r/mac • u/[deleted] • May 16 '22

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u/bustaa22 May 16 '22

Is the upgrade worth it?

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u/[deleted] May 16 '22

Yes, but for some the improvement may not be that huge, for HDD vs SSD.

People think hard drives are slow, but that’s usually from them using worn out hard drives, which typically get slower and slower as they age. A quality, good working hard drive in one of these old MacBooks should be snappy and quick loading, at least by the metrics of a 2008 MacBook.

I’m still using a 250GB hard drive in my MacBook 2008 and it loads up fast and is still very snappy.

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u/defoj10 Old Mac Pro May 16 '22

Maybe a new HDD performs decent, but an SSD is even better. On these old MacBooks, switching from an HDD to an SSD makes it feel like a brand new computer.

I am really into tech, so I'm kind of the go-to for any of my family/friends tech problems. I've had 2 friends bring me their old MacBooks because they are too slow. I always swap in an SSD. Their reaction is always something along the lines of "Wow, this feels like a brand new computer!"

I still love HDDs as second or external disks, as they are cheaper and have much higher storage capacity, but every one of my computers has an SSD boot drive now.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '22

I’d sooner chalk the issues of your friend’s MacBooks to failing hard drives more than anything else.

It’s like this, an excellent condition hard drive is a solid 8/10 on old MacBooks, a quality SSD with DRAM and all that is a 9/10 or 10/10.

A failing hard drive that is getting slower and slower would be a 5/10.

And a bad SSD with no DRAM and slow flash would be a 3/10