So I pull out my good old macbook 13 - from 2006

[rsutoratosu]

A1181 C2D 2.0. Added 4gb to it, waiting for a SSD.. It still runs fairly fast with a 7200 drive. Install lion on it.

The original battery died, order a replacement from OWC.

Im looking into the plugbug world as it comes with a nifty 2nd usb charger for ipads

I never got into a mac but getting back to using it. Is there something like a battery reset software like lenovo's power manager where it drains and recharges and gives you spec about the battery ?

Have to say, for a 7yr old mac, it still runs great..

BTW anyone use or suggest any of those palm rest guard ? i have it in white and its practically brand new

[Kaido]

I was going to say just use TwelveSouth for the wristpads, but apparently they only do back as far as the plastic unibodies. You might have a hard time finding commercially-available wristpad protectors for a Macbook that old, but if you go on eBay and search for "A1181 wrap" you can find some stickers that would do the job. I used to have some fuzzy palm protectors that did a nice job, but they got dirty and also made the lid a bit hard to close, so the stickers would probably be better anyway.

As far as the battery info goes, check out Coconut Battery:

http://www.coconut-flavour.com/

If you want something a bit more serious, Watts ($7) does calibration and stuff:

http://www.binarytricks.com/

Nice upgrades! The SSD will make all the difference in the world. I have a lot of CD/C2D machines at work that I pop SSD's into and it's like a whole new machine. If you don't use the CD drive that much, you can toss your 7200rpm mechanical hard drive in there and use it for backup & data storage. alfa147x has a nice guide somewhere on these forums on using those $10 bay adapters from eBay.

[manly]

The optical drive bay swap doesn't work because the older MacBooks use PATA for the SuperDrive. Thus I'm holding out for a 256GB SSD at the right price, but my patience is wearing thing! My biggest complaint is they max. out at 3GB RAM.

[TheStu]

Originally Posted by manly

The optical drive bay swap doesn't work because the older MacBooks use PATA for the SuperDrive. Thus I'm holding out for a 256GB SSD at the right price, but my patience is wearing thing! My biggest complaint is they max. out at 3GB RAM.

There are other, more expensive adapters as I recall, but if the thing is 6 years old, then the hdd is probably fairly small anyway.

And Kaido, no kidding about the SSD in those old OG MacBooks. I dropped one into my mom's C2D blackbook, it's like a brand new machine. Heck, it's the SSD that offsets the puny 1.4 GHz C2D in my MacBook Air and makes that thing actually snappy.

[umrigar]

iBatt 3 is another good utility.

[rsutoratosu]

thanks, those battery software looks good..

I actually done dvd repair on this model for other people before, i have some old 2nd drive caddy that i can probably retrofit.. not sure..

yeah looks like im gonna get some skin for it.

[dave_the_nerd]

Originally Posted by manly

The optical drive bay swap doesn't work because the older MacBooks use PATA for the SuperDrive. Thus I'm holding out for a 256GB SSD at the right price, but my patience is wearing thing! My biggest complaint is they max. out at 3GB RAM.

*cough*

http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cab...dp/B005L91ZL8/

SATA drive caddy for ATA/IDE CD bay.

I'd put the SSD in the "real" HD bay and use the storage drive with the adapter though.

[Eug]

Yeah, with a 7200 rpm drive and 4 GB RAM it should be OK, but I'd still suggest upgrading to the SSD sooner rather than later.

BTW, I have an SSD in my 2009 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro 13" with 4 GB RAM, and I have no real desire to upgrade any time soon.

The only way I'd upgrade is if I could get a 13" with USB 3, 802.11ac, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM, and Retina screen, for $1300 or so. It looks like I'll be waiting a few years, but in the meantime I'll be fine with my SSD-endowed 2009 C2D MacBook Pro.

[dave_the_nerd]

*high fives Eug*

[Kaido]

Originally Posted by dave_the_nerd

*cough*

http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cab...dp/B005L91ZL8/

SATA drive caddy for ATA/IDE CD bay.

I'd put the SSD in the "real" HD bay and use the storage drive with the adapter though.

OWC sells IDE 2.5" SSD's up to 480gb:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/O...ury_Legacy_Pro

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted by Eug

BTW, I have an SSD in my 2009 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro 13" with 4 GB RAM, and I have no real desire to upgrade any time soon.

I know exactly how you feel. I was running a late 2008 15" MacBook Pro with 6GB of RAM and an SSD until last month and had no real need to upgrade and would still be using it if I hadn't come into some unexpected money and decided to splurge on a new 15" Retina.

[bearxor]

Originally Posted by dave_the_nerd

*cough*

http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cab...dp/B005L91ZL8/

SATA drive caddy for ATA/IDE CD bay.

I'd put the SSD in the "real" HD bay and use the storage drive with the adapter though.

It doesn't really matter on a system that old. The PATA interface will top out at 133Mbps and the SATA interface tops out at 150Mbps. Best to leave the mechanical drive in the main bay for the fall sensor.

That's the same caddy I have in my 2007 MBP. It... Works... Mostly.

[rsutoratosu]

i have the ssd, its just used between the 10 windows pc i have.. just clearing one out right now.. so far since its not sata3, its either the samsung ssd that i put out of my x220 or the intel 320, other options includes vertex4 but that would be a waste..

i had one of those older owc ssd, they are pretty sluggish

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted by bearxor

Best to leave the mechanical drive in the main bay for the fall sensor.

The only problem with that is that the system will not wake from sleep if the boot drive is not in the main bay. I had that issue with my old MacBook Pro.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by bearxor

It doesn't really matter on a system that old. The PATA interface will top out at 133Mbps and the SATA interface tops out at 150Mbps. Best to leave the mechanical drive in the main bay for the fall sensor.

That's the same caddy I have in my 2007 MBP. It... Works... Mostly.

Transfer speed doesn't matter that much. Its all about the low latency. I actually have my slower SSD in my MacBook Pro because it uses less battery power. My slow SSD still feels blistering fast in real life usage, at least compared to any platter drive.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Kaido

OWC sells IDE 2.5" SSD's up to 480gb:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/O...ury_Legacy_Pro

Interesting. I'd almost be tempted to buy one for our G4 iBook, but that G4 can't even play back modern video these days. It just chokes badly. Stutterific, on a good day. Dumping $200 into a G4 is just a waste.

Plus, it's non-Intel Sandforce.

I think the minimum for an effective Mac SSD upgrade is dual-core Intel. But yeah, with some models OWC has suffered with various drive issues when mounting the SSD in the optical bay. These issues did not exist with platter drives.

[manly]

Originally Posted by dave_the_nerd

*cough*

http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cab...dp/B005L91ZL8/

SATA drive caddy for ATA/IDE CD bay.

I'd put the SSD in the "real" HD bay and use the storage drive with the adapter though.

Thanks, now I just need a cheap but good SSD.

[dave_the_nerd]

Originally Posted by Kaido

OWC sells IDE 2.5" SSD's up to 480gb:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/O...ury_Legacy_Pro

Those are crazy-expensive. I like my way better. (And you'd still need an adapter to throw it in an optical bay.)

[bearxor]

Originally Posted by Tyranicus

The only problem with that is that the system will not wake from sleep if the boot drive is not in the main bay. I had that issue with my old MacBook Pro.

You're right. I had that problem because originally I had put my SSD in the main bay and the HDD in the optical bay and put my profile on the HDD. Could never go to sleep because my profile would't work. I ended up just not putting it to sleep and shutting it down if I needed to close it. It was super fast to boot back up so it didn't bother me.

But these days you can get big enough SSD's where you hopefully don't have to put your profile on a separate drive. I was doing a 60GB SSD at the time.

[dave_the_nerd]

Originally Posted by bearxor

You're right. I had that problem because originally I had put my SSD in the main bay and the HDD in the optical bay and put my profile on the HDD. Could never go to sleep because my profile would't work. I ended up just not putting it to sleep and shutting it down if I needed to close it. It was super fast to boot back up so it didn't bother me.

But these days you can get big enough SSD's where you hopefully don't have to put your profile on a separate drive. I was doing a 60GB SSD at the time.

I have my profile on mine, but set up symlinks for Downloads and Movies. Those don't need to be super-fast.