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I'm planning on upgrading my 120GB HDD to a 128GB SSD but I'm not sure which SSD will be compatible with my MacBook.

My specs: MacBook late 2007 / Santa Rosa 2.2GHz / 4GB RAM

Preferably, I'd like to get the fastest SSD that would be compatible for my MacBook but the SATA versions have been updated three times since this MacBook was released I'm not sure which would be the best.

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  • So what did you buy in the end? I'm thinking of doing the same as you to the same machine. Seeing Sata3 is even cheaper these days then other version, I was thinking of buying that, but not sure whether it would work or not.
    – Peter Raeves
    Nov 13, 2014 at 23:28

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I upgraded a similar era Macbook a while ago. In all likelihood you are unlikely to be able to buy an SSD that will not max out the BUS speed available to it on a machine that old.

That particular Macbook has a SATA I (1.5Gbps) interface for it's existing hard drive. SATA III (6Gbps) SSD drives have been the standard for many years now, although you may be able to get a bargain bucket SATA II device (3Gbps). Basically, I would get the cheapest SSD you can for the capacity you require that is at least SATA II (you don't need it for the speed, but a SATA I one will be based on older technology that may have a shorter lifespan than a newer drive). It is almost certain to be faster than your machine can handle, so there is no point getting a particularly recent or fast one.

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  • Yeah, I actually searched around on google about whether or not the upgrade is worth the $. So I decided to get one. But my main problem is that I don't exactly know the exact SSD to get. Does it have to be 2.5 inch SSD or a smaller one? Will that effect the performance and/or lead to disk failure, etc. ?
    – Johnnyboy
    Sep 17, 2013 at 21:57
  • I think all SSD are 2.5", certainly that is what your existing HD is, so limit your search to those. It's definitely worth it, even a "rubbish" SSD will fly compared to a 5400rpm 2.5" platter hard drive
    – stuffe
    Sep 17, 2013 at 22:04
  • It has been a year since you posted this, so I have a question. These days most SSD are SATA-600. They are usually even cheaper than sata-300 drives, so would a Sata 3 SSD still work on that specific machine? Or would it be too fast? I prefer buying the Sata 3 SSD, since I will probably re-use the SSD when the macbook dies.
    – Peter Raeves
    Nov 13, 2014 at 23:26
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I upgraded a similar Macbook a while back and can heartily recommend that you should do it. Even with the SATA bus not being able to take advantage of the faster SATA II or III speeds your macbook will boot up in seconds and operate much faster. Best "make my mac faster" upgrade you can do.

One thing to note, I experienced a REDUCTION in battery life when moving from the stock Apple HD to the OWC SSD. I ended up with about 3+ hours of usable battery life where before I had 4+ hours.

After installing the SSD it would be a good idea to reset the SMC as per this Apple KB article

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

When I first installed the SSD I was getting about 2 hours of battery life on a brand new (3rd party) battery. After resetting the SMC it went up to 3+ hours.

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  • I'm not too worried about the battery life as its already 6+ years old. It actually started expanding because of all the heating, but at this point I really don't care as it is mostly plugged in :). The reason I'm asking which SSD to get is basically to squeeze all the life this machine has got before I go out to spend a whole bunch of money on a new laptop/desktop.
    – Johnnyboy
    Sep 17, 2013 at 21:55
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OWC Mercury Electra 6G 120GB is a good choice especially for MBP. As this happens to be sandforce based, you can be assured of great reliability. I am very happy with the performance in my MBP

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