Haven't kept up re the New-new cheaper SSDs (..as with most new-things and older ones.) At that price, considering retiring the now 6-yo, perfectly functioning 320 GB in my '08 iMac.
Wtf, while inside for cleaning fan blades (else they vibrate/wear/annoy) and all the detritus, elsewhere, why not swap-in this mega-transistor Wonder too. Presume a CarbonCopy (or orher) cloner first.. et Viola! yet another backup/backup ext. drive for free.

Reconciled that this sucker won't ever get the firmware upgrade from the new Microsoft-Apple Consortium, so must deal with 6 GB. But with the SSD, even when swapping starts: the teensy-latency should shine, no? Het, it's just a big Macbook ain't it?

(Light candle pleez, that the MTBF of This now aging box ... shall be an outlier;) me Hates selling-out to the New Consortium's raison d'etre: forcing its acolytes to Buy-New every 3 years +/-. Worst is: this manic-miniaturization (as surely will culminate in all RAM soldered-in (except in Mac Pro.. for a while?) just so they can gouge all of us from the get-go. When Corp-greed is this blatant ... will they also find a way to lock-in the HDs-of-whatever-stripe, next? As these boxes become unrepairable, I Do Hope that the resale value drops--and kills the every-3-years meme DEAD for any sales incentives (as re car resale metrics.)

{sigh} No ALT-source to Hide-in; seems my model-year is about the last where you have any $-conserving options at all. I'm screwed if one *transistor junction on mobo goes all hors de combat :-/ CP/M before Beastware, ever again!

[* My instinct (+ few glitches noted + some anecdotes) suggest that the GPU/heatsink + diode may be an Achilles heel. It runs hottest, for a Duh. Any ideas? within that already-cramped-in '08 case, for getting this sucker some cooler than ambient air? Could drill hole in back case, add ext-air via flex-tube, when I find out where this chipset resides. Unlovely but obeys thermodynamics--and That Rules the worldwide yottabyte of junctions. I wot.]

But I rejoice!! it could be much worse; could have been forced to live in Tennessee or Kentucky or ... the growing #pest-holes. And I ain't. :-)

Have curtailed my open-sites addiction ... via expanding-bookmarks-glut (Lose/lose?)
Hoping that when it's all Mavericky and Safari has had its brain-transplant: 6 GB ought to suffice.

Especially al-punte: plan to use De-oxit (the standard good-contact cleaner) on that very video card and every other un-pluggable
--since disassembly for HD makes that not much drudgery. Can't waste my n-decades around e- hardware and its ills..
which you Can sometimes out-fox. IT folk, it seems to me often elide any thought.. of such nostrums
--less'n like Greg say? they be also EEs (for whom there is no excuse, I wot.)

I Like the idea of some extra cooling for that IR-red-flagged trouble nexus though; shall ponder the drilling placement, fitting of a small-dia hose-bib and ...
Moar Aire where there are sweat-beads already. This (filtered!) air will also provide +Px to minimize future dust deposits via convection; thus
not-necessitating opening-up the bottom tiny holes too--as would just deposit more dust==heat-insulation.

(I mean.. if I can get 3-4 more years than average user [?] before a forced hardware corporate-made retirement, because chip failures didn't happen.. well, you know..)

Thanks again for the sanity check. (That 'hole' may be there, capped for some days..) while I cobble-up a small, quiet squirrel-cage Braun desk-fan:
with filter-plenum. For the Win. Love that fan-control app as much as iStat--together they let ya do Science. :-)