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13" aluminum unibody, 2.0 or 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

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Questions about which SSD in my MacBook 5.1

Hey everyone.

Looking at buying a SSD for my 2008 unibody macbook - macbook 5.1/ A1278.

Was looking at the SSD from OWC which is 3G/SATA II, and then started looking at the 6G/SATA III option, but noted OWC says that the 6G sometimes gets shaped to 1G/SATA I speeds (While a 6G SSD does function, it will only do so at SATA Revision 1.0 (1.5Gb/s, 150MB/s) speeds rather that the SATA Revision 2.0 (3.0Gb/s 300MB/s) speed the computer can deliver)

Does this hold true for other SSD SATA III units? I'm happy to spend the money for a SATA III, and have it be shaped to a SATA II while using this laptop and then eventually pull it out and use it as an external, but I don't want to get a SATA III to have it be slowed down to a SATA I. (I know SATA I will still be faster than my current platter HDD, but still). I was looking at the Samsung 850 EVO versus 850 pro versus Sandisk extreme pro but would be happy to take any advice : )

Thanks!

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Review this URL on your systems specs: MacBook5.1

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Too start with your system comes with a SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) interface so ideally you should get a SATA II drive or a drive that can be set to SATA II (3.0) speed.

Some SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) drives have jumpers, others require software to alter, and still others may automatically sense the systems SATA port speed and match it. The older drives often went into what was called compatibility mode which was SATA I (1.5 Gb/s). Because you system is SATA II make sure the drive is not a fixed speed SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) as your system will have problems with it.

But before you alter anything you should make sure your systems firmware is up to date. Follow this Apple T/N: About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers.

Given the age of your system you may want to look at a cheaper option here. Large SSD's are quite expensive! I recommend going with a SSHD hybrid drive as a good 1/2 step. Here you gain the speed of the deep SSD cache and yet have the deep storage of a traditional disk drive. Seagate offers a nice unit which we have tons in use Seagate Laptop SSHD.

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I bought myself a Crucial BX100 and it works perfectly with my Macbook 5.1 (Running at full 3Gb SATA speed). You can get one of eBay for a decent price tag.

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