you have 2Gb today the upgrade to 4Gb will deliver a significant performance improvement, especially on multi-tasking.

The SSD will work just fine, although you wont be able to fully utilize the performance the SSD delivers because of the older SATA port in your Mac, but the improvement will be certainly noticeable nonetheless.
 
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Legohouse

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Yes, 4GB is the max and I do not recommend experimenting with more than 4GB of memory especially in Apple systems, the outcome might not be good. If you need 2 2GB modules try the link provided in one of the above post (DDR3 memory) or try here - Click here!!



 
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