Macbook Pro 8GB Memory Upgrade and Second SSD Hard Drive using DVD caddy

Posted Mon, 11/14/2011 - 20:26 by admin

Macbook Pro

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor

Mac OS X Version 10.7.7 Lion

13-inch, Aluminum Unibody , Late 2008

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB

 

Macbook Pro Memory Upgrade and Second SSD Hard Drive using DVD caddy

Upgrade Component Parts List

  • 8GB memory using 2 x Corsair 4GB PC3-8500 1066MHz DDR3 SODIMM RAM - For MacBook/MacBook Pro
  • OCZ Technology 240 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-2VTXE240G
  • OWC Data Doubler Optical Bay Hard Drive/SSD Mounting Solution for MacBook and MacBook Pro Unibody Product code: OWC-DD-MBUN

 

Macbook Pro Memory Upgrade and Second SSD Hard Drive using DVD caddy

When I upgraded my Mac OS from Snow Leopard to Lion, I was getting a lot of spinning beach balls. Apple did not support 8GB memory for my Mac but I suspected that I might be able to upgrade my memory to 8GB. Anyways, it was only an $80 gamble that paid off. The 2 x 4 Corsair memory really help stabilized Lion.

My next upgrade was to add a second Solid State Drive (SSD) by replacing the DVD with an OCZ Technology 240 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive.This instructional video is pretty good. 

After installing the SDD, I then had to enable trim support using the following steps.

Make sure you backup the file before performing the patch.

cd /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/
sudo perl -pi -e 's|(\x52\x6F\x74\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E\x61\x6C\x00).{9}(\x00\x51)|$1\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$2|sg' MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
sudo kextcache -system-caches

Reboot your Mac!

This gave me everything I wanted: 3GB link speed, native command queueing and trim support.  Super fast!

I was disappointed to later find out that you cannot raid a partition, which is on a disk that has a boot partition.