What replacement internal hard drive would you recommend for a MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running Captain?
brands, gb or tb recommendations?
anyone who has had any success with a internal hard drive of choice, I'd really appreciate your feed back!
thanks in advance for your help!
MacBook, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)
I put a 1 TB HGST HDD in my late '08 MacBook. A larger/faster drive uses more power but I use my MacBook in clamshell mode as a desktop computer so it is seldom unplugged. I read the reviews at the time and HGST seemed to be one of the better brands. I went with a HDD because I wanted the larger storage and a SSD of that size would be expensive for an 8 year old computer. 7200 rpm offers a bit of a speed boost over the stock 5400 rpm drive.
There are all kinds of options out there including replacing your drive with a SDD for maximum speed boost, having both a SSD and HDD by moving your optical drive to an external enclosure, or installing a fusion drive which has both SDD and HDD components. A good place to start with this kind of thing is OWC = Macsales.com which outlines the different options. I also decided not to buy a SDD for various technical limitations such as which models support which bus speeds, and wanting a large, affordable drive. With my 1TB drive I am not sure I notice a huge difference between my wife's newer MacBook Pro with her SSD and mine, but I did notice a faster boot up time.
The hard drive is easy to replace but you will need a #6 (double check me on this) Torx screwdriver as well as a really small (#000 ?) Phillips screwdriver.
I also have had good success with HGST HDDs and will recommend them. That said, you will find cheerleaders for all of the available brands that are offered.
Not that the Mac you have has SATA2 connectivity so that a current SSD will not operate at its maximum capabilities (SATA3) but still will be faster than a conventional HDD. As mentioned, there is a significant price differential involved so you would have to consider if it is worth installing one.
A #6 Torx driver is correct, but a #00 Phillips driver is required for the installation. Both should be available in a good hardware store.
Ciao.
Thanks for the feedback, Limnos! the specifics you provided are really helpful!
I appreciate your help, OGELTHORPE. HGST it is.
I use an OCZ Agility 3 on my late 2008 MacBook .The SSD makes it feel like a new computer.It boots up in 9 seconds on El Capitan and 15 seconds in Windows 7.You can easily get cheap hard drives ,but SSDs are of another class.You can also get SATA to USB adaptor if you need more storage and get a cheap 500GB 3.5inch harddrive with it
need feedback replacing hard drive on late 2008 macbook
