Mac Book Pro - SSD & RAM Upgrade help

J

Ju$tice

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
179
Hi All!

Last week my MacBook Pro slid off my bed and sadly the hard drive has stopped working since. I'm dealing with recovering the data off that.

I'm away from home on work and urgently need to get it up and running again.

I only have my iPhone to look up replacement parts which is killing my eyes and seriously testing my patience.

I have a 15" Mid 2012 Mac Book Pro

I'm going to install a SSD so this doesn't happen again. I've narrowed it down to either a
Sandisk Extreme II or Samsung 840.

Looking for advice on which is better or suggestions of something better?

While I'm at it I'm going to upgrade the ram to 16gb.
What's the most compatible, most reccomended out of
Corsair, Crucial and Kingston?

Also what tools do I need to do this work and do I need an enclosure for the ssd?
Any other info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for anyone that can assist me!
 
you'll need a jeweler's philips screwdriver for the back panel and a mini torx for the HDD/SSD studs. There's a good tutorial on ifixit.com.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that model maxes at SATA II/3G
the last time I upgraded a MacBook, I think I used Crucial, but this Corsair kit is cheaper
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I used a sandisk extreme in my 2009 MBP and it was a painless swap over. That SSD is now in my GFs 2011 13" MBP As far as I am aware there isn't any reason you cant use pretty much any SSD except for size. With the way the HDD mounts in these laptops you won't need an adapter. For ram it should not matter what brand you go with as long as the speed/voltage is correct. I have heard of some issues with MBPs being strangely picky about ram sometimes though.
 
I have a 2011 MBP, assuming there isn't going to be much difference between the two.

I upgraded to a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB replacing the existing 500GB 2.5" SATA drive. Works at full 6G SATA speeds no problem.
Ram upgrade I went with the Corsair 16GB 1333Mhz Mac Memory! See http://www.corsair.com/en/memory/mac-memory

Was flawless until I had the GPU failure issue so many people have encountered.

There are plenty of guides around but as you are on your phone the basic steps:
I only needed a small jewellers philips screwdriver as previous mentioned along with a small hex screwdriver.
Undo the number of screws on the bottom of the MBP (noting where the 3 longer ones came from)
Remove the bottom panel, should just pop off.
Locate the (2 IIRC) screws which hold the hard drive in
Pop the hard drive out, try not to rip the thin SATA cable!
Remove SATA lead
Remove the four hex screws in the hard drive
Sure you can work out the rest for refitting ;)
 
As stated by others, If your MBP has a mechanical HDD, any SATA SSD should work, and fit. As far as I have seen all SSD's use the same threaded holes in the same locations as standard 2.5 inch HDDs.

I bought Crucial SSD's for my gaming computer, and MBP, As far as RAM, I can only speak to Crucial. I have generally found it to be a ~10% price premium over bargain RAM, and comes with a lifetime limited warranty, (which I have never actually had to use.) My first generation MBP (Pre-unibody, 1st gen Core Duo) got a Crucial memory upgrade, and is still going strong, (although it is on it's 3rd battery)
 
tdowning said:
As stated by others, If your MBP has a mechanical HDD, any SATA SSD should work, and fit. As far as I have seen all SSD's use the same threaded holes in the same locations as standard 2.5 inch HDDs.

I bought Crucial SSD's for my gaming computer, and MBP, As far as RAM, I can only speak to Crucial. I have generally found it to be a ~10% price premium over bargain RAM, and comes with a lifetime limited warranty, (which I have never actually had to use.) My first generation MBP (Pre-unibody, 1st gen Core Duo) got a Crucial memory upgrade, and is still going strong, (although it is on it's 3rd battery)
Click to expand...

my early 09 17" had issues with 6gb SSDs acting a bit flakey, got a OWC 3Gb SSD and no issues since.. seems like it was a known issue with this chipset
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top