Hey folks I have recently acquired my dad's old 2007 macbook. The hard drive is dead and I need to replace it to make it work. Any recommendations? Also, how hard is it to find RAM for these older models? I figure if second hand RAM is as cheap as I think it should be then upgrading it should be a no-brainer. Any good sites for older macbook technical stuff?
Any laptop drive will do - but they perk up significantly with SSDs. Obviously there's no point going for an expensive one, but a basic SATA model circa 120GB will do fine. As for RAM, you need standard 667Mhz DDR2, and off the top of my head it will support 2GB officially, and 3GB unofficially (ie: install 4GB, but chipset limits it to 3GB). Second hand will be fine, just make sure it works. As for technical stuff, what do you mean exactly?
everymac.com is your friend here - I use it a lot. As Cei says - 667DDR2 and a decent SATA HDD or cheapo SSD will make all the difference. I'm not sure this will support any OS past Lion (10.7) - I'd probably stop at Snow Leopard (10.6) if it were me!
For help I generally look towards ifixit.com, lots of guides with excellent pictures. Depending on the processor CoreDuo or Core2Duo will limit you obviously to either 2GB or 3GB of RAM. The other limiting factor will be GFX chip, which may limit you to OSX 10.6. (For info if the machine supports 10.7 then you are good for 10.8 and 10.9) But as upgrades go, get a standard 2.5" SATA hard drive, or SSD if your budget can stretch. And some SODIMM DDR2 RAM. Also for info, if you go for SSD then have a look at TrimEnabler here; http://www.groths.org/software/trimenabler/ Available free and will enable TRIM support on non-apple SSDs.
Thanks guys. That everymac site is really helpful, just the kind of thing I was looking for. I'm not going to bother with an SSD, I don't think its worth the extra cost. Cheers!
