MacBook Pro Performance – Getting More Performance Out of a MacBook Pro

macmacbook properformanceupgrade

So I've got a mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13". Integrated GPU so not a games machine but fast enough for doing .Net development in VMs. I love the little thing and wanted to give it a Christmas present so thought I'd mod it up a bit and give it a boost.

I'm thinking of swapping out the stock 5400rpm HD with a faster drive (e.g. one of these new-fangled hybrid laptop drives with 4GB RAM that spin at 7200rpm) but was wondering if any of you had tried or knew of anything else I could change/upgrade/mod to squeeze more out of my laptop. Before you answer though, please be aware that I'm not sure I can run to putting in the 8GB of RAM Apple have suggested 🙁

EDIT: Is it true you can swap out the DVD burner for another drive?

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

Your only "easy" options are RAM and HDD.

  • For HDD, just get a good SSD. With VMs, you need quite a bit of storage, but it's worth it.
  • For RAM, the more, the better, especially with VMs. Spend what you're able.

Software-side, you can try going native with Boot Camp (although that can get ugly quickly with conflicting software -- I prefer multiple VMs somewhat specific to projects).

If you only have a single Windows VM, remember that you can use your Boot Camp Windows installation as VM, so you get the best of two worlds. Only issue is with Windows 7 which some activation issues afaik. Windows XP works fine.

You can also try reinstalling OS X, or at least create a new, empty user account. Maybe you have too much cruft accumulated. This could speed up things quite a bit.

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